WorldWideScience

Sample records for route cronyism competition

  1. The Trans-Caspian energy route: Cronyism, competition and cooperation in Kazakh oil export

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guliyev, Farid [School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, D-28759 Bremen (Germany)], E-mail: f.guliyev@jacobs-university.de; Akhrarkhodjaeva, Nozima [School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, D-28759 Bremen (Germany)

    2009-08-15

    The article delineates the major national, regional and international level stakeholders in the westward Trans-Caspian transportation of Kazakh oil, supplemented with a discussion of the prospect of expansion of the Trans-Caspian/South Caucasus corridor in light of the presumably harmful effect of the war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008. It demonstrates that while foreign companies have been backed by their respective governments, national firms have also enjoyed considerable state support, partly due to their close links to the interests of state elites in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. It appears that most companies along the shipping line either belong to the governments of Kazakhstan or Azerbaijan, directly or indirectly (through subsidiaries), or enjoy favoritism and a near monopoly in their markets (crony capitalism). Some of these firms are privately owned but registered in offshore tax havens, while some others have rather obscure ownership structures and corporate profiles. It suggests that cronyism and state capture comprise that politico-economic environment within which the future of Caspian transport systems will have to be decided.

  2. The Trans-Caspian energy route. Cronyism, competition and cooperation in Kazakh oil export

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guliyev, Farid; Akhrarkhodjaeva, Nozima [School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, D-28759 Bremen (Germany)

    2009-08-15

    The article delineates the major national, regional and international level stakeholders in the westward Trans-Caspian transportation of Kazakh oil, supplemented with a discussion of the prospect of expansion of the Trans-Caspian/South Caucasus corridor in light of the presumably harmful effect of the war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008. It demonstrates that while foreign companies have been backed by their respective governments, national firms have also enjoyed considerable state support, partly due to their close links to the interests of state elites in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. It appears that most companies along the shipping line either belong to the governments of Kazakhstan or Azerbaijan, directly or indirectly (through subsidiaries), or enjoy favoritism and a near monopoly in their markets (crony capitalism). Some of these firms are privately owned but registered in offshore tax havens, while some others have rather obscure ownership structures and corporate profiles. It suggests that cronyism and state capture comprise that politico-economic environment within which the future of Caspian transport systems will have to be decided. (author)

  3. The Trans-Caspian energy route. Cronyism, competition and cooperation in Kazakh oil export

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guliyev, Farid; Akhrarkhodjaeva, Nozima

    2009-01-01

    The article delineates the major national, regional and international level stakeholders in the westward Trans-Caspian transportation of Kazakh oil, supplemented with a discussion of the prospect of expansion of the Trans-Caspian/South Caucasus corridor in light of the presumably harmful effect of the war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008. It demonstrates that while foreign companies have been backed by their respective governments, national firms have also enjoyed considerable state support, partly due to their close links to the interests of state elites in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. It appears that most companies along the shipping line either belong to the governments of Kazakhstan or Azerbaijan, directly or indirectly (through subsidiaries), or enjoy favoritism and a near monopoly in their markets (crony capitalism). Some of these firms are privately owned but registered in offshore tax havens, while some others have rather obscure ownership structures and corporate profiles. It suggests that cronyism and state capture comprise that politico-economic environment within which the future of Caspian transport systems will have to be decided. (author)

  4. Competitive sustainability of a transport route in the transport service market

    OpenAIRE

    Poletan Jugović, Tanja; Šimić Hlača, Marija; Žgaljić, Dražen

    2014-01-01

    In order for the particular transport route and entities in the production of a transport service on that route to maintain their position in the transport service market, they have to ensure efficiency, orientation towards service users, rationality, environmental friendliness and quality dominance of an offered service. User orientation and flexible reaction to market demands create preconditions for the establishment of a competitive and attractive transport route and accompanying transpor...

  5. A multi-objective location routing problem using imperialist competitive algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amir Mohammad Golmohammadi

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Nowadays, most manufacturing units try to locate their requirements and the depot vehicle routing in order to transport the goods at optimum cost. Needless to mention that the locations of the required warehouses influence on the performance of vehicle routing. In this paper, a mathematical programming model to optimize the storage location and vehicle routing are presented. The first objective function of the model minimizes the total cost associated with the transportation and storage, and the second objective function minimizes the difference distance traveled by vehicles. The study uses Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA to solve the resulted problems in different sizes. The preliminary results have indicated that the proposed study has performed better than NSGA-II and PAES methods in terms of Quality metric and Spacing metric.

  6. Competitive energy markets. The effective route to improving the environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Swinden, D.J.

    1996-01-01

    Market forces, operating in an increasingly competitive energy market, are a preferred route to achieving environmental and energy efficiency benefits, than those which can be achieved through a managed approach adopted by many governments. It is shown, through examples, how electricity is a catalyst for change at several levels in business, the community and the general economy. Experience in the United Kingdom indicates that free market forces and inter-energy competition not only help improve the regional and therefore national economy, but they offer a very effective way of introducing improvements in energy efficiency and the environment. Governments should establish the framework for competition and regulation but not attempt to manage an industry, which is invariably done more effectively by those who run them. (author)

  7. An adversarial queueing model for online server routing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bonifaci, V.

    2007-01-01

    In an online server routing problem, a vehicle or server moves in a network in order to process incoming requests at the nodes. Online server routing problems have been thoroughly studied using competitive analysis. We propose a new model for online server routing, based on adversarial queueing

  8. Low-cost carriers fare competition effect

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Carmona Benitez, R.B.; Lodewijks, G.

    2010-01-01

    This paper examines the effects that low-cost carriers (LCC’s) produce when entering new routes operated only by full-service carriers (FSC’s) and routes operated by low-cost carriers in competition with full-service carriers. A mathematical model has been developed to determine what routes should

  9. Competitive Traffic Assignment in Road Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krylatov Alexander Y.

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Recently in-vehicle route guidance and information systems are rapidly developing. Such systems are expected to reduce congestion in an urban traffic area. This social benefit is believed to be reached by imposing the route choices on the network users that lead to the system optimum traffic assignment. However, guidance service could be offered by different competitive business companies. Then route choices of different mutually independent groups of users may reject traffic assignment from the system optimum state. In this paper, a game theoretic approach is shown to be very efficient to formalize competitive traffic assignment problem with various groups of users in the form of non-cooperative network game with the Nash equilibrium search. The relationships between the Wardrop’s system optimum associated with the traffic assignment problem and the Nash equilibrium associated with the competitive traffic assignment problem are investigated. Moreover, some related aspects of the Nash equilibrium and the Wardrop’s user equilibrium assignments are also discussed.

  10. Routing and scheduling problems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Reinhardt, Line Blander

    couple of decades. To deliver competitive service and price, transportation today needs to be cost effective. A company requiring for things to be shipped will aim at having the freight shipped as cheaply as possible while often satisfying certain time constraints. For the transportation company......, the effectiveness of the network is of importance aiming at satisfying as many costumer demands as possible at a low cost. Routing represent a path between locations such as an origin and destination for the object routed. Sometimes routing has a time dimension as well as the physical paths. This may...... set cost making the cost of the individual vehicle routes inter-dependant. Depending on the problem type, the size of the problems and time available for solving, different solution methods can be applicable. In this thesis both heuristic methods and several exact methods are investigated depending...

  11. Ising model for packet routing control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Horiguchi, Tsuyoshi; Takahashi, Hideyuki; Hayashi, Keisuke; Yamaguchi, Chiaki

    2004-01-01

    For packet routing control in computer networks, we propose an Ising model which is defined in order to express competition among a queue length and a distance from a node with a packet to its destination node. By introducing a dynamics for a mean-field value of an Ising spin, we show by computer simulations that effective control of packet routing through priority links is possible

  12. Vehicle routing with dynamic travel times : a queueing approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Woensel, van T.; Kerbache, L.; Peremans, H.; Vandaele, N.J.

    2008-01-01

    Transportation is an important component of supply chain competitiveness since it plays a major role in the inbound, inter-facility, and outbound logistics. In this context, assigning and scheduling vehicle routes is a crucial management problem. In this paper, a vehicle routing problem with dynamic

  13. Potential Valuation of Route Prague – Trutnov after D11 Completion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hašek Jakub

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available In the Czech Republic, there are many regions with unbalanced competition between bus and rail transport on main transport routes. This is due to differences in the quality of transport infrastructure, the attractiveness of the region, routing traffic routes or economic attractiveness for new investors and industry. The aim of this article is to evaluate the potential for bus operators on the route from Prague to Trutnov after completion of D11 highway project.

  14. First Dutch competitive dialogue projects: a procurement route caught between competition and collaboration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hoezen, Mieke; Doree, Andries G.; Dainty, A

    2008-01-01

    In 2004 the competitive dialogue (CD) was introduced by the European Parliament and the Council. It was presented as a public sector procurement procedure for particularly complex contracts. The purpose of CD is to provide the public client with a flexible procedure to enable a discussion concerning

  15. The Route Analysis Based On Flight Plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feriyanto, Nur; Saleh, Chairul; Fauzi, Achmad; Rachman Dzakiyullah, Nur; Riza Iwaputra, Kahfi

    2016-02-01

    Economic development effects use of air transportation since the business process in every aspect was increased. Many people these days was prefer using airplane because it can save time and money. This situation also effects flight routes, many airlines offer new routes to deal with competition. Managing flight routes is one of the problems that must be faced in order to find the efficient and effective routes. This paper investigates the best routes based on flight performance by determining the amount of block fuel for the Jakarta-Denpasar flight route. Moreover, in this work compares a two kinds of aircraft and tracks by calculating flight distance, flight time and block fuel. The result shows Jakarta-Denpasar in the Track II has effective and efficient block fuel that can be performed by Airbus 320-200 aircraft. This study can contribute to practice in making an effective decision, especially helping executive management of company due to selecting appropriate aircraft and the track in the flight plan based on the block fuel consumption for business operation.

  16. Competition for order flow and smart order routing systems

    OpenAIRE

    Foucault, Thierry; Menkveld, Albert

    2006-01-01

    We study changes in liquidity following the introduction of a new electronic limit order market when, prior to its introduction, trading is centralized in a single limit order market. We also study how automation of routing decisions and trading fees affect the relative liquidity of rival markets. The theoretical analysis yields three main predictions: (i) consolidated depth is larger in the multiple limit order markets environment, (ii) consolidated bid-ask spread is smaller in the multiple ...

  17. Obsidian trade routes in the mayan area.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammond, N

    1972-12-08

    Obsidian from two sources in highland Guatemala has been found at 23 sites of the Classic Mayan civilization, mainly in the nonvolcanic lowlands to the north. The distribution, together with trade routes suggested by topography and documentary sources, suggests efficient waterborne transport and competition between sources for the lowland market.

  18. Bankruptcy and Product-Market Competition: Evidence from the Airline Industry

    OpenAIRE

    Ciliberto, Federico; Schenone, Carola

    2010-01-01

    We investigate the effects of Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings on product market competition using data from the US airline industry. We find that bankrupt airlines permanently downsize their national route structure, their airport-specific networks, and their route-specific flight frequency and capacity. We also find that bankrupt airlines lower their route-specific prices while under bankruptcy protection, and increase them after emerging. We do not find robust evidence of significant changes ...

  19. Tramp Ship Routing and Scheduling - Incorporating Additional Complexities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vilhelmsen, Charlotte

    to mergers, pooling, and collaboration efforts between shipping companies, the fleet sizes have grown to a point where manual planning is no longer adequate in a market with tough competition and low freight rates. This thesis therefore aims at developing new mathematical models and solution methods...... for tramp ship routing and scheduling problems. This is done in the context of Operations Research, a research field that has achieved great success within optimisation-based planning for vehicle routing problems and in many other areas. The first part of this thesis contains a comprehensive introduction...

  20. Self-organizing weights for Internet AS-graphs and surprisingly simple routing metrics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Scholz, Jan Carsten; Greiner, Martin

    The transport capacity of Internet-like communication networks and hence their efficiency may be improved by a factor of 5-10 through the use of highly optimized routing metrics, as demonstrated previously. Numerical determination of such routing metrics can be computationally demanding...... metrics. The new metrics have negligible computational cost and result in an approximately 5-fold performance increase, providing distinguished competitiveness with the computationally costly counterparts. They are applicable to very large networks and easy to implement in today's Internet routing...

  1. The spatial scope of airline competition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lijesen, M.G.; Behrens, C.L.

    2017-01-01

    We investigate whether alternative city- or airport pairs are viable substitutes and the extent to which they impact airline competition between the United Kingdom and continental Europe. To this end, we employ and measure airlines’ best responses in equilibrium. Using monthly airline-route seat

  2. Analysis of Reasons for Participating in Competitions for Young Sport Climbers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Uroš Perko

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the study was to determine, how young sports climbers evaluate reasons for participating in climbing competitions. For this purpose we interviewed 125 competitors of both genders, year of birth 2002 and younger. Children were participating in the competitions for East and West League in the youngest category. Data were collected with a close-ended questionnaire. The acquired data were processed with SPSS software programme; frequencies were carried out. Mean age was 8.9 years. Most young athletes, 42.4%, attend competitions with the purpose of gaining new experience, followed by those whose main goal is good climbing. These are 40.8%. 14.4% attend competitions to achieve good result and 2.4% for reason of socializing. 19.2% of children don't care if they don't reach the top of the climbing route, but 80.8% are slightly to quite dissatisfied. The study shows that internal motivation is dominant in young climbers. Mostly they attend competitions to gain new experience and to show good climbing. If they don't reach the top of the climbing route, they leave competition unsatisfied. It would be reasonable to consider the study results in the organization of competitions for youngest categories.

  3. The production route selection algorithm in virtual manufacturing networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krenczyk, D.; Skolud, B.; Olender, M.

    2017-08-01

    The increasing requirements and competition in the global market are challenges for the companies profitability in production and supply chain management. This situation became the basis for construction of virtual organizations, which are created in response to temporary needs. The problem of the production flow planning in virtual manufacturing networks is considered. In the paper the algorithm of the production route selection from the set of admissible routes, which meets the technology and resource requirements and in the context of the criterion of minimum cost is proposed.

  4. Jockeying for position : how the proposed pipeline projects and route-on-route competition are shaping up in the Arctic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Andre, H.

    2003-01-01

    This presentation included a brief historical look at pipeline proposals submitted over the years to bring Alaska and Northwest Territories gas to market. The challenges facing the early proponents of a pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to the Mackenzie Delta, such as cost, environmental impact and socio-economic impact on Aboriginals living in the Mackenzie Valley, have now been removed. Lobbying efforts by politicians in Alaska nearly succeeded in forcing an Alaska Highway gas pipeline, instead of letting market economics dictate the route. The author indicated that an Alaska pipeline would not benefit the Canadian natural gas industry, rather it would force production from the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) to be slashed, resulting in reduced drilling and lower royalties to government. The author suggested that Canada should not grant any permit to construct a pipeline in Canada that is destined for markets in the contiguous United States if the pipeline was in any way subsidized to disadvantage Canadian producers. The author explained why the proposal to build a standalone pipeline in the Mackenzie Valley before the Alaska Highway pipeline is not a good idea. Gas prices and pipeline tolls are the most important economic elements. The author expressed the opinion that the over the top route combined with the Mackenzie Valley route would be beneficial to both Canada and the United States for a host of reasons. figs

  5. Design of Logistics Route Planning for Printing Enterprises Based on Baidu Map

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Da Zhong-Yue

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available As traditional printing industry is facing fierce competition in the market and logistics becomes a new sources of growth, the traditional printing enterprises want to build and improve their logistics system. So in this paper, the author has designed the logistics planning system based on the Baidu map development kit. It has the function of route planning and location tracking. This system meet the printing enterprise logistics route planning and tracking demand.

  6. A Combined Liquefied Natural Gas Routing and Deteriorating Inventory Management Problem

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ghiami, Y.; Van Woensel, Tom; Christiansen, Marielle; Laporte, Gilbert

    2015-01-01

    Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is becoming a more crucial source of energy due to its increased price competitiveness and environmental friendliness. We consider an inventory routing problem for inland distribution of LNG from storage facilities to filling stations. Here, an actor is responsible for

  7. A combined liquefied natural gas routing and deteriorating inventory management problem

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ghiami, Y.; van Woensel, T.; Christiansen, Marielle; Laporte, G.; Corman, Fr.; Voss, St.; Negenborn, R.R.

    2015-01-01

    Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is becoming a more crucial source of energy due to its increased price competitiveness and environmental friendliness. We consider an inventory routing problem for inland distribution of LNG from storage facilities to filling stations. Here, an actor is responsible for

  8. Competitive game theoretic optimal routing in optical networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yassine, Abdulsalam; Kabranov, Ognian; Makrakis, Dimitrios

    2002-09-01

    Optical transport service providers need control and optimization strategies for wavelength management, network provisioning, restoration and protection, allowing them to define and deploy new services and maintain competitiveness. In this paper, we investigate a game theory based model for wavelength and flow assignment in multi wavelength optical networks, consisting of several backbone long-haul optical network transport service providers (TSPs) who are offering their services -in terms of bandwidth- to Internet service providers (ISPs). The ISPs act as brokers or agents between the TSP and end user. The agent (ISP) buys services (bandwidth) from the TSP. The TSPs compete among themselves to sell their services and maintain profitability. We present a case study, demonstrating the impact of different bandwidth broker demands on the supplier's profit and the price paid by the network broker.

  9. The competitive landscape of air transport in Europe

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lieshout, R.; Malighetti, P.; Redondi, R.; Burghouwt, G.

    2016-01-01

    Competition between airlines and airports increased significantly since the deregulation of the intra-European air transport market in 1997. The passenger has a wider choice in terms of routings and departure airports than twenty-five years ago and pays a lower price. In this paper we investigate in

  10. An insight into airline dynamic pricing practices in emerging markets: Effects of low cost carriers' presence on routes from Belgrade 'Nikola Tesla' airport

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivanov Nikola V.

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Dynamic pricing and revenue management in airline industry have been the subject of research for more than twenty years now. Building upon that massive body of research, in this paper we investigate actual dynamic pricing patterns in new and emerging markets. We specifically focus on the impact that recent entry of low cost carriers on a number of routes from Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport might have had on pricing practices of legacy incumbents. Unlike with most of previous contributions in the field, we analyse the market characterised by relatively low frequencies and predominantly short-to-medium haul flights. In this paper, we observe and analyse pricing dynamics on two types of routes: routes where only legacy carriers operate and routes where legacy carriers face competition from low cost carriers. The effects of route competition on offered airline fares are estimated and conclusions derived.

  11. Pengaruh Perubahan Routes To Market Terhadap Kinerja Pemasaran Pada Perusahaan Fast Moving Consumer Goods

    OpenAIRE

    Gunawan, Didi Mulya

    2016-01-01

    Routes to Market (RtM) is a set of methodologies which is used for designing distribution route to become an effective and efficient distribution system by combining all superior resources in order to encourage selling growth and high competitiveness, and to anticipate every market change. Most of big multi-national companies have used RtM as part of their distribution strategy in providing the best service for outlets and the last product users. The objective of the research was to encourage...

  12. Self-organizing weights for Internet AS-graphs and surprisingly simple routing metrics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Scholz, Jan Carsten; Greiner, Martin

    2011-01-01

    The transport capacity of Internet-like communication networks and hence their efficiency may be improved by a factor of 5–10 through the use of highly optimized routing metrics, as demonstrated previously. The numerical determination of such routing metrics can be computationally demanding...... to an extent that prohibits both investigation of and application to very large networks. In an attempt to find a numerically less expensive way of constructing a metric with a comparable performance increase, we propose a local, self-organizing iteration scheme and find two surprisingly simple and efficient...... metrics. The new metrics have negligible computational cost and result in an approximately 5-fold performance increase, providing distinguished competitiveness with the computationally costly counterparts. They are applicable to very large networks and easy to implement in today's Internet routing...

  13. Competitive Liner Shipping Network Design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Karsten, Christian Vad; Brouer, Berit Dangaard; Pisinger, David

    2017-01-01

    We present a solution method for the liner shipping network design problem which is a core strategic planning problem faced by container carriers. We propose the first practical algorithm which explicitly handles transshipment time limits for all demands. Individual sailing speeds at each service...... leg are used to balance sailing speed against operational costs, hence ensuring that the found network is competitive on both transit time and cost. We present a matheuristic for the problem where a MIP is used to select which ports should be inserted or removed on a route. Computational results...

  14. Competitive Liner Shipping Network Design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Karsten, Christian Vad; Brouer, Berit Dangaard; Pisinger, David

    We present a solution method for the liner shipping network design problem which is a core strategic planning problem faced by container carriers. We propose the first practical algorithm which explicitly handles transshipment time limits for all demands. Individual sailing speeds at each service...... leg are used to balance sailings speed against operational costs, hence ensuring that the found network is competitive on both transit time and cost. We present a matheuristic for the problem where a MIP is used to select which ports should be inserted or removed on a route. Computational results...

  15. Variable neighborhood search to solve the vehicle routing problem for hazardous materials transportation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bula, Gustavo Alfredo; Prodhon, Caroline; Gonzalez, Fabio Augusto; Afsar, H Murat; Velasco, Nubia

    2017-02-15

    This work focuses on the Heterogeneous Fleet Vehicle Routing problem (HFVRP) in the context of hazardous materials (HazMat) transportation. The objective is to determine a set of routes that minimizes the total expected routing risk. This is a nonlinear function, and it depends on the vehicle load and the population exposed when an incident occurs. Thus, a piecewise linear approximation is used to estimate it. For solving the problem, a variant of the Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) algorithm is employed. To improve its performance, a post-optimization procedure is implemented via a Set Partitioning (SP) problem. The SP is solved on a pool of routes obtained from executions of the local search procedure embedded on the VNS. The algorithm is tested on two sets of HFVRP instances based on literature with up to 100 nodes, these instances are modified to include vehicle and arc risk parameters. The results are competitive in terms of computational efficiency and quality attested by a comparison with Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) previously proposed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Opportunities and risks in Turkmenistan’s quest for diversification of its gas export routes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Yusin

    2014-01-01

    This paper applies two hypotheses regarding weak state foreign policy to analyze the opportunities and risks in Turkmenistan’s quest to diversify its gas export routes, especially since 2006. The first hypothesis, related to opportunities, is that competition among major powers over the allegiance of weak states strengthens their bargaining power. The second hypothesis, related to risks, is that the diversification policies of weak states in times of decreasing competition among great powers incur the danger of simply replacing an old master with a new one. I argue that while the first hypothesis is useful in explaining the opportunities of Turkmenistan’s diversification policies, especially before early 2009, the second hypothesis is helpful in accounting for the risks of these policies after early 2009. In other words, competition among four major powers, Russia, China, the EU, and India, over Turkmenistan’s gas pipeline system before early 2009 strengthened the country’s bargaining power. In contrast, Turkmenistan’s diversification policies in times of fading competition after early 2009 have left it increasingly exposed to the potential risk of replacing its old master, Russia, with a new one, China. - Highlights: • This paper examines Turkmenistan’s policies of diversifying its gas export routes. • Turkmenistan’s diversification policies carry both opportunities and risks. • Turkmenistan has the opportunity to enhance its bargaining power. • Turkmenistan faces the risk of replacing an old master, Russia, with a new one, China. • This opportunity and risk have varying implications for Turkmenistan’s security of demand

  17. The Electric Fleet Size and Mix Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Recharging Stations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hiermann, Gerhard; Puchinger, Jakob; Røpke, Stefan

    2016-01-01

    Due to new regulations and further technological progress in the field of electric vehicles, the research community faces the new challenge of incorporating the electric energy based restrictions into vehicle routing problems. One of these restrictions is the limited battery capacity which makes...... detours to recharging stations necessary, thus requiring efficient tour planning mechanisms in order to sustain the competitiveness of electric vehicles compared to conventional vehicles. We introduce the Electric Fleet Size and Mix Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Recharging Stations (E......-FSMFTW) to model decisions to be made with regards to fleet composition and the actual vehicle routes including the choice of recharging times and locations. The available vehicle types differ in their transport capacity, battery size and acquisition cost. Furthermore, we consider time windows at customer...

  18. Route-external and route-internal landmarks in route descriptions : Effects of route length and map design

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Westerbeek, Hans; Maes, Alfons

    2013-01-01

    Landmarks are basic ingredients in route descriptions. They often mark choice points: locations where travellers choose from different options how to continue the route. This study focuses on one of the loose ends in the taxonomy of landmarks. In a memory-based production experiment in which

  19. The origin and use of the terms competitive and non-competitive in interactions among chemical substances in biological systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McIlwain, H

    1986-01-01

    The terms competition and competitive were in use for appropriate types of interaction in human and animal behaviour from the seventeenth century. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries they reached more technical uses in biology, especially in darwinian studies; and in chemistry in describing competing reactions, surface phenomena and the influence of substituent groupings in reactant molecules. Use of competitive and non-competitive to describe enzyme inhibitors had a specific beginning when J. B. S. Haldane (following premonitory work of others) applied the terms in 1927 and 1930 to types of inhibition already differentiated by Michaelis and co-workers. The theoretical background in kinetics and stereochemistry so acquired gave a firmness to the application of the terms in biochemistry. The first examples concerned glycosidases, especially beta-D-fructofuranosidase or invertase, and interactions of carbon monoxide and oxygen at iron-porphyrin systems. They were thus of interest in toxicology and in enzyme and carrier studies. The sphere of application of the biochemically-defined terms expanded greatly when, following investigation of sulphonamide action, it was realized that concepts of enzyme inhibition by structurally related compounds offered a route to understanding the action of existing medicaments and to the production of new ones. Ideas and terminology based on competitive and non-competitive enzyme inhibition and receptor occupancy have subsequently been applied in many ways. Examples include application to the analysis of feedback inhibition and other processes of metabolic control; to receptor relationships among neurotransmitters and medicaments; and to understanding interactions at sensory receptors.

  20. Research on the Development Route of Internationalization Brand of Sports Nutrition Food

    OpenAIRE

    Haifang Zhang

    2015-01-01

    In this study, it takes the interpretation of internationalization brand of sports nutrition food as the cutting point, by means of explaining the difficulties that Chinese sports nutrition food brand encountered at the present stage to explore the route of realizing the internationalization brand of sports nutrition food. With the rapid development of Chinese economic growth, the brand of Chinese sports nutrition food is also facing the fierce global market competition.

  1. RECONFIGURABLE PRODUCT ROUTING AND CONTROL FOR MASS CUSTOMISATION MANUFACTURING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. J. Walker

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available

    ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Reconfigurable control of flexible manufacturing systems can allow for the efficient and responsive production of customised product instances. This can aid in providing make-to-order business models for various small- to medium-sized enterprises in South Africa, and provide competitive advantage in a dynamic global marketplace. Reconfigurable control application requires an understanding of the modes of production variability in mass customisation manufacturing. Temporally uncorrelated workflow routings are considered as one of these production variability modes. In this light, this paper addresses the flexible material payload routing problem, and presents a mobile robot platform that has been developed to research and design reconfigurable routing systems.

    AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING:Verstelbare beheer van aanpasbare vervaardigingstelsels kan die doeltreffende en reaktiewe produksie van doelgemaakte produkeksemplare toelaat. Hierdie beheer kan assisteer in die voorsiening van vervaardig-na-bestellingbesigheidsmodelle aan ’n aantal klein- tot medium-grootte ondernemings in Suid-Afrika, en aan hulle ’n kompeterende voorsprong bied in ’n dinamiese globale mark. Die instelling van verstelbare beheer vereis dat die modi van produkveranderlikheid in massa verbruikersaanpassingsvervaardiging verstaan word. Hierdie artikel spreek die probleem van aanpasbare roetebepaling van materiaalvragte in massa verbruikersaanpassingsvervaardiging aan. ’n Mobiele robot-platform, ontwikkel vir navorsing in verstelbare roetebepalingstelsels, word ook voorgelê.

  2. Routing Service Quality—Local Driver Behavior Versus Routing Services

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ceikute, Vaida; Jensen, Christian S.

    2013-01-01

    of the quality of one kind of location-based service, namely routing services. Specifically, the paper presents a framework that enables the comparison of the routes provided by routing services with the actual driving behaviors of local drivers. Comparisons include route length, travel time, and also route...... popularity, which are enabled by common driving behaviors found in available trajectory data. The ability to evaluate the quality of routing services enables service providers to improve the quality of their services and enables users to identify the services that best serve their needs. The paper covers......Mobile location-based services is a very successful class of services that are being used frequently by users with GPS-enabled mobile devices such as smartphones. This paper presents a study of how to exploit GPS trajectory data, which is available in increasing volumes, for the assessment...

  3. Infectious diseases in competitive sports.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goodman, R A; Thacker, S B; Solomon, S L; Osterholm, M T; Hughes, J M

    1994-03-16

    Participation in competitive sports is popular and widely encouraged throughout the United States. Reports of infectious disease outbreaks among competitive athletes and recent publicity regarding infectious disease concerns in sports underscore the need to better characterize the occurrence of these problems. To identify reports of infectious diseases in sports, we performed a comprehensive search of the medical literature (MEDLINE) and newspaper databases in two on-line services (NEXIS and DIALOG PAPERS). Articles selected from the literature review included those describing cases or outbreaks of disease in which exposure to an infectious agent was likely to have occurred during training for competitive sports or during actual competition. Articles from the newspaper review included reports of outbreaks, exposures, or preventive measures that directly or indirectly involved teams or spectators. The literature review identified 38 reports of infectious disease outbreaks or other instances of transmission through person-to-person (24 reports), common-source (nine reports), or airborne (five reports) routes; the newspaper search identified 28 reports. Infectious agents included predominantly viruses but also a variety of fungi and gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Our findings indicate that strategies to prevent transmission of infectious diseases in sports must recognize risks at three levels: the individual athlete, the team, and spectators or others who may become exposed to infectious diseases as a result of sports-related activities. Team physicians and others who are responsible for the health of athletes should be especially familiar with the features of infectious diseases that occur in sports and measures for the prevention of these problems.

  4. Navigating Without Road Maps: The Early Business of Automobile Route Guide Publishing in the United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bauer, John T.

    2018-05-01

    In the United States, automobile route guides were important precursors to the road maps that Americans are familiar with today. Listing turn-by-turn directions between cities, they helped drivers navigate unmarked, local roads. This paper examines the early business of route guide publishing through the Official Automobile Blue Book series of guides. It focuses specifically on the expansion, contraction, and eventual decline of the Blue Book publishing empire and also the work of professional "pathfinders" that formed the company's data-gathering infrastructure. Be- ginning in 1901 with only one volume, the series steadily grew until 1920, when thirteen volumes were required to record thousands of routes throughout the country. Bankruptcy and corporate restructuring in 1921 forced the publishers to condense the guide into a four-volume set in 1922. Competition from emerging sheet maps, along with the nationwide standardization of highway numbers, pushed a switch to an atlas format in 1926. Blue Books, however, could not remain competitive and disappeared after 1937. "Pathfinders" were employed by the publishers and equipped with reliable automobiles. Soon they developed a shorthand notation system for recording field notes and efficiently incorporating them into the development workflow. Although pathfinders did not call themselves cartographers, they were geographical data field collectors and considered their work to be an "art and a science," much the same as modern-day cartographers. The paper concludes with some comments about the place of route guides in the history of American commercial cartography and draws some parallels between "pathfinders" and the digital road mappers of today.

  5. State alternative route designations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-07-01

    Pursuant to the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act (HMTA), the Department of Transportation (DOT) has promulgated a comprehensive set of regulations regarding the highway transportation of high-level radioactive materials. These regulations, under HM-164 and HM-164A, establish interstate highways as the preferred routes for the transportation of radioactive materials within and through the states. The regulations also provide a methodology by which a state may select alternative routes. First,the state must establish a ''state routing agency,'' defined as an entity authorized to use the state legal process to impose routing requirements on carriers of radioactive material (49 CFR 171.8). Once identified, the state routing agency must select routes in accordance with Large Quantity Shipments of Radioactive Materials or an equivalent routing analysis. Adjoining states and localities should be consulted on the impact of proposed alternative routes as a prerequisite of final route selection. Lastly, the states must provide written notice of DOT of any alternative route designation before the routes are deemed effective

  6. INTERLINE, a railroad routing model: program description and user's manual

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Peterson, B.E.

    1985-11-01

    INTERLINE is an interactive computer program that finds likely routes for shipments over the US railroad system. It is based on a shortest path algorithm modified both to reflect the nature of railroad company operations and to accommodate computer resource limitations in dealing with a large transportation network. The first section of the report discusses the nature of railroad operations and routing practices in the United States, including the tendency to concentrate traffic on a limited number of mainlines, the competition for traffic by different companies operating in the same corridors, and the tendency of originating carriers to retain traffic on their systems before transferring it to terminating carriers. The theoretical foundation and operation of shortest path algorithms are described, as well as the techniques used to simulate actual operating practices within this framework. The second section is a user's guide that describes the program operation and data structures, program features, and user access. 11 refs., 11 figs

  7. Hurricane Evacuation Routes

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Homeland Security — Hurricane Evacuation Routes in the United States A hurricane evacuation route is a designated route used to direct traffic inland in case of a hurricane threat. This...

  8. A flow-first route-next heuristic for liner shipping network design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Krogsgaard, Alexander; Pisinger, David; Thorsen, Jesper

    2018-01-01

    Having a well-designed liner shipping network is paramount to ensure competitive freight rates, adequate capacity on trade-lanes, and reasonable transportation times.The most successful algorithms for liner shipping network design make use of a two-phase approach, where they first design the routes...... different operators are used to modify the network. Since each iteration of the local search method involves solving a very complex multi-commodity flow problem to route the containers through the network, the flow problem is solved heuristically by use of a fast Lagrange heuristic. Although the Lagrange...... heuristic for flowing containers is 2–5% from the optimal solution, the solution quality is sufficiently good to guide the variable neighborhood search method in designing the network. Computational results are reported, showing that the developed heuristic is able to find improved solutions for large...

  9. CONCEPTUAL APPROACH OF COMPETITIVENESS AND INTERDEPENDENCE BETWEEN COMPETITION AND COMPETITIVENESS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatiana GUTIUM

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available This article is devoted to analysis of interdependence and correlation between competition and competitiveness, and competition’s consequences. The author analysed some authors’ visions on competitiveness, and common features between theories of competition and competitiveness. Using the synthetic indicator elaborated by author has been evaluated the competitiveness of domestic goods on the internal and external market. At the end of this article, the author has developed proposals to increase competitiveness.

  10. A variable neighborhood descent based heuristic to solve the capacitated location-routing problem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. S. Jabal-Ameli

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Location-routing problem (LRP is established as a new research area in the context of location analysis. The primary concern of LRP is on locating facilities and routing of vehicles among established facilities and existing demand points. In this work, we address the capacitated LRP which arises in many practical applications within logistics and supply chain management. The objective is to minimize the overall system costs which include the fixed costs of opening depots and using vehicles at each depot site, and the variable costs associated with delivery activities. A novel heuristic is proposed which is based on variable neighborhood descent (VND algorithm to solve the resulted problem. The computational study indicates that the proposed VND based heuristic is highly competitive with the existing solution algorithms in terms of solution quality.

  11. Pseudo-Cycle-Based Multicast Routing in Wormhole-Routed Networks

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    SONG JianPing (宋建平); HOU ZiFeng (侯紫峰); XU Ming (许铭)

    2003-01-01

    This paper addresses the problem of fault-tolerant multicast routing in wormholerouted multicomputers. A new pseudo-cycle-based routing method is presented for constructing deadlock-free multicast routing algorithms. With at most two virtual channels this technique can be applied to any connected networks with arbitrary topologies. Simulation results show that this technique results in negligible performance degradation even in the presence of a large number of faulty nodes.

  12. Routing in opportunistic networks

    CERN Document Server

    Dhurandher, Sanjay; Anpalagan, Alagan; Vasilakos, Athanasios

    2013-01-01

    This book provides a comprehensive guide to selected topics, both ongoing and emerging, in routing in OppNets. The book is edited by worldwide technical leaders, prolific researchers and outstanding academics, Dr. Isaac Woungang and co-editors, Dr. Sanjay Kumar Dhurandher, Prof. Alagan Anpalagan and Prof. Athanasios Vasilakos. Consisting of contributions from well known and high profile researchers and scientists in their respective specialties, the main topics that are covered in this book include mobility and routing, social-aware routing, context-based routing, energy-aware routing, incentive-aware routing, stochastic routing, modeling of intermittent connectivity, in both infrastructure and infrastructure-less OppNets. Key Features: Discusses existing and emerging techniques for routing in infrastructure and infrastructure-less OppNets. Provides a unified covering of otherwise disperse selected topics on routing in infrastructure and infrastructure-less OppNets.  Includes a set of PowerPoint slides and g...

  13. Sperm competition in humans: mate guarding behavior negatively correlates with ejaculate quality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leivers, Samantha; Rhodes, Gillian; Simmons, Leigh W

    2014-01-01

    In species where females mate with multiple males, the sperm from these males must compete to fertilise available ova. Sexual selection from sperm competition is expected to favor opposing adaptations in males that function either in the avoidance of sperm competition (by guarding females from rival males) or in the engagement in sperm competition (by increased expenditure on the ejaculate). The extent to which males may adjust the relative use of these opposing tactics has been relatively neglected. Where males can successfully avoid sperm competition from rivals, one might expect a decrease in their expenditure on tactics for the engagement in sperm competition and vice versa. In this study, we examine the relationship between mate guarding and ejaculate quality using humans as an empirical model. We found that men who performed fewer mate guarding behaviors produced higher quality ejaculates, having a greater concentration of sperm, a higher percentage of motile sperm and sperm that swam faster and less erratically. These effects were found independent of lifestyle factors or factors related to male quality. Our findings suggest that male expenditure on mate guarding and on the ejaculate may represent alternative routes to paternity assurance in humans.

  14. Planning routes around the world: International evidence for southern route preferences

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brunyé, Tad T.; Andonova, Elena; Meneghetti, Chiara; Noordzij, Matthijs Leendert; Pazzaglia, Francesca; Wienemann, Rasmus; Mahoney, Caroline R.; Taylor, Holly A.

    2012-01-01

    Three studies test whether the southern route preference, which describes the tendency for route planners to disproportionately select south- rather than north-going routes, can be attributed to regional elevation patterns; specifically, we ask whether this effect replicates in three topographically

  15. Transportation routing analysis geographic information system -- TRAGIS, a multimodal transportation routing tool

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnson, P.E.

    1995-01-01

    Over 15 years ago, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) developed two transportation routing models: HIGHWAY, which predicts truck transportation routes, and INTERLINE, which predicts rail transportation routes. Subsequent modifications have been made to enhance each of these models. Some of these changes include population density information for routes, HM-164 routing regulations for highway route controlled quantities of radioactive materials (RAM) truck shipments, and inclusion of waterway routing into INTERLINE. The AIRPORT model, developed 2 years after the HIGHWAY and INTERLINE models, serves as an emergency response tool. This model identifies the nearest airports from a designated location. Currently, the AIRPORT model is inactive. The Transportation Management Division of the US Department of Energy held a Baseline Requirements Assessment Session on the HIGHWAY, INTERLINE, and AIRPORT models in April 1994 to bring together many users of these models and other experts in the transportation routing field to discuss these models and to decide on the capabilities that needed to be added. Of the many needs discussed, the primary one was to have the network databases within a geographic information system (GIS). As a result of the Baseline Requirements Session, the development of a new GIS model has been initiated. This paper will discuss the development of the new Transportation Routing Analysis GIS (TRAGIS) model at ORNL

  16. VINE ROUTES IN BULGARIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lyuben Hristov

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The article deals with a scheme for the modern vine route in Bulgaria. Five basic vine routes and one international, between Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece are defined. All routes consider characteristic varieties of grapes and kinds of vine products. Vine tourist products combined with visits of important natural and anthropological object are in the bases of the defined routes. The described routes are an important contribution to development of alternative tourist products in the country.

  17. Robust against route failure using power proficient reliable routing in MANET

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Malathi

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper was to propose a novel routing protocol for Mobile Adhoc Network communication which reduces the route failure during transmission. The proposed routing protocol uses 3 salient parameters to discover the path which ensure the reliable communication. The quality of the channel, link quality and energy level of the node are the major reasons for unintentional node failure in mobile Adhoc network. So the proposed routing protocol considers these three parameters to select the best forwarder node in the path. The reliable data communication is achieved by transmitting data via path selected by the proposed routing scheme has been proven using network simulator (NS2. Keywords: Channel quality, Link quality, Mobile Adhoc Network (MANET, Residual energy

  18. From pioneering orientation to new product performance through competitive tactics in SMEs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pedro M. García-Villaverde

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available The literature regarding entry timing suggests that pioneering orientation (PO is a key determinant factor of new product performance (NPP due to ‘first mover advantages’. The contradictory results and specific biases raise a research gap on which conditions and processes lead PO to a higher NPP. This paper proposes to fill this gap by designing and testing a model examining to what extent development of competitive tactics drive and explain the way from PO to NPP. We test the model on a sample of 224 footwear firms. Results show that, separately, each of the competitive tactics has a total mediating effect linking PO with NPP. Introducing the competitive tactics into a multiple mediator model the routes from PO to NPP through low cost and innovation differentiation are relevant and compatible. However, marketing differentiation is less effective. The study provides new ways of linking the entry timing and advantage strategy perspectives.

  19. Competitive Liner Shipping Network Design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Karsten, Christian Vad

    .The contributions of this thesis cover modeling, methodology, and applications.The developed methods address operational (cargo routing), tactical (speed optimization and service selection), and strategic (network design) planning problems faced by liner shipping companies. Ultimately, the proposed methods help...... take the container transportation times that can be realized in the network nor the number of transshipments into consideration. This is mainly because the optimization problem is based on other transportation networks where these constraints are not decisive to the quality of the network. Furthermore......, the problem in itself is challenging to optimize due to its size and complexity. However, the field has seen crucial progress and is mature to include handling of competitiveness in the actual design of the network.As a liner shipping network is an organic entity, which is constantly changed to reflect...

  20. Cultural tourism in fragile institutional contexts: project for cultural routes in Tierra del Fuego

    OpenAIRE

    Garcés Feliu, Eugenio

    2012-01-01

    The following paper presents a project of Cultural Routes designed for the Chilean Tierra del Fuego, linked to promoting tourism and boosting the economy, through the development of a specific high standard tourism offer, linked to its natural and cultural heritage, with the purpose of capturing the potential income generation for Chile. The project had as main goal to enhance the competitiveness of the tourism sector of special interests in Tierra del Fuego, a key sector of South...

  1. Route churn: an analysis of low-cost carrier route continuity in Europe

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Wit, J.G.; Zuidberg, J.

    2016-01-01

    Discontinuity of air routes is a subject that has been analysed in various ways. For example, the complex network approach focuses on network robustness and resilience due to route interruptions during a relatively short period. Also seasonal interruptions of air routes are a well-documented

  2. A new hybrid GA-PSO method for solving multi-period inventory routing problem with considering financial decisions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Masoud Rabbani

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Integration of various logistical components in supply chain management, such as transportation, inventory control and facility location are becoming common practice to avoid sub-optimization in nowadays’ competitive environment. The integration of transportation and inventory decisions is known as inventory routing problem (IRP in the literature. The problem aims to determine the delivery quantity for each customer and the network routes to be used in each period, so that the total inventory and transportation costs are to be minimized. On the contrary of conventional IRP that each retailer can only provide its demand from the supplier, in this paper, a new multi-period, multi-item IRP model with considering lateral trans-shipment, back-log and financial decisions is proposed as a business model in a distinct organization. The main purpose of this paper is applying an applicable inventory routing model with considering real world setting and solving it with an appropriate method.

  3. Returning to the Fermi level

    CERN Document Server

    2001-01-01

    Italy needs to ensure that its system for making appointments to permanent univeristy positions, is cleaned up. Currently accusations of unnecessary bureaucracy and cronyism abound (1 page editorial).

  4. Hazmat Routes (National)

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Transportation — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Hazardous Material Routes (NTAD) were developed using the 2004 First Edition TIGER/Line files. The routes are...

  5. A Novel Spatial-Temporal Voronoi Diagram-Based Heuristic Approach for Large-Scale Vehicle Routing Optimization with Time Constraints

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei Tu

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Vehicle routing optimization (VRO designs the best routes to reduce travel cost, energy consumption, and carbon emission. Due to non-deterministic polynomial-time hard (NP-hard complexity, many VROs involved in real-world applications require too much computing effort. Shortening computing time for VRO is a great challenge for state-of-the-art spatial optimization algorithms. From a spatial-temporal perspective, this paper presents a spatial-temporal Voronoi diagram-based heuristic approach for large-scale vehicle routing problems with time windows (VRPTW. Considering time constraints, a spatial-temporal Voronoi distance is derived from the spatial-temporal Voronoi diagram to find near neighbors in the space-time searching context. A Voronoi distance decay strategy that integrates a time warp operation is proposed to accelerate local search procedures. A spatial-temporal feature-guided search is developed to improve unpromising micro route structures. Experiments on VRPTW benchmarks and real-world instances are conducted to verify performance. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach is competitive with state-of-the-art heuristics and achieves high-quality solutions for large-scale instances of VRPTWs in a short time. This novel approach will contribute to spatial decision support community by developing an effective vehicle routing optimization method for large transportation applications in both public and private sectors.

  6. H2 production by reforming route in reducing CO2 emissions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raphaelle Imbault

    2006-01-01

    Nowadays the most common way to produce hydrogen is the Steam Methane Reforming route from natural gas. With the pressure of new environmental rules, reducing CO 2 emissions becomes a key issue. The European project Ulcos (Ultra Low CO 2 Steelmaking) has targeted to reduce of at least 50% the CO 2 emissions in steelmaking. The H 2 route (and in particular the reforming process) is one of the solutions which have been explored. The results of this study have shown that the two main ways (which can be combined) of limiting CO 2 emissions in H 2 production are to improve the energetic efficiency of the plant or to capture CO 2 . With the first way, a reduction of 20% of emissions compared to conventional plant can be reached. The second one enables to achieve a decrease of 90%. However the CO 2 capture is much more expensive and this kind of solution can be economically competitive only if high CO 2 taxes are implemented (≥40 Euros/ton). (author)

  7. Alternative route for the MDW project for automotive fuels in the Dutch highway sector. A legal analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Haute, J.S.R.; Kooy, J.

    2002-01-01

    In February 1998, the Dutch Government initiated an MDW project ('Marktwerking, Deregulering en Wetgevingskwaliteit', i.e. market functioning, deregulation and quality of legislation) to review ways in which competition within the motorway segment of the Dutch retail fuel market could be improved. The project reviewed the entry barriers and considered ways to stimulate competition, including preferential treatment of new entrants. The Dutch Major oil companies protested against the original plans of the Government and announced legal proceedings. The Government agreed to engage in negotiations with the oil industry in order to reach a compromise solution and avoid a legal battle. This resulted in an alternative route, which is analyzed in this article from a legal perspective [nl

  8. Bolivia-Brazil gas line route detailed

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1992-01-01

    This paper reports that state oil companies of Brazil and Bolivia have signed an agreement outlining the route for a 2,270 km pipeline system to deliver natural gas from Bolivian fields to Southeast Brazil. The two sides currently are negotiating details about construction costs as well as contract volumes and prices. Capacity is projected at 283-565 MMcfd. No official details are available, but Roberto Y. Hukai, a director of the Sao Paulo engineering company Jaako Poyry/Technoplan, estimates transportation cost of the Bolivian gas at 90 cents/MMBTU. That would be competitive with the price of gas delivered to the Sao Paulo gas utility Comgas, he the. Brazil's Petroleos Brasileiro SA estimates construction of the pipeline on the Brazilian side alone with cost $1.2-1.4 billion. Bolivia's Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) is negotiating with private domestic and foreign investors for construction of the Bolivian portion of the project

  9. Study of the drivers of competitiveness of the Brazilian biodiesel; Estudo dos direcionadores de competitividade do biodiesel brasileiro

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cesar, Aldara da Silva; Batalha, Mario Otavio [Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos (UFSCar), SP (Brazil). Dept. de Engenharia de Producao; Monteiro, Marcos Roberto [Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos (UFSCar), SP (Brazil). Centro de Caracterizacao e Desenvolvimento de Materiais

    2008-07-01

    In the increasingly important role that the biofuel market takes in the new dynamic global competition, biodiesel emerges as a real alternative of implantation. In Brazil, this interest is not different. However, despite of biodiesel's enormous potential, there is a number of uncertainties that need to be investigated in order to produce a biodiesel which has its unique specifications and international quality recognized. The aim of this article is twofold: first, the information systematization of the Brazilian biodiesel production chain; and second, the analysis of drivers of competitiveness that affect that same production chain. Through the theory of systemic approach, each driver of competitiveness is described and its competitive environment is analyzed. The range of different raw materials and possible technological routes present numerous challenges for the agents of this chain. What increases the relevance of studies such as this is the notion that investigating the drives of competitiveness is the first step in overcoming these challenges. (author)

  10. Study of the drivers of competitiveness of the Brazilian biodiesel; Estudo dos direcionadores de competitividade do biodiesel brasileiro

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cesar, Aldara da Silva; Batalha, Mario Otavio [Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos (UFSCar), SP (Brazil). Dept. de Engenharia de Producao; Monteiro, Marcos Roberto [Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos (UFSCar), SP (Brazil). Centro de Caracterizacao e Desenvolvimento de Materiais

    2008-07-01

    In the increasingly important role that the biofuel market takes in the new dynamic global competition, biodiesel emerges as a real alternative of implantation. In Brazil, this interest is not different. However, despite of biodiesel's enormous potential, there is a number of uncertainties that need to be investigated in order to produce a biodiesel which has its unique specifications and international quality recognized. The aim of this article is twofold: first, the information systematization of the Brazilian biodiesel production chain; and second, the analysis of drivers of competitiveness that affect that same production chain. Through the theory of systemic approach, each driver of competitiveness is described and its competitive environment is analyzed. The range of different raw materials and possible technological routes present numerous challenges for the agents of this chain. What increases the relevance of studies such as this is the notion that investigating the drives of competitiveness is the first step in overcoming these challenges. (author)

  11. Demolishing the competition: the longitudinal link between competitive video games, competitive gambling, and aggression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adachi, Paul J C; Willoughby, Teena

    2013-07-01

    The majority of research on the link between video games and aggression has focused on the violent content in games. In contrast, recent experimental research suggests that it is video game competition, not violence, that has the greatest effect on aggression in the short-term. However, no researchers have examined the long-term relationship between video game competition and aggression. In addition, if competition in video games is a significant reason for the link between video game play and aggression, then other competitive activities, such as competitive gambling, also may predict aggression over time. In the current study, we directly assessed the socialization (competitive video game play and competitive gambling predicts aggression over time) versus selection hypotheses (aggression predicts competitive video game play and competitive gambling over time). Adolescents (N = 1,492, 50.8 % female) were surveyed annually from Grade 9 to Grade 12 about their video game play, gambling, and aggressive behaviors. Greater competitive video game play and competitive gambling predicted higher levels of aggression over time, after controlling for previous levels of aggression, supporting the socialization hypothesis. The selection hypothesis also was supported, as aggression predicted greater competitive video game play and competitive gambling over time, after controlling for previous competitive video game play and competitive gambling. Our findings, taken together with the fact that millions of adolescents play competitive video games every day and that competitive gambling may increase as adolescents transition into adulthood, highlight the need for a greater understanding of the relationship between competition and aggression.

  12. Indoor Semantic Modelling for Routing: The Two-Level Routing Approach for Indoor Navigation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liu Liu

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Humans perform many activities indoors and they show a growing need for indoor navigation, especially in unfamiliar buildings such as airports, museums and hospitals. Complexity of such buildings poses many challenges for building managers and visitors. Indoor navigation services play an important role in supporting these indoor activities. Indoor navigation covers extensive topics such as: 1 indoor positioning and localization; 2 indoor space representation for navigation model generation; 3 indoor routing computation; 4 human wayfinding behaviours; and 5 indoor guidance (e.g., textual directories. So far, a large number of studies of pedestrian indoor navigation have presented diverse navigation models and routing algorithms/methods. However, the major challenge is rarely referred to: how to represent the complex indoor environment for pedestrians and conduct routing according to the different roles and sizes of users. Such complex buildings contain irregular shapes, large open spaces, complicated obstacles and different types of passages. A navigation model can be very complicated if the indoors are accurately represented. Although most research demonstrates feasible indoor navigation models and related routing methods in regular buildings, the focus is still on a general navigation model for pedestrians who are simplified as circles. In fact, pedestrians represent different sizes, motion abilities and preferences (e.g., described in user profiles, which should be reflected in navigation models and be considered for indoor routing (e.g., relevant Spaces of Interest and Points of Interest. In order to address this challenge, this thesis proposes an innovative indoor modelling and routing approach – two-level routing. It specially targets the case of routing in complex buildings for distinct users. The conceptual (first level uses general free indoor spaces: this is represented by the logical network whose nodes represent the spaces and edges

  13. A Combination of Genetic Algorithm and Particle Swarm Optimization for Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Sheng-Hua; Liu, Ji-Ping; Zhang, Fu-Hao; Wang, Liang; Sun, Li-Jian

    2015-08-27

    A combination of genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization (PSO) for vehicle routing problems with time windows (VRPTW) is proposed in this paper. The improvements of the proposed algorithm include: using the particle real number encoding method to decode the route to alleviate the computation burden, applying a linear decreasing function based on the number of the iterations to provide balance between global and local exploration abilities, and integrating with the crossover operator of genetic algorithm to avoid the premature convergence and the local minimum. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is not only more efficient and competitive with other published results but can also obtain more optimal solutions for solving the VRPTW issue. One new well-known solution for this benchmark problem is also outlined in the following.

  14. Multihop Wireless Networks Opportunistic Routing

    CERN Document Server

    Zeng, Kai; Li, Ming

    2011-01-01

    This book provides an introduction to opportunistic routing an emerging technology designed to improve the packet forwarding reliability, network capacity and energy efficiency of multihop wireless networks This book presents a comprehensive background to the technological challenges lying behind opportunistic routing. The authors cover many fundamental research issues for this new concept, including the basic principles, performance limit and performance improvement of opportunistic routing compared to traditional routing, energy efficiency and distributed opportunistic routing protocol desig

  15. Cultural Tourism In Fragile Institutional Contexts Project For Cultural Routes In Tierra Del Fuego

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eugenio Garcés Feliú

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available The following paper presents a project of Cultural Routes designed for the Chilean Tierra del Fuego, linked to promoting tourism and boosting the economy, through the development of a specific high standard tourism offer, linked to its natural and cultural heritage, with the purpose of capturing the potential income generation for Chile. The project had as main goal to enhance the competitiveness of the tourism sector of special interests in Tierra del Fuego, a key sector of Southern Patagonia, through the dissemination and transfer of technologies and knowledge, acquired in over 10 years of research and projects, onto the territory and local agents. These Cultural Routes build an innovative offer, capable of structuring the diverse touristic resources and strengthening the basis for the development of a new stage of national and international tourism market, located on the southern extreme of Chile and America.

  16. How do wild baboons (Papio ursinus) plan their routes? Travel among multiple high-quality food sources with inter-group competition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noser, Rahel; Byrne, Richard W

    2010-01-01

    How do humans and animals travel between multiple destinations on a given foraging trip? This question is of theoretical and practical interest, yet few empirical data exist to date. We examined how a group of wild chacma baboons travelled among multiple, simultaneously fruiting mountain fig trees (Ficus glumosa). In the course of a 16-month study, this highly preferred fruit was available during a 3-week period, from relatively few sites, which were also utilized by four larger baboon groups. We used directness of route and travel speed of 13 days of observation, and approach rates of 31 days of observation to differentiate between purposeful and opportunistic encounters with 50 fig trees. The study group visited a total of 30 fig trees overall, but only 8 trees per day on average. Each morning, they travelled along a highly repetitive route on all days of observation, thereby visiting 2-4 fig trees. They approached these trees rapidly along highly directed paths without intermittently exploiting other food sources that were available in large quantities. Then, they abruptly changed behaviour, switching to lower travel speed and less directed routes as they foraged on a variety of foods. They approached additional fig trees later in the day, but approach rates were similar to those at times of year when fruit of this fig species was unavailable; this suggested that encounters with trees after the behavioural switch were not planned. Comparing visits to purposefully and opportunistically encountered trees, we found no difference in the average time spent feeding or frequency of feeding supplants, suggesting that purposefully and opportunistically visited trees had similar values. We conclude that when foraging for mountain fig fruit the baboons' cognitive maps either contain information on relatively few trees or of only a single route along which several trees are situated, leading to very limited planning abilities.

  17. Understanding individual routing behaviour.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lima, Antonio; Stanojevic, Rade; Papagiannaki, Dina; Rodriguez, Pablo; González, Marta C

    2016-03-01

    Knowing how individuals move between places is fundamental to advance our understanding of human mobility (González et al. 2008 Nature 453, 779-782. (doi:10.1038/nature06958)), improve our urban infrastructure (Prato 2009 J. Choice Model. 2, 65-100. (doi:10.1016/S1755-5345(13)70005-8)) and drive the development of transportation systems. Current route-choice models that are used in transportation planning are based on the widely accepted assumption that people follow the minimum cost path (Wardrop 1952 Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. 1, 325-362. (doi:10.1680/ipeds.1952.11362)), despite little empirical support. Fine-grained location traces collected by smart devices give us today an unprecedented opportunity to learn how citizens organize their travel plans into a set of routes, and how similar behaviour patterns emerge among distinct individual choices. Here we study 92 419 anonymized GPS trajectories describing the movement of personal cars over an 18-month period. We group user trips by origin-destination and we find that most drivers use a small number of routes for their routine journeys, and tend to have a preferred route for frequent trips. In contrast to the cost minimization assumption, we also find that a significant fraction of drivers' routes are not optimal. We present a spatial probability distribution that bounds the route selection space within an ellipse, having the origin and the destination as focal points, characterized by high eccentricity independent of the scale. While individual routing choices are not captured by path optimization, their spatial bounds are similar, even for trips performed by distinct individuals and at various scales. These basic discoveries can inform realistic route-choice models that are not based on optimization, having an impact on several applications, such as infrastructure planning, routing recommendation systems and new mobility solutions. © 2016 The Author(s).

  18. Modeling the international competitiveness of Botswana's coal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fichani, Khaulani

    Botswana has vast proven deposits of steam coal, which for a long time it has wanted to develop but without much success. The main objectives of this study are: (1) to analyze the time schedule of coal exports likely to be forthcoming from Botswana and the land routes for these exports; (2) to determine the competitiveness of Botswana's coal in the world steam coal markets and (3) to make recommendations on the appropriate policy for the exploitation of this coal. To accomplish these objectives, we construct a model of the seaborne steam coal trade consisting of exporters and importers with a substantial share in this trade. We econometrically estimate the long run marginal cost functions for net exporters and employ these to construct a spatial and dynamic model of the world steam coal trade with elastic supply and inelastic demand. This model is applied to simulate Botswana's competitiveness in this trade over the period 1995 to 2010 from a 1990 base year with a decision criterion that minimizes the sum of discounted capital costs of mine development, variable supply costs, rail and maritime transportation costs. Finally, we employ the model to forecast the likely optimal size of mine, timing of production capacity and choice of export port for Botswana's coal for the years 2005 and 2010. The base year for the forecast is 2000. The simulation results indicate that Botswana's coal would have been competitive in the steam coal markets of Western Europe and Asia. The forecast results indicate that Botswana's coal would also be competitive in these markets in the future. These results are least sensitive to changes in rail transportation and variable supply costs but are sensitive to capital costs for mine development.

  19. SAFEBIKE: A Bike-sharing Route Recommender with Availability Prediction and Safe Routing

    OpenAIRE

    Zhong, Weisheng; Chen, Fanglan; Fu, Kaiqun; Lu, Chang-Tien

    2017-01-01

    This paper presents SAFEBIKE, a novel route recommendation system for bike-sharing service that utilizes station information to infer the number of available bikes in dock and recommend bike routes according to multiple factors such as distance and safety level. The system consists of a station level availability predictor that predicts bikes and docks amount at each station, and an efficient route recommendation service that considers safety and bike/dock availability factors. It targets use...

  20. Personal continuous route pattern mining

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Qian YE; Ling CHEN; Gen-cai CHEN

    2009-01-01

    In the daily life, people often repeat regular routes in certain periods. In this paper, a mining system is developed to find the continuous route patterns of personal past trips. In order to count the diversity of personal moving status, the mining system employs the adaptive GPS data recording and five data filters to guarantee the clean trips data. The mining system uses a client/server architecture to protect personal privacy and to reduce the computational load. The server conducts the main mining procedure but with insufficient information to recover real personal routes. In order to improve the scalability of sequential pattern mining, a novel pattern mining algorithm, continuous route pattern mining (CRPM), is proposed. This algorithm can tolerate the different disturbances in real routes and extract the frequent patterns. Experimental results based on nine persons' trips show that CRPM can extract more than two times longer route patterns than the traditional route pattern mining algorithms.

  1. Class network routing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhanot, Gyan [Princeton, NJ; Blumrich, Matthias A [Ridgefield, CT; Chen, Dong [Croton On Hudson, NY; Coteus, Paul W [Yorktown Heights, NY; Gara, Alan G [Mount Kisco, NY; Giampapa, Mark E [Irvington, NY; Heidelberger, Philip [Cortlandt Manor, NY; Steinmacher-Burow, Burkhard D [Mount Kisco, NY; Takken, Todd E [Mount Kisco, NY; Vranas, Pavlos M [Bedford Hills, NY

    2009-09-08

    Class network routing is implemented in a network such as a computer network comprising a plurality of parallel compute processors at nodes thereof. Class network routing allows a compute processor to broadcast a message to a range (one or more) of other compute processors in the computer network, such as processors in a column or a row. Normally this type of operation requires a separate message to be sent to each processor. With class network routing pursuant to the invention, a single message is sufficient, which generally reduces the total number of messages in the network as well as the latency to do a broadcast. Class network routing is also applied to dense matrix inversion algorithms on distributed memory parallel supercomputers with hardware class function (multicast) capability. This is achieved by exploiting the fact that the communication patterns of dense matrix inversion can be served by hardware class functions, which results in faster execution times.

  2. mizuRoute version 1: A river network routing tool for a continental domain water resources applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mizukami, Naoki; Clark, Martyn P.; Sampson, Kevin; Nijssen, Bart; Mao, Yixin; McMillan, Hilary; Viger, Roland; Markstrom, Steven; Hay, Lauren E.; Woods, Ross; Arnold, Jeffrey R.; Brekke, Levi D.

    2016-01-01

    This paper describes the first version of a stand-alone runoff routing tool, mizuRoute. The mizuRoute tool post-processes runoff outputs from any distributed hydrologic model or land surface model to produce spatially distributed streamflow at various spatial scales from headwater basins to continental-wide river systems. The tool can utilize both traditional grid-based river network and vector-based river network data. Both types of river network include river segment lines and the associated drainage basin polygons, but the vector-based river network can represent finer-scale river lines than the grid-based network. Streamflow estimates at any desired location in the river network can be easily extracted from the output of mizuRoute. The routing process is simulated as two separate steps. First, hillslope routing is performed with a gamma-distribution-based unit-hydrograph to transport runoff from a hillslope to a catchment outlet. The second step is river channel routing, which is performed with one of two routing scheme options: (1) a kinematic wave tracking (KWT) routing procedure; and (2) an impulse response function – unit-hydrograph (IRF-UH) routing procedure. The mizuRoute tool also includes scripts (python, NetCDF operators) to pre-process spatial river network data. This paper demonstrates mizuRoute's capabilities to produce spatially distributed streamflow simulations based on river networks from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Geospatial Fabric (GF) data set in which over 54 000 river segments and their contributing areas are mapped across the contiguous United States (CONUS). A brief analysis of model parameter sensitivity is also provided. The mizuRoute tool can assist model-based water resources assessments including studies of the impacts of climate change on streamflow.

  3. Developing an eco-routing application.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    The study develops eco-routing algorithms and investigates and quantifies the system-wide impacts of implementing an eco-routing system. Two eco-routing algorithms are developed: one based on vehicle sub-populations (ECO-Subpopulation Feedback Assign...

  4. Developing Road Infrastructure Route Planning: Increasing Feasibility of Toll Road Project

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammed Ali Berawi

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Indonesian government attempts to improve connectivity and to increase regional activities in SumateraIsland through the development of Trans Sumatera Toll Road (TSTR.However, despite its benefits to local economic development in Sumatera, the project shows low feasibility due to a low amount of investment. It can be attributed from the lack of planning in the initial phase to produce a comprehensive route that considers the various potentials of the regions. Thus, this research aims to investigate alternative routeplanning of Trans Sumatera Toll Road particularly in this paper for Central Sumatera by studying Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP, population and other significant factors. This research exposes cities and districts in Riau, West Sumatera, and Jambi which potentially contribute to the regional economy. Each selected towns and districts will be integrated with the intermodal system and connected to other functions to establish the Trans Sumatera Toll Roadproject in Central Sumatera. Compared to existing estimation of investment from public records, this alternative route has generated a competitive cost of investment which is estimated around 118,053,400,074,696 rupiahs. The research findings are expected to become the basis to improve other similar infrastructure toll road project development.

  5. Robustness of airline route networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lordan, Oriol; Sallan, Jose M.; Escorihuela, Nuria; Gonzalez-Prieto, David

    2016-03-01

    Airlines shape their route network by defining their routes through supply and demand considerations, paying little attention to network performance indicators, such as network robustness. However, the collapse of an airline network can produce high financial costs for the airline and all its geographical area of influence. The aim of this study is to analyze the topology and robustness of the network route of airlines following Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) and Full Service Carriers (FSCs) business models. Results show that FSC hubs are more central than LCC bases in their route network. As a result, LCC route networks are more robust than FSC networks.

  6. Distorsioni strutturali della regolamentazione prudenziale delle banche (Structural distortions in prudential regulation of banks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mario Tonveronachi

    2002-03-01

    Full Text Available At the national level, financial regulation based on prohibitions, the so-called structural rules, was accused of producing significant distortion. The degree of competition it was limited, encouraging inefficiencies of all types; the culture of risk it was weakened; wide discretionary powers were used by national authorities to distort market mechanisms and public ownership distorted competition and fostered cronyism.A new common regulative culture is therefore emerged, based on internal free competition within the banking sector and the financial system as a whole. It requires the elimination of strict limits to banking, the abandonment of the principle of specialization between commercial banking and financial asset bank, the affirmation of private property, the liability of the banks in a stronger market discipline, even with regard to their corporate governance.The Basel rules distorts no less serious than those attributed to the previous structural rules. Excessive competition is no less harmful than a low degree of competition, setting the “level playing field” helps large dimension and practicas “too big to fail”, the “capital crunches” produce serious effects on the economy, while the regulatory costs absorb important share resources of smaller banks. It is a matter of further research whether the new approach to regulation has also favored an increase in the share of national income absorbed by the financial system without having produced a better distribution of risk and a proportional increase in what James Tobin (1984 has defined efficiency of full insurance.

  7. Iterated Local Search Algorithm with Strategic Oscillation for School Bus Routing Problem with Bus Stop Selection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Saied Fallah Niasar

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available he school bus routing problem (SBRP represents a variant of the well-known vehicle routing problem. The main goal of this study is to pick up students allocated to some bus stops and generate routes, including the selected stops, in order to carry students to school. In this paper, we have proposed a simple but effective metaheuristic approach that employs two features: first, it utilizes large neighborhood structures for a deeper exploration of the search space; second, the proposed heuristic executes an efficient transition between the feasible and infeasible portions of the search space. Exploration of the infeasible area is controlled by a dynamic penalty function to convert the unfeasible solution into a feasible one. Two metaheuristics, called N-ILS (a variant of the Nearest Neighbourhood with Iterated Local Search algorithm and I-ILS (a variant of Insertion with Iterated Local Search algorithm are proposed to solve SBRP. Our experimental procedure is based on the two data sets. The results show that N-ILS is able to obtain better solutions in shorter computing times. Additionally, N-ILS appears to be very competitive in comparison with the best existing metaheuristics suggested for SBRP

  8. EDITORIAL: Physics competitions Physics competitions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jordens, H.; Mathelitsch, L.

    2009-11-01

    1. Physics competitions: aims and realizations One aim of physics competitions is to increase the interest of young students, primarily at upper secondary level, to physics and natural sciences in general. A competition has motivational aspects known usually from sports events or games—comparing one's own ability with others, of course with the desire to be better and to win. If competitions reach nationwide and even international levels, additional stimulation is created. Competitions provide greatest attraction to possible winners, to the group of gifted people in a particular field. This implies that science contests are excellent tools for the promotion of talented students. Traditional teaching has been shown to have problems in supporting this group of students. Very often teachers are overstretched with the demands of teaching both low- and high-level students. Extracurricular activities are therefore a good chance to relieve the teacher, and to give talented students the opportunity for appropriate training and challenge. The competitions, however, have a broader impact and address more young people than one might guess from the statements above. Training courses and selection at school level give a larger group of students extra and, to some extent, complimentary education in physics. The degree of complexity of the tasks corresponds very often to the standards of the next level of education in the school system. Interestingly, many physics competitions have their origin in countries beyond the former Iron Curtain. They started as regional and national tournaments, were joined by neighbouring countries and have grown, in some cases, to events with participants from more than 80 countries. Although the features mentioned above are common to the different competitions, there are distinct differences between them [1]. The International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) is the oldest international physics competition for students at upper secondary level [2]. It dates

  9. An overview of smart grid routing algorithms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Junsheng; OU, Qinghai; Shen, Haijuan

    2017-08-01

    This paper summarizes the typical routing algorithm in smart grid by analyzing the communication business and communication requirements of intelligent grid. Mainly from the two kinds of routing algorithm is analyzed, namely clustering routing algorithm and routing algorithm, analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of two kinds of typical routing algorithm in routing algorithm and applicability.

  10. Ethylic or methylic route to soybean biodiesel? Tracking environmental answers through life cycle assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alejos Altamirano, Carlos Alberto; Yokoyama, Lídia; Medeiros, José Luiz de; Queiroz Fernandes Araújo, Ofélia de

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Life cycle of biodiesel using alternative transesterification routes is analyzed. • Bioethanol can potentially decrease CO_2 emissions of methanol biodiesel. • Contrarily, equivalent CO_2 emissions are retained and renewability is reduced. • Water footprint increases from 37.12 (methanol) to 44.88 m"3/GJ biodiesel (ethanol). • Energy efficiency is reduced from 79.37% (methanol) to 75.19 (ethanol %). - Abstract: Biodiesel is a renewable fuel produced by transesterification of triacylglicerides (TAG) contained in vegetable oils and animal fats, to yield alkyl esters (biodiesel) and glycerin. Methanol is the main transesterification agent employed resulting in FAME (fatty acid methyl esters), which is primarily obtained from natural gas reforming (fossil source). Substitution of methanol by ethanol produces FAEE (fatty acid ethyl esters) and has the potential to render biodiesel a fully renewable fuel. Although renewability is a significant driving force for the proposed alcohol replacement, environmental performance of the alternative transesterification is questioned. The answer is herein sought through a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the two production chains. The study tracks CO_2 emissions, energy efficiency, water and resources consumption, and environmental impacts (Acidification Potential – AP, Global Warming Potential – GWP, Eutrophication Potential – EP, and Human Toxicity Potential – TP). The boundaries of the biodiesel production chains extend from the extraction of raw-materials to its final use as transportation fuel in buses, applied to the Brazilian scenario. Results show that substitution of the methylic route with the ethylic route does not attribute significant environmental benefits. Furthermore, the ethylic route presents competitive advantages only in the category of GWP, and exhibits inferior performance in the remaining evaluated impact categories. Finally, a greater consumption of water and energy

  11. COMPETITIVENESS AND COMPETITIVE ORIENTATIONS: EVALUATION OF STUDENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Z. Efimova

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction. Education of a competitive student is a strategically significant problem of the system of higher education in modern social and economic conditions. Personal competitiveness and competitive orientations – priority quality of future expert for successful future professional experience.The aim of the present research is to study factors of competitive orientations formation and criteria for evaluation of competitiveness of student’s youth in the Russian society.Methodology and research methods. Results of theoretical researches of Russian and foreign researchers are generalized; secondary analysis of data based on results of sociological researches and analysis of official statistical data are carried out. The results of the sociological survey undertaken in 2017 on the basis of statistical methods were processed and studied by the instrumentality of IBM SPSS Statistics 23 program; 1196 students of institutions of higher and secondary vocational education of the Tyumen region took part.Results and scientific novelty. It is stated that senior students feel themselves more competitive. It is revealed that a quarter of students who took part in the survey, generally men, count themselves competitive. A continuous distance of goal-setting is recorded among these respondents; in every third case they have plans of professional growth for five and more years that allows them to build attractive competitive strategy.The level of the competitiveness is directly connected with such indicators as “social stratum”, “overall life satisfaction”, “self-esteem of health”, “tendency to lead a healthy lifestyle” and “the level of trust in the surrounding people”. Mostly the students oriented on competition look into the future with confidence and optimism.Respondents focused on the competitiveness were more tend to demonstrate their abilities and cause admiration, have a creative approach towards work, be ready for surprises

  12. Southern states' routing agency report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-02-01

    The Southern states' routing agency report is a compendium of 16-southern states' routing programs relative to the transportation of high-level radioactive materials. The report identifies the state-designated routing agencies as defined under 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 171 and provides a reference to the source ad scope of the agencies' rulemaking authority. Additionally, the state agency and contact designated by the state's governor to receive advance notification and shipment routing information under 10 CFR Parts 71 and 73 are also listed

  13. Southern States' Routing Agency Report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1990-03-01

    The Southern States' Routing Agency Report is a compendium of 16-southern states' routing program for the transportation of high-level radioactive materials. The report identifies the state-designated routing agencies as defined under 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 171 and provides a reference to the source and scope of the agencies' rulemaking authority. Additionally, the state agency and contact designated by the state's governor to receive advance notification and shipment routing information under 10 CFR Parts 71 and 73 are also listed

  14. The Impact of Total Liberalization of Domestic Air Transport on the Social Welfare and on the Dynamic of Competition: Comparison Between the United States and the European Union

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zbidi, Karim

    2003-01-01

    Since the lst of April 1997 date of the implementation of the third package of the liberalization, air transport, within the european Union has become totally liberalized. In the United States the deregulation of domestic air traffic was earlier and faster since it took place in October 1978 after the adoption of the only act of deregulation. This paper, in its first part, deals with the liberalization of the industry of air traffic in the european union. After a comparison with US system based on market demand, fare policy and network restrictions, we present our descriptive results coming from treatments on the OAG data. These results present several aspects such as the evolution of the competitive structure of the intra-european routes, the level of airport dominance and the growth of hub structure. The second part of the paper presents models of entry in the airline industry. As profitability" of route flown explains correctly decisions taken by airlines to serve or not a route, the paper focuses on the specification and the estimation of the determinants of city, pair profitability in the european union. Treatments done on the OAG data show a rapid development of leasing space agreement (partial and total) and code sharing practices between 1995 and 2000 in Europe that's why we differentiate first between the two type of competitive strategy of entry(direct entry and leasing space agreement) and second between the competitive strategy of entry and the alliance strategy of code sharing. So the estimation of model will be able to answer the question if the european air transport market is contestable and in case not to see if the decision of entry is more directed by the level of airport dominance (as in the domestic United States market)or essentially by the competitive structure of the routes. We try to explain the nature of entry(directleasing or code sharing) by the different levels of these two determinants.

  15. Load Balancing Routing with Bounded Stretch

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chen Siyuan

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Routing in wireless networks has been heavily studied in the last decade. Many routing protocols are based on classic shortest path algorithms. However, shortest path-based routing protocols suffer from uneven load distribution in the network, such as crowed center effect where the center nodes have more load than the nodes in the periphery. Aiming to balance the load, we propose a novel routing method, called Circular Sailing Routing (CSR, which can distribute the traffic more evenly in the network. The proposed method first maps the network onto a sphere via a simple stereographic projection, and then the route decision is made by a newly defined "circular distance" on the sphere instead of the Euclidean distance in the plane. We theoretically prove that for a network, the distance traveled by the packets using CSR is no more than a small constant factor of the minimum (the distance of the shortest path. We also extend CSR to a localized version, Localized CSR, by modifying greedy routing without any additional communication overhead. In addition, we investigate how to design CSR routing for 3D networks. For all proposed methods, we conduct extensive simulations to study their performances and compare them with global shortest path routing or greedy routing in 2D and 3D wireless networks.

  16. A Study on the Securement of the Competitiveness of Gyeong-In Port

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Woo-chul Ahn

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Through empirical study of current port selection factors of import and export companies in metropolitan areas trading with China, which are likely to use Gyeong-In Port in the future due to its geographical proximity, the tendency of its use by manufacturing companies in relevant areas is analyzed, and problems and ways to strengthen the competitiveness of Gyeong-In Port are explored. Study results show that transshipment routes between nearby ports need to be established in the medium to long term. In the short term, direct routes to Qingdao Port and Tianjin Port need to be vitalized. Based on analysis results of priority and satisfaction in port selection factors, cargo volumes should be secured by providing various incentives to Gimpo terminal at Gyeong-In Port and using aggressive marketing from a logistics company on commission. A clear management strategy and active cooperation among the government, project operators of K-water, and terminal operation companies are necessary.

  17. Guidelines for selecting preferred highway routes for highway-route-controlled quantity shipments of radioactive materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-01-01

    The document presents guidelines for use by State officials in selecting preferred routes for highway route controlled quantity shipments of radioactive materials. A methodology for analyzing and comparing safety factors of alternative routes is described. Technical information on the impacts of radioactive material transportation needed to apply the methodology is also presented. Application of the methodology will identify the route (or set of routes) that minimizes the radiological impacts from shipments of these radioactive materials within a given State. Emphasis in the document is on practical application of the methodology. Some details of the derivation of the methods and data are presented in the appendices. All references in the body of the report can be found listed in the Bibliography (Appendix F)

  18. Strategies for Selecting Routes through Real-World Environments: Relative Topography, Initial Route Straightness, and Cardinal Direction.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tad T Brunyé

    Full Text Available Previous research has demonstrated that route planners use several reliable strategies for selecting between alternate routes. Strategies include selecting straight rather than winding routes leaving an origin, selecting generally south- rather than north-going routes, and selecting routes that avoid traversal of complex topography. The contribution of this paper is characterizing the relative influence and potential interactions of these strategies. We also examine whether individual differences would predict any strategy reliance. Results showed evidence for independent and additive influences of all three strategies, with a strong influence of topography and initial segment straightness, and relatively weak influence of cardinal direction. Additively, routes were also disproportionately selected when they traversed relatively flat regions, had relatively straight initial segments, and went generally south rather than north. Two individual differences, extraversion and sense of direction, predicted the extent of some effects. Under real-world conditions navigators indeed consider a route's initial straightness, cardinal direction, and topography, but these cues differ in relative influence and vary in their application across individuals.

  19. Intelligent routing protocol for ad hoc wireless network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Chaorong; Chen, Chang Wen

    2006-05-01

    A novel routing scheme for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), which combines hybrid and multi-inter-routing path properties with a distributed topology discovery route mechanism using control agents is proposed in this paper. In recent years, a variety of hybrid routing protocols for Mobile Ad hoc wireless networks (MANETs) have been developed. Which is proactively maintains routing information for a local neighborhood, while reactively acquiring routes to destinations beyond the global. The hybrid protocol reduces routing discovery latency and the end-to-end delay by providing high connectivity without requiring much of the scarce network capacity. On the other side the hybrid routing protocols in MANETs likes Zone Routing Protocol still need route "re-discover" time when a route between zones link break. Sine the topology update information needs to be broadcast routing request on local zone. Due to this delay, the routing protocol may not be applicable for real-time data and multimedia communication. We utilize the advantages of a clustering organization and multi-routing path in routing protocol to achieve several goals at the same time. Firstly, IRP efficiently saves network bandwidth and reduces route reconstruction time when a routing path fails. The IRP protocol does not require global periodic routing advertisements, local control agents will automatically monitor and repair broke links. Secondly, it efficiently reduces congestion and traffic "bottlenecks" for ClusterHeads in clustering network. Thirdly, it reduces significant overheads associated with maintaining clusters. Fourthly, it improves clusters stability due to dynamic topology changing frequently. In this paper, we present the Intelligent Routing Protocol. First, we discuss the problem of routing in ad hoc networks and the motivation of IRP. We describe the hierarchical architecture of IRP. We describe the routing process and illustrate it with an example. Further, we describe the control manage

  20. Risk assessment of alternative proliferation routes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahmed, S.; Husseiny, A.A.

    1982-01-01

    Multi-Attribute Decision Theory is applied to rank II alternative routes to nuclear proliferation in order of difficulty in acquiring nuclear weapons by nonnuclear countries. The method is based on reducing the various variables affecting the decision to a single function providing a measure for the proliferation route. The results indicate that the most difficult route to obtain atomic weapons is through nuclear power reactors, specifically the liquid-metal fast breeder reactor, heavy water Canada deuterium uranium reactor, and light water reactors such as boiling water and pressurized water reactors. The easiest routes are supercritical centrifuge isotope separation, laser isotope separation, and research reactor. However, nonnuclear routes available that result in substantial damage to life and property are easier than any nuclear route

  1. Competitive balance in national European soccer competitions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haan, M.A.; Koning, R.H.; van Witteloostuijn, A.; Albert, Jim; Koning, Ruud H.

    2007-01-01

    According to popular belief, competitive balance in national soccer competitions in Europe has decreased due to the Bosman ruling and the introduction of the Champions League. We test this hypothesis using data from 7 national competitions, for a host of indicators. We find some evidence for

  2. Transportation Routing Analysis Geographic Information System -- TRAGIS, progress on improving a routing tool

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnson, P.E.; Lester, P.B.

    1998-05-01

    The Transportation Routing Analysis Geographic Information System (TRAGIS) model provides a useful tool to calculate and analyze transportation routes for radioactive materials within the continental US. This paper outlines some of the features available in this model

  3. Collective network routing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoenicke, Dirk

    2014-12-02

    Disclosed are a unified method and apparatus to classify, route, and process injected data packets into a network so as to belong to a plurality of logical networks, each implementing a specific flow of data on top of a common physical network. The method allows to locally identify collectives of packets for local processing, such as the computation of the sum, difference, maximum, minimum, or other logical operations among the identified packet collective. Packets are injected together with a class-attribute and an opcode attribute. Network routers, employing the described method, use the packet attributes to look-up the class-specific route information from a local route table, which contains the local incoming and outgoing directions as part of the specifically implemented global data flow of the particular virtual network.

  4. Route Scherrer and Route Einstein closed for construction work

    CERN Multimedia

    2015-01-01

    Please note that Route Scherrer will be inaccessible for two and a half months from the beginning of March and that part of Route Einstein will be closed for two weeks from the end of February.   Figure 1. The part of Route Scherrer between Building 510 and Building 53 (see Figure 1) will be closed from the beginning of March until mid-May for civil engineering works.   The superheated water pipes supplying the buildings in this area date back to 1959 and therefore present a significant risk of leakage. In order to ensure the reliable supply of superheated water, and, by extension, heating, to all premises near the Main Building (i.e. Buildings 500, 501, 503, 60, 62, 63 and 64), a new buried service duct will be installed between the basements of Buildings 53 and 61 to house a new superheated water pipe. Figure 2. The following car parks will, however, remain accessible for the duration of the works: the Cèdres car park, the car park for Buildings 4 and 5, and the ca...

  5. Highway route controlled quantity shipment routing reports - An overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cashwell, J.W.; Welles, B.W.; Welch, M.J.

    1989-01-01

    US Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations require a postnotification report from the shipper for all shipments of radioactive materials categorized as a Highway Route Controlled Quantity. These postnotification reports, filed in compliance with 49 CFR 172.203(d), have been compiled by the DOT in a database known as the Radioactive Materials Routing Report (RAMRT) since 1982. The data were sorted by each of its elements to establish historical records and trends of Highway Route Controlled Quantity shipments from 1982 through 1987. Approximately 1520 records in the RAMRT database were compiled for this analysis. Approximately half of the shipments reported for the study period were from the US Department of Energy (DOE) and its contractors, with the others being commercial movements. Two DOE installations, EG and G Idaho and Oak Ridge, accounted for nearly half of the DOE activities. Similarly, almost half of the commercial movements were reported by two vendors, Nuclear Assurance Corporation and Transnuclear, Incorporated. Spent fuel from power and research reactors accounted for approximately half of all shipments

  6. US Hazardous Materials Routes, Geographic WGS84, BTS (2006) [hazardous_material_routes_BTS_2006

    Data.gov (United States)

    Louisiana Geographic Information Center — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Hazardous Material Routes were developed using the 2004 First Edition TIGER/Line files. The routes are...

  7. A MODIFIED ROUTE DISCOVERY APPROACH FOR DYNAMIC SOURCE ROUTING (DSR PROTOCOL IN MOBILE AD-HOC NETWORKS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alaa Azmi Allahham

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Mobile Ad-hoc networks (MANETs involved in many applications, whether commercial or military because of their characteristics that do not depend on the infrastructure as well as the freedom movement of their elements, but in return has caused this random mobility of the nodes many of the challenges, where the routing is considered one of these challenges. There are many types of routing protocols that operate within MANET networks, which responsible for finding paths between the source and destination nodes with the modernization of these paths which are constantly changing due to the dynamic topology of the network stemming from the constant random movement of the nodes. The DSR (Dynamic Source Routing routing protocol algorithm is one of these routing protocols which consist of two main stages; route discovery and maintenance, where the route discovery algorithm operates based on blind flooding of request messages. blind flooding is considered as the most well known broadcasting mechanism, it is inefficient in terms of communication and resource utilization, which causing increasing the probability of collisions, repeating send several copies of the same message, as well as increasing the delay. Hence, a new mechanism in route discovery stage and in caching the routes in DSR algorithm according to the node's location in the network and the direction of the broadcast is proposed for better performance especially in terms of delay as well as redundant packets rate. The implementation of proposed algorithms showed positive results in terms of delay, overhead, and improve the performance of MANETs in general.

  8. Route-specific analysis for radioactive materials transportation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1986-01-01

    This report addresses a methodology for route-specific analysis, of which route-selection is one aspect. Identification and mitigation of specific hazards along a chosen route is another important facet of route-specific analysis. Route-selection and route-specific mitigation are two tools to be used in minimizing the risk of radioactive materials transportation and promoting public confidence. Other tools exist to improve the safety of transportation under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Selection of a transportation mode and other, non-route-specific measures, such as improved driver training and improved cask designs, are additional tools to minimize transportation risk and promote public confidence. This report addresses the route-specific analysis tool and does not attempt to evaluate its relative usefulness as compared to other available tools. This report represents a preliminary attempt to develop a route-specific analysis methodlogy. The Western Interstate Energy Board High-Level Waste Committee has formed a Route-Specific Analysis Task Force which will build upon the methodology proposed in this Staff Report. As western states continue to investigate route-specific analysis issues, it is expected that the methodology will evolve into a more refined product representing the views of a larger group of interested parties in the West

  9. GOOD GOVERNANCE AND TRANSFORMATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hans-Jürgen WAGENER

    2005-12-01

    Full Text Available Transformation of a totalitarian, basically administratively coordinated system into a democratic one that is coordinated predominantly by markets and competition has been triggered by, among others, the perception of a serious deficit in welfare and happiness. Public policy has a special task transforming the economic order by liberalisation, privatisation, stabilisation and the installation of institutions that are supportive for competition. After 15 years since transformation began, there are sufficiently differentiated success stories to test the hypothesis: it was good governance that is responsible for success and bad governance for failure. The empirical results support the “Lorenzetti hypothesis”: where freedom, security and trust prevail, the economy flourishes, where they are lacking, the costs of long-term investment are too high. The initial conditions of transition countries seem to be quite similar, nevertheless, even there one can discern good and bad governance. The extent of socialist lawfulness, planning security, cronyism and corruption differed widely between East Berlin and Tashkent. And a good deal of such variations can be found in the pre-socialist history of these countries. However, the main conclusion is that the co-evolution hypothesis states that both, welfare and good governance, go together.

  10. Bellman Ford algorithm - in Routing Information Protocol (RIP)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krianto Sulaiman, Oris; Mahmud Siregar, Amir; Nasution, Khairuddin; Haramaini, Tasliyah

    2018-04-01

    In a large scale network need a routing that can handle a lot number of users, one of the solutions to cope with large scale network is by using a routing protocol, There are 2 types of routing protocol that is static and dynamic, Static routing is manually route input based on network admin, while dynamic routing is automatically route input formed based on existing network. Dynamic routing is efficient used to network extensively because of the input of route automatic formed, Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is one of dynamic routing that uses the bellman-ford algorithm where this algorithm will search for the best path that traversed the network by leveraging the value of each link, so with the bellman-ford algorithm owned by RIP can optimize existing networks.

  11. Route de Meyrin-CERN: and the winner is...

    CERN Document Server

    2012-01-01

    Last night, CERN’s engagement with society took an important step forward with the unveiling of the winner of the architectural competition for the Route de Meyrin between CERN’s entrances A and B. The winning entry is a project entitled “Metaphoros”, entered by Studio Bürgi of Ticino.   Metaphoros was selected by a jury, of which I was a member, from an impressive range of proposals from around the world. It will be some time before construction gets underway, but anyone who’d like a forward look at how the gateway to CERN will look from 2014 can visit an exhibition in the Globe opening today and running until 28 January. The exhibition focuses on the winning entry, but also has a place for the runners-up, and for the Cosmic Rings of CERN proposal for buildings and landscaping around the Globe, which, subject to external funding, will merge seamlessly with Metaphoros as the next phase in the redevelopment of CERN’s public sp...

  12. Reflections on Competition, Competition Regulation and the Current Crises

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Buch-Hansen, Hubert; Wigger, Angela

    2013-01-01

    competition came to enjoy such an exalted status in Europe and then challenges conventional wisdom by bringing into focus the downsides of competition. It argues that excessive competition and neoliberal competition regulation have contributed to intensify the economic, political, social and environmental...

  13. Predicting transportation routes for radioactive wastes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joy, D.S.; Johnson, P.E.; Clarke, D.B.; McGuire, S.C.

    1981-01-01

    Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been involved in transportation logistics of radioactive wastes as part of the overall waste transportation program. A Spent Fuel Logistics Model (SFLM), was developed to predict overall material balances representing the flow of spent fuel assemblies from reactors to away-from-reactor storage facilities and/or to federal repositories. The transportation requirements to make these shipments are also itemized. The next logical step in the overall transportation project was the development of a set of computer codes which would predict likely transportation routes for waste shipments. Two separate routing models are now operational at ORNL. Routes for truck transport can be estimated with the HIGHWAY program, and rail and barge routes can be predicted with the INTERLINE model. This paper discusses examples of the route estimates and applications of the routing models

  14. Optimization Model and Algorithm Design for Airline Fleet Planning in a Multiairline Competitive Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu Wang

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a multiobjective mathematical programming model to optimize airline fleet size and structure with consideration of several critical factors severely affecting the fleet planning process. The main purpose of this paper is to reveal how multiairline competitive behaviors impact airline fleet size and structure by enhancing the existing route-based fleet planning model with consideration of the interaction between market share and flight frequency and also by applying the concept of equilibrium optimum to design heuristic algorithm for solving the model. Through case study and comparison, the heuristic algorithm is proved to be effective. By using the algorithm presented in this paper, the fleet operational profit is significantly increased compared with the use of the existing route-based model. Sensitivity analysis suggests that the fleet size and structure are more sensitive to the increase of fare price than to the increase of passenger demand.

  15. RSRP: A Robust Secure Routing Protocol in MANET

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sinha Ditipriya

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm RSRP to build a robust secure routing protocol in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs. This algorithm is based on some basic schemes such as RSA_CRT for encryption and decryption of messages; CRT for safety key generation, Shamir’s secret sharing principle for generation of secure routes. Those routes which are free from any malicious node and which belong to the set of disjoint routes between a source-destination pair are considered as probable routes. Shamir’s secret sharing principle is applied on those probable routes to obtain secure routes. Finally, most trustworthy and stable route is selected among those secure routes. Selection of the final route depends on some criteria of the nodes present in a route e.g.: battery power, mobility and trust value. In addition, complexity of key generation is reduced to a large extent by using RSA-CRT instead of RSA. In turn, the routing becomes less expensive and most secure and robust one. Performance of this routing protocol is then compared with non-secure routing protocols (AODV and DSR, secure routing scheme using secret sharing, security routing protocol using ZRP and SEAD depending on basic characteristics of these protocols. All such comparisons show that RSRP shows better performance in terms of computational cost, end-to-end delay and packet dropping in presence of malicious nodes in the MANET, keeping the overhead in terms of control packets same as other secure routing protocols.

  16. Human risk assessment of dermal and inhalation exposures to chemicals assessed by route-to-route extrapolation: the necessity of kinetic data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geraets, Liesbeth; Bessems, Jos G M; Zeilmaker, Marco J; Bos, Peter M J

    2014-10-01

    In toxicity testing the oral route is in general the first choice. Often, appropriate inhalation and dermal toxicity data are absent. Risk assessment for these latter routes usually has to rely on route-to-route extrapolation starting from oral toxicity data. Although it is generally recognized that the uncertainties involved are (too) large, route-to-route extrapolation is applied in many cases because of a strong need of an assessment of risks linked to a given exposure scenario. For an adequate route-to-route extrapolation the availability of at least some basic toxicokinetic data is a pre-requisite. These toxicokinetic data include all phases of kinetics, from absorption (both absorbed fraction and absorption rate for both the starting route and route of interest) via distribution and biotransformation to excretion. However, in practice only differences in absorption between the different routes are accounted for. The present paper demonstrates the necessity of route-specific absorption data by showing the impact of its absence on the uncertainty of the human health risk assessment using route-to-route extrapolation. Quantification of the absorption (by in vivo, in vitro or in silico methods), particularly for the starting route, is considered essential. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Vehicle Routing With User Generated Trajectory Data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ceikute, Vaida; Jensen, Christian S.

    Rapidly increasing volumes of GPS data collected from vehicles provide new and increasingly comprehensive insight into the routes that drivers prefer. While routing services generally compute shortest or fastest routes, recent studies suggest that local drivers often prefer routes that are neithe...

  18. Environmental structure and competitive scoring advantages in team competitions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merritt, Sears; Clauset, Aaron

    2013-10-01

    In most professional sports, playing field structure is kept neutral so that scoring imbalances may be attributed to differences in team skill. It thus remains unknown what impact environmental heterogeneities can have on scoring dynamics or competitive advantages. Applying a novel generative model of scoring dynamics to roughly 10 million team competitions drawn from an online game, we quantify the relationship between the structure within a competition and its scoring dynamics, while controlling the impact of chance. Despite wide structural variations, we observe a common three-phase pattern in the tempo of events. Tempo and balance are highly predictable from a competition's structural features alone and teams exploit environmental heterogeneities for sustained competitive advantage. Surprisingly, the most balanced competitions are associated with specific environmental heterogeneities, not from equally skilled teams. These results shed new light on the design principles of balanced competition, and illustrate the potential of online game data for investigating social dynamics and competition.

  19. A Genetic Algorithm on Inventory Routing Problem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nevin Aydın

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Inventory routing problem can be defined as forming the routes to serve to the retailers from the manufacturer, deciding on the quantity of the shipment to the retailers and deciding on the timing of the replenishments. The difference of inventory routing problems from vehicle routing problems is the consideration of the inventory positions of retailers and supplier, and making the decision accordingly. Inventory routing problems are complex in nature and they can be solved either theoretically or using a heuristics method. Metaheuristics is an emerging class of heuristics that can be applied to combinatorial optimization problems. In this paper, we provide the relationship between vendor-managed inventory and inventory routing problem. The proposed genetic for solving vehicle routing problem is described in detail.

  20. Zone routing in a torus network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Dong; Heidelberger, Philip; Kumar, Sameer

    2013-01-29

    A system for routing data in a network comprising a network logic device at a sending node for determining a path between the sending node and a receiving node, wherein the network logic device sets one or more selection bits and one or more hint bits within the data packet, a control register for storing one or more masks, wherein the network logic device uses the one or more selection bits to select a mask from the control register and the network logic device applies the selected mask to the hint bits to restrict routing of the data packet to one or more routing directions for the data packet within the network and selects one of the restricted routing directions from the one or more routing directions and sends the data packet along a link in the selected routing direction toward the receiving node.

  1. Capacity Constrained Routing Algorithms for Evacuation Route Planning

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Lu, Qingsong; George, Betsy; Shekhar, Shashi

    2006-01-01

    .... In this paper, we propose a new approach, namely a capacity constrained routing planner which models capacity as a time series and generalizes shortest path algorithms to incorporate capacity constraints...

  2. Entanglement-Gradient Routing for Quantum Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gyongyosi, Laszlo; Imre, Sandor

    2017-10-27

    We define the entanglement-gradient routing scheme for quantum repeater networks. The routing framework fuses the fundamentals of swarm intelligence and quantum Shannon theory. Swarm intelligence provides nature-inspired solutions for problem solving. Motivated by models of social insect behavior, the routing is performed using parallel threads to determine the shortest path via the entanglement gradient coefficient, which describes the feasibility of the entangled links and paths of the network. The routing metrics are derived from the characteristics of entanglement transmission and relevant measures of entanglement distribution in quantum networks. The method allows a moderate complexity decentralized routing in quantum repeater networks. The results can be applied in experimental quantum networking, future quantum Internet, and long-distance quantum communications.

  3. The Pyramidal Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lysgaard, Jens

    This paper introduces the Pyramidal Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (PCVRP) as a restricted version of the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP). In the PCVRP each route is required to be pyramidal in a sense generalized from the Pyramidal Traveling Salesman Problem (PTSP). A pyramidal...

  4. The pyramidal capacitated vehicle routing problem

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lysgaard, Jens

    2010-01-01

    This paper introduces the pyramidal capacitated vehicle routing problem (PCVRP) as a restricted version of the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP). In the PCVRP each route is required to be pyramidal in a sense generalized from the pyramidal traveling salesman problem (PTSP). A pyramidal...

  5. Routed planar networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David J. Aldous

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Modeling a road network as a planar graph seems very natural. However, in studying continuum limits of such networks it is useful to take {\\em routes} rather than {\\em edges} as primitives. This article is intended to introduce the relevant (discrete setting notion of {\\em routed network} to graph theorists. We give a naive classification of all 71 topologically different such networks on 4 leaves, and pose a variety of challenging research questions.

  6. Road Routes for Waste Disposal - MDC_RecyclingRoute

    Data.gov (United States)

    NSGIC Local Govt | GIS Inventory — This CURBSIDE RECYCLING ROUTES BOUNDARIES LAYER IS A polygon feature class created for the Miami-Dade Department of Solid Waste Management (DSWM). It contains the...

  7. Porcelain tiles by the dry route

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Melchiades, F. G.; Daros, M. T.; Boschi, A. O.

    2010-01-01

    In Brazil, the second largest tile producer of the world, at present, 70% of the tiles are produced by the dry route. One of the main reasons that lead to this development is the fact that the dry route uses approximately 30% less thermal energy them the traditional wet route. The increasing world concern with the environment and the recognition of the central role played by the water also has pointed towards privileging dry processes. In this context the objective of the present work is to study the feasibility of producing high quality porcelain tiles by the dry route. A brief comparison of the dry and wet route, in standard conditions industrially used today to produce tiles that are not porcelain tiles, shows that there are two major differences: the particle sizes obtained by the wet route are usually considerably finer and the capability of mixing the different minerals, the intimacy of the mixture, is also usually better in the wet route. The present work studied the relative importance of these differences and looked for raw materials and operational conditions that would result in better performance and glazed porcelain tiles of good quality. (Author) 7 refs.

  8. VANET Routing Protocols: Pros and Cons

    OpenAIRE

    Paul, Bijan; Ibrahim, Md.; Bikas, Md. Abu Naser

    2012-01-01

    VANET (Vehicular Ad-hoc Network) is a new technology which has taken enormous attention in the recent years. Due to rapid topology changing and frequent disconnection makes it difficult to design an efficient routing protocol for routing data among vehicles, called V2V or vehicle to vehicle communication and vehicle to road side infrastructure, called V2I. The existing routing protocols for VANET are not efficient to meet every traffic scenarios. Thus design of an efficient routing protocol h...

  9. Effect of exposure routes on the relationships of lethal toxicity to rats from oral, intravenous, intraperitoneal and intramuscular routes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ning, Zhong H; Long, Shuang; Zhou, Yuan Y; Peng, Zi Y; Sun, Yi N; Chen, Si W; Su, Li M; Zhao, Yuan H

    2015-11-01

    The lethal toxicity values (log 1/LD(50)) of 527 aliphatic and aromatic compounds in oral, intravenous, intramuscular and intraperitoneal routes were used to investigate the relationships of log 1/LD(50) from different exposure routes. Regression analysis shows that the log 1/LD(50) values are well correlated between intravenous and intraperitoneal or intramuscular injections. However, the correlations between oral and intravenous or intraperitoneal routes are relatively poor. Comparison of the average residuals indicates that intravenous injection is the most sensitive exposure route and oral administration is the least sensitive exposure route. This is attributed to the difference in kinetic process of toxicity testing. The toxic effect of a chemical can be similar or significantly different between exposure routes, depending on the absorption rates of chemicals into blood. Inclusion of hydrophobic parameter and fractions of ionic forms can improve the correlations between intravenous and intraperitoneal or oral routes, but not between intraperitoneal and oral routes. This is due to the differences of absorption rate in different exposure environments from different routes. Several factors, such as experimental uncertainty, metabolism and toxic kinetics, can affect the correlations between intravenous and intraperitoneal or oral routes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Retail competition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1998-01-01

    Retail competition as the cornerstone of a competitive electricity marketplace was the subject of the seventh in the series of policy discussion papers developed at the Market Design Conference. Concern was expressed that because of the complexities involved in market design and technical implementation, the retail competition may lag behind other elements of the implementation of the new market design. A variety of key issues were debated, including the role of physical versus financial contracts, the form of retail competition and financial settlement systems in the short term, the requirement to separate 'competitive' (metering, billing, maintenance, consumer education) from non-competitive' (the transmission wires) services and the role of municipal electric utilities. It was agreed that the IMO should play an important role in defining and enforcing the separation of services, and that as a general rule, the development of policy in this area should be guided by the principle of maximizing the potential for competition

  11. Competitive intelligence as an enabler for firm competitiveness: An overview

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander Maune

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to provide an overview, from literature, about how competitive intelligence can be an enabler towards a firm’s competitiveness. This overview is done under the background of intense global competition that firms are currently experiencing. This paper used a qualitative content analysis as a data collection methodology on all identified journal articles on competitive intelligence and firm competitiveness. To identify relevant literature, academic databases and search engines were used. Moreover, a review of references in related studies led to more relevant sources, the references of which were further reviewed and analysed. To ensure reliability and trustworthiness, peer-reviewed journal articles and triangulation were used. The paper found that competitive intelligence is an important enabler of firm competitiveness. The findings from this paper will assist business managers to understand and improve their outlook of competitive intelligence as an enabler of firm competitiveness and will be of great academic value.

  12. Highway and interline transportation routing models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joy, D.S.; Johnson, P.E.

    1994-01-01

    The potential impacts associated with the transportation of hazardous materials are important issues to shippers, carriers, and the general public. Since transportation routes are a central characteristic in most of these issues, the prediction of likely routes is the first step toward the resolution of these issues. In addition, US Department of Transportation requirements (HM-164) mandate specific routes for shipments of highway controlled quantities of radioactive materials. In response to these needs, two routing models have been developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). These models have been designated by DOE's Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management, Transportation Management Division (DOE/EM) as the official DOE routing models. Both models, HIGHWAY and INTERLINE, are described

  13. Method and System for Dynamic Automated Corrections to Weather Avoidance Routes for Aircraft in En Route Airspace

    Science.gov (United States)

    McNally, B. David (Inventor); Erzberger, Heinz (Inventor); Sheth, Kapil (Inventor)

    2015-01-01

    A dynamic weather route system automatically analyzes routes for in-flight aircraft flying in convective weather regions and attempts to find more time and fuel efficient reroutes around current and predicted weather cells. The dynamic weather route system continuously analyzes all flights and provides reroute advisories that are dynamically updated in real time while the aircraft are in flight. The dynamic weather route system includes a graphical user interface that allows users to visualize, evaluate, modify if necessary, and implement proposed reroutes.

  14. Necessity and complexity of order picking routing optimisation based on pallet loading features

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bódis Tamás

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Order picking is the most labour-intensive and costly activity of warehouses. The main challenges of its improvement are the synchronisation of warehouse layout, storage assignment policy, routing, zoning, and batching. Furthermore, the competitiveness of the warehouse depends on how it adapts to the unique customer demands and product parameters and the changes. The operators usually have to manage the picking sequence based on best practices taking into consideration the product stacking factors and minimising the lead time. It is usually necessary to support the operators by making e ective decisions. Researchers of the pallet loading problem, bin packing problem, and order picking optimisation provide a wide horizon of solutions but their results are rarely synchronised.

  15. Pithy Review on Routing Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks and Least Routing Time Opportunistic Technique in WSN

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salman Arafath, Mohammed; Rahman Khan, Khaleel Ur; Sunitha, K. V. N.

    2018-01-01

    Nowadays due to most of the telecommunication standard development organizations focusing on using device-to-device communication so that they can provide proximity-based services and add-on services on top of the available cellular infrastructure. An Oppnets and wireless sensor network play a prominent role here. Routing in these networks plays a significant role in fields such as traffic management, packet delivery etc. Routing is a prodigious research area with diverse unresolved issues. This paper firstly focuses on the importance of Opportunistic routing and its concept then focus is shifted to prime aspect i.e. on packet reception ratio which is one of the highest QoS Awareness parameters. This paper discusses the two important functions of routing in wireless sensor networks (WSN) namely route selection using least routing time algorithm (LRTA) and data forwarding using clustering technique. Finally, the simulation result reveals that LRTA performs relatively better than the existing system in terms of average packet reception ratio and connectivity.

  16. Whirlpool routing for mobility

    KAUST Repository

    Lee, Jung Woo

    2010-01-01

    We present the Whirlpool Routing Protocol (WARP), which efficiently routes data to a node moving within a static mesh. The key insight in WARP\\'s design is that data traffic can use an existing routing gradient to efficiently probe the topology, repair the routing gradient, and communicate these repairs to nearby nodes. Using simulation, controlled testbeds, and real mobility experiments, we find that using the data plane for topology maintenance is highly effective due to the incremental nature of mobility updates. WARP leverages the fact that converging flows at a destination make the destination have the region of highest traffic. We provide a theoretical basis for WARP\\'s behavior, defining an "update area" in which the topology must adjust when a destination moves. As long as packets arrive at a destination before it moves outside of the update area, WARP can repair the topology using the data plane. Compared to existing protocols, such as DYMO and HYPER, WARP\\'s packet drop rate is up to 90% lower while sending up to 90% fewer packets.

  17. Research on Innovating, Applying Multiple Paths Routing Technique Based on Fuzzy Logic and Genetic Algorithm for Routing Messages in Service - Oriented Routing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nguyen Thanh Long

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available MANET (short for Mobile Ad-Hoc Network consists of a set of mobile network nodes, network configuration changes very fast. In content based routing, data is transferred from source node to request nodes is not based on destination addresses. Therefore, it is very flexible and reliable, because source node does not need to know destination nodes. If We can find multiple paths that satisfies bandwidth requirement, split the original message into multiple smaller messages to transmit concurrently on these paths. On destination nodes, combine separated messages into the original message. Hence it can utilize better network resources, causes data transfer rate to be higher, load balancing, failover. Service Oriented Routing is inherited from the model of content based routing (CBR, combined with several advanced techniques such as Multicast, multiple path routing, Genetic algorithm to increase the data rate, and data encryption to ensure information security. Fuzzy logic is a logical field study evaluating the accuracy of the results based on the approximation of the components involved, make decisions based on many factors relative accuracy based on experimental or mathematical proof. This article presents some techniques to support multiple path routing from one network node to a set of nodes with guaranteed quality of service. By using these techniques can decrease the network load, congestion, use network resources efficiently.

  18. Effects of competing environmental variables and signage on route-choices in simulated everyday and emergency wayfinding situations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vilar, Elisângela; Rebelo, Francisco; Noriega, Paulo; Duarte, Emília; Mayhorn, Christopher B

    2014-01-01

    This study examined the relative influence of environmental variables (corridor width and brightness) and signage (directional and exit signs), when presented in competition, on participants' route-choices in two situational variables (everyday vs. emergency), during indoor wayfinding in virtual environments. A virtual reality-based methodology was used. Thus, participants attempted to find a room (everyday situation) in a virtual hotel, followed by a fire-related emergency egress (emergency situation). Different behaviours were observed. In the everyday situation, for no-signs condition, participants choose mostly the wider and brighter corridors, suggesting a heavy reliance on the environmental affordances. Conversely, for signs condition, participants mostly complied with signage, suggesting a greater reliance on the signs rather than on the environmental cues. During emergency, without signage, reliance on environmental affordances seems to be affected by the intersection type. In the sign condition, the reliance on environmental affordances that started strong decreases along the egress route.

  19. Capacitated vehicle-routing problem model for scheduled solid waste collection and route optimization using PSO algorithm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hannan, M A; Akhtar, Mahmuda; Begum, R A; Basri, H; Hussain, A; Scavino, Edgar

    2018-01-01

    Waste collection widely depends on the route optimization problem that involves a large amount of expenditure in terms of capital, labor, and variable operational costs. Thus, the more waste collection route is optimized, the more reduction in different costs and environmental effect will be. This study proposes a modified particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm in a capacitated vehicle-routing problem (CVRP) model to determine the best waste collection and route optimization solutions. In this study, threshold waste level (TWL) and scheduling concepts are applied in the PSO-based CVRP model under different datasets. The obtained results from different datasets show that the proposed algorithmic CVRP model provides the best waste collection and route optimization in terms of travel distance, total waste, waste collection efficiency, and tightness at 70-75% of TWL. The obtained results for 1 week scheduling show that 70% of TWL performs better than all node consideration in terms of collected waste, distance, tightness, efficiency, fuel consumption, and cost. The proposed optimized model can serve as a valuable tool for waste collection and route optimization toward reducing socioeconomic and environmental impacts. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Children's route choice during active transportation to school: Difference between shortest and actual route

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dessing, D.; Vries, S.I. de; Hegeman, G.; Verhagen, E.; Mechelen, W. van; Pierik, F.H.

    2016-01-01

    Background: The purpose of this study is to increase our understanding of environmental correlates that are associated with route choice during active transportation to school (ATS) by comparing characteristics of actual walking and cycling routes between home and school with the shortest possible

  1. Development of a hybrid genetic algorithm based decision support system for vehicle routing and scheduling in supply chain logistics managment

    OpenAIRE

    Khanian, Seyed Mohammad Shafi

    2007-01-01

    Vehicle Routing and Scheduling (VRS) constitute an important part of logistics management. Given the fact that the worldwide cost on physical distribution is evermore increasing, the global competition and the complex nature of logistics problems, one area, which determines the efficiency of all others, is the VRS activities. The application of Decision Support Systems (DSS) to assist logistics management with an efficient VRS could be of great benefit. Although the benefits of DSS in VRS are...

  2. Route selection issues for NWPA shipments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hill, C.V.; Harrison, I.G.

    1993-01-01

    Questions surrounding the designation of routes for the movement of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) by the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) have broad implications. Federal regulations prescribe rules to be applied in the selection of highway routes. In most cases, these rules will lead to a clear selection of one route between an origin and destination point. However, in other cases, strict application of the regulations does not result in a clear choice of a preferred route. The regulations also provide discretion to State governments and carriers to select alternative routes to enhance the safety of the shipment. Railroad shipments of radioactive materials are not subject to Federal routing regulations. Since the railroads operate on private property, it has been assumed that they know the best way to move freight on their system. This discretion, while desirable for addressing unique local safety concerns or for responding to temporary safety concerns such as road problems, weather conditions, or construction areas, leads to significant opportunity for misunderstandings and uneasiness on the part of local residents

  3. Competitive Intelligence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bergeron, Pierrette; Hiller, Christine A.

    2002-01-01

    Reviews the evolution of competitive intelligence since 1994, including terminology and definitions and analytical techniques. Addresses the issue of ethics; explores how information technology supports the competitive intelligence process; and discusses education and training opportunities for competitive intelligence, including core competencies…

  4. Routing Protocols for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks: Taxonomy, Research Challenges, Routing Strategies and Future Directions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Anwar; Ali, Ihsan; Ghani, Abdullah; Khan, Nawsher; Alsaqer, Mohammed; Rahman, Atiq Ur; Mahmood, Hasan

    2018-05-18

    Recent research in underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) has gained the attention of researchers in academia and industry for a number of applications. They include disaster and earthquake prediction, water quality and environment monitoring, leakage and mine detection, military surveillance and underwater navigation. However, the aquatic medium is associated with a number of limitations and challenges: long multipath delay, high interference and noise, harsh environment, low bandwidth and limited battery life of the sensor nodes. These challenges demand research techniques and strategies to be overcome in an efficient and effective fashion. The design of routing protocols for UWSNs is one of the promising solutions to cope with these challenges. This paper presents a survey of the routing protocols for UWSNs. For the ease of description, the addressed routing protocols are classified into two groups: localization-based and localization-free protocols. These groups are further subdivided according to the problems they address or the major parameters they consider during routing. Unlike the existing surveys, this survey considers only the latest and state-of-the-art routing protocols. In addition, every protocol is described in terms of its routing strategy and the problem it addresses and solves. The merit(s) of each protocol is (are) highlighted along with the cost. A description of the protocols in this fashion has a number of advantages for researchers, as compared to the existing surveys. Firstly, the description of the routing strategy of each protocol makes its routing operation easily understandable. Secondly, the demerit(s) of a protocol provides (provide) insight into overcoming its flaw(s) in future investigation. This, in turn, leads to the foundation of new protocols that are more intelligent, robust and efficient with respect to the desired parameters. Thirdly, a protocol can be selected for the appropriate application based on its described

  5. Port Authority of Allegheny County Transit Routes

    Data.gov (United States)

    Allegheny County / City of Pittsburgh / Western PA Regional Data Center — Shapefile of Transit Routes - Please refer to each resource for active dates of the route information. Routes change over time,

  6. Healthy Competition and Unsound Comparison: Reforming Educational Competition in Singapore

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christensen, Søren

    2015-01-01

    It is frequently claimed that the "competition state" responds to external competition by making competition increasingly central to its internal processes as well. This article discusses education reform in Singapore as departing from the opposite position. In Singapore "excessive" competition in education is now targeted by…

  7. The QKD network: model and routing scheme

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Chao; Zhang, Hongqi; Su, Jinhai

    2017-11-01

    Quantum key distribution (QKD) technology can establish unconditional secure keys between two communicating parties. Although this technology has some inherent constraints, such as the distance and point-to-point mode limits, building a QKD network with multiple point-to-point QKD devices can overcome these constraints. Considering the development level of current technology, the trust relaying QKD network is the first choice to build a practical QKD network. However, the previous research didn't address a routing method on the trust relaying QKD network in detail. This paper focuses on the routing issues, builds a model of the trust relaying QKD network for easily analysing and understanding this network, and proposes a dynamical routing scheme for this network. From the viewpoint of designing a dynamical routing scheme in classical network, the proposed scheme consists of three components: a Hello protocol helping share the network topology information, a routing algorithm to select a set of suitable paths and establish the routing table and a link state update mechanism helping keep the routing table newly. Experiments and evaluation demonstrates the validity and effectiveness of the proposed routing scheme.

  8. Environmental factors along the Northern Sea Route

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fjeld, P.E.

    1993-01-01

    The Northern Sea Route runs ca 5,600 nautical miles across the top of Russia from Murmansk to Vladivostok, and includes half of the Arctic basin. An environmental impact assessment is needed for this route because of the potential for commercial shipping to disturb the vulnerable Arctic environment along the route. For example, Russian development of oil and gas resources in the area served by the route is expected to rise dramatically in the near future. Drilling in the route area offshore has already begun, and potential blowouts or tanker spills are of concern. A pilot study on the environment along this route was conducted in 1990/91, focusing on a study of the literature and communications with Russian scientists working on Arctic ecology. Existing data seem to be insufficient and generally only cover the westernmost and easternmost parts of the route. A five-year research plan is proposed to provide an inventory of Arctic species in the route area and levels of contaminants present, to assess the environmental sensitivity of the area, and analyze impacts that increased shipping might have on the environment. Protection measures will also be suggested. 1 fig

  9. CAN Tree Routing for Content-Addressable Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhongtao LI

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available We propose a novel topology to improve the routing performance of Content- Addressable Network overlays while minimizing the maintenance overhead during nodes churn. The key idea of our approach is to establish a P2P tree structure (CAN tree by means of equipping each node with a few long links towards some distant nodes. The long links enhance routing flexibility and robustness against failures. Nodes automatically adapt routing table to cope with network change. The routing complexity is O(log n, which is much better than a uniform greedy routing, while each node maintains two long links in average.

  10. Pheromone based alternative route planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liangbing Feng

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available In this work, we propose an improved alternative route calculation based on alternative figures, which is suitable for practical environments. The improvement is based on the fact that the main traffic route is the road network skeleton in a city. Our approach using nodes may generate a higher possibility of overlapping. We employ a bidirectional Dijkstra algorithm to search the route. To measure the quality of an Alternative Figures (AG, three quotas are proposed. The experiment results indicate that the improved algorithm proposed in this paper is more effective than others.

  11. Route planning algorithms: Planific@ Project

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gonzalo Martín Ortega

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Planific@ is a route planning project for the city of Madrid (Spain. Its main aim is to develop an intelligence system capable of routing people from one place in the city to any other using the public transport. In order to do this, it is necessary to take into account such things as: time, traffic, user preferences, etc. Before beginning to design the project is necessary to make a comprehensive study of the variety of main known route planning algorithms suitable to be used in this project.

  12. Vehicle routing problem in investment fund allocation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mamat, Nur Jumaadzan Zaleha; Jaaman, Saiful Hafizah; Ahmad, Rokiah Rozita; Mohd, Ismail

    2013-04-01

    Since its introduction by Dantzig and Ramser in 1959, vehicle routing problem keeps evolving in theories, applications and variability. The evolution in computing and technology are also important contributors to research in solving vehicle routing problem. The main sectors of interests among researchers and practitioners for vehicle routing problem are transportation, distribution and logistics. However, literature found that concept and benefits of vehicle routing problem are not taken advantages of by researchers in the field of investment. Other methods found used in investment include multi-objective programming, linear programming, goal programming and integer programming. Yet the application of vehicle routing problem is not fully explored. A proposal on a framework of the fund allocation optimization using vehicle routing problem is presented here. Preliminary results using FTSE Bursa Malaysia data testing the framework are also given.

  13. EDITORIAL: Physics competitions Physics competitions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jordens, H.; Mathelitsch, L.

    2010-07-01

    This editorial opens the second special section on physics competitions in European Journal of Physics. In the first section last year, we asked for feedback on the idea of such a section and on the content of the articles. We received no answer whatsoever, which can be interpreted in two ways: the section is not interesting enough to raise motivation for feedback, or the reader is satisfied. Having no indication which scenario is the correct one, we are optimistic and favour the second. The section at hand contains three articles. Again, as last year, the organizer of the annual Olympiad reports on tasks and outcomes of this competition. The Olympiad took place in Merida, Mexico, and was by far the largest event with 316 contestants from 68 countries. Again, the predominance of Asian/Chinese students was manifest, showing how serious the training is taken by both their authorities and students. Unfortunately, the winners of the last International Young Physicists' Tournament (IYPT), the team from Korea, did not accept the offer to report on their prize-winning contribution. We are thankful that two students from Austria, who achieved second place with their team, took over and reported on the task which they presented in the finals of the competition. It connects the fields of sport and physics and explains a special move in skateboarding. The third contribution introduces a different competition, 'International Conference of Young Scientists'. On one hand, as in the Olympiad, it addresses individuals, not teams. On the other, as in the IYPT, students have several months to prepare and also the quality of the presentation is an important element of the judgment. In fact, this competition comes closer to real scientific research compared to the other events. Finally and again, we hope that this section will serve several purposes: To show the competitions as a very important tool in the support of gifted students. To raise awareness amongst university teachers, and

  14. Power market competition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kelly, J.

    1998-01-01

    In the Unites States the prospect of greater competition in wholesale power market was immediately eclipsed by talk of retail competition. Attempts to move to retail competition have been costly and complex. Prudent public policy and economic analyses suggest that retail competition not be implemented until it can first be demonstrated that effective competition exists in wholesale power markets [it

  15. Lunabotics Mining Competition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mueller, Rob; Murphy, Gloria

    2010-01-01

    This slide presentation describes a competition to design a lunar robot (lunabot) that can be controlled either remotely or autonomously, isolated from the operator, and is designed to mine a lunar aggregate simulant. The competition is part of a systems engineering curriculum. The 2010 competition winners in five areas of the competition were acknowledged, and the 2011 competition was announced.

  16. Comparison of routing metrics for wireless mesh networks

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Nxumalo, SL

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available in each and every relay node so as to find the next hop for the packet. A routing metric is simply a measure used for selecting the best path, used by a routing protocol. Figure 2 shows the relationship between a routing protocol and the routing... on its QoS-awareness level. The routing metrics that considered QoS the most were selected from each group. This section discusses the four routing metrics that were compared in this paper, which are: hop count (HOP), expected transmission count (ETX...

  17. Aircraft route forecasting under adverse weather conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas Hauf

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available In this paper storm nowcasts in the terminal manoeuvring area (TMA of Hong Kong International Airport are used to forecast deviation routes through a field of storms for arriving and departing aircraft. Storms were observed and nowcast by the nowcast system SWIRLS from the Hong Kong Observatory. Storms were considered as no-go zones for aircraft and deviation routes were determined with the DIVSIM software package. Two days (21 and 22 May 2011 with 22 actual flown routes were investigated. Flights were simulated with a nowcast issued at the time an aircraft entered the TMA or departed from the airport. These flights were compared with a posteriori simulations, in which all storm fields were known and circumnavigated. Both types of simulated routes were then compared with the actual flown routes. The qualitative comparison of the various routes revealed generally good agreement. Larger differences were found in more complex situations with many active storms in the TMA. Route differences resulted primarily from air traffic control measures imposed such as holdings, slow-downs and shortcuts, causing the largest differences between the estimated and actual landing time. Route differences could be enhanced as aircraft might be forced to circumnavigate a storm ahead in a different sense. The use of route forecasts to assist controllers coordinating flights in a complex moving storm field is discussed. The study emphasises the important application of storm nowcasts in aviation meteorology.

  18. The Silk Route from Land to Sea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jack Weatherford

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The Silk Route reached its historic and economic apogee under the Mongol Empire (1207–1368, as a direct result of the policies of Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan and his successors. Because the land network proved inefficient for the amount of goods needing transport from one part of the empire to another, the Mongols expanded the Silk Route to ocean shipping and thus created the first Maritime Silk Route. The sea traffic initially expanded the land routes but soon strangled them. With the expansion of the Maritime Silk Route through the fourteenth century, the land connections reverted to local networks and lost their global importance.

  19. Fatigue mitigation effects of en-route napping on commercial airline pilots flying international routes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baldwin, Jarret Taylor

    The introduction of ultra-long range commercial aircraft and the evolution of the commercial airline industry has provided new opportunities for air carriers to fly longer range international route segments while deregulation, industry consolidation, and the constant drive to reduce costs wherever possible has pressured airline managements to seek more productivity from their pilots. At the same time, advancements in the understanding of human physiology have begun to make their way into flight and duty time regulations and airline scheduling practices. In this complex and ever changing operating environment, there remains an essential need to better understand how these developments, and other daily realities facing commercial airline pilots, are affecting their fatigue management strategies as they go about their rituals of getting to and from their homes to work and performing their flight assignments. Indeed, the need for commercial airline pilots to have access to better and more effective fatigue mitigation tools to combat fatigue and insure that they are well rested and at the top of their game when flying long-range international route segments has never been greater. This study examined to what extent the maximum fatigue states prior to napping, as self-accessed by commercial airline pilots flying international route segments, were affected by a number of other common flight assignment related factors. The study also examined to what extent the availability of scheduled en-route rest opportunities, in an onboard crew rest facility, affected the usage of en-route napping as a fatigue mitigation strategy, and to what extent the duration of such naps affected the perceived benefits of such naps as self-accessed by commercial airline pilots flying international route segments. The study utilized an online survey tool to collect data on crew position, prior flight segments flown in the same duty period, augmentation, commuting, pre-flight rest obtained in the

  20. An improved synthesis of a fluorophosphonate–polyethylene glycol–biotin probe and its use against competitive substrates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amidon, Gordon L

    2013-01-01

    Summary The fluorophosphonate (FP) moiety attached to a biotin tag is a prototype chemical probe used to quantitatively analyze and enrich active serine hydrolases in complex proteomes in an approach called activity-based protein profiling (ABPP). In this study we have designed a novel synthetic route to a known FP probe linked by polyethylene glycol to a biotin tag (FP–PEG–biotin). Our route markedly increases the efficiency of the probe synthesis and overcomes several problems of a prior synthesis. As a proof of principle, FP–PEG–biotin was evaluated against isolated protein mixtures and different rat-tissue homogenates, showing its ability to specifically target serine hydrolases. We also assessed the ability of FP–PEG–biotin to compete with substrates that have high enzyme turnover rates. The reduced protein-band intensities resulting in these competition studies demonstrate a new application of FP-based probes seldom explored before. PMID:23400700

  1. An improved synthesis of a fluorophosphonate–polyethylene glycol–biotin probe and its use against competitive substrates

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hao Xu

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The fluorophosphonate (FP moiety attached to a biotin tag is a prototype chemical probe used to quantitatively analyze and enrich active serine hydrolases in complex proteomes in an approach called activity-based protein profiling (ABPP. In this study we have designed a novel synthetic route to a known FP probe linked by polyethylene glycol to a biotin tag (FP–PEG–biotin. Our route markedly increases the efficiency of the probe synthesis and overcomes several problems of a prior synthesis. As a proof of principle, FP–PEG–biotin was evaluated against isolated protein mixtures and different rat-tissue homogenates, showing its ability to specifically target serine hydrolases. We also assessed the ability of FP–PEG–biotin to compete with substrates that have high enzyme turnover rates. The reduced protein-band intensities resulting in these competition studies demonstrate a new application of FP-based probes seldom explored before.

  2. Perception bias in route choice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vreeswijk, Jacob Dirk; Thomas, Tom; van Berkum, Eric C.; van Arem, Bart

    2014-01-01

    Travel time is probably one of the most studied attributes in route choice. Recently, perception of travel time received more attention as several studies have shown its importance in explaining route choice behavior. In particular, travel time estimates by travelers appear to be biased against

  3. Competition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bridoux, F.; Vodosek, M.; Den Hartog, D.N.; McNett, J.M.

    2014-01-01

    Competition traditionally refers to the actions that firms take in a product market to outperform rivals in attracting customers and generating revenues. Yet, competition extends beyond product markets to other arenas such as factor markets, where firms compete for resources, and the political

  4. User habits and multimodal route planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Géza Katona

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available The results of route planning researches are monitored by logistic and automotive industries. The economic aspects of the cost saving are in the focus of the attention. An optimal route could cause time or fuel savings. An effective driving or an optimal route is a good basis to achieve an economical aim. Moreover the spread of new automotive solutions especially in case of electric cars the optimisation has particular significance regarding the limited battery storage. Additionally the autonomous car development could not be neglected. As a result the society could expect safer roads, better space usage and effective resource management. Nevertheless the requirements of users are extremely diverse, which is not negligible. Supporting these aims, in this paper the connection between the multimodal route planning and the user requirements are investigated. The examination is focused to a sensitivity analysis and a survey to evaluate the data and support the settings of a user habit effect to the final route.

  5. Routing Data Authentication in Wireless Networks; TOPICAL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    TORGERSON, MARK D.; VAN LEEUWEN, BRIAN P.

    2001-01-01

    In this paper, we discuss several specific threats directed at the routing data of an ad hoc network. We address security issues that arise from wrapping authentication mechanisms around ad hoc routing data. We show that this bolt-on approach to security may make certain attacks more difficult, but still leaves the network routing data vulnerable. We also show that under a certain adversarial model, most existing routing protocols cannot be secured with the aid of digital signatures

  6. Competition in Japan

    OpenAIRE

    Michael E. Porter; Mariko Sakakibara

    2004-01-01

    This article examines competition in Japan and its link to postwar economic prosperity. While Japan's industrial structure and competition policy seem to indicate that competition in Japan has been less intense, the empirical evidence does not support this conclusion. The sectors in which competition was restricted prove to be those where Japan was not internationally successful. In the internationally successful sectors, internal competition in Japan was invariably fierce. While the level of...

  7. Competitive bidding in Medicare: who benefits from competition?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Zirui; Landrum, Mary Beth; Chernew, Michael E

    2012-09-01

    To conduct the first empirical study of competitive bidding in Medicare. We analyzed 2006-2010 Medicare Advantage data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services using longitudinal models adjusted for market and plan characteristics. A $1 increase in Medicare's payment to health maintenance organization (HMO) plans led to a $0.49 (P service plans included, higher Medicare payments increased bids less ($0.33 per dollar), suggesting more competition among these latter plans. As a market-based alternative to cost control through administrative pricing, competitive bidding relies on private insurance plans proposing prices they are willing to accept for insuring a beneficiary. However, competition is imperfect in the Medicare bidding market. As much as half of every dollar in increased plan payment went to higher bids rather than to beneficiaries. While having more insurers in a market lowered bids, the design of any bidding system for Medicare should recognize this shortcoming of competition.

  8. Competitive Priorities and Competitive Advantage in Jordanian Manufacturing

    OpenAIRE

    Awwad, Abdulkareem S.; Al Khattab, Adel A.; Anchor, J.R

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this research was to explore and predict the relationship between the competitive priorities (quality, cost, flexibility and delivery) and the competitive advantage of firms in the Jordanian Industrial Sector. A population of 88 Jordanian manufacturing firms, registered on the Amman Stock Exchange, was targeted using a cross-sectional survey employing a questionnaire method of data collection. The results of the data analysis indicate a significant relationship between competit...

  9. The Time Window Vehicle Routing Problem Considering Closed Route

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irsa Syahputri, Nenna; Mawengkang, Herman

    2017-12-01

    The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) determines the optimal set of routes used by a fleet of vehicles to serve a given set of customers on a predefined graph; the objective is to minimize the total travel cost (related to the travel times or distances) and operational cost (related to the number of vehicles used). In this paper we study a variant of the predefined graph: given a weighted graph G and vertices a and b, and given a set X of closed paths in G, find the minimum total travel cost of a-b path P such that no path in X is a subpath of P. Path P is allowed to repeat vertices and edges. We use integer programming model to describe the problem. A feasible neighbourhood approach is proposed to solve the model

  10. The Literature Review of a New Form of Competitiveness Called City Competitiveness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Osman EROĞLU

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available With globalization, the rapid development of information technologies and the rapid changes in the economic structure, the country’s borders at a time increasingly depreciate and the importance of city competitiveness reveals. Although it is an ongoing debate around the world whether cities compete with each other, city competitiveness is a new form of competitiveness. Cities compete with each other to increase their competitiveness. City competitiveness is defined as having better values compared to other cities. In this study, a new form of competitiveness called city competitiveness is examined.

  11. A Machine Learning Concept for DTN Routing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dudukovich, Rachel; Hylton, Alan; Papachristou, Christos

    2017-01-01

    This paper discusses the concept and architecture of a machine learning based router for delay tolerant space networks. The techniques of reinforcement learning and Bayesian learning are used to supplement the routing decisions of the popular Contact Graph Routing algorithm. An introduction to the concepts of Contact Graph Routing, Q-routing and Naive Bayes classification are given. The development of an architecture for a cross-layer feedback framework for DTN (Delay-Tolerant Networking) protocols is discussed. Finally, initial simulation setup and results are given.

  12. Productive and Unproductive Competition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Guerra, Alice; Luppi, Barbara; Parisi, Francesco

    Conventional theories of competition classify contests as being either “productive,” when the competitive efforts generate a surplus for society, or “unproductive,” when competition generates no social surplus and merely distributes already existing resources. These two discrete categories of com...... and socially optimal levels of competition in the full range of intermediate cases, as well as in the extremum cases of destructive and super-productive competition.......Conventional theories of competition classify contests as being either “productive,” when the competitive efforts generate a surplus for society, or “unproductive,” when competition generates no social surplus and merely distributes already existing resources. These two discrete categories...... of competition create a division of real-world situations into analytical categories that fails to recognize the entire spectrum of competitive activities. Taking the existing models of productive and unproductive competition as benchmark idealizations, this paper explores the relationship between the privately...

  13. Mixing, entropy and competition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Klimenko, A Y

    2012-01-01

    Non-traditional thermodynamics, applied to random behaviour associated with turbulence, mixing and competition, is reviewed and analysed. Competitive mixing represents a general framework for the study of generic properties of competitive systems and can be used to model a wide class of non-equilibrium phenomena ranging from turbulent premixed flames and invasion waves to complex competitive systems. We demonstrate consistency of the general principles of competition with thermodynamic description, review and analyse the related entropy concepts and introduce the corresponding competitive H-theorem. A competitive system can be characterized by a thermodynamic quantity—competitive potential—which determines the likely direction of evolution of the system. Contested resources tend to move between systems from lower to higher values of the competitive potential. There is, however, an important difference between conventional thermodynamics and competitive thermodynamics. While conventional thermodynamics is constrained by its zeroth law and is fundamentally transitive, the transitivity of competitive thermodynamics depends on the transitivity of the competition rules. Intransitivities are common in the real world and are responsible for complex behaviour in competitive systems. This work follows ideas and methods that have originated from the analysis of turbulent combustion, but reviews a much broader scope of issues linked to mixing and competition, including thermodynamic characterization of complex competitive systems with self-organization. The approach presented here is interdisciplinary and is addressed to the general educated readers, whereas the mathematical details can be found in the appendices. (comment)

  14. The Impact of European Traffic Policy and Traffic Routes on the Development of the Ports of Rijeka and Place

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Čedomir Ivaković

    2006-03-01

    Full Text Available Sea ports are the key segment of the traffic and economicdevelopment of maritime countries. Pan-European transportcorridors include the most important sea pmts and sea routes.They are an extension of the existing land corridors.The most important and the most promising crossings oftraffic corridors between the Central European, Pannonianand Adriatic areas, with the naturally shortest traffic routes directedtowards the Croatian sea ports are Corridor 58 ( Rijeka-Zagreb-Budapest and Corridor 5c (Ploce-Sarajevo-Osijek--Budapest. The primary purpose of this work is to study the importanceof the existing trading conditions and new investmentundertakings in the context of increase in competitiveness of theports of Rijeka and Place.The authors' attention is particularly directed to the constructionof new port terminals to increase the traffic potentialsof the Croatian sea ports. The formed conception with its characteristics,the methodology applied, and research results representthe quality starting points in determining a uniform portpolicy of the Republic of Croatia within the European trafficsystem.

  15. Warehouse order-picking process. Order-picker routing problem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. V. Korobkov

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This article continues “Warehouse order-picking process” cycle and describes order-picker routing sub-problem of a warehouse order-picking process. It draws analogies between the orderpickers’ routing problem and traveling salesman’s problem, shows differences between the standard problem statement of a traveling salesman and routing problem of warehouse orderpickers, and gives the particular Steiner’s problem statement of a traveling salesman.Warehouse layout with a typical order is represented by a graph, with some its vertices corresponding to mandatory order-picker’s visits and some other ones being noncompulsory. The paper describes an optimal Ratliff-Rosenthal algorithm to solve order-picker’s routing problem for the single-block warehouses, i.e. warehouses with only two crossing aisles, defines seven equivalent classes of partial routing sub-graphs and five transitions used to have an optimal routing sub-graph of a order-picker. An extension of optimal Ratliff-Rosenthal order-picker routing algorithm for multi-block warehouses is presented and also reasons for using the routing heuristics instead of exact optimal algorithms are given. The paper offers algorithmic description of the following seven routing heuristics: S-shaped, return, midpoint, largest gap, aisle-by-aisle, composite, and combined as well as modification of combined heuristics. The comparison of orderpicker routing heuristics for one- and two-block warehouses is to be described in the next article of the “Warehouse order-picking process” cycle.

  16. Routing algorithms in networks-on-chip

    CERN Document Server

    Daneshtalab, Masoud

    2014-01-01

    This book provides a single-source reference to routing algorithms for Networks-on-Chip (NoCs), as well as in-depth discussions of advanced solutions applied to current and next generation, many core NoC-based Systems-on-Chip (SoCs). After a basic introduction to the NoC design paradigm and architectures, routing algorithms for NoC architectures are presented and discussed at all abstraction levels, from the algorithmic level to actual implementation.  Coverage emphasizes the role played by the routing algorithm and is organized around key problems affecting current and next generation, many-core SoCs. A selection of routing algorithms is included, specifically designed to address key issues faced by designers in the ultra-deep sub-micron (UDSM) era, including performance improvement, power, energy, and thermal issues, fault tolerance and reliability.   ·         Provides a comprehensive overview of routing algorithms for Networks-on-Chip and NoC-based, manycore systems; ·         Describe...

  17. Stochastic vehicle routing with recourse

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gørtz, Inge Li; Nagarajan, Viswanath; Saket, Rishi

    2012-01-01

    instantiations, a recourse route is computed - but costs here become more expensive by a factor λ. We present an O(log2n ·log(nλ))-approximation algorithm for this stochastic routing problem, under arbitrary distributions. The main idea in this result is relating StochVRP to a special case of submodular...

  18. Integer Optimization Model for a Logistic System based on Location-Routing Considering Distance and Chosen Route

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mulyasari, Joni; Mawengkang, Herman; Efendi, Syahril

    2018-02-01

    In a distribution network it is important to decide the locations of facilities that impacts not only the profitability of an organization but the ability to serve customers.Generally the location-routing problem is to minimize the overall cost by simultaneously selecting a subset of candidate facilities and constructing a set of delivery routes that satisfy some restrictions. In this paper we impose restriction on the route that should be passed for delivery. We use integer programming model to describe the problem. A feasible neighbourhood search is proposed to solve the result model.

  19. Identification of Robust Terminal-Area Routes in Convective Weather

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pfeil, Diana Michalek; Balakrishnan, Hamsa

    2012-01-01

    Convective weather is responsible for large delays and widespread disruptions in the U.S. National Airspace System, especially during summer. Traffic flow management algorithms require reliable forecasts of route blockage to schedule and route traffic. This paper demonstrates how raw convective weather forecasts, which provide deterministic predictions of the vertically integrated liquid (the precipitation content in a column of airspace) can be translated into probabilistic forecasts of whether or not a terminal area route will be blocked. Given a flight route through the terminal area, we apply techniques from machine learning to determine the likelihood that the route will be open in actual weather. The likelihood is then used to optimize terminalarea operations by dynamically moving arrival and departure routes to maximize the expected capacity of the terminal area. Experiments using real weather scenarios on stormy days show that our algorithms recommend that a terminal-area route be modified 30% of the time, opening up 13% more available routes that were forecast to be blocked during these scenarios. The error rate is low, with only 5% of cases corresponding to a modified route being blocked in reality, whereas the original route is in fact open. In addition, for routes predicted to be open with probability 0.95 or greater by our method, 96% of these routes (on average over time horizon) are indeed open in the weather that materializes

  20. Dancing in the Dark: Competition over the "Meaning of Competition"

    OpenAIRE

    Metcalfe John Stanley

    2009-01-01

    Competing concepts of competition provide a sharp divide between theories of economic order and theories of economic transformation. The shift from competition as a state of affairs and competition as a creative process provides the divergence of perspective that is the topic of this paper. We link the Smith Marshall approach of rivalry and open competition to the more modern evolutionary view based on variation cum selection perspectives on innovation and the adaptive role of market processe...

  1. Competitive intelligence: An instrument to enhance South Africa’s competitiveness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wilma Viviers

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The case for Competitive Intelligence (CI as an instrument that can enhance the competitiveness of South African companies and South Africa as a country is strong. Various global competitive rankings measurements have indicated over a number of years the areas in which competitiveness is lacking. Moreover, these rankings have indicated that South Africa has failed to improve its position year on year. The fact that the world is becoming increasingly competitive for South African entities is undisputed. Coupled with a fluctuating exchange rate and the country’s geographical proximity, this poses unique challenges facing South African managers who have to deal with various regulations and legislative matters. In order to create and sustain an effective knowledge economy and to enhance global competitiveness, South Africa however has to put appropriate strategies/measures in place to stimulate, encourage and grow knowledge practices. Competitive Intelligence (CI as a means of making more sense of the competitive business environment and to identify opportunities and risks in time to act upon can be effectively used as a means to enhance competitiveness. Valuable lessons from successful CI practices in the business sector and government can be learnt from elsewhere in the world. CI should be investigated and adapted for South Africa’s business environment. It is therefore the aim of this article to first attempt to describe the role of CI in enhancing competitiveness, specifically in South Africa and secondly, to stimulate thought on how to secure momentum in enhancing CI as an academic field by developing relevant CI courses as well as demonstrating the value of CI to companies in South Africa through research and collaboration between academics and the private and public sectors.

  2. COMPETITIVENESS THROUGH INFORMATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raluca Daniela RIZEA

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Intelligence competitiveness has already started to build its road in the company’s long term strategies. Nonetheless, business executives continue to look for ways to apply information technology strategically to their businesses. Using information managers manage to communicate, to convey their knowledge about markets, competitors, products, services and operations. Even if data and information are all over there are few amounts of managers that realize the importance of them to the success of the business. This article will review competitive forces and competitive information systems strategies for gaining competitive advantages, explain concepts of value chain, value co-opetition (competition and cooperation, and discuss innovation strategy. Co-opetition is a strategy whereby companies cooperate and compete at the same time with their competitors, complementors (i.e. hardware and software businesses, customers, suppliers. The article discuss an important dimension of information system, identifies competitive advantages and enhancing competitive strategies thought information systems.

  3. Beyond convergence: Poland and Turkey en route to high income

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martin Raiser

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper compares and contrasts the policy reform experiences of Poland and Turkey en route to high income. For both countries, globalization has presented unprecedented opportunities to catch up, unleased by integration into European and global markets and the establishment of macroeconomic discipline. These opportunities were reinforced by the creation of economic institutions to strengthen competition and support private entrepreneurship, catalyzed by the convergence process with the European Union. Both Poland and Turkey have shown resilience following the 2008 global crisis, but continued success will require renewed structural reform measures. Dealing with the challenging of aging while at the same time finding a way to sustain productivity growth through greater domestic innovation is shaping Poland’s policy agenda. Turkey's structural and demographic potential as well as its strategic location between the markets of Europe and Asia offers attractive value proposition to investors, which could be further enhanced with improvements in business regulations and economic governance.

  4. Route Generation for a Synthetic Character (BOT) Using a Partial or Incomplete Knowledge Route Generation Algorithm in UT2004 Virtual Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanold, Gregg T.; Hanold, David T.

    2010-01-01

    This paper presents a new Route Generation Algorithm that accurately and realistically represents human route planning and navigation for Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT). The accuracy of this algorithm in representing human behavior is measured using the Unreal Tournament(Trademark) 2004 (UT2004) Game Engine to provide the simulation environment in which the differences between the routes taken by the human player and those of a Synthetic Agent (BOT) executing the A-star algorithm and the new Route Generation Algorithm can be compared. The new Route Generation Algorithm computes the BOT route based on partial or incomplete knowledge received from the UT2004 game engine during game play. To allow BOT navigation to occur continuously throughout the game play with incomplete knowledge of the terrain, a spatial network model of the UT2004 MOUT terrain is captured and stored in an Oracle 11 9 Spatial Data Object (SOO). The SOO allows a partial data query to be executed to generate continuous route updates based on the terrain knowledge, and stored dynamic BOT, Player and environmental parameters returned by the query. The partial data query permits the dynamic adjustment of the planned routes by the Route Generation Algorithm based on the current state of the environment during a simulation. The dynamic nature of this algorithm more accurately allows the BOT to mimic the routes taken by the human executing under the same conditions thereby improving the realism of the BOT in a MOUT simulation environment.

  5. Putting competition into perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, L. III.

    1993-01-01

    This paper examines the current level of competition in the electric industry in the context of the history of the industry and the development of electric markets in other counties. The topics of the paper include competition in the history of the American electric industry, the current state of competition, the competitive situation in Texas, competition in other electric markets, and competitive changes in the US market

  6. Great Ellipse Route Planning Based on Space Vector

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    LIU Wenchao

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Aiming at the problem of navigation error caused by unified earth model in great circle route planning using sphere model and modern navigation equipment using ellipsoid mode, a method of great ellipse route planning based on space vector is studied. By using space vector algebra method, the vertex of great ellipse is solved directly, and description of great ellipse based on major-axis vector and minor-axis vector is presented. Then calculation formulas of great ellipse azimuth and distance are deduced using two basic vectors. Finally, algorithms of great ellipse route planning are studied, especially equal distance route planning algorithm based on Newton-Raphson(N-R method. Comparative examples show that the difference of route planning between great circle and great ellipse is significant, using algorithms of great ellipse route planning can eliminate the navigation error caused by the great circle route planning, and effectively improve the accuracy of navigation calculation.

  7. Is Entrepreneurship a Route Out of Deprivation?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Frankish, Julian S.; Roberts, Richard G.; Coad, Alexander Jean-Luc

    2014-01-01

    Frankish J. S., Roberts R. G., Coad A. and Storey D. J. Is entrepreneurship a route out of deprivation?, Regional Studies. This paper investigates whether entrepreneurship constitutes a route out of deprivation for those living in deprived areas. The measure of income/wealth used is based...... the wealth distribution. Hence, entrepreneurship can be a route out of deprivation....

  8. Enhanced Contact Graph Routing (ECGR) MACHETE Simulation Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Segui, John S.; Jennings, Esther H.; Clare, Loren P.

    2013-01-01

    Contact Graph Routing (CGR) for Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) space-based networks makes use of the predictable nature of node contacts to make real-time routing decisions given unpredictable traffic patterns. The contact graph will have been disseminated to all nodes before the start of route computation. CGR was designed for space-based networking environments where future contact plans are known or are independently computable (e.g., using known orbital dynamics). For each data item (known as a bundle in DTN), a node independently performs route selection by examining possible paths to the destination. Route computation could conceivably run thousands of times a second, so computational load is important. This work refers to the simulation software model of Enhanced Contact Graph Routing (ECGR) for DTN Bundle Protocol in JPL's MACHETE simulation tool. The simulation model was used for performance analysis of CGR and led to several performance enhancements. The simulation model was used to demonstrate the improvements of ECGR over CGR as well as other routing methods in space network scenarios. ECGR moved to using earliest arrival time because it is a global monotonically increasing metric that guarantees the safety properties needed for the solution's correctness since route re-computation occurs at each node to accommodate unpredicted changes (e.g., traffic pattern, link quality). Furthermore, using earliest arrival time enabled the use of the standard Dijkstra algorithm for path selection. The Dijkstra algorithm for path selection has a well-known inexpensive computational cost. These enhancements have been integrated into the open source CGR implementation. The ECGR model is also useful for route metric experimentation and comparisons with other DTN routing protocols particularly when combined with MACHETE's space networking models and Delay Tolerant Link State Routing (DTLSR) model.

  9. Multinationals and Institutional Competitiveness

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hull Kristensen, Peer; Morgan, Glenn

    This article discusses how institutional competitiveness and multinationals are mutually enriching concepts. Seen from the perspective of Multinationals, institutional competitiveness becomes expressed at two levels. At the level of corporate HQs institutional competitiveness proves itself...... competitiveness of Liberal Market Economies and Coordinated Markets Economies under the current competitive regime....

  10. Optimizing well intervention routes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Paiva, Ronaldo O. [PETROBRAS S.A., Vitoria, ES (Brazil); Schiozer, Denis J.; Bordalo, Sergio N. [Universidade Estadual de Campinas, SP (Brazil). Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica. Centro de Estudo do Petroleo (CEPETRO)]. E-mail: denis@dep.fem.unicamp.br; bordalo@dep.fem.unicamp.br

    2000-07-01

    This work presents a method for optimizing the itinerary of work over rigs, i.e., the search for the route of minimum total cost, and demonstrates the importance of the dynamics of reservoir behaviour. The total cost of a route includes the rig expenses (transport, assembly and operation), which are functions of time and distances, plus the losses of revenue in wells waiting for the rig, which are also dependent of time. A reservoir simulator is used to evaluate the monetary influence of the well shutdown on the present value of the production curve. Finally, search algorithms are employed to determine the route of minimal cost. The Simulated Annealing algorithm was also successful in optimizing the distribution of a list of wells among different work over rigs. The rational approach presented here is recommended for management teams as a standard procedure to define the priority of wells scheduled for work over. (author)

  11. Energy-Aware Routing Protocol for Ad Hoc Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mann Raminder P

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Wireless ad hoc sensor networks differ from wireless ad hoc networks from the following perspectives: low energy, lightweight routing protocols, and adaptive communication patterns. This paper proposes an energy-aware routing protocol (EARP suitable for ad hoc wireless sensor networks and presents an analysis for its energy consumption in various phases of route discovery and maintenance. Based on the energy consumption associated with route request processing, EARP advocates the minimization of route requests by allocating dynamic route expiry times. This paper introduces a unique mechanism for estimation of route expiry time based on the probability of route validity, which is a function of time, number of hops, and mobility parameters. In contrast to AODV, EARP reduces the repeated flooding of route requests by maintaining valid routes for longer durations.

  12. A study of routing algorithms for SCI-Based multistage networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Bin; Kristiansen, E.; Skaali, B.; Bogaerts, A.; )

    1994-03-01

    The report deals with a particular class of multistage Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI) network systems and two important routing algorithms, namely self-routing and table-look up routing. The effect of routing delay on system performance is investigated by simulations. Adaptive routing and deadlock-free routing are studied. 8 refs., 11 figs., 1 tab

  13. Towards seasonal Arctic shipping route predictions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haines, K.; Melia, N.; Hawkins, E.; Day, J. J.

    2017-12-01

    In our previous work [1] we showed how trans-Arctic shipping routes would become more available through the 21st century as sea ice declines, using CMIP5 models with means and stds calibrated to PIOMAS sea ice observations. Sea ice will continue to close shipping routes to open water vessels through the winter months for the foreseeable future so the availability of open sea routes will vary greatly from year to year. Here [2] we look at whether the trans-Arctic shipping season period can be predicted in seasonal forecasts, again using several climate models, and testing both perfect and imperfect knowledge of the initial sea ice conditions. We find skilful predictions of the upcoming summer shipping season can be made from as early as January, although typically forecasts may show lower skill before a May `predictability barrier'. Focussing on the northern sea route (NSR) off Siberia, the date of opening of this sea route is twice as variable as the closing date, and this carries through to reduced predictability at the start of the season. Under climate change the later freeze-up date accounts for 60% of the lengthening season, Fig1 We find that predictive skill is state dependent with predictions for high or low ice years exhibiting greater skill than for average ice years. Forecasting the exact timing of route open periods is harder (more weather dependent) under average ice conditions while in high and low ice years the season is more controlled by the initial ice conditions from spring onwards. This could be very useful information for companies planning vessel routing for the coming season. We tested this dependence on the initial ice conditions by changing the initial ice state towards climatologically average conditions and show directly that early summer sea-ice thickness information is crucial to obtain skilful forecasts of the coming shipping season. Mechanisms for this are discussed. This strongly suggests that good sea ice thickness observations

  14. Perancangan dan Analisis Redistribution Routing Protocol OSPF dan EIGRP

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    DWI ARYANTA

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstrak OSPF (Open Shortest Path First dan EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol adalah dua routing protokol yang banyak digunakan dalam jaringan komputer. Perbedaan karakteristik antar routing protokol menimbulkan masalah dalam pengiriman paket data. Teknik redistribution adalah solusi untuk melakukan komunikasi antar routing protokol. Dengan menggunakan software Cisco Packet Tracer 5.3 pada penelitian ini dibuat simulasi OSPF dan EIGRP yang dihubungkan oleh teknik redistribution, kemudian dibandingkan kualitasnya dengan single routing protokol EIGRP dan OSPF. Parameter pengujian dalam penelitian ini adalah nilai time delay dan trace route. Nilai trace route berdasarkan perhitungan langsung cost dan metric dibandingkan dengan hasil simulasi. Hasilnya dapat dilakukan proses redistribution OSPF dan EIGRP. Nilai delay redistribution lebih baik 1% dibanding OSPF dan 2-3% di bawah EIGRP tergantung kepadatan traffic. Dalam perhitungan trace route redistribution dilakukan 2 perhitungan, yaitu cost untuk area OSPF dan metric pada area EIGRP. Pengambilan jalur utama dan alternatif pengiriman paket berdasarkan nilai cost dan metric yang terkecil, hal ini terbukti berdasarkan perhitungan dan simulasi. Kata kunci: OSPF, EIGRP, Redistribution, Delay, Cost, Metric. Abstract OSPF (Open Shortest Path First and EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol are two routing protocols are widely used in computer networks. Differences between the characteristics of routing protocols pose a problem in the delivery of data packets. Redistribution technique is the solution for communication between routing protocols. By using the software Cisco Packet Tracer 5.3 in this study were made simulating OSPF and EIGRP redistribution linked by technique, then compared its quality with a single EIGRP and OSPF routing protocols. Testing parameters in this study is the value of the time delay and trace route. Value trace route based on direct calculation of cost

  15. Lessons learned by southern states in designating alternative routes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-08-01

    The purpose of this report is to discuss the ''lessons learned'' by the five states within the southem region that have designated alternative or preferred routes under the regulations of the Department of Transportation (DOT) established for the transportation of radioactive materials. The document was prepared by reviewing applicable federal laws and regulations, examining state reports and documents and contacting state officials and routing agencies involved in making routing decisions. In undertaking this project, the Southern States Energy Board hopes to reveal the process used by states that have designated alternative routes and thereby share their experiences (i.e., lessons learned) with other southern states that have yet to make designations. Under DOT regulations (49 CFR 177.826), carriers of highway route controlled quantities of radioactive materials (which include spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste) must use preferred routes selected to reduce time in transit. Such preferred routes consist of (1) an interstate system highway with use of an interstate system bypass or beltway around cities when available, and (2) alternate routes selected by a ''state routing agency.''

  16. Quantum chemistry-assisted synthesis route development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hori, Kenji; Sumimoto, Michinori; Murafuji, Toshihiro

    2015-01-01

    We have been investigating “quantum chemistry-assisted synthesis route development” using in silico screenings and applied the method to several targets. Another example was conducted to develop synthesis routes for a urea derivative, namely 1-(4-(trifluoromethyl)-2-oxo-2H-chromen-7-yl)urea. While five synthesis routes were examined, only three routes passed the second in silico screening. Among them, the reaction of 7-amino-4-(trifluoromethyl)-2H-chromen-2-one and O-methyl carbamate with BF 3 as an additive was ranked as the first choice for synthetic work. We were able to experimentally obtain the target compound even though its yield was as low as 21 %. The theoretical result was thus consistent with that observed. The summary of transition state data base (TSDB) is also provided. TSDB is the key to reducing time of in silico screenings

  17. Route Choice Model Based on Game Theory for Commuters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Licai Yang

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The traffic behaviours of commuters may cause traffic congestion during peak hours. Advanced Traffic Information System can provide dynamic information to travellers. Due to the lack of timeliness and comprehensiveness, the provided information cannot satisfy the travellers’ needs. Since the assumptions of traditional route choice model based on Expected Utility Theory conflict with the actual situation, a route choice model based on Game Theory is proposed to provide reliable route choice to commuters in actual situation in this paper. The proposed model treats the alternative routes as game players and utilizes the precision of predicted information and familiarity of traffic condition to build a game. The optimal route can be generated considering Nash Equilibrium by solving the route choice game. Simulations and experimental analysis show that the proposed model can describe the commuters’ routine route choice decisionexactly and the provided route is reliable.

  18. On line routing per mobile phone

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bieding, Thomas; Görtz, Simon; Klose, Andreas

    2009-01-01

    On-line routing is concerned with building vehicle routes in an ongoing fashion in such a way that customer requests arriving dynamically in time are efficiently and effectively served. An indispensable prerequisite for applying on-line routing methods is mobile communication technology....... Additionally it is of utmost importance that the employed communication system is suitable integrated with the firm’s enterprise application system and business processes. On basis of a case study, we describe in this paper a system that is cheap and easy to implement due to the use of simple mobile phones...

  19. A tree routing protocol for cognitive radio network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammed Hashem

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Cognitive Radio (CR technology is an agile solution for spectrum congestion and spectrum access utilization problems that result from the legacy fixed spectrum management policies. CR technology can exploit unused licensed band to meet the increasing demand for radio frequency. The routing process faces many challenges in CR Network (CRN such as the absence of centralized infrastructure, the coordination between the routing module and spectrum management module, in addition to the frequent link failure due to the sudden appearance of PUs. In this paper we propose a Tree routing protocol for cognitive radio network (C-TRP that jointly utilizes the tree routing algorithm with a spectrum management module in routing decisions, and also we proposed a new metric used in taking the best route decisions. In addition, we enhance the traditional tree routing algorithm by using a neighbor table technique that speeds up the forwarding data packets. Moreover, we add a robust recovery module to C-TRP to resume the network in case of the link failure. The main motivation in the design of C-TRP is quick data transmission and maximization of date rates. The performance evaluation is carried out in NS2 simulator. The simulation results proved that C-TRP protocol achieves better performance in terms of average “PDR”, “end-to-end delay” and “routing overhead ratio “compared to “CTBR” and “STOD-RP” routing protocols.

  20. Route Network Construction with Location-Direction-Enabled Photographs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujita, Hideyuki; Sagara, Shota; Ohmori, Tadashi; Shintani, Takahiko

    2018-05-01

    We propose a method for constructing a geometric graph for generating routes that summarize a geographical area and also have visual continuity by using a set of location-direction-enabled photographs. A location- direction-enabled photograph is a photograph that has information about the location (position of the camera at the time of shooting) and the direction (direction of the camera at the time of shooting). Each nodes of the graph corresponds to a location-direction-enabled photograph. The location of each node is the location of the corresponding photograph, and a route on the graph corresponds to a route in the geographic area and a sequence of photographs. The proposed graph is constructed to represent characteristic spots and paths linking the spots, and it is assumed to be a kind of a spatial summarization of the area with the photographs. Therefore, we call the routes on the graph as spatial summary route. Each route on the proposed graph also has a visual continuity, which means that we can understand the spatial relationship among the continuous photographs on the route such as moving forward, backward, turning right, etc. In this study, when the changes in the shooting position and shooting direction satisfied a given threshold, the route was defined to have visual continuity. By presenting the photographs in order along the generated route, information can be presented sequentially, while maintaining visual continuity to a great extent.

  1. Experiencing the Tourist City. The European Capital of Culture in Re-Designing City Routes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manuela Guerreiro

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Assuming that providing memorable experiences is the raison d’être of tourism industry, the city envisaged as a tourist destination should assume the tourist’s perspective when designing the settings and the most significant activities of a visit. Cities are facing new challenges, noticeably the globalisation of economies, the growing importance of the visual and the symbolic that define the current trends of consumption and the attractiveness of a place. Culture and events play a strategic role when designing innovative and appealing tourism experiences. The European Capital of Culture (ECoC is an international event which represents a unique opportunity for the cities to stand out in this globalised and competitive scenario. This paper focuses on the study of Pécs, European Capital of Culture 2010, and it aims to study the influence of this event on the design of city tourism routes. A survey by questionnaire was administered to tourists before and during ECoC in Pécs. Respondents indicated in open-ended questions the most outstanding points in their visit to the city, on which were designed the relevant circuits and routes during that tourist experience in Pécs. Data analysis was performed using the statistical software STAS.

  2. Development of safe routes for children in urban environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koryagin, M. E.; Medvedev, V. I.; Strykov, P. G.

    2018-01-01

    The matter of development of safe travel routes for children between school and home is analyzed. The availability of various applications and devices to identify the location of the child and his/her travel routes is noted. The main factors to be taken into account when planning children travel routes are described. The most popular Russian services for route planning, Google, Yandex, and 2GIS, are discussed. These services are shown to have a number of shortcomings which does not allow them to choose really safe routes. A decision on making the route selection by two criteria (the travel time and the probability of an accident) is obtained. As a numerical example, the Pareto area for possible routes is constructed.

  3. Routing architecture and security for airborne networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deng, Hongmei; Xie, Peng; Li, Jason; Xu, Roger; Levy, Renato

    2009-05-01

    Airborne networks are envisioned to provide interconnectivity for terrestial and space networks by interconnecting highly mobile airborne platforms. A number of military applications are expected to be used by the operator, and all these applications require proper routing security support to establish correct route between communicating platforms in a timely manner. As airborne networks somewhat different from traditional wired and wireless networks (e.g., Internet, LAN, WLAN, MANET, etc), security aspects valid in these networks are not fully applicable to airborne networks. Designing an efficient security scheme to protect airborne networks is confronted with new requirements. In this paper, we first identify a candidate routing architecture, which works as an underlying structure for our proposed security scheme. And then we investigate the vulnerabilities and attack models against routing protocols in airborne networks. Based on these studies, we propose an integrated security solution to address routing security issues in airborne networks.

  4. EDITORIAL: Physics competitions Physics competitions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jordens, H.; Mathelitsch, L.

    2011-07-01

    International tests on competences, such as TIMSS or PISA, and knowledge of young students have revealed low average scores in many countries, often unexpectedly. One effective measure to increase the average standard of a population is to bring the last third of the group to a higher level. Therefore, many nations put some effort into this activity. This brings the danger that not enough attention is paid to students at the other end, those who are talented. Indeed, it is a very difficult task for a teacher to support the less able and at the same time challenge the gifted students, to lead them to the limits of their abilities and provide for a smooth transition to university study. Physics competitions have been proven to fulfil these last demands to a large degree, and therefore are an important additional and, to some extent, complementary tool for the promotion of talented students. This third special section on physics competitions in European Journal of Physics contains three papers, each dealing with a different form of science contest. The first continues the series of presentations of tasks performed at the International Young Physicists' Tournament, which was held in Vienna in 2011. First place went to the team from Singapore, and they have put their investigation on vertical oscillations of coupled magnets into written form (not required by the tournament, where an oral presentation and a defence and discussion are the central aspects). Their paper shows how rich in physics this problem is, and what level of solutions high-school students can already achieve. Sadly, those responsible for the organization of last year's International Physics Olympiad did not provide us with a report on this competition. This is unfortunate, since the Olympiad in Zagreb was very successful and, in particular, the experimental tasks were creative and demanding. Very similar to the aims and the execution of the Physics Olympiad is the International Olympiad on Astronomy

  5. Tour Route Multiobjective Optimization Design Based on the Tourist Satisfaction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yan Han

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The question prompted is how to design the tour route to make the tourists get the maximum satisfactions considering the tourists’ demand. The influence factors of the tour route choices of tourists were analyzed and tourists’ behavior characteristics and psychological preferences were regarded as the important influence factors based on the tourist behavioral theories. A questionnaire of tourists’ tour route information and satisfaction degree was carried out. Some information about the scene spot and tourists demand and tour behaviors characteristic such as visit frequency, number of attractions visited was obtained and analyzed. Based on the convey datum, tour routes multiobjective optimization functions were prompted for the tour route design regarding the maximum satisfaction and the minimum tour distance as the optimal objective. The available routes are listed and categorized. Based on the particle swarm optimization model, the priorities of the tour route are calculated and finally the suggestion depth tour route and quick route tour routes are given considering the different tour demands of tourists. The results can offer constructive suggestions on how to design tour routes on the part of tourism enterprises and how to choose a proper tour route on the part of tourists.

  6. Exploring an Age Difference in Preschool Children's Competitiveness Following a Competition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Yu; Zhu, Yi

    2018-01-01

    Literature suggests that resource acquisition compels competition in young children. However, little is still known about the development of preschool children's competitiveness. In this preliminary study, 166 children (aged 2-4 and 5-6 years) engaged in a dyadic competition which resulted in a winning and a losing group (in a control/non-competition group, participants engaged in a similar task which did not lead to winning/losing outcome), and then experimenters tracked their decisions to compete again with a rival (i.e., an individual they interacted in the previous competition task) and a non-rival competitor (i.e., an anonymous classmate they did not interact in the previous competition task) for a reward, respectively. As expected, results showed an age-related decreasing trend in the percentage of choices to compete with a competitor. However, this age difference was only significant in the control group when participants played with the partner with whom they interacted in the previous game and in the losing group when participants competed with a non-rival competitor. This study contributes to our knowledge of how competitiveness develop in preschool childhood, and calls for further research on the roles of motivation and cognitive control in children's competitiveness.

  7. The effect of swimming on oral health status: competitive versus non-competitive athletes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simonetta D’ERCOLE

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT Young swimmers are particularly susceptible to the onset of oral diseases. Objective To evaluate the oral health status in young competitive and non-competitive swimmers, involving an assessment of salivary cariogenic bacteria and secretory IgA (S-IgA concentration. Material and Methods Before training sessions (T1, 54 competitive and 69 non-competitive swimmers had the following parameters assessed: decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT, Plaque Index (PlI, and Gingival Index (GI. At T1 and after training sessions (T2, stimulated saliva was collected and microbiological and immunological analyses were performed. Results Competitive swimmers trained 2.02±0.09 hours 5 times a week, while non-competitive swimmers trained 2.03±0.18 hours a week. A total of 14.7% of competitive swimmers suffered dental trauma related to sports. Only 11.76% of the competitive swimmers took a daily dose of fluoride, against 32.65% of non-competitive swimmers (p=0.029. Neither group followed an established diet or presented statistically significant differences in terms of nutritional supplement drink and chocolate intake. There were statistically significant differences in terms of oral hygiene. No significant difference in clinical indexes (DMFT, PlI, and GI was present. S. mutans was harbored by 18.6% of competitive and the 32.2% of non-competitive swimmers. S. sobrinus was detected in 22.03% of competitive and 91.6% of non-competitive swimmers (p<0.05. S. sanguinis was found only in the saliva of competitive swimmers. The average S-IgA of competitive swimmers decreased significantly at T2 (p<0.05. The pool water had a daily average pH of 7.22. Conclusions Microbial markers, immune status and sporting characteristics are important for establishing guidelines for management of training load in order to minimize physical stress and the risk of oral infection.

  8. Optimizing departure times in vehicle routes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kok, A.L.; Hans, Elias W.; Schutten, Johannes M.J.

    2008-01-01

    Most solution methods for the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) develop routes from the earliest feasible departure time. However, in practice, temporal traffic congestions make that such solutions are not optimal with respect to minimizing the total duty time. Furthermore, VRPTW

  9. Locating Depots for Capacitated Vehicle Routing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gørtz, Inge Li; Nagarajan, Viswanath

    2016-01-01

    We study a location-routing problem in the context of capacitated vehicle routing. The input to the k-location capacitated vehicle routing problem (k-LocVRP) consists of a set of demand locations in a metric space and a fleet of k identical vehicles, each of capacity Q. The objective is to locate k...... depots, one for each vehicle, and compute routes for the vehicles so that all demands are satisfied and the total cost is minimized. Our main result is a constant-factor approximation algorithm for k-LocVRP. In obtaining this result, we introduce a common generalization of the k-median and minimum...... spanning tree problems (called k median forest), which might be of independent interest. We give a local-search based (3+ε)-approximation algorithm for k median forest, which leads to a (12+ε)-approximation algorithm for k-LocVRP, for any constant ε>0....

  10. Locating Depots for Capacitated Vehicle Routing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gørtz, Inge Li; Nagarajan, Viswanath

    2016-01-01

    depots, one for each vehicle, and compute routes for the vehicles so that all demands are satisfied and the total cost is minimized. Our main result is a constant-factor approximation algorithm for k-LocVRP. In obtaining this result, we introduce a common generalization of the k-median and minimum...... spanning tree problems (called k median forest), which might be of independent interest. We give a local-search based (3+ε)-approximation algorithm for k median forest, which leads to a (12+ε)-approximation algorithm for k-LocVRP, for any constant ε>0.......We study a location-routing problem in the context of capacitated vehicle routing. The input to the k-location capacitated vehicle routing problem (k-LocVRP) consists of a set of demand locations in a metric space and a fleet of k identical vehicles, each of capacity Q. The objective is to locate k...

  11. Routes and Stations

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Homeland Security — he Routes_Stations table is composed of fixed rail transit systems within the Continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico....

  12. New TPG bus route 28

    CERN Multimedia

    2003-01-01

    Geneva's Public Transport services (TPG) have recently inaugurated a new bus line 28, connecting the La Tour Hospital in Meyrin to the international organisations in Geneva, via the airport. All signs associated with this route will be yellow in colour. Timetables and route details can be found at http://www.tpg.ch. Relations with the Host States Service http://www.cern.ch/relations/ Tel. 72848

  13. Competition-colonization trade-offs, competitive uncertainty, and the evolutionary assembly of species.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pradeep Pillai

    Full Text Available We utilize a standard competition-colonization metapopulation model in order to study the evolutionary assembly of species. Based on earlier work showing how models assuming strict competitive hierarchies will likely lead to runaway evolution and self-extinction for all species, we adopt a continuous competition function that allows for levels of uncertainty in the outcome of competition. We then, by extending the standard patch-dynamic metapopulation model in order to include evolutionary dynamics, allow for the coevolution of species into stable communities composed of species with distinct limiting similarities. Runaway evolution towards stochastic extinction then becomes a limiting case controlled by the level of competitive uncertainty. We demonstrate how intermediate competitive uncertainty maximizes the equilibrium species richness as well as maximizes the adaptive radiation and self-assembly of species under adaptive dynamics with mutations of non-negligible size. By reconciling competition-colonization tradeoff theory with co-evolutionary dynamics, our results reveal the importance of intermediate levels of competitive uncertainty for the evolutionary assembly of species.

  14. Perspectives on Illegal Routes in Nigeria

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Nneka Umera-Okeke

    University of Kwazulu-Natal. Pietermaritzburg, South ... Key Words: Nigeria Immigration Service, Illegal Routes, Security Policing, Border,. State .... transported weapons across borders to sell them in exchange for food or other commodities. ... The study's respondents were of the opinion that illegal routes exist around the ...

  15. Optimizing Departure Times in Vehicle Routes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kok, A.L.; Hans, Elias W.; Schutten, Johannes M.J.

    2011-01-01

    Most solution methods for the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) develop routes from the earliest feasible departure time. In practice, however, temporary traffic congestion make such solutions non-optimal with respect to minimizing the total duty time. Furthermore, the VRPTW does not

  16. Classification of Dynamic Vehicle Routing Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Allan; Madsen, Oli B.G.; Solomon, Marius M.

    2007-01-01

    This chapter discusses important characteristics seen within dynamic vehicle routing problems. We discuss the differences between the traditional static vehicle routing problems and its dynamic counterparts. We give an in-depth introduction to the degree of dynamism measure which can be used to c...

  17. "To Control Tibet, First Pacify Kham": Trade Routes and "Official Routes" (Guandao in Easternmost Kham

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrick Booz

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This article focuses on the trade routes in the western Sichuan borderlands that facilitated contact and trade between Chinese counties and Eastern Tibet. In particular, the article offers a description of “official routes” (guandao—which the Chinese emperor twice proclaimed to be the vital mode of access between China and Tibet—from Chengdu, Sichuan’s provincial capital, to Khampa areas, with Lhasa as the final destination. The exchange of goods in this region followed various routes during different periods. From the tenth to sixteenth centuries, transactions occurred primarily along the borders of Amdo (Tib. A mdo, Northeastern Tibet, but for political, economic, and practical reasons, such exchanges became more limited geographically and eventually focused along the Sichuan–Kham/Ngawa border. Many routes shifted to the towns of Kangding (Tib. Dartsedo and Songpan (Tib. Zungchu, the main sites of distribution, where rich opportunities for trade and a strictly limiting transport geography made them important entrepôts that evolved into centers of prosperity. The geographic range of this article reaches to these two towns and leaves the investigation of the routes that led to western centers such as Derge, Batang, Chamdo, and Jyekundo for future research.

  18. Simulated Annealing Technique for Routing in a Rectangular Mesh Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Noraziah Adzhar

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In the process of automatic design for printed circuit boards (PCBs, the phase following cell placement is routing. On the other hand, routing process is a notoriously difficult problem, and even the simplest routing problem which consists of a set of two-pin nets is known to be NP-complete. In this research, our routing region is first tessellated into a uniform Nx×Ny array of square cells. The ultimate goal for a routing problem is to achieve complete automatic routing with minimal need for any manual intervention. Therefore, shortest path for all connections needs to be established. While classical Dijkstra’s algorithm guarantees to find shortest path for a single net, each routed net will form obstacles for later paths. This will add complexities to route later nets and make its routing longer than the optimal path or sometimes impossible to complete. Today’s sequential routing often applies heuristic method to further refine the solution. Through this process, all nets will be rerouted in different order to improve the quality of routing. Because of this, we are motivated to apply simulated annealing, one of the metaheuristic methods to our routing model to produce better candidates of sequence.

  19. Romania's Competitiveness and Competitive Position in Global Context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valentin NECULITA

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Competitiveness increase has become a primordial framework of the social and economic development strategies of most world countries (mainly the most developed ones over the last decades. The vigorous boost of the contemporary phenomenon of globalization, which has widened the global area of economies, sectors and firms confrontation, has laid an emphasis on their competitiveness importance for their favorable position in the international competition and has therefore force the status to take proper, broad and concerted measures to stimulate the determining factors of action and to take better advantage of their effects. The purpose of the paper is to determine whether an increase in competitiveness could reduce the disparities between regions. The E.U. Member States and regions need significant financial help to solve various structural problems and to achieve their potential of growth. Romania is no exception, one of the main problems being the low rate in attracting European funds.

  20. Sigma Routing Metric for RPL Protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul Sanmartin

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the adaptation of a specific metric for the RPL protocol in the objective function MRHOF. Among the functions standardized by IETF, we find OF0, which is based on the minimum hop count, as well as MRHOF, which is based on the Expected Transmission Count (ETX. However, when the network becomes denser or the number of nodes increases, both OF0 and MRHOF introduce long hops, which can generate a bottleneck that restricts the network. The adaptation is proposed to optimize both OFs through a new routing metric. To solve the above problem, the metrics of the minimum number of hops and the ETX are combined by designing a new routing metric called SIGMA-ETX, in which the best route is calculated using the standard deviation of ETX values between each node, as opposed to working with the ETX average along the route. This method ensures a better routing performance in dense sensor networks. The simulations are done through the Cooja simulator, based on the Contiki operating system. The simulations showed that the proposed optimization outperforms at a high margin in both OF0 and MRHOF, in terms of network latency, packet delivery ratio, lifetime, and power consumption.

  1. Traffic modifications on Routes Rutherford, Democrite and Fermi

    CERN Multimedia

    2015-01-01

    The GS Department would like to inform you that until the end of December, the construction of Building 245 will result in the following traffic modifications: Traffic on Route Rutherford will be partially restricted in front of the construction site, Traffic on Route Democrite will be one-way towards Route Rutherford. Also, please note that due to construction work in front of Building 377, Route Fermi will be closed from Wednesday, 10 June until Friday, 7 August. Thank you for your understanding.

  2. Traffic modifications on Routes Rutherford, Democrite and Fermi

    CERN Multimedia

    2015-01-01

    The GS Department would like to inform you that, until the end of December, the construction of Building 245 will result in the following traffic modifications: Traffic on Route Rutherford will be partially restricted in front of the construction site, Traffic on Route Democrite will be one-way towards Route Rutherford. Also, please note that due to construction work in front of Building 377, Route Fermi will be closed from Wednesday, 10 June until Friday, 7 August. Thank you for your understanding.

  3. Diversifying evolution of competitiveness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baldauf, Sebastian A; Engqvist, Leif; Weissing, Franz J

    2014-10-29

    In many species, individuals express phenotypic characteristics that enhance their competitiveness, that is, the ability to acquire resources in competition with others. Moreover, the degree of competitiveness varies considerably across individuals and in time. By means of an evolutionary model, we provide an explanation for this finding. We make the assumption that investment into competitiveness enhances the probability to acquire a high-quality resource, but at the same time reduces the ability of exploiting acquired resources with maximal efficiency. The model reveals that under a broad range of conditions competitiveness either converges to a polymorphic state, where individuals differing in competitive ability stably coexist, or is subject to perpetual transitions between periods of high and low competitiveness. The dynamics becomes even more complex if females can evolve preferences for (or against) competitive males. In extreme cases, such preferences can even drive the population to extinction.

  4. Managing Multiple Sources of Competitive Advantage in a Complex Competitive Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandre Howard Henry Lapersonne

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this article is to review the literature on the topic of sustained and temporary competitive advantage creation, specifically in dynamic markets, and to propose further research possibilities. After having analyzed the main trends and scholars’ works on the subject, it was concluded that a firm which has been experiencing erosion of its core sources of economic rent generation, should have diversified its strategy portfolio in a search for new sources of competitive advantage, ones that could compensate for the decline of profits provoked by intensive competitive environments. This review concludes with the hypothesis that firms, who have decided to enter and manage multiple competitive environments, should have developed a multiple strategies framework approach. The management of this source of competitive advantage portfolio should have allowed persistence of a firm’s superior economic performance through the management of diverse temporary advantages lifecycle and through a resilient effect, where a very successful source of competitive advantage compensates the ones that have been eroded. Additionally, the review indicates that economies of emerging countries, such as the ones from the BRIC block, should present a more complex competitive environment due to their historical nature of cultural diversity, social contrasts and frequent economic disruption, and also because of recent institutional normalization that has turned the market into hypercompetition. Consequently, the study of complex competition should be appropriate in such environments.

  5. 41 CFR 109-40.302 - Standard routing principle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Standard routing principle. 109-40.302 Section 109-40.302 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal Property... Standard routing principle. (a) Shipments shall be routed using the mode of transportation, or individual...

  6. Crop–weed competition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gallandt, Eric R.; Weiner, Jacob

    2015-01-01

    importantly, weed density and time of emergence relative to the crop. Practices that (1) reduce the density of weeds, (2) maximise occupation of space or uptake of resources by the crop or (3) establish an early-season size advantage of the crop over the weeds will minimise the competitive effects of weeds...... on crops. Longer term management of crop–weed competition can be achieved through crop rotations, specifically crop sequences that reduce the weed seed bank, and therefore seedling density, and prevent proliferation of perennial weeds. Key ConceptsKey Concepts * Plant growth requires sunlight, water...... an early-season competitive advantage to the crop and (3) maximising resource capture by the crop using competitive species, competitive cultivars, high sowing densities, optimal spatial arrangement, intercropping complimentary species or transplanting....

  7. A Conceptual Mapping Resource Advantage Theory, Competitive Advantage Theory, and Transient Competitive Advantage

    OpenAIRE

    Jasanta PERANGINANGIN

    2015-01-01

    Competitive advantage is the main purposed of the business entity focusing on market base view. Resource advantage theorists put their concern to empowering resources development with resources based view, in the other side needs to redefining competitive advantage. All the competitive advantage are transient, concluded the end of competitive advantage. Redefining competitive advantage by selling migration and shrewdness outward. This research to emphasize innovation capability rarely appears...

  8. Modeling and Performance Analysis of Route-Over and Mesh-Under Routing Schemes in 6LoWPAN under Error-Prone Channel Condition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tsung-Han Lee

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available 6LoWPAN technology has attracted extensive attention recently. It is because 6LoWPAN is one of Internet of Things standard and it adapts to IPv6 protocol stack over low-rate wireless personal area network, such as IEEE 802.15.4. One view is that IP architecture is not suitable for low-rate wireless personal area network. It is a challenge to implement the IPv6 protocol stack into IEEE 802.15.4 devices due to that the size of IPv6 packet is much larger than the maximum packet size of IEEE 802.15.4 in data link layer. In order to solve this problem, 6LoWPAN provides header compression to reduce the transmission overhead for IP packets. In addition, two selected routing schemes, mesh-under and route-over routing schemes, are also proposed in 6LoWPAN to forward IP fragmentations under IEEE 802.15.4 radio link. The distinction is based on which layer of the 6LoWPAN protocol stack is in charge of routing decisions. In route-over routing scheme, the routing distinction is taken at the network layer and, in mesh-under, is taken by the adaptation layer. Thus, the goal of this research is to understand the performance of two routing schemes in 6LoWPAN under error-prone channel condition.

  9. Energy Efficient Routing in Nomadic Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kristensen, Mads Darø; Bouvin, Niels Olof

    2007-01-01

    We present an evaluation of a novel energy-efficient routing protocol for mobile ad-hoc networks. We combine two techniques for optimizing energy levels with a well-known routing protocol. We examine the behavior of this combination in a nomadic network setting, where some nodes are stationary...

  10. A Novel CAN Tree Coordinate Routing in Content-Addressable Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhongtao Li

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we propose a novel approach to improve coordination routing while minimizing the maintenance overhead during nodes churn. It bases on “CAN Tree Routing for Content- Addressable Network” 1 which is a solution for peer-to-peer routing. We concentrated on coordinate routing in this paper. The key idea of our approach is a recursion process to calculate target zone code and search in CAN tree 1. Because the hops are via long links in CAN, it enhances routing flexibility and robustness against failures. Nodes automatically adapt routing table to cope with network change. The routing complexity is , which is much better than a uniform greedy routing, while each node maintains two long links in average.

  11. Robotics Competitions: An Overview of First© Events and VEX© Competitions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Habib, Maria A.

    2012-01-01

    Robotics competitions generate excitement and raise the profile of a robotics program. This article provides an overview of robotics competitions, concentrating on those sponsored by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and RECF (Robotics Education and Competition Foundation). FIRST® LEGO® League and VEX® robotics…

  12. Sinkhole Avoidance Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-05-09

    COVERED (From- To) 09-05-2011 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER Sinkhole Avoidance Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks 5b . GRANT NUMBER . 5c...reliability of wireless sensor networks. 15. SUBJECT TERMS wireless sensor networks, sinkhole attack, routing protocol 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION...Include area code) Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8/98) Prescribed by ANSI Std . Z39.18 1 Sinkhole Avoidance Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks MIDN 1/C

  13. Beyond Traditional DTN Routing: Social Networks for Opportunistic Communication

    OpenAIRE

    Schurgot, Mary R.; Comaniciu, Cristina; Jaffrès-Runser, Katia

    2011-01-01

    This article examines the evolution of routing protocols for intermittently connected ad hoc networks and discusses the trend toward social-based routing protocols. A survey of current routing solutions is presented, where routing protocols for opportunistic networks are classified based on the network graph employed. The need to capture performance tradeoffs from a multi-objective perspective is highlighted.

  14. Occurrence of radon in the Polish underground tourist routes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jerzy Olszewski

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Background: There are about 200 underground tourist routes in Poland. There are caves, mines or underground structures. This paper presents the results of the research intended to identify the extent of the occurrence of radon concentrations in underground areas of tourist routes. Material and Methods: We conducted the measurement of periodic concentrations of radon (1–2 months in the summer using type Tastrak trace detectors. We determined the average concentrations of radon in air in 66 underground tourist routes in Poland. Results: The research results comprise 259 determinations of average radon concentrations in 66 routes. The arithmetic average of the results was 1610 Bqm–3, and the maximum measured concentration was over 20 000 Bqm–3. The minimum concentration was 100 Bqm–3 (threshold method considering the arithmetic average of the measurements. It was found that in 67% of the routes, the average concentration of radon has exceeded 300 Bqm–3 and in 22 underground routes it exceeded 1000 Bqm–3. Conclusions: Radon which occurs in many Polish underground tourist routes may be an organizational, legal and health problem. It is necessary to develop a program of measures to reduce radon concentrations in underground routes, especially routes located in the former mines. Med Pr 2015;66(4:557–563

  15. Improved Ant Colony Optimization for Seafood Product Delivery Routing Problem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baozhen Yao

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with a real-life vehicle delivery routing problem, which is a seafood product delivery routing problem. Considering the features of the seafood product delivery routing problem, this paper formulated this problem as a multi-depot open vehicle routing problem. Since the multi-depot open vehicle routing problem is a very complex problem, a method is used to reduce the complexity of the problem by changing the multi-depot open vehicle routing problem into an open vehicle routing problem with a dummy central depot in this paper. Then, ant colony optimization is used to solve the problem. To improve the performance of the algorithm, crossover operation and some adaptive strategies are used. Finally, the computational results for the benchmark problems of the multi-depot vehicle routing problem indicate that the proposed ant colony optimization is an effective method to solve the multi-depot vehicle routing problem. Furthermore, the computation results of the seafood product delivery problem from Dalian, China also suggest that the proposed ant colony optimization is feasible to solve the seafood product delivery routing problem.

  16. A Clustering Routing Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinke Huang

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The dynamic topology of a mobile ad hoc network poses a real challenge in the design of hierarchical routing protocol, which combines proactive with reactive routing protocols and takes advantages of both. And as an essential technique of hierarchical routing protocol, clustering of nodes provides an efficient method of establishing a hierarchical structure in mobile ad hoc networks. In this paper, we designed a novel clustering algorithm and a corresponding hierarchical routing protocol for large-scale mobile ad hoc networks. Each cluster is composed of a cluster head, several cluster gateway nodes, several cluster guest nodes, and other cluster members. The proposed routing protocol uses proactive protocol between nodes within individual clusters and reactive protocol between clusters. Simulation results show that the proposed clustering algorithm and hierarchical routing protocol provide superior performance with several advantages over existing clustering algorithm and routing protocol, respectively.

  17. Routing in Optical and Stochastic Networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Yang, S.

    2015-01-01

    In most types of networks (e.g., optical or transportation networks), finding one or more best paths from a source to a destination, is one of the biggest concerns of network users and providers. This process is known as routing. The routing problems differ accordingly depending on different

  18. Transportation Routing Analysis Geographic Information System (WebTRAGIS) User's Manual

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Michelhaugh, R.D.

    2000-01-01

    In the early 1980s, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) developed two transportation routing models: HIGHWAY, which predicts truck transportation routes, and INTERLINE, which predicts rail transportation routes. Both of these models have been used by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) community for a variety of routing needs over the years. One of the primary uses of the models has been to determine population-density information, which is used as input for risk assessment with the RADTRAN model, which is available on the TRANSNET computer system. During the recent years, advances in the development of geographic information systems (GISs) have resulted in increased demands from the user community for a GIS version of the ORNL routing models. In April 1994, the DOE Transportation Management Division (EM-261) held a Baseline Requirements Assessment Session with transportation routing experts and users of the HIGHWAY and INTERLINE models. As a result of the session, the development of a new GIS routing model, Transportation Routing Analysis GIS (TRAGIS), was initiated. TRAGIS is a user-friendly, GIS-based transportation and analysis computer model. The older HIGHWAY and INTERLINE models are useful to calculate routes, but they cannot display a graphic of the calculated route. Consequently, many users have experienced difficulty determining the proper node for facilities and have been confused by or have misinterpreted the text-based listing from the older routing models. Some of the primary reasons for the development of TRAGIS are (a) to improve the ease of selecting locations for routing, (b) to graphically display the calculated route, and (c) to provide for additional geographic analysis of the route

  19. Anti- versus Pro-Competitive Mergers

    OpenAIRE

    Fridolfsson, Sven-Olof

    2007-01-01

    In a framework where mergers are mutually excluding, I show that firms pursue anti- rather than (alternative) pro-competitive mergers. Potential outsiders to anti-competitive mergers refrain from pursuing pro-competitive mergers if the positive externalities from anti-competitive mergers are strong enough. Potential outsiders to pro-competitive mergers pursue anti-competitive mergers if the negative externalities from the pro-competitive mergers are strong enough. Potential participants in an...

  20. PNW River Reach Files -- 1:100k LLID Routed Streams (routes)

    Data.gov (United States)

    Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission — This feature class includes the ROUTE features from the 2001 version of the PNW River Reach files Arc/INFO coverage. Separate, companion feature classes are also...

  1. Pharmacokinetics of Alternative Administration Routes of Melatonin

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zetner, D.; Andersen, L. P.H.; Rosenberg, J.

    2016-01-01

    Background: Melatonin is traditionally administered orally but has a poor and variable bioavailability. This study aims to present an overview of studies investigating the pharmacokinetics of alternative administration routes of melatonin. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed...... and included experimental or clinical studies, investigating pharmacokinetics of alternative administration routes of melatonin in vivo. Alternative administration routes were defined as all administration routes except oral and intravenous. Results: 10 studies were included in the review. Intranasal....... Subcutaneous injection of melatonin displayed a rapid absorption rate compared to oral administration. Conclusion: Intranasal administration of melatonin has a large potential, and more research in humans is warranted. Transdermal application of melatonin has a possible use in a local application, due to slow...

  2. Energy Aware Simple Ant Routing Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sohail Jabbar

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Network lifetime is one of the most prominent barriers in deploying wireless sensor networks for large-scale applications because these networks employ sensors with nonrenewable scarce energy resources. Sensor nodes dissipate most of their energy in complex routing mechanisms. To cope with limited energy problem, we present EASARA, an energy aware simple ant routing algorithm based on ant colony optimization. Unlike most algorithms, EASARA strives to avoid low energy routes and optimizes the routing process through selection of least hop count path with more energy. It consists of three phases, that is, route discovery, forwarding node, and route selection. We have improved the route discovery procedure and mainly concentrate on energy efficient forwarding node and route selection, so that the network lifetime can be prolonged. The four possible cases of forwarding node and route selection are presented. The performance of EASARA is validated through simulation. Simulation results demonstrate the performance supremacy of EASARA over contemporary scheme in terms of various metrics.

  3. Route Flap Damping Made Usable

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pelsser, Cristel; Maennel, Olaf; Mohapatra, Pradosh; Bush, Randy; Patel, Keyur

    The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), the de facto inter-domain routing protocol of the Internet, is known to be noisy. The protocol has two main mechanisms to ameliorate this, MinRouteAdvertisementInterval (MRAI), and Route Flap Damping (RFD). MRAI deals with very short bursts on the order of a few to 30 seconds. RFD deals with longer bursts, minutes to hours. Unfortunately, RFD was found to severely penalize sites for being well-connected because topological richness amplifies the number of update messages exchanged. So most operators have disabled it. Through measurement, this paper explores the avenue of absolutely minimal change to code, and shows that a few RFD algorithmic constants and limits can be trivially modified, with the result being damping a non-trivial amount of long term churn without penalizing well-behaved prefixes' normal convergence process.

  4. Using Sphinx to Improve Onion Routing Circuit Construction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kate, Aniket; Goldberg, Ian

    This paper presents compact message formats for onion routing circuit construction using the Sphinx methodology developed for mixes. We significantly compress the circuit construction messages for three onion routing protocols that have emerged as enhancements to the Tor anonymizing network; namely, Tor with predistributed Diffie-Hellman values, pairing-based onion routing, and certificateless onion routing. Our new circuit constructions are also secure in the universal composability framework, a property that was missing from the original constructions. Further, we compare the performance of our schemes with their older counterparts as well as with each other.

  5. Approximate kernel competitive learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Jian-Sheng; Zheng, Wei-Shi; Lai, Jian-Huang

    2015-03-01

    Kernel competitive learning has been successfully used to achieve robust clustering. However, kernel competitive learning (KCL) is not scalable for large scale data processing, because (1) it has to calculate and store the full kernel matrix that is too large to be calculated and kept in the memory and (2) it cannot be computed in parallel. In this paper we develop a framework of approximate kernel competitive learning for processing large scale dataset. The proposed framework consists of two parts. First, it derives an approximate kernel competitive learning (AKCL), which learns kernel competitive learning in a subspace via sampling. We provide solid theoretical analysis on why the proposed approximation modelling would work for kernel competitive learning, and furthermore, we show that the computational complexity of AKCL is largely reduced. Second, we propose a pseudo-parallelled approximate kernel competitive learning (PAKCL) based on a set-based kernel competitive learning strategy, which overcomes the obstacle of using parallel programming in kernel competitive learning and significantly accelerates the approximate kernel competitive learning for large scale clustering. The empirical evaluation on publicly available datasets shows that the proposed AKCL and PAKCL can perform comparably as KCL, with a large reduction on computational cost. Also, the proposed methods achieve more effective clustering performance in terms of clustering precision against related approximate clustering approaches. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Iconic memory-based omnidirectional route panorama navigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yagi, Yasushi; Imai, Kousuke; Tsuji, Kentaro; Yachida, Masahiko

    2005-01-01

    A route navigation method for a mobile robot with an omnidirectional image sensor is described. The route is memorized from a series of consecutive omnidirectional images of the horizon when the robot moves to its goal. While the robot is navigating to the goal point, input is matched against the memorized spatio-temporal route pattern by using dual active contour models and the exact robot position and orientation is estimated from the converged shape of the active contour models.

  7. Routing in Wireless Multimedia Home Networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Scholten, Johan; Jansen, P.G.; Hop, Laurens

    This paper describes an adapted version of the destination sequenced distance vector routing protocol (DSDV) which is suitable to calculate routes in a wireless real-time home network. The home network is based on a IEEE 802.11b ad hoc network and uses a scheduled token to enforce real-time

  8. Coal competitiveness?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rogeaux, B.

    2006-01-01

    Will coal electrical plants be more competitive in the coming years? Answering this one cannot be limited to merely comparing estimates based on reference electricity production costs. The competitiveness of coal will indeed depend on the final product marketed, as the MWhs are not equal: is the purpose to produce base, half-base MWh? Does the electrical equipment structure require flexible MWh (for instance in the event of significant intermittent renewable energy amounts), and therefore plants able to adjust their power rapidly? But the competitiveness of coal will also depend on many factors that will correct reference cost estimates: uncertainties, risks, externalities. These factors will need to be appreciated on a case by case basis. We introduce some of the reasoning used to better appreciate the future competitiveness of coal, and the main factors conditioning it in three contrasting regions of the world: Europe, USA, china. (author)

  9. Low Carbon Footprint Routes for Bird Watching

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei-Ta Fang

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Bird watching is one of many recreational activities popular in ecotourism. Its popularity, therefore, prompts the need for studies on energy conservation. One such environmentally friendly approach toward minimizing bird watching’s ecological impact is ensuring a reduced carbon footprint by using an economic travel itinerary comprising a series of connected routes between tourist attractions that minimizes transit time. This study used a travel-route planning approach using geographic information systems to detect the shortest path, thereby solving the problems associated with time-consuming transport. Based on the results of road network analyses, optimal travel-route planning can be determined. These methods include simulated annealing (SA and genetic algorithms (GA. We applied two algorithms in our simulation research to detect which one is an appropriate algorithm for running carbon-routing algorithms at the regional scale. SA, which is superior to GA, is considered an excellent approach to search for the optimal path to reduce carbon dioxide and high gasoline fees, thereby controlling travel time by using the shortest travel routes.

  10. Perancangan dan Analisis Redistribution Routing Protocol OSPF dan EIGRP

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    DWI ARYANTA

    2014-07-01

    OSPF (Open Shortest Path First and EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol are two routing protocols are widely used in computer networks. Differences between the characteristics of routing protocols pose a problem in the delivery of data packets. Redistribution technique is the solution for communication between routing protocols. By using the software Cisco Packet Tracer 5.3 in this study were made simulating OSPF and EIGRP redistribution linked by technique, then compared its quality with a single EIGRP and OSPF routing protocols. Testing parameters in this study is the value of the time delay and trace route. Value trace route based on direct calculation of cost and metric compared with the simulation results. The result can be OSPF and EIGRP redistribution process. Value delay redistribution 1% better than OSPF and EIGRP 2-3% under traffic density dependent. In calculating the trace route redistribution is done 2 calculations, the cost for OSPF area and the area of the EIGRP metric. Making primary and alternate paths based on the packet delivery rate and the cost of the smallest metric, it is proved by calculation and simulation. Keywords: OSPF, EIGRP, Redistribution, Delay, Cost, Metric.

  11. GLOBAL COMPETITION AND ROMANIA’S NATIONAL COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pop Nicolae Alexandru

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Analyzing products and services around us it is clear that most of them are the result of production factors, labor and capital becoming more international and increasingly less and less national. We are witnessing the globalization of markets and production, to a large global integration and interdependence, increase personalization of production and services as a result of new communication systems interaction and flexible production processes. Markets will continue to homogenize and diversify at the same time, so it is important that as a global marketer one addresses a market segment defined by income, age, and consumption habits and not by membership of a nation. The most visible and polarized is the premium segment fighting for high income clients where brand value plays an important role. Instead identification of large segments of customers offers the advantages of scale economy in production and marketing for global enterprises. Consumer profile is the dominant global consumer requesting and accepting global products and services easily. In fact, what can force an economic alignment to achieve the best performance, rather than the global consumer. The research methodology used includes literature review, comparative analysis, synthesis of data based on bibliographic resources and official documents.The aim of the paper is to highlight current models that underlie the competitive advantage of nations and assess the competitive advantage of Romania in the context of the global market. A case study is used to offer an overview of competitive advantage of Antibiotice Iasi SA, a competitive player, in a global pharmaceutical market with strong global competition. Countries moderate companies’ achievements of global efficiency objectives due to the countries’ rivalry. Romania has to understand that it is in competition with other countries in order to fulfill economic, political and social objectives. The scope in the end is the well

  12. Analyzing multiday route choice behavior of commuters using GPS data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wenyun Tang

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available In this study, accurate global position system and geographic information system data were employed to reveal multiday routes people used and to study multiday route choice behavior for the same origin–destination trips, from home to work. A new way of thinking about route choice modeling is provided in this study. Travelers are classified into three kinds based on the deviation between actual routes and the shortest travel time paths. Based on the classification, a two-stage route choice process is proposed, in which the first step is to classify the travelers and the second one is to model route choice behavior. After analyzing the characteristics of different types of travelers, an artificial neural network was adopted to classify travelers and model route choice behavior. An empirical study using global position systems data collected in Minneapolis–St Paul metropolitan area was carried out. It finds that most travelers follow the same route during commute trips on successive days. And different types of travelers have a significant difference in route choice property. The modeling results indicate that neural network framework can classify travelers and model route choice well.

  13. Route assessment using comparative risk factors integrated through a GIS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Toth, D.M.; O'Connell, W.J.

    1996-01-01

    The assessment of potential alternative routes for the shipment of spent nuclear fuel was simplified through the use of comparative risk factors evaluated using detailed route and environmental attributes. The route characteristics, integrated into risk measures, vary strongly with location and were developed from national, state, and local sources. The route data and evaluation were managed using a geographic information system (GIS). An assessment of four real North Florida routes was performed and an interstate highway route exhibited the lowest risk based on the application of the risk factors

  14. Routing in Wireless Multimedia Home Networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Scholten, Johan; Jansen, P.G.; Hop, Laurens

    This paper describes an adapted version of the destination sequenced distance vector routing protocol (DSDV) which is suitable to calculate routes in a wireless ¿real-time¿ home network. The home network is based on a IEEE 802.11b ad hoc network and uses a scheduled token to enforce real-time

  15. Exploring an Age Difference in Preschool Children’s Competitiveness Following a Competition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu Hu

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Literature suggests that resource acquisition compels competition in young children. However, little is still known about the development of preschool children’s competitiveness. In this preliminary study, 166 children (aged 2–4 and 5–6 years engaged in a dyadic competition which resulted in a winning and a losing group (in a control/non-competition group, participants engaged in a similar task which did not lead to winning/losing outcome, and then experimenters tracked their decisions to compete again with a rival (i.e., an individual they interacted in the previous competition task and a non-rival competitor (i.e., an anonymous classmate they did not interact in the previous competition task for a reward, respectively. As expected, results showed an age-related decreasing trend in the percentage of choices to compete with a competitor. However, this age difference was only significant in the control group when participants played with the partner with whom they interacted in the previous game and in the losing group when participants competed with a non-rival competitor. This study contributes to our knowledge of how competitiveness develop in preschool childhood, and calls for further research on the roles of motivation and cognitive control in children’s competitiveness.

  16. Exploring an Age Difference in Preschool Children’s Competitiveness Following a Competition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Yu; Zhu, Yi

    2018-01-01

    Literature suggests that resource acquisition compels competition in young children. However, little is still known about the development of preschool children’s competitiveness. In this preliminary study, 166 children (aged 2–4 and 5–6 years) engaged in a dyadic competition which resulted in a winning and a losing group (in a control/non-competition group, participants engaged in a similar task which did not lead to winning/losing outcome), and then experimenters tracked their decisions to compete again with a rival (i.e., an individual they interacted in the previous competition task) and a non-rival competitor (i.e., an anonymous classmate they did not interact in the previous competition task) for a reward, respectively. As expected, results showed an age-related decreasing trend in the percentage of choices to compete with a competitor. However, this age difference was only significant in the control group when participants played with the partner with whom they interacted in the previous game and in the losing group when participants competed with a non-rival competitor. This study contributes to our knowledge of how competitiveness develop in preschool childhood, and calls for further research on the roles of motivation and cognitive control in children’s competitiveness. PMID:29593610

  17. Cost analysis of hybrid adaptive routing protocol for heterogeneous ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    NONITA SHARMA

    Event detection; wireless sensor networks; hybrid routing; cost benefit analysis; proactive routing; reactive routing. 1. ... additional energy, high processing power, etc. are deployed to extend the .... transmit to its parent node. (2) Reactive ...

  18. A joint routing and speed optimization problem

    OpenAIRE

    Fukasawa, Ricardo; He, Qie; Santos, Fernando; Song, Yongjia

    2016-01-01

    Fuel cost contributes to a significant portion of operating cost in cargo transportation. Though classic routing models usually treat fuel cost as input data, fuel consumption heavily depends on the travel speed, which has led to the study of optimizing speeds over a given fixed route. In this paper, we propose a joint routing and speed optimization problem to minimize the total cost, which includes the fuel consumption cost. The only assumption made on the dependence between the fuel cost an...

  19. Suppressing traffic-driven epidemic spreading by adaptive routing strategy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang, Han-Xin; Wang, Zhen

    2016-01-01

    The design of routing strategies for traffic-driven epidemic spreading has received increasing attention in recent years. In this paper, we propose an adaptive routing strategy that incorporates topological distance with local epidemic information through a tunable parameter h. In the case where the traffic is free of congestion, there exists an optimal value of routing parameter h, leading to the maximal epidemic threshold. This means that epidemic spreading can be more effectively controlled by adaptive routing, compared to that of the static shortest path routing scheme. Besides, we find that the optimal value of h can greatly relieve the traffic congestion in the case of finite node-delivering capacity. We expect our work to provide new insights into the effects of dynamic routings on traffic-driven epidemic spreading.

  20. FIRST 2002, 2003, 2004 Robotics Competition(s)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Purman, Richard

    2004-01-01

    The New Horizons Regional Education Center (NHREC) in Hampton, VA sought and received NASA funding to support its participation in the 2002, 2003, and 2004 FIRST Robotics Competitions. FIRST, Inc. (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization which encourages the application of creative science, math, and computer science principles to solve real-world engineering problems. The FIRST competition is an international engineering contest featuring high school, government, and business partnerships.

  1. Satellite network robust QoS-aware routing

    CERN Document Server

    Long, Fei

    2014-01-01

    Satellite Network Robust QoS-aware Routing presents a novel routing strategy for satellite networks. This strategy is useful for the design of multi-layered satellite networks as it can greatly reduce the number of time slots in one system cycle. The traffic prediction and engineering approaches make the system robust so that the traffic spikes can be handled effectively. The multi-QoS optimization routing algorithm can satisfy various potential user requirements. Clear and sufficient illustrations are also presented in the book. As the chapters cover the above topics independently, readers from different research backgrounds in constellation design, multi-QoS routing, and traffic engineering can benefit from the book.   Fei Long is a senior engineer at Beijing R&D Center of 54th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation.

  2. An inventory location routing model with environmental considerations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lerhlaly Sanaa

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In this work we consider an integrated Inventory Location Routing problem ILRP. The objective is to select depots to open, the routes to perform distribution from the capacitated depots to the clients by a homogeneous fleet of vehicles and over a multi-period planning horizon. To solve the problem, an exact model is designed in order to minimize the total cost (location, routing and inventory and the routing CO2 emissions, while respecting transport and storage constraints for a hazardous material. We have also studied an industrial real case to illustrate the problem.

  3. Competition policy and environmental protection, obstacles to competition in the waste sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alanen, J.; Marttinen, K.; Steiner, N.

    2000-08-01

    This study deals with the legal rules that affect the conditions of competition in the waste sector at both the EU level and national level in Finland. This study describes further, on a more general level, the relation between the EC's internal market rules and competition rules and the actions involving environmental protection taken by public authorities (EG, Member States) and enterprises. Hazardous waste is not studied in this report. The study comprises two parts: The first part deals with the free movement of waste, EG rules on the transportation of waste between Member States, and the specific EG rules and Finnish laws and regulations on waste. The aim of this study has been, on the one hand, to discuss cases where restrictions of competition in the waste sector are a direct consequence of EG rules on waste and, on the other hand, situations where EG rules or the large margin of manoeuvre left with the Member States create problems with a view to a well functioning competition at the national level. Part two deals with the application of EG rules and Finnish competition rules to companies' agreements on actions involving environmental protection and especially waste management, and to their operations in general and, in certain cases, also to the measures taken by Member States. The EG rules on waste do not pay enough attention to competition aspects. The different requirements set by Member States result in distortion of competition while the rules governing the shipments of waste are not effective enough. From the internal market point of view, more binding and detailed rules are motivated. Competition rules are fully applicable to enterprises' measures aimed at environmental protection that restrict competition. Environmental protection aspects in connection with a case-to-case consideration of interests is, however, gaining importance. Those restrictions of competition in the waste sector that EC has dealt with have without exception concerned the

  4. Path Diversity Improved Opportunistic Routing for Underwater Sensor Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bai, Weigang; Wang, Haiyan; He, Ke; Zhao, Ruiqin

    2018-04-23

    The packets carried along a pre-defined route in underwater sensor networks are very vulnerble. Node mobility or intermittent channel availability easily leads to unreachable routing. Opportunistic routing has been proven to be a promising paradigm to design routing protocols for underwater sensor networks. It takes advantage of the broadcast nature of the wireless medium to combat packet losses and selects potential paths on the fly. Finding an appropriate forwarding candidate set is a key issue in opportunistic routing. Many existing solutions ignore the impact of candidates location distribution on packet forwarding. In this paper, a path diversity improved candidate selection strategy is applied in opportunistic routing to improve packet forwarding efficiency. It not only maximizes the packet forwarding advancements but also takes the candidate’s location distribution into account. Based on this strategy, we propose two effective routing protocols: position improved candidates selection (PICS) and position random candidates selection (PRCS). PICS employs two-hop neighbor information to make routing decisions. PRCS only uses one-hop neighbor information. Simulation results show that both PICS and PRCS can significantly improve network performance when compared with the previous solutions, in terms of packet delivery ratio, average energy consumption and end-to-end delay.

  5. Path Diversity Improved Opportunistic Routing for Underwater Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Weigang Bai

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The packets carried along a pre-defined route in underwater sensor networks are very vulnerble. Node mobility or intermittent channel availability easily leads to unreachable routing. Opportunistic routing has been proven to be a promising paradigm to design routing protocols for underwater sensor networks. It takes advantage of the broadcast nature of the wireless medium to combat packet losses and selects potential paths on the fly. Finding an appropriate forwarding candidate set is a key issue in opportunistic routing. Many existing solutions ignore the impact of candidates location distribution on packet forwarding. In this paper, a path diversity improved candidate selection strategy is applied in opportunistic routing to improve packet forwarding efficiency. It not only maximizes the packet forwarding advancements but also takes the candidate’s location distribution into account. Based on this strategy, we propose two effective routing protocols: position improved candidates selection (PICS and position random candidates selection (PRCS. PICS employs two-hop neighbor information to make routing decisions. PRCS only uses one-hop neighbor information. Simulation results show that both PICS and PRCS can significantly improve network performance when compared with the previous solutions, in terms of packet delivery ratio, average energy consumption and end-to-end delay.

  6. Region based route planning - Multi-abstraction route planning based on intermediate level vision processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doshi, Rajkumar S.; Lam, Raymond; White, James E.

    1989-01-01

    Intermediate and high level processing operations are performed on vision data for the organization of images into more meaningful, higher-level topological representations by means of a region-based route planner (RBRP). The RBRP operates in terrain scenarios where some or most of the terrain is occluded, proceeding without a priori maps on the basis of two-dimensional representations and gradient-and-roughness information. Route planning is accomplished by three successive abstractions and yields a detailed point-by-point path by searching only within the boundaries of relatively small regions.

  7. Transportation of radioactive materials routing analysis: The Nevada experience

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ardila-Coulson, M.V.

    1991-01-01

    In 1987, the Nevada State Legislature passed a Bill requiring the Nevada Dept. of Transportation to develop and enforce a plan for highway routing of highway route controlled quantity shipments of radioactive materials and high-level radioactive waste. A large network with all the major highways in Nevada was created and used in a computer model developed by Sandia National Labs. Twenty-eight highway parameters that included geometrics, traffic characteristics, environment and special facilities were collected. Alternative routes were identified by minimizing primary parameters (population density and accident rates). An analysis using the US DOT Guidelines were performed to identify a preferred route from the alternative routes

  8. Mobility Tolerant Firework Routing for Improving Reachability in MANETs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gen Motoyoshi

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we investigate our mobility-assisted and adaptive broadcast routing mechanism, called Mobility Tolerant Firework Routing (MTFR, which utilizes the concept of potentials for routing and improves node reachability, especially in situations with high mobility, by including a broadcast mechanism. We perform detailed evaluations by simulations in a mobile environment and demonstrate the advantages of MTFR over conventional potential-based routing. In particular, we show that MTFR produces better reachability in many aspects at the expense of a small additional transmission delay and intermediate traffic overhead, making MTFR a promising routing protocol and feasible for future mobile Internet infrastructures.

  9. Theoretical aspects of competitive advantage and competition

    OpenAIRE

    Hudakova, Ivana

    2009-01-01

    The concept of competitive advantage is well-known for many of us and a number of literary resources focused on entrepreneurship and functioning of economies deal with it, either directly or indirectly. The understanding of the term competitive advantage though sometimes varies. One can only perceive it when looking at it as a whole, a live organism that is constantly developing in a complex dynamic entrepreneurial environment, the individual parts of which do not function when separated from...

  10. Routing strategies in traffic network and phase transition in network ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    The dynamics of information traffic over scale-free networks has been investigated systematically. A series of routing strategies of data packets have been proposed, including the local routing strategy, the next-nearest-neighbour routing strategy, and the mixed routing strategy based on local static and dynamic information.

  11. Routing protocols for wireless sensor networks: What the literature says?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amit Sarkar

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs plays a significant role in the field of environment-oriented monitoring, traffic monitoring, etc. Here, wide contributions that are made toward routing in WSN are explored. The paper mainly aims to categorize the routing problems and examines the routing-related optimization problems. For achieving the motive, 50 papers from the standard journals are collected and primarily reviewed in a chronological way. Later, various features that are related to energy, security, speed and reliability problems of routing are discussed. Subsequently, the literature is analyzed based on the simulation environment and experimental setup, awareness over the Quality of Service (QoS and the deployment against various applications. In addition, the optimization of the routing algorithms and the meta-heuristic study of routing optimization are explored. Routing is a vast area with numerous unsolved issues and hence, various research gaps along with future directions are also presented.

  12. Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2011

    OpenAIRE

    2012-01-01

    The NCC publishes two annual competitiveness reports. Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge focuses on the national competitiveness issues of most importance to the enterprise sector and identifies policy recommendations required to address these issues. The report focuses on pursuing policies to improve competitiveness, particularly those to reduce the cost base for enterprise, to enhance the performance of the entire education system, and to deliver meaningful public sector reform. Ireland's ...

  13. An Indirect Route for Ethanol Production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Eggeman, T.; Verser, D.; Weber, E.

    2005-04-29

    The ZeaChem indirect method is a radically new approach to producing fuel ethanol from renewable resources. Sugar and syngas processing platforms are combined in a novel way that allows all fractions of biomass feedstocks (e.g. carbohydrates, lignins, etc.) to contribute their energy directly into the ethanol product via fermentation and hydrogen based chemical process technologies. The goals of this project were: (1) Collect engineering data necessary for scale-up of the indirect route for ethanol production, and (2) Produce process and economic models to guide the development effort. Both goals were successfully accomplished. The projected economics of the Base Case developed in this work are comparable to today's corn based ethanol technology. Sensitivity analysis shows that significant improvements in economics for the indirect route would result if a biomass feedstock rather that starch hydrolyzate were used as the carbohydrate source. The energy ratio, defined as the ratio of green energy produced divided by the amount of fossil energy consumed, is projected to be 3.11 to 12.32 for the indirect route depending upon the details of implementation. Conventional technology has an energy ratio of 1.34, thus the indirect route will have a significant environmental advantage over today's technology. Energy savings of 7.48 trillion Btu/yr will result when 100 MMgal/yr (neat) of ethanol capacity via the indirect route is placed on-line by the year 2010.

  14. Alternative routes to olefins. Chances and challenges

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meiswinkel, A.; Delhomme, C.; Ponceau, M. [Linde AG, Pullach (Germany)

    2013-11-01

    In the future, conventional raw materials which are used for the production of olefins will get shorter and more expensive and alternative raw materials and production routes will gain importance. Natural gas, coal, shale oil or bio-mass are potential sources for the production of olefins, especially ethylene and propylene, as major base chemicals. Several potential production routes were already developed in the past, but cost, energy and environmental considerations might make these unattractive or unfeasible in comparison to traditional processes (e.g. steam cracking). Other processes such as methanol to olefins processes were successfully developed and first commercial units are running. In addition, combination of traditional processes (e.g. coal/biomass gasification, Fischer-Tropsch and steam cracking) might enable new pathways. Besides, dehydration of ethanol is opening direct routes from biomass to 'green' ethylene. However, for these 'bio-routes', feedstock availability and potential land use conflict with food production (sugar cane, wheat,..) still need to be evaluated. finally, new oxidative routes, including processes such as oxidative coupling of methane or oxidative dehydrogenation, are still at an early development stage but present potential for future industrial applications. (orig.) (Published in summary form only)

  15. Privacy-Preserving Interdomain Routing at Internet Scale

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Asharov Gilad

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP computes routes between the organizational networks that make up today’s Internet. Unfortunately, BGP suffers from deficiencies, including slow convergence, security problems, a lack of innovation, and the leakage of sensitive information about domains’ routing preferences. To overcome some of these problems, we revisit the idea of centralizing and using secure multi-party computation (MPC for interdomain routing which was proposed by Gupta et al. (ACM HotNets’12. We implement two algorithms for interdomain routing with state-of-the-art MPC protocols. On an empirically derived dataset that approximates the topology of today’s Internet (55 809 nodes, our protocols take as little as 6 s of topology-independent precomputation and only 3 s of online time. We show, moreover, that when our MPC approach is applied at country/region-level scale, runtimes can be as low as 0.17 s online time and 0.20 s pre-computation time. Our results motivate the MPC approach for interdomain routing and furthermore demonstrate that current MPC techniques are capable of efficiently tackling real-world problems at a large scale.

  16. Analyzing Sustainable Competitive Advantage: Strategically Managing Resource Allocations to Achieve Operational Competitiveness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdul Malek Nurul Aida

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available In today’s dynamic business environment, a key challenge for all companies is to make adaptive adjustments to their manufacturing strategy. This study demonstrates the competitive priorities of manufacturing strategy in hydro-power case company to evaluate the level of sustainable competitive advantage and also to further analyze how business strategies are aligned with manufacturing strategies. This research is based on new holistic analytical evaluation of manufacturing strategy index, sense and respond, and sustainable competitive advantage models. These models help to describe, evaluate, and optimize resource allocation to meet the performance requirements in dynamic decision making. Furthermore, these models evaluate operational competitiveness for manufacturing strategies according to the multi-criteria priority. The results show that the adjustments of competitive priorities in manufacturing strategies by implementing the proposed holistic analytical models are helpful in strategically managing business operations. The discussion derives the most critical attributes in business operations while alignment of resource allocation with competitive priorities help to strategically focus those attributes. In conclusion, we argue that resource allocation and manufacturing strategies have become the most important capabilities in a business environment where companies focus to get a sustainable competitive advantage.

  17. Emission control with route optimization in solid waste collection ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    system is used, route distance and route time will be decreased by 24·6% and. 44·3% as ... Keywords. Exhaust emission; route optimization; solid waste collection; GIS, .... Catchment areas for a sales campaign can be analysed. Customers ...

  18. Benefits Analysis of Multi-Center Dynamic Weather Routes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheth, Kapil; McNally, David; Morando, Alexander; Clymer, Alexis; Lock, Jennifer; Petersen, Julien

    2014-01-01

    Dynamic weather routes are flight plan corrections that can provide airborne flights more than user-specified minutes of flying-time savings, compared to their current flight plan. These routes are computed from the aircraft's current location to a flight plan fix downstream (within a predefined limit region), while avoiding forecasted convective weather regions. The Dynamic Weather Routes automation has been continuously running with live air traffic data for a field evaluation at the American Airlines Integrated Operations Center in Fort Worth, TX since July 31, 2012, where flights within the Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center are evaluated for time savings. This paper extends the methodology to all Centers in United States and presents benefits analysis of Dynamic Weather Routes automation, if it was implemented in multiple airspace Centers individually and concurrently. The current computation of dynamic weather routes requires a limit rectangle so that a downstream capture fix can be selected, preventing very large route changes spanning several Centers. In this paper, first, a method of computing a limit polygon (as opposed to a rectangle used for Fort Worth Center) is described for each of the 20 Centers in the National Airspace System. The Future ATM Concepts Evaluation Tool, a nationwide simulation and analysis tool, is used for this purpose. After a comparison of results with the Center-based Dynamic Weather Routes automation in Fort Worth Center, results are presented for 11 Centers in the contiguous United States. These Centers are generally most impacted by convective weather. A breakdown of individual Center and airline savings is presented and the results indicate an overall average savings of about 10 minutes of flying time are obtained per flight.

  19. Integrating routing decisions in public transportation problems

    CERN Document Server

    Schmidt, Marie E

    2014-01-01

    This book treats three planning problems arising in public railway transportation planning: line planning, timetabling, and delay management, with the objective to minimize passengers’ travel time. While many optimization approaches simplify these problems by assuming that passengers’ route choice is independent of the solution, this book focuses on models which take into account that passengers will adapt their travel route to the implemented planning solution. That is, a planning solution and passengers’ routes are determined and evaluated simultaneously. This work is technically deep, with insightful findings regarding complexity and algorithmic approaches to public transportation problems with integrated passenger routing. It is intended for researchers in the fields of mathematics, computer science, or operations research, working in the field of public transportation from an optimization standpoint. It is also ideal for students who want to gain intuition and experience in doing complexity proofs ...

  20. Competitive differentiation through brand extensions in the era of hyper competition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudiu-Catalin Munteanu

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available In the era of hyper competition, competitive differentiation has become increasingly important. Brand extensions are used by companies across various industries for competitive differentiation. But in the era of hyper competition, a successful differentiation strategy requires that a brand emphasizes on uniqueness rather than commoditization. In this article, we make a case for creating a meaningful differentiation strategy. We emphasize the role of brand extensions for competitive differentiation and highlight the main perils of using brand extensions as a primary differentiation strategy. By using qualitative research, we identify primary objectives for brand extensions in practice. This investigation uses in-depth interviews with 14 senior brand managers across various industries to highlight brand portfolio strategies in relation to the brand differentiation strategy. Findings reveal that for business at the base of the pyramid, in markets such as Romania, brand managers are using brand extensions to increase sales or to boost short-term revenue rather than to implement a coherent differentiation strategy. We conclude with multiple recommendations for improving brand extension usage as a strategic instrument for creating meaningful differentiation in the era of hyper competition.

  1. Getting Competitive: Competitive Intelligence Is a Smart next Step for Information Pros

    Science.gov (United States)

    Correia, Cynthia Cheng

    2006-01-01

    Competitive Intelligence (CI) has become an attractive concept for Library and Information Science professionals, as information and research functions have become commoditized by end users, and financial, competitive, and performance pressures increase the need to demonstrate value. In the current competitive and cost-cutting environment,…

  2. On the vehicle routing problem with time windows

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kallehauge, Brian

    2006-01-01

    . The fourth and final paper ‘Vehicle routing problem with time windows’ (Kallehauge, Larsen, Madsen, and Solomon. In Desaulniers, Desrosiers, and Solomon, editors, Column generation, pages 67-98, Springer, New York, 2005) is a contribution to a book on column generation edited by G. Desaulniers, J. Desrosiers......The vehicle routing problem with time windows is concerned with the optimal routing of a fleet of vehicles between a depot and a number of customers that must be visited within a specified time interval, called a time window. The purpose of this thesis is to develop new and efficient solution...... techniques for solving the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW). The thesis consists of a section of introductory remarks and four independent papers. The first paper ‘Formulations and exact approaches for the vehicle routing problem with time windows’ (Kallehauge, 2005, unpublished) is a review...

  3. Improved Efficient Routing Strategy on Scale-Free Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Zhong-Yuan; Liang, Man-Gui

    Since the betweenness of nodes in complex networks can theoretically represent the traffic load of nodes under the currently used routing strategy, we propose an improved efficient (IE) routing strategy to enhance to the network traffic capacity based on the betweenness centrality. Any node with the highest betweenness is susceptible to traffic congestion. An efficient way to improve the network traffic capacity is to redistribute the heavy traffic load from these central nodes to non-central nodes, so in this paper, we firstly give a path cost function by considering the sum of node betweenness with a tunable parameter β along the actual path. Then, by minimizing the path cost, our IE routing strategy achieved obvious improvement on the network transport efficiency. Simulations on scale-free Barabási-Albert (BA) networks confirmed the effectiveness of our strategy, when compared with the efficient routing (ER) and the shortest path (SP) routing.

  4. Routing Optimization of Intelligent Vehicle in Automated Warehouse

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yan-cong Zhou

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Routing optimization is a key technology in the intelligent warehouse logistics. In order to get an optimal route for warehouse intelligent vehicle, routing optimization in complex global dynamic environment is studied. A new evolutionary ant colony algorithm based on RFID and knowledge-refinement is proposed. The new algorithm gets environmental information timely through the RFID technology and updates the environment map at the same time. It adopts elite ant kept, fallback, and pheromones limitation adjustment strategy. The current optimal route in population space is optimized based on experiential knowledge. The experimental results show that the new algorithm has higher convergence speed and can jump out the U-type or V-type obstacle traps easily. It can also find the global optimal route or approximate optimal one with higher probability in the complex dynamic environment. The new algorithm is proved feasible and effective by simulation results.

  5. OSM-ORIENTED METHOD OF MULTIMODAL ROUTE PLANNING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    X. Li

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available With the increasing pervasiveness of basic facilitate of transportation and information, the need of multimodal route planning is becoming more essential in the fields of communication and transportation, urban planning, logistics management, etc. This article mainly described an OSM-oriented method of multimodal route planning. Firstly, it introduced how to extract the information we need from OSM data and build proper network model and storage model; then it analysed the accustomed cost standard adopted by most travellers; finally, we used shortest path algorithm to calculate the best route with multiple traffic means.

  6. Multifactor-Driven Hierarchical Routing on Enterprise Service Bus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mi, Xueqiang; Tang, Xinhuai; Yuan, Xiaozhou; Chen, Delai; Luo, Xiangfeng

    Message Routing is the foremost functionality on Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), but current ESB products don't provide an expected solution for it, especially in the aspects of runtime route change mechanism and service orchestration model. In order to solve the above drawbacks, this paper proposes a multifactor-driven hierarchical routing (MDHR) model. MDHR defines three layers for message routing on ESB. Message layer gives the original support for message delivery. Application layer can integration or encapsulate some legacy applications or un-standard services. Business layer introduces business model to supplies developers with a business rule configuration, which supports enterprise integration patterns and simplifies the service orchestration on ESB.

  7. The Competitive Perception

    OpenAIRE

    Lima, João Tiago

    2012-01-01

    This paper aims to define what competitive perception is. Using Dufrenne’s phenomenological analysis of the art spectator’s experience, namely the concept of aesthetic perception, I will claim that it is useful to apply this phenomenological approach to the experience of watching sport events. I will argue that the concepts of uncertainty and auto teleology, being two main features in sport competition, are helpful to define competitive perception.

  8. A Survey of Routing Protocols in Wireless Body Sensor Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bangash, Javed Iqbal; Abdullah, Abdul Hanan; Anisi, Mohammad Hossein; Khan, Abdul Waheed

    2014-01-01

    Wireless Body Sensor Networks (WBSNs) constitute a subset of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) responsible for monitoring vital sign-related data of patients and accordingly route this data towards a sink. In routing sensed data towards sinks, WBSNs face some of the same routing challenges as general WSNs, but the unique requirements of WBSNs impose some more constraints that need to be addressed by the routing mechanisms. This paper identifies various issues and challenges in pursuit of effective routing in WBSNs. Furthermore, it provides a detailed literature review of the various existing routing protocols used in the WBSN domain by discussing their strengths and weaknesses. PMID:24419163

  9. ANALYSIS OF COMPETITION INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. O. Egorova

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper analyzed and systematized the definition of "competition" proposed by domestic and foreign scholars in the field of strategic management, based on these discovered and refined essence of the concept of "competition". We consider the price and non-price competition. Examples are given of the methods of competition used in the practice of industrial activities. Substantiated that the forms and methods of competition must be constantly improved through the search for new competitive advantages.

  10. Exploring en-route parking type and parking-search route choice

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kaplan, Sigal; Bekhor, Sholomo

    2011-01-01

    This paper describes the first phase of an on-going research investigating the joint choice of parking type, parking facility and cruising-for-parking route. The importance of this issue derives from the significant share of cruising-for-parking traffic in urban areas, the relevance of parking po...

  11. Applications of RADTRAN 4 to route-specific analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Neuhauser, Sieglinde; Weiner, Ruth F.

    1992-01-01

    The transportation risk evaluation code RADTRAN 4 is designed to evaluate doses and risks associated with the transportation of radioactive materials. RADTRAN 4 may be used to calculate dose consequences for incident- free transportation and dose risks for accidents. Consequences of normal (or incident-free) transportation include doses to crew members, persons at stops, and members of the public sharing a route segment (on-link) and residing near the segment (off-link) during normal transportation. These dose estimates are not multiplied by a probability factor and, hence, are referred to as dose consequences. Calculated doses that might be incurred during accidents arc multiplied by the probabilities of those accidents, and hence are referred to as dose risks. RADTRAN 4 includes a LINK option that allows the user to characterize each link or segment of a transportation route in greater detail than that provided by average or default values for route-related parameters. The LINK option increases the flexibility of the code in several ways: LINK allows the same route segment to be evaluated under a variety of conditions. This capability may be used to prepare environmental documentation and to evaluate alternative routes under V.S. Department of Transportation Docket HM-164 (49 CFR 171-177); LINK capability may be used to assess the impact of projected population shifts on transportation routes; LINK facilitates comparison of the national average data included as defaults in RADTRAN with available 'route-specific' data. (author)

  12. Competition in energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haynes, Warren

    1995-01-01

    With changes occurring within both the gas and electricity industries and both sectors undergoing simultaneous reforms at the State and national levels it is timely to look at some major aspects of the energy-reform processes in Australia and to attempt to offer some perspectives from the viewpoint of an industry user of energy. From an industry user's viewpoint there is quantifiable evidence that competition in the energy sector will deliver major economic benefits to industry and the nation. The reform process currently in train will increase Australia's international competitiveness. Commonwealth-State collaboration is useful on economic issues which require a national consistent approach. Many significant and complex arrangement apply to the gas and electricity sectors which add to the complexity of the respective reform processes. More competitive arrangements are therefore required more quickly at several stages of the gas-sector reform process, such as in the commercialization of government utilities, resolving the issue of third-party transmission pricing, and the removal of State governments' impediments to competitive trading. The Hilmer Report on National Competition Policy will help deal with some difficult structural and transitional issues, e.g. third-party access, competitive structures, regulatory regimes, and a consistent national approach.(author). 1 fig., 1 photo

  13. Architectural Competition and BIM

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, Nils Lykke; Frandsen, Anne Kathrine; Øien, Turid Borgestrand

    2015-01-01

    on architecturalcompetitions, a series of interviews was conducted with building clients as well as architects, focusing on the impact of the above-mentioned changes within the building sector on architectural competitions as an institution. In the interviews, ICT and notleast BIM was a recurring theme that both parties saw...... as having a positive impact on competitions. But when looking closely into the answers, these revealed diverse understandings of how and why the impact of BIM on competitions could be said to be positive. The paper sheds light on the interaction between the actors (building clients, architects and client...... consultants) and the applied technologies (competition forms, ICT tools, directives) in architectural competitions in a theoretical actor-network perspective. The diverging understandings of the role of BIM are demonstrating one of many negotiations in progress in the network of architectural competitions...

  14. Zupta's Next Nightmare: The South African Local Government Elections of 3 August 2016

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ulf Engel

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available On 3 August 2016 South Africa held its fifth local government elections (LGE since the end of Apartheid in 1994. Against a backdrop of increasing political frustration with the ruling party’s poor performance and continued debates about corruption and cronyism in the highest government circles, the African National Congress (ANC maintained its dominant position but lost 8 per cent of the aggregate vote (53.91 per cent. The Democratic Alliance (DA gained some 3 per cent (26.89 per cent of the vote, and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF, first-time LGE campaigners, garnered 8.02 per cent. Importantly, the ANC lost control of three of the seven big metropolitan municipalities it had previously held. Since there was no clear-cut majority in four of the eight metros, coalition politics and the art of compromise will become a major feature of South African politics in the coming years. The elections were highly competitive and considered free and fair. At 57.97 per cent, voter turnout was slightly higher than in 2011.

  15. Link reliability based hybrid routing for tactical mobile ad hoc network

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Xie Xiaochuan; Wei Gang; Wu Keping; Wang Gang; Jia Shilou

    2008-01-01

    Tactical mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a collection of mobile nodes forming a temporary network,without the aid of pre-established network infrastructure. The routing protocol has a crucial impact on the networkperformance in battlefields. Link reliability based hybrid routing (LRHR) is proposed, which is a novel hybrid routing protocol, for tactical MANET. Contrary to the traditional single path routing strategy, multiple paths are established between a pair of source-destination nodes. In the hybrid routing strategy, the rate of topological change provides a natural mechanism for switching dynamically between table-driven and on-demand routing. The simulation results indicate that the performances of the protocol in packet delivery ratio, routing overhead, and average end-to-end delay are better than the conventional routing protocol.

  16. Quality and Competition

    OpenAIRE

    Rajiv D. Banker; Inder Khosla; Kingshuk K. Sinha

    1998-01-01

    In recent years, the practitioner literature in operations management has seen a dramatic surge in articles on quality management. It reflects the increased emphasis on quality by U.S. firms, which has been attributed largely to increased competition faced by them. The question of how quality is influenced by competitive intensity, however, has not received much attention, either in the practitioner or the academic research literatures. The notion of competitive intensity itself has not been ...

  17. OSPF-TE Extensions for Green Routing in Optical Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wang, Jiayuan; Ricciardi, S.; Fagertun, Anna Manolova

    2012-01-01

    This paper proposes extensions to the OSPF-TE protocol to enable green routing in GMPLS-controlled optical networks. Simulation results show a remarkable reduction in CO2 emissions by preferring network elements powered by green energy sources in the connection routing.......This paper proposes extensions to the OSPF-TE protocol to enable green routing in GMPLS-controlled optical networks. Simulation results show a remarkable reduction in CO2 emissions by preferring network elements powered by green energy sources in the connection routing....

  18. Bluetongue Disabled Infectious Single Animal (DISA) vaccine: Studies on the optimal route and dose in sheep.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Rijn, Piet A; Daus, Franz J; Maris-Veldhuis, Mieke A; Feenstra, Femke; van Gennip, René G P

    2017-01-05

    Bluetongue (BT) is a disease of ruminants caused by bluetongue virus (BTV) transmitted by biting midges of the Culicoides genus. Outbreaks have been controlled successfully by vaccination, however, currently available BT vaccines have several shortcomings. Recently, we have developed BT Disabled Infectious Single Animal (DISA) vaccines based on live-attenuated BTV without expression of dispensable non-structural NS3/NS3a protein. DISA vaccines are non-pathogenic replicating vaccines, do not cause viremia, enable DIVA and are highly protective. NS3/NS3a protein is involved in virus release, cytopathogenic effect and suppression of Interferon-I induction, suggesting that the vaccination route can be of importance. A standardized dose of DISA vaccine for serotype 8 has successfully been tested by subcutaneous vaccination. We show that 10 and 100times dilutions of this previously tested dose did not reduce the VP7 humoral response. Further, the vaccination route of DISA vaccine strongly determined the induction of VP7 directed antibodies (Abs). Intravenous vaccination induced high and prolonged humoral response but is not practical in field situations. VP7 seroconversion was stronger by intramuscular vaccination than by subcutaneous vaccination. For both vaccination routes and for two different DISA vaccine backbones, IgM Abs were rapidly induced but declined after 14days post vaccination (dpv), whereas the IgG response was slower. Interestingly, intramuscular vaccination resulted in an initial peak followed by a decline up to 21dpv and then increased again. This second increase is a steady and continuous increase of IgG Abs. These results indicate that intramuscular vaccination is the optimal route. The protective dose of DISA vaccine has not been determined yet, but it is expected to be significantly lower than of currently used BT vaccines. Therefore, in addition to the advantages of improved safety and DIVA compatibility, the novel DISA vaccines will be cost-competitive

  19. Computer-based route-definition system for peripheral bronchoscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graham, Michael W; Gibbs, Jason D; Higgins, William E

    2012-04-01

    Multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) scanners produce high-resolution images of the chest. Given a patient's MDCT scan, a physician can use an image-guided intervention system to first plan and later perform bronchoscopy to diagnostic sites situated deep in the lung periphery. An accurate definition of complete routes through the airway tree leading to the diagnostic sites, however, is vital for avoiding navigation errors during image-guided bronchoscopy. We present a system for the robust definition of complete airway routes suitable for image-guided bronchoscopy. The system incorporates both automatic and semiautomatic MDCT analysis methods for this purpose. Using an intuitive graphical user interface, the user invokes automatic analysis on a patient's MDCT scan to produce a series of preliminary routes. Next, the user visually inspects each route and quickly corrects the observed route defects using the built-in semiautomatic methods. Application of the system to a human study for the planning and guidance of peripheral bronchoscopy demonstrates the efficacy of the system.

  20. Can Competition Keep the Restrooms Clean? Price, Quality and Spatial Competition

    OpenAIRE

    Pennerstorfer, Dieter

    2017-01-01

    This article investigates the influence of competition on price and product quality among Austrian camping sites, a market characterized by both horizontal (spatial) and vertical product differentiation. Theoretically, the effect of competition on quality is ambiguous and depends on the degree of cost substitutability between output and quality. Estimating a system of equations shows that intense competition has a positive impact on product quality and a negative effect on prices (conditional...

  1. Competition for Assistance Agreements

    Science.gov (United States)

    It is EPA policy to promote competition in the award of assistance agreements to the maximum extent practicable.When assistance agreements are awarded competitively, it is EPA policy that the competitive process be fair and open & that no applicant receive

  2. Simple relationship between the virial-route hypernetted-chain and the compressibility-route Percus-Yevick values of the fourth virial coefficient.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santos, Andrés; Manzano, Gema

    2010-04-14

    As is well known, approximate integral equations for liquids, such as the hypernetted chain (HNC) and Percus-Yevick (PY) theories, are in general thermodynamically inconsistent in the sense that the macroscopic properties obtained from the spatial correlation functions depend on the route followed. In particular, the values of the fourth virial coefficient B(4) predicted by the HNC and PY approximations via the virial route differ from those obtained via the compressibility route. Despite this, it is shown in this paper that the value of B(4) obtained from the virial route in the HNC theory is exactly three halves the value obtained from the compressibility route in the PY theory, irrespective of the interaction potential (whether isotropic or not), the number of components, and the dimensionality of the system. This simple relationship is confirmed in one-component systems by analytical results for the one-dimensional penetrable-square-well model and the three-dimensional penetrable-sphere model, as well as by numerical results for the one-dimensional Lennard-Jones model, the one-dimensional Gaussian core model, and the three-dimensional square-well model.

  3. Deduction of passengers' route choice from smart card data

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van Der Hurk, Evelien; Kroon, Leo; Maroti, Gabor; Vervest, Peter

    2013-01-01

    Deducing passengers' route choice from smart card data provides public transport operators the opportunity to evaluate passenger service. Especially in case of disruptions when route choice models may not be valid this is an advantage. This paper proposes a method for deducing the chosen route of

  4. Fast reactor calculational route for Pu burning core design

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hunter, S. [Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp., Oarai, Ibaraki (Japan). Oarai Engineering Center

    1998-01-01

    This document provides a description of a calculational route, used in the Reactor Physics Research Section for sensitivity studies and initial design optimization calculations for fast reactor cores. The main purpose in producing this document was to provide a description of and user guides to the calculational methods, in English, as an aid to any future user of the calculational route who is (like the author) handicapped by a lack of literacy in Japanese. The document also provides for all users a compilation of information on the various parts of the calculational route, all in a single reference. In using the calculational route (to model Pu burning reactors) the author identified a number of areas where an improvement in the modelling of the standard calculational route was warranted. The document includes comments on and explanations of the modelling assumptions in the various calculations. Practical information on the use of the calculational route and the computer systems is also given. (J.P.N.)

  5. QoS and energy aware cooperative routing protocol for wildfire monitoring wireless sensor networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maalej, Mohamed; Cherif, Sofiane; Besbes, Hichem

    2013-01-01

    Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are presented as proper solution for wildfire monitoring. However, this application requires a design of WSN taking into account the network lifetime and the shadowing effect generated by the trees in the forest environment. Cooperative communication is a promising solution for WSN which uses, at each hop, the resources of multiple nodes to transmit its data. Thus, by sharing resources between nodes, the transmission quality is enhanced. In this paper, we use the technique of reinforcement learning by opponent modeling, optimizing a cooperative communication protocol based on RSSI and node energy consumption in a competitive context (RSSI/energy-CC), that is, an energy and quality-of-service aware-based cooperative communication routing protocol. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm performs well in terms of network lifetime, packet delay, and energy consumption.

  6. JOINT OPTIMIZATION OF PRODUCTION PLANNING AND VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEMS: A REVIEW OF EXISTING STRATEGIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marc Reimann

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Keen competition and increasingly demanding customers have forced companies to use their resources more efficiently and to integrate production and transportation planning. In the last few years more and more researchers have also focused on this challenging problem by trying to determine the complexity of the individual problems and then developing fast and robust algorithms to solve them. This paper reviews existing literature on integrated production and distribution decisions at the tactical and operational level, where the distribution part is modelled as some variation of the well-known Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP. The focus is thereby on problems that explicitly consider deliveries to multiple clients in a less-than-truckload fashion. In terms of the production decisions we distinguish in our review between tactical and operational production problems by considering lot-sizing/capacity allocation and scheduling models, respectively.

  7. The relative importance of seed competition, resource competition and perturbations on community structure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Bohn

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available While the regional climate is the primary selection pressure for whether a plant strategy can survive, however, competitive interactions strongly affect the relative abundances of plant strategies within communities. Here, we investigate the relative importance of competition and perturbations on the development of vegetation community structure. To do so, we develop DIVE (Dynamics and Interactions of VEgetation, a simple general model that links plant strategies to their competitive dynamics, using growth and reproduction characteristics that emerge from climatic constraints. The model calculates population dynamics based on establishment, mortality, invasion and exclusion in the presence of different strengths of perturbations, seed and resource competition. The highest levels of diversity were found in simulations without competition as long as mortality is not too high. However, reasonable successional dynamics were only achieved when resource competition is considered. Under high levels of competition, intermediate levels of perturbations were required to obtain coexistence. Since succession and coexistence are observed in plant communities, we conclude that the DIVE model with competition and intermediate levels of perturbation represents an adequate way to model population dynamics. Because of the simplicity and generality of DIVE, it could be used to understand vegetation structure and functioning at the global scale and the response of vegetation to global change.

  8. SET-Routes programme

    CERN Multimedia

    Marietta Schupp, EMBL Photolab

    2008-01-01

    Dr Sabine Hentze, specialist in human genetics, giving an Insight Lecture entitled "Human Genetics – Diagnostics, Indications and Ethical Issues" on 23 September 2008 at EMBL Heidelberg. Activities in a achool in Budapest during a visit of Angela Bekesi, Ambassadors for the SET-Routes programme.

  9. Can competition reduce quality?

    OpenAIRE

    Brekke, Kurt; Siciliani, Luigi; Straume, Odd Rune

    2017-01-01

    In a spatial competition setting there is usually a non-negative relationship between competition and quality. In this paper we offer a novel mechanism whereby competition leads to lower quality. This mechanism relies on two key assumptions, namely that the providers are motivated and risk-averse. We show that the negative relationship between competition and quality is robust to any given number of firms in the market and whether quality and price decisions are simultaneous or sequential. We...

  10. Competition Policy in Malaysia

    OpenAIRE

    Lee, Cassey

    2004-01-01

    Malaysia does not have a national competition law. Competition is regulated at the sectoral level in the country. Two economic sectors have legal provisions for competition law but these have been relatively ineffectively enforced. The benefits of Malaysia's industrial policy as well as the policy reforms in regulation and trade have been compromised by the lack of a formal institution to address competition related issues. Hence, the future priority and direction of regulatory reform is obvi...

  11. Competitive strategy : Sorrin Puutarha

    OpenAIRE

    Haaristo, Emilia

    2010-01-01

    The thesis handles the fresh food product industry in Finland and especially one company operating in the industry and its competitive position. Sorrin Puutarha manufactures ready-to-use fresh cut salad bag, which is sold in the grocery stores. The objective of the thesis was to find competitive advantages of the case company. Once the competitive advantages were identified the purpose was to choose a fitting competitive strategy that would strengthen those advantages. The field study was con...

  12. A model of ant route navigation driven by scene familiarity.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bart Baddeley

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we propose a model of visually guided route navigation in ants that captures the known properties of real behaviour whilst retaining mechanistic simplicity and thus biological plausibility. For an ant, the coupling of movement and viewing direction means that a familiar view specifies a familiar direction of movement. Since the views experienced along a habitual route will be more familiar, route navigation can be re-cast as a search for familiar views. This search can be performed with a simple scanning routine, a behaviour that ants have been observed to perform. We test this proposed route navigation strategy in simulation, by learning a series of routes through visually cluttered environments consisting of objects that are only distinguishable as silhouettes against the sky. In the first instance we determine view familiarity by exhaustive comparison with the set of views experienced during training. In further experiments we train an artificial neural network to perform familiarity discrimination using the training views. Our results indicate that, not only is the approach successful, but also that the routes that are learnt show many of the characteristics of the routes of desert ants. As such, we believe the model represents the only detailed and complete model of insect route guidance to date. What is more, the model provides a general demonstration that visually guided routes can be produced with parsimonious mechanisms that do not specify when or what to learn, nor separate routes into sequences of waypoints.

  13. A Method for Driving Route Predictions Based on Hidden Markov Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ning Ye

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available We present a driving route prediction method that is based on Hidden Markov Model (HMM. This method can accurately predict a vehicle’s entire route as early in a trip’s lifetime as possible without inputting origins and destinations beforehand. Firstly, we propose the route recommendation system architecture, where route predictions play important role in the system. Secondly, we define a road network model, normalize each of driving routes in the rectangular coordinate system, and build the HMM to make preparation for route predictions using a method of training set extension based on K-means++ and the add-one (Laplace smoothing technique. Thirdly, we present the route prediction algorithm. Finally, the experimental results of the effectiveness of the route predictions that is based on HMM are shown.

  14. A Cross-Layer Route Discovery Framework for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wu Jieyi

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Most reactive routing protocols in MANETs employ a random delay between rebroadcasting route requests (RREQ in order to avoid "broadcast storms." However this can lead to problems such as "next hop racing" and "rebroadcast redundancy." In addition to this, existing routing protocols for MANETs usually take a single routing strategy for all flows. This may lead to inefficient use of resources. In this paper we propose a cross-layer route discovery framework (CRDF to address these problems by exploiting the cross-layer information. CRDF solves the above problems efficiently and enables a new technique: routing strategy automation (RoSAuto. RoSAuto refers to the technique that each source node automatically decides the routing strategy based on the application requirements and each intermediate node further adapts the routing strategy so that the network resource usage can be optimized. To demonstrate the effectiveness and the efficiency of CRDF, we design and evaluate a macrobian route discovery strategy under CRDF.

  15. Proxies for Anonymous Routing

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Reed, Michael G; Syverson, Paul F; Goldschlag, David M

    1996-01-01

    ...), and file transfers (FTP) have been implemented. Onion routing provides application independent, real-time, and bi-directional anonymous connections that are resistant to both eavesdropping and traffic analysis...

  16. Vacuum-thermal-evaporation: the route for roll-to-roll production of large-area organic electronic circuits

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Taylor, D M

    2015-01-01

    Surprisingly little consideration is apparently being given to vacuum-evaporation as the route for the roll-to-roll (R2R) production of large-area organic electronic circuits. While considerable progress has been made by combining silicon lithographic approaches with solution processing, it is not obvious that these will be compatible with a low-cost, high-speed R2R process. Most efforts at achieving this ambition are directed at conventional solution printing approaches such as inkjet and gravure. This is surprising considering that vacuum-evaporation of organic semiconductors (OSCs) is already used commercially in the production of organic light emitting diode displays. Beginning from a discussion of the materials and geometrical parameters determining transistor performance and drawing on results from numerous publications, this review makes a case for vacuum-evaporation as an enabler of R2R organic circuit production. The potential of the vacuum route is benchmarked against solution approaches and found to be highly competitive. For example, evaporated small molecules tend to have higher mobility than printed OSCs. High resolution metal patterning on plastic films is already a low-cost commercial process for high-volume packaging applications. Similarly, solvent-free flash-evaporation and polymerization of thin films on plastic substrates is also a high-volume commercial process and has been shown capable of producing robust gate dielectrics. Reports of basic logic circuit elements produced in a vacuum R2R environment are reviewed and shown to be superior to all-solution printing approaches. Finally, the main issues that need to be resolved in order to fully develop the vacuum route to R2R circuit production are highlighted. (paper)

  17. Using Patent Development, Education Policy and Research and Development Expenditure Policy to Increase Technological Competitiveness of Small European Union Member States

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ferraro Simona

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative will open new trade routes between China and the European Union (EU and increase competition pressures on smaller EU member states. This article ranks where states like Estonia stand internationally in terms of innovativeness (and consequent competitiveness by conducting an econometric study of patent development, education policy and research and development (R&D expenditure policy. The authors claim that small member states such as Estonia should follow the example of countries such as Germany and adopt policies which focus more on increased public spending on R&D and innovation in public universities of science and technology, and raise support for high tech startups with a strong focus on international patenting. Member States must go further and subsidise R&D activities by focusing, inter alia, on filing of foreign patents such as triadic patents.

  18. Competitive societies are happy if the women are less competitive than the men

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van de Vliert, E.; Janssen, O.

    2002-01-01

    Societies are less happy to the extent that their members are more competitive. A 42-nation regression study, based on aggregated indicators of female competitiveness, male competitiveness, four components of happiness, and national development restricts this negative cultural link between overall

  19. Introducing radiality constraints in capacitated location-routing problems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eliana Mirledy Toro Ocampo

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we introduce a unified mathematical formulation for the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP and for the Capacitated Location Routing Problem (CLRP, adopting radiality constraints in order to guarantee valid routes and eliminate subtours. This idea is inspired by formulations already employed in electric power distribution networks, which requires a radial topology in its operation. The results show that the proposed formulation greatly improves the convergence of the solver.

  20. An improved AODV routing protocol based on tower structure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Yong Qiang

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper proposed a new routing protocol(IAODV based on tower structure in the Ad Hoc network for the problem which Location Routing Protocol need hardware and Complex algorithm. By the simulation, The complexity of the new routing protocol is reduced without reducing the performance of the network.

  1. Delay Management with Re-Routing of Passengers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    T.A.B. Dollevoet (Twan); D. Huisman (Dennis); M.E. Schmidt (Marie); A. Schöbel (Anita)

    2010-01-01

    textabstractThe question of delay management is whether trains should wait for a delayed feeder train or should depart on time. In classical delay management models passengers always take their originally planned route. In this paper, we propose a model where re-routing of passengers is

  2. Joint route planning under varying market conditions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cruijssen, Frans; Bräysy, Olli; Dullaert, Wout; Fleuren, Hein; Salomon, Marc

    2007-01-01

    Purpose - To provide empirical evidence on the level of savings that can be attained by joint route planning and how these savings depend on specific market characteristics. Design/methodology/approach - Joint route planning is a measure that companies can take to decrease the costs of their

  3. The State of Competition and the Competition Regime of Ethiopia ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    The socialist regime's economic policies are further compounding the problems that businesses face. ... This project seeks to investigate the barriers to competition, the potential gaps in Ethiopia's revised competition law (Trade Practices Proclamation), and the possible challenges that ... Bulletin de BRAS - Janvier 2018.

  4. The Competitive Advantages of Retail Enterprises: the Factor and the Result of Competitive Relations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chorna Maryna V.

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The article is aimed at systematization and development of a conceptual-categorical apparatus of the essence of competitive advantages. The approaches to their interpretation have been allocated. The essential characteristics and stages of the life cycle of competitive advantages are considered. As active stages it is suggested to consider the following: formation, implementation, and development. The basic properties of competitive advantages such as dual character have been substantiated and supplemented. Both the factor and the effective nature of competitive advantages are characterized. On the basis of the mentioned approaches together with the identified features, a definition of the concept of «competitive advantages» as economic category has been proposed. Its use as a base along with taking into consideration the functional specificity of trade enterprises has allowed: clarifying the essence of competitive advantages of retail enterprises; suggesting their definition as a factor and as a result of competitive relations. The identification of dual character will increase the possibilities to assess competitive advantages. Prospects for further researches in this direction are connected with allocating of peculiarities and kinds of competitive advantages of retail trade enterprises with the purpose of increasing the of validity of decisions on their formation, implementation, and development.

  5. Many routes leading to Rome: Potential causes for the multi-route migration system of Red Knots Calidris canutus islandica

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bauer, S.; Ens, B.J.; Klaassen, M.R.J.

    2010-01-01

    Migrants, such as birds or representatives of other taxa, usually make use of several stopover sites to cover the distance between their site of origin and destination. Potentially, multiple routes exist, but often little is known about the causes and consequences of alternative migration routes.

  6. A novel insight into beaconless geo-routing

    KAUST Repository

    Bader, Ahmed

    2012-12-01

    Beaconless geo-routing protocols have been traditionally analyzed assuming equal communication ranges for the data and control packets. This is not true in reality, since the communication range is in practice function of the packet length. As a consequence, a substantial discrepancy may exist between analytical and empirical results offered in beaconless geo-routing literature. Furthermore, performance of beaconless geo-routing protocols has typically considered using single-hop metrics only. End-to-end performance is considered in literature only occasionally and mainly in terms of simulation only. In this paper, we re-examine this class of protocols. We first incorporate practical packet detection models in order to capture the dependency of the communication range on the packet\\'s length. We then develop a detailed analytical framework for the end-to-end delay and energy performance of beaconless geo-routing protocols. Finally, we present two different application scenarios and study various tradeoffs in light of the framework developed. © 2012 IEEE.

  7. Location-Aided Reliable Routing for Opportunistic Networks

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Yong Yang; Zhi Ren; Jibi Li

    2012-01-01

    In our study, we investigate the problem of location-based routing in opportunistic networks. Due to the uncertainty of end-to-end paths between sources and destinations, the classical location-based ad hoc routing protocols cannot adapt to the environment of opportunistic networks, which leads to the decrease of the delivery rate of data. To address it, we propose in this paper a novel location-aided routing protocol which is suitable for opportunistic networks. In our protocol, a node can send location information on demand by using prediction mechanism, and when sending a data packet, the node chooses multiple neighbors which are closer to the destination as next hops. If the candidate neighbors do not exist, the node carries the data till it meets a proper neighbor or the destination. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that our proposed protocol outperforms DREAM (Distance Routing Effect Protocol Mobility) and one of its improved versions, BFDREAM (Boundary Forwarding DREAM), in terms of the delivery rate and overhead.

  8. Coordinated Platoon Routing in a Metropolitan Network

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Larson, Jeffrey; Munson, Todd; Sokolov, Vadim

    2016-10-10

    Platooning vehicles—connected and automated vehicles traveling with small intervehicle distances—use less fuel because of reduced aerodynamic drag. Given a network de- fined by vertex and edge sets and a set of vehicles with origin/destination nodes/times, we model and solve the combinatorial optimization problem of coordinated routing of vehicles in a manner that routes them to their destination on time while using the least amount of fuel. Common approaches decompose the platoon coordination and vehicle routing into separate problems. Our model addresses both problems simultaneously to obtain the best solution. We use modern modeling techniques and constraints implied from analyzing the platoon routing problem to address larger numbers of vehicles and larger networks than previously considered. While the numerical method used is unable to certify optimality for candidate solutions to all networks and parameters considered, we obtain excellent solutions in approximately one minute for much larger networks and vehicle sets than previously considered in the literature.

  9. REGULATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF COMPETITION POLICY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liviana Andreea Niminet

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Competition policy starts by shaping a legislative framework. This is aimed to establish boundaries for conducting competition and also sets limits of licit and illicit demarcation, for competitive and anticompetitive practices. The Romanian Competition Law has a divalent approach and it aims to provide specific behavioral conditions in order to stimulate and protect free-market competition, with the ultimate goal of developing a balanced, efficient and competitive economy. Our country’s Competition policy is based on punishing the behavior. There are three such types of anti-competitive behavior, namely: agreements between undertakings, abuse of dominant position and mergers and other concentrations between undertakings. Recent Practice proved that this “enforcement-conduct-punishment” structure is not necessary the best way to address competition and it is high time for authorities to switch both regulation and enforcement of competition from the “classical perspective” towards concepts like “competition advocacy” and “soft power” and give competition policy a new, reshaped face.

  10. Characterization of Static/Dynamic Topological Routing For Grid Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gutierrez Lopez, Jose Manuel; Cuevas, Ruben; Riaz, M. Tahir

    2009-01-01

    Grid or 2D Mesh structures are becoming one of the most attractive network topologies to study. They can be used in many different fields raging from future broadband networks to multiprocessors structures. In addition, the high requirements of future services and applications demand more flexible...... and adaptive networks. Topological routing in grid networks is a simple and efficient alternative to traditional routing techniques, e.g. routing tables, and the paper extends this kind of routing providing a "Dynamic" attribute. This new property attempts to improve the overall network performance for future...

  11. PRICES IN COMPETITIVE SYSTEM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    VADUVA MARIA

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Regularities of competitive market determine rules for determining prices and their dynamics. Orientation prices to competition (competitive pricing is the strategy most frequently used in countries with market economies and especially for exports. Moreover, in an economy dominated by market competition it cannot be ignored without certain risks the prices resulting from competition between products bidders. Companies that use this type of strategy seek to maintain a level of prices linked to that charged by other competitors (or exporting producers generally no longer covering production costs or demand, relying on the assumption that the average market price is a reasonable basis of costs. But the way how practical guidance and reporting to the competition in every price strategy, will be determined by the company's market position, by the available power and enjoyed prestige, objectives and prospects of its market share etc. according to these elements, there may be several versions of pricing strategies oriented to competitors.

  12. Changes in Subjective Sleep Quality Before a Competition and Their Relation to Competitive Anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ehrlenspiel, Felix; Erlacher, Daniel; Ziegler, Matthias

    2016-12-09

    The aim of this study was to examine the effects of competitions on subjective sleep quality. Previous studies have been inconclusive and lack differentiated and standardized measurements of subjective sleep quality. Furthermore the temporal relation between precompetitive anxiety and sleep quality was investigated. Anxiety and nervousness associated with competitions are considered to cause sleep impairments. A convenience sample of N = 79 elite male athletes from various sports participated. In a time-to-event paradigm, sleep quality and competitive anxiety were assessed via standardized self-report measurements 4 days before a competition and on the day of the competition. Univariate analyses were used to examine differences between time points. To examine cross-lagged effects between anxiety and sleep quality a latent change score model (LCSM) was specified that tested an effect of anxiety on changes in sleep quality. Evaluations of nocturnal sleep deteriorated significantly from 4 days before competition to the day of competition, but there were no differences regarding perceptions of the restorative value of sleep. LCSM revealed that athletes who reported more intense worry symptoms 4 days before competition also reported greater deterioration in evaluations of nocturnal sleep. The findings support earlier reports of impaired subjective sleep quality before competitions. Precompetitive sleep impairments appear also to be preceded by cognitive anxiety. Whereas interventions should thus address worry-cognitions associated with competition and sleep, research should address the practical importance of these perceptions of sleep impairments.

  13. Technical Report: Sleep-Route - Routing through Sleeping Sensors

    OpenAIRE

    Sarkar, Chayan; Rao, Vijay S.; Prasad, R. Venkatesha

    2014-01-01

    In this article, we propose an energy-efficient data gathering scheme for wireless sensor network called Sleep-Route, which splits the sensor nodes into two sets - active and dormant (low-power sleep). Only the active set of sensor nodes participate in data collection. The sensing values of the dormant sensor nodes are predicted with the help of an active sensor node. Virtual Sensing Framework (VSF) provides the mechanism to predict the sensing values by exploiting the data correlation among ...

  14. Cognitive load during route selection increases reliance on spatial heuristics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brunyé, Tad T; Martis, Shaina B; Taylor, Holly A

    2018-05-01

    Planning routes from maps involves perceiving the symbolic environment, identifying alternate routes and applying explicit strategies and implicit heuristics to select an option. Two implicit heuristics have received considerable attention, the southern route preference and initial segment strategy. This study tested a prediction from decision-making theory that increasing cognitive load during route planning will increase reliance on these heuristics. In two experiments, participants planned routes while under conditions of minimal (0-back) or high (2-back) working memory load. In Experiment 1, we examined how memory load impacts the southern route heuristic. In Experiment 2, we examined how memory load impacts the initial segment heuristic. Results replicated earlier results demonstrating a southern route preference (Experiment 1) and initial segment strategy (Experiment 2) and further demonstrated that evidence for heuristic reliance is more likely under conditions of concurrent working memory load. Furthermore, the extent to which participants maintained efficient route selection latencies in the 2-back condition predicted the magnitude of this effect. Together, results demonstrate that working memory load increases the application of heuristics during spatial decision making, particularly when participants attempt to maintain quick decisions while managing concurrent task demands.

  15. Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2014

    OpenAIRE

    2014-01-01

    Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2014, which is produced under the Action Plan for Jobs 2014, outlines the National Competitiveness Council’s view of the main competitiveness issues confronting the business sector in Ireland over the medium term, and sets out a series of policy responses required to address these challenges. Building on their earlier benchmarking of Irish competitiveness, the Council focus on six major themes in the 2014 report: addressing cost competitiveness; broadening ...

  16. Corporate competitiveness and sustainability risks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Udo Braendle

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims at providing a theoretical analysis of the existing research on corporate competition and sustainability risks that occur when companies aspire to reach maximum competitive advantages and gain competitive benefits compared to their rivals. Competitiveness has been described as a multidimensional, theoretical and relative concept linked with the market mechanism. The concept of competitiveness may refer to different levels of aggregation: national, regional, industrial and individual companies. This paper contributes to the theoretical research on corporate competitiveness by the analysis of old and new definitions of this category. It also notes that the sustainability risks connected to competition can be divided into several groups where the authors highlight environmental, legal, financial risks, behaviour risks and state-related risks as the most crucial ones. For companies to be fit for the competitive challenge, the paper identifies main characteristics of such risks and gives policy guidance for their avoidance

  17. A Neural Network Model for the Correlation between Sprinters’ Pre-competition Anxiety and Competition Performance

    OpenAIRE

    Jiwei Yao; Yongliang Yang; Xiang Xie; Wenxin Xu; Xiushi Ding

    2013-01-01

    Sprint is an important sporting event in track and field competition, in which, athletes’ pre-competition anxiety will greatly affect them in bringing into play their competence, which will then influence their final performance in the competition. For this reason, to study the correlation between sprinters’ pre-competition anxiety and their competition performance is of great significance in predicting athletes’ performance under difference anxiety state. After having analyzed domestic and f...

  18. A Joint Link and Channel Assignment Routing Scheme for Cognitive Radio Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H.S.Zhao

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Cognitive radio (CR is a promising technology that enables opportunistic utilization of the temporarily vacant spectrum to mitigate the spectrum scarcity in wireless communications. Since secondary users (SUs should vacate the channel in use immediately after detecting the reappearances of primary users (PUs in cognitive radio networks (CRNs, the route reliability is a distinctive challenge for routing in CRNs. Furthermore, the throughput requirement of an SU session should be satisfied and it is always preferable to select a route with less negative influence on other current or latish sessions. To account for the route reliability challenge, we study the joint link and channel assignment routing problem for CRNs. It is formulated in a form of integer nonlinear programming (INLP, which is NP-hard, with the objective of minimizing the interference of a new route to other routes while providing route reliability and throughput guarantee. An on-demand route discovery algorithm is proposed to find reliable candidate paths, while a joint link and channel assignment routing algorithm with sequentially-connected-link coordination is proposed to choose the near-optimal route for improving the route reliability and minimizing negative influence. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves considerable improvement over existing schemes in both route reliability and throughput.

  19. Selective epidemic vaccination under the performant routing algorithms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bamaarouf, O.; Alweimine, A. Ould Baba; Rachadi, A.; EZ-Zahraouy, H.

    2018-04-01

    Despite the extensive research on traffic dynamics and epidemic spreading, the effect of the routing algorithms strategies on the traffic-driven epidemic spreading has not received an adequate attention. It is well known that more performant routing algorithm strategies are used to overcome the congestion problem. However, our main result shows unexpectedly that these algorithms favor the virus spreading more than the case where the shortest path based algorithm is used. In this work, we studied the virus spreading in a complex network using the efficient path and the global dynamic routing algorithms as compared to shortest path strategy. Some previous studies have tried to modify the routing rules to limit the virus spreading, but at the expense of reducing the traffic transport efficiency. This work proposed a solution to overcome this drawback by using a selective vaccination procedure instead of a random vaccination used often in the literature. We found that the selective vaccination succeeded in eradicating the virus better than a pure random intervention for the performant routing algorithm strategies.

  20. Modeling Stochastic Route Choice Behaviors with Equivalent Impedance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jun Li

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available A Logit-based route choice model is proposed to address the overlapping and scaling problems in the traditional multinomial Logit model. The nonoverlapping links are defined as a subnetwork, and its equivalent impedance is explicitly calculated in order to simply network analyzing. The overlapping links are repeatedly merged into subnetworks with Logit-based equivalent travel costs. The choice set at each intersection comprises only the virtual equivalent route without overlapping. In order to capture heterogeneity in perception errors of different sizes of networks, different scale parameters are assigned to subnetworks and they are linked to the topological relationships to avoid estimation burden. The proposed model provides an alternative method to model the stochastic route choice behaviors without the overlapping and scaling problems, and it still maintains the simple and closed-form expression from the MNL model. A link-based loading algorithm based on Dial’s algorithm is proposed to obviate route enumeration and it is suitable to be applied on large-scale networks. Finally a comparison between the proposed model and other route choice models is given by numerical examples.

  1. Analysis of Pervasive Mobile Ad Hoc Routing Protocols

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qadri, Nadia N.; Liotta, Antonio

    Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are a fundamental element of pervasive networks and therefore, of pervasive systems that truly support pervasive computing, where user can communicate anywhere, anytime and on-the-fly. In fact, future advances in pervasive computing rely on advancements in mobile communication, which includes both infrastructure-based wireless networks and non-infrastructure-based MANETs. MANETs introduce a new communication paradigm, which does not require a fixed infrastructure - they rely on wireless terminals for routing and transport services. Due to highly dynamic topology, absence of established infrastructure for centralized administration, bandwidth constrained wireless links, and limited resources in MANETs, it is challenging to design an efficient and reliable routing protocol. This chapter reviews the key studies carried out so far on the performance of mobile ad hoc routing protocols. We discuss performance issues and metrics required for the evaluation of ad hoc routing protocols. This leads to a survey of existing work, which captures the performance of ad hoc routing algorithms and their behaviour from different perspectives and highlights avenues for future research.

  2. Trade routes and plague transmission in pre-industrial Europe.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yue, Ricci P H; Lee, Harry F; Wu, Connor Y H

    2017-10-11

    Numerous historical works have mentioned that trade routes were to blame for the spread of plague in European history, yet this relationship has never been tested by quantitative evidence. Here, we resolve the hypothetical role of trade routes through statistical analysis on the geo-referenced major trade routes in the early modern period and the 6,656 geo-referenced plague outbreak records in AD1347-1760. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimation results show that major trade routes played a dominant role in spreading plague in pre-industrial Europe. Furthermore, the negative correlation between plague outbreaks and their distance from major trade ports indicates the absence of a permanent plague focus in the inland areas of Europe. Major trade routes decided the major plague outbreak hotspots, while navigable rivers determined the geographic pattern of sporadic plague cases. A case study in Germany indicates that plague penetrated further into Europe through the local trade route network. Based on our findings, we propose the mechanism of plague transmission in historical Europe, which is imperative in demonstrating how pandemics were spread in recent human history.

  3. Preventing Restricted Space Inference in Online Route Planning Services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florian Dorfmeister

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Online route planning services compute routes from any given location to a desired destination address. Unlike offline implementations, they do so in a traffic-aware fashion by taking into consideration up-to-date map data and real-time traffic information. In return, users have to provide precise location information about a route’s endpoints to a not necessarily trusted service provider. As suchlike leakage of personal information threatens a user’s privacy and anonymity, this paper presents PrOSPR, a comprehensive approach for using current online route planning services in a privacy-preserving way, and introduces the concept of k-immune route requests to avert inference attacks based on restricted space information. Using a map-based approach for creating cloaked regions for the start and destination addresses, our solution queries the online service for routes between subsets of points from these regions. This, however, might result in the returned path deviating from the optimal route. By means of empirical evaluation on a real road network, we demonstrate the feasibility of our approach regarding quality of service and communication overhead.

  4. COMPETITION: CLASSICAL VERSUS NEOCLASSICAL VIEW

    OpenAIRE

    Mihaela Cornelia Sandu

    2013-01-01

    Competition is an important element from economical theory. Over time it has experienced several definitions and classifications much of them being contradictory. In this paper I will make a parallel between classical and neoclassical point of view according to competition. Keywords. Competition; neoclassical theory; classical theory; monopolistic; perfect competition.

  5. The effects of nurse staffing on hospital financial performance: competitive versus less competitive markets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Everhart, Damian; Neff, Donna; Al-Amin, Mona; Nogle, June; Weech-Maldonado, Robert

    2013-01-01

    Hospitals facing financial uncertainty have sought to reduce nurse staffing as a way to increase profitability. However, nurse staffing has been found to be important in terms of quality of patient care and nursing-related outcomes. Nurse staffing can provide a competitive advantage to hospitals and as a result of better financial performance, particularly in more competitive markets. In this study, we build on the Resource-Based View of the Firm to determine the effect of nurse staffing on total profit margin in more competitive and less competitive hospital markets in Florida. By combining a Florida statewide nursing survey with the American Hospital Association Annual Survey and the Area Resource File, three separate multivariate linear regression models were conducted to determine the effect of nurse staffing on financial performance while accounting for market competitiveness. The analysis was limited to acute care hospitals. Nurse staffing levels had a positive association with financial performance (β = 3.3, p = .02) in competitive hospital markets, but no significant association was found in less competitive hospital markets. Hospitals in more competitive hospital markets should reconsider reducing nursing staff, as these cost-cutting measures may be inefficient and negatively affect financial performance.

  6. Increasing the Intensity over Time of an Electric-Assist Bike Based on the User and Route: The Bike Becomes the Gym

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel H. De La Iglesia

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Nowadays, many citizens have busy days that make finding time for physical activity difficult. Thus, it is important to provide citizens with tools that allow them to introduce physical activity into their lives as part of the day’s routine. This article proposes an app for an electric pedal-assist-system (PAS bicycle that increases the pedaling intensity so the bicyclist can achieve higher and higher levels of physical activity. The app includes personalized assist levels that have been adapted to the user’s strength/ability and a profile of the route, segmented according to its slopes. Additionally, a social component motivates interaction and competition between users based on a scoring system that shows the level of their performances. To test the training module, a case study in three different European countries lasted four months and included nine people who traveled 551 routes. The electric PAS bicycle with the app that increases intensity of physical activity shows promise for increasing levels of physical activity as a regular part of the day.

  7. Time and timing in vehicle routing problems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jabali, O.

    2010-01-01

    The distribution of goods to a set of geographically dispersed customers is a common problem faced by carrier companies, well-known as the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP). The VRP consists of finding an optimal set of routes that minimizes total travel times for a given number of vehicles with a fixed

  8. Principles of Vessel Route Planning in Ice on the Northern Sea Route

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tadeusz Pastusiak

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available A complex of ice cover characteristics and the season of the year were considered in relation to vessel route planning in ice-covered areas on the NSR. The criteria for navigation in ice - both year-round and seasonal were analyzed. The analysis of the experts knowledge, dissipated in the literature, allowed to identify some rules of route planning in ice-covered areas. The most important processes from the navigation point of view are the development and disintegration of ice, the formation and disintegration of fast ice and behavior of the ice massifs and polynyas. The optimal route is selected on basis of available analysis and forecast maps of ice conditions and ice class, draught and seaworthiness of the vessel. The boundary of the ice indicates areas accessible to vessels without ice class. Areas with a concentration of ice from 0 to 6/10 are used for navigation of vessels of different ice classes. Areas of concentration of ice from 7/10 up are eligible for navigation for icebreakers and vessels with a high ice class with the assistance of icebreakers. These rules were collected in the decision tree. Following such developed decision-making model the master of the vessel may take decision independently by accepting grading criteria of priorities resulting from his knowledge, experience and the circumstances of navigation. Formalized form of decision making model reduces risk of the "human factor" in the decision and thereby help improve the safety of maritime transport.

  9. The new competitive intelligence agents: "Programming" competitive intelligence ethics into corporate cultures

    OpenAIRE

    Betsy Van der Veer Martens; Emilie Steele Giustozzi

    2011-01-01

    This article examines some of the ethical issues involved in competitive intelligence activities on the Internet. We discuss the importance of an ethical framework for the performance of competitive intelligence, especially the Code of Ethics of SCIP (the leading professional association for strategic and competitive professionals), in the context of today's networked global environment. The virtual borderlines separating national economic and military territories online are becoming increasi...

  10. Throughput Capacity of Ad Hoc Networks with Route Discovery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Blum Rick S

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Throughput capacity of large ad hoc networks has been shown to scale adversely with the size of network . However the need for the nodes to find or repair routes has not been analyzed in this context. In this paper, we explicitly take route discovery into account and obtain the scaling law for the throughput capacity under general assumptions on the network environment, node behavior, and the quality of route discovery algorithms. We also discuss a number of possible scenarios and show that the need for route discovery may change the scaling for the throughput capacity.

  11. What is the optimal architecture for visual information routing?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolfrum, Philipp; von der Malsburg, Christoph

    2007-12-01

    Analyzing the design of networks for visual information routing is an underconstrained problem due to insufficient anatomical and physiological data. We propose here optimality criteria for the design of routing networks. For a very general architecture, we derive the number of routing layers and the fanout that minimize the required neural circuitry. The optimal fanout l is independent of network size, while the number k of layers scales logarithmically (with a prefactor below 1), with the number n of visual resolution units to be routed independently. The results are found to agree with data of the primate visual system.

  12. Self-Interested Routing in Queueing Networks

    OpenAIRE

    Ali K. Parlaktürk; Sunil Kumar

    2004-01-01

    We study self-interested routing in stochastic networks, taking into account the discrete stochastic dynamics of such networks. We analyze a two-station multiclass queueing network in which the system manager chooses the scheduling rule and individual customers choose routes in a self-interested manner. We show that this network can be unstable in Nash equilibrium under some scheduling rules. We also design a nontrivial scheduling rule that negates the performance degradation resulting from s...

  13. Identifying and prioritizing ungulate migration routes for landscape-level conservation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sawyer, Hall; Kauffman, Matthew J.; Nielson, Ryan M.; Horne, Jon S.

    2009-01-01

    As habitat loss and fragmentation increase across ungulate ranges, identifying and prioritizing migration routes for conservation has taken on new urgency. Here we present a general framework using the Brownian bridge movement model (BBMM) that: (1) provides a probabilistic estimate of the migration routes of a sampled population, (2) distinguishes between route segments that function as stopover sites vs. those used primarily as movement corridors, and (3) prioritizes routes for conservation based upon the proportion of the sampled population that uses them. We applied this approach to a migratory mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) population in a pristine area of southwest Wyoming, USA, where 2000 gas wells and 1609 km of pipelines and roads have been proposed for development. Our analysis clearly delineated where migration routes occurred relative to proposed development and provided guidance for on-the-ground conservation efforts. Mule deer migration routes were characterized by a series of stopover sites where deer spent most of their time, connected by movement corridors through which deer moved quickly. Our findings suggest management strategies that differentiate between stopover sites and movement corridors may be warranted. Because some migration routes were used by more mule deer than others, proportional level of use may provide a reasonable metric by which routes can be prioritized for conservation. The methods we outline should be applicable to a wide range of species that inhabit regions where migration routes are threatened or poorly understood.

  14. 2013 Center for Army Leadership Annual Survey of Army Leadership (CASAL): Army Civilian Leaders

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-05-30

    Army civilian workforce with regard to gender and ethnic origin (Office of the Assistant G-1 for Civilian Personnel, 2013). The reported education...climates of perceived inequality . Civilian leader comments frequently referenced favoritism as reflecting cronyism, unfair personnel actions, and...interests of others, unequal enforcement of standards and discipline, and use of discretion in workplace justice. As demonstrated in previous CASAL

  15. Comparison of Mucosal, Subcutaneous and Intraperitoneal Routes of Rat Leptospira Infection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zilber, Anne-Laure; Belli, Patrick; Grezel, Delphine; Artois, Marc; Kodjo, Angeli; Djelouadji, Zoheira

    2016-01-01

    Leptospirosis is a zoonosis found worldwide that is caused by a spirochete. The main reservoirs of Leptospira, which presents an asymptomatic infection, are wild rodents, including the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus). Experimental studies of the mechanisms of its renal colonization in rats have previously used an intraperitoneal inoculation route. However, knowledge of rat-rat transmission requires the use of a natural route of inoculation, such as a mucosal or subcutaneous route. We investigated for the first time the effects of subcutaneous and mucosal inoculation routes compared to the reference intraperitoneal route during Leptospira infection in adult rats. Infection characteristics were studied using Leptospira renal isolation, serology, and molecular and histological analyses. Leptospira infection was asymptomatic using each inoculation route, and caused similar antibody production regardless of renal colonization. The observed renal colonization rates were 8 out of 8 rats, 5 out of 8 rats and 1 out of 8 rats for the intraperitoneal, mucosal and subcutaneous inoculation routes, respectively. Thus, among the natural infection routes studied, mucosal inoculation was more efficient for renal colonization associated with urinary excretion than the subcutaneous route and induced a slower-progressing infection than the intraperitoneal route. These results can facilitate understanding of the infection modalities in rats, unlike the epidemiological studies conducted in wild rats. Future studies of other natural inoculation routes in rat models will increase our knowledge of rat-rat disease transmission and allow the investigation of infection kinetics. PMID:27031867

  16. Energy Aware Cluster Based Routing Scheme For Wireless Sensor Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roy Sohini

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Wireless Sensor Network (WSN has emerged as an important supplement to the modern wireless communication systems due to its wide range of applications. The recent researches are facing the various challenges of the sensor network more gracefully. However, energy efficiency has still remained a matter of concern for the researches. Meeting the countless security needs, timely data delivery and taking a quick action, efficient route selection and multi-path routing etc. can only be achieved at the cost of energy. Hierarchical routing is more useful in this regard. The proposed algorithm Energy Aware Cluster Based Routing Scheme (EACBRS aims at conserving energy with the help of hierarchical routing by calculating the optimum number of cluster heads for the network, selecting energy-efficient route to the sink and by offering congestion control. Simulation results prove that EACBRS performs better than existing hierarchical routing algorithms like Distributed Energy-Efficient Clustering (DEEC algorithm for heterogeneous wireless sensor networks and Energy Efficient Heterogeneous Clustered scheme for Wireless Sensor Network (EEHC.

  17. DRO: domain-based route optimization scheme for nested mobile networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chuang Ming-Chin

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract The network mobility (NEMO basic support protocol is designed to support NEMO management, and to ensure communication continuity between nodes in mobile networks. However, in nested mobile networks, NEMO suffers from the pinball routing problem, which results in long packet transmission delays. To solve the problem, we propose a domain-based route optimization (DRO scheme that incorporates a domain-based network architecture and ad hoc routing protocols for route optimization. DRO also improves the intra-domain handoff performance, reduces the convergence time during route optimization, and avoids the out-of-sequence packet problem. A detailed performance analysis and simulations were conducted to evaluate the scheme. The results demonstrate that DRO outperforms existing mechanisms in terms of packet transmission delay (i.e., better route-optimization, intra-domain handoff latency, convergence time, and packet tunneling overhead.

  18. Efficient Secure and Privacy-Preserving Route Reporting Scheme for VANETs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yuanfei; Pei, Qianwen; Dai, Feifei; Zhang, Lei

    2017-10-01

    Vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) is a core component of intelligent traffic management system which could provide various of applications such as accident prediction, route reporting, etc. Due to the problems caused by traffic congestion, route reporting becomes a prospective application which can help a driver to get optimal route to save her travel time. Before enjoying the convenience of route reporting, security and privacy-preserving issues need to be concerned. In this paper, we propose a new secure and privacy-preserving route reporting scheme for VANETs. In our scheme, only an authenticated vehicle can use the route reporting service provided by the traffic management center. Further, a vehicle may receive the response from the traffic management center with low latency and without violating the privacy of the vehicle. Experiment results show that our scheme is much more efficiency than the existing one.

  19. Planning Routes Across Economic Terrains: Maximizing Utility, Following Heuristics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Hang; Maddula, Soumya V.; Maloney, Laurence T.

    2010-01-01

    We designed an economic task to investigate human planning of routes in landscapes where travel in different kinds of terrain incurs different costs. Participants moved their finger across a touch screen from a starting point to a destination. The screen was divided into distinct kinds of terrain and travel within each kind of terrain imposed a cost proportional to distance traveled. We varied costs and spatial configurations of terrains and participants received fixed bonuses minus the total cost of the routes they chose. We first compared performance to a model maximizing gain. All but one of 12 participants failed to adopt least-cost routes and their failure to do so reduced their winnings by about 30% (median value). We tested in detail whether participants’ choices of routes satisfied three necessary conditions (heuristics) for a route to maximize gain. We report failures of one heuristic for 7 out of 12 participants. Last of all, we modeled human performance with the assumption that participants assign subjective utilities to costs and maximize utility. For 7 out 12 participants, the fitted utility function was an accelerating power function of actual cost and for the remaining 5, a decelerating power function. We discuss connections between utility aggregation in route planning and decision under risk. Our task could be adapted to investigate human strategy and optimality of route planning in full-scale landscapes. PMID:21833269

  20. PLANNING ROUTES ACROSS ECONOMIC TERRAINS: MAXIMIZING UTILITY, FOLLOWING HEURISTICS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hang eZhang

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available We designed an economic task to investigate human planning of routes in landscapes where travel in different kinds of terrain incurs different costs. Participants moved their finger across a touch screen from a starting point to a destination. The screen was divided into distinct kinds of terrain and travel within each kind of terrain imposed a cost proportional to distance traveled. We varied costs and spatial configurations of terrains and participants received fixed bonuses minus the total cost of the routes they chose. We first compared performance to a model maximizing gain. All but one of 12 participants failed to adopt least-cost routes and their failure to do so reduced their winnings by about 30% (median value. We tested in detail whether participants’ choices of routes satisfied three necessary conditions (heuristics for a route to maximize gain. We report failures of one heuristic for 7 out of 12 participants. Last of all, we modeled human performance with the assumption that participants assign subjective utilities to costs and maximize utility. For 7 out 12 participants, the fitted utility function was an accelerating power function of actual cost and for the remaining 5, a decelerating power function. We discuss connections between utility aggregation in route planning and decision under risk. Our task could be adapted to investigate human strategy and optimality of route planning in full-scale landscapes.

  1. 29 CFR 1910.36 - Design and construction requirements for exit routes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... construction requirements for exit routes. (a) Basic requirements. Exit routes must meet the following design... your workplace, consult NFPA 101-2000, Life Safety Code. (c) Exit discharge. (1) Each exit discharge... route must be adequate. (1) Exit routes must support the maximum permitted occupant load for each floor...

  2. Gender and Competition in Adolescence

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dreber, Anna; Essen, Emma von; Ranehill, Eva

    2013-01-01

    We look at gender differences among adolescents in Sweden in preferences for competition, altruism and risk. For competitiveness, we explore two different tasks that differ in associated stereotypes. We find no gender difference in competitiveness when comparing performance under competition...... to that without competition. We further find that boys and girls are equally likely to self-select into competition in a verbal task, but that boys are significantly more likely to choose to compete in a mathematical task. This gender gap diminishes and becomes nonsignificant when we control for actual...... performance, beliefs about relative performance, and risk preferences, or for beliefs only. Girls are also more altruistic and less risk taking than boys....

  3. Is healthy competition healthy? New evidence of the impact of hospital competition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gift, Thomas L; Arnould, Richard; DeBrock, Larry

    2002-01-01

    Competition among hospitals is commonly regarded as inefficient due to the medical arms race phenomenon, but most evidence for this hypothesis predates the Medicare prospective payment system and preferred provider legislation. Recent studies indicate hospital competition reduces costs and prices, but nearly all such research has focused on California. We add to the body of literature that analyzes the effects of competition in hospital markets. Using data from the state of Washington, we show that hospitals assume more risk in competitive markets by being more likely to accept prospective payment arrangements with insurers. If the arrangement is retrospective, the hospital is more likely to offer a discount as the number of competing hospitals increases. Both findings indicate that competitive forces operate the same in hospital markets as in most others: as the number of competitors increases, prices decrease and market power shifts from the suppliers to purchasers. The medical arms race hypothesis that favors more concentrated hospital markets no longer appears to be valid.

  4. Research on the optimization of vehicle distribution routes in logistics enterprises

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Zhigou; Ma, Mengkun

    2018-01-01

    With the rapid development of modern logistics, the vehicle routing problem has become one of the urgent problems in the logistics industry. The rationality of distribution route planning directly affects the efficiency and quality of logistics distribution. This paper first introduces the definition of logistics distribution and the three methods of optimizing the distribution routes, and then analyzes the current vehicle distribution route by using a representative example, finally puts forward the optimization schemes of logistics distribution route.

  5. Segmented Routing for Speed-Performance and Routability in Field-Programmable Gate Arrays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephen Brown

    1996-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper addresses several issues involved for routing in Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs that have both horizontal and vertical routing channels, with wire segments of various lengths. Routing is studied by using CAD routing tools to map a set of benchmark circuits into FPGAs, and measuring the effects that various parameters of the CAD tools have on the implementation of the circuits. A two-stage routing strategy of global followed by detailed routing is used, and the effects of both of these CAD stages are discussed, with emphasis on detailed routing. We present a new detailed routing algorithm designed specifically for the types of routing structures found in the most recent generation of FPGAs, and show that the new algorithm achieves significantly better results than previously published FPGA routers with respect to the speed-performance of implemented circuits.

  6. Porcelain tiles by the dry route

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Boschi, A. O.

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available In Brazil, the second largest tile producer of the world, at present, 70% of the tiles are produced by the dry route. One of the main reasons that lead to this development is the fact that the dry route uses approximately 30% less thermal energy them the traditional wet route. The increasing world concern with the environment and the recognition of the central role played by the water also has pointed towards privileging dry processes. In this context the objective of the present work is to study the feasibility of producing high quality porcelain tiles by the dry route. A brief comparison of the dry and wet route, in standard conditions industrially used today to produce tiles that are not porcelain tiles, shows that there are two major differences: the particle sizes obtained by the wet route are usually considerably finer and the capability of mixing the different minerals, the intimacy of the mixture, is also usually better in the wet route. The present work studied the relative importance of these differences and looked for raw materials and operational conditions that would result in better performance and glazed porcelain tiles of good quality.

    En Brasil, en este momento segundo productor mundial, el 70% de los pavimentos cerámicos se obtiene por vía seca. Una de las razones fundamentales se debe a que esta vía supone un consumo energético inferior, en un 30%, a la via húmeda tradicional. La creciente preocupación mundial sobre los problemas medioambientales y el reconocimiento del papel central que juega el agua en este proceso han favorecido el desarrollo de la vía seca. En este contexto, el objetivo del presente trabajo es estudiar la viabilidad de la producción de pavimentos porcelánicos de alta calidad por vía seca. Una breve comparación entre ambas vías, en las condiciones standard de producción vigentes para producciones que no son de porcelánico, indican que existen dos diferencias substanciales; el tamaño de

  7. Current and future competitiveness of bioenergy - Conceptions about competitiveness

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ling, E.; Lundgren, K.; Maartensson, Kjell

    1998-01-01

    It is important to visualize the conceptions that guide the behaviour of the actors within the energy system to be able to, in an efficient manner, increase the share of renewable energy in the energy mix. A major issue is to elucidate explicit and implicit presumptions within judgements on the competitiveness of bioenergy. This study focuses on how conceptions of bioenergy in the form of patterns of thinking, influence whether bioenergy can become competitive. The aim of the study is to develop a framework that will enable an increased understanding of the competitiveness of bioenergy today and in the future. The conceptions that the actors of the energy system uphold are studied and analysed. The conceptions of the actors are seen as key factors for the understanding of the function of the energy system and accordingly also for the understanding of the competitiveness of bioenergy. The over-all method perspective in the study is an actor approach. The actors' conceptions have been identified from interviews with 30 significant actors within the energy system. The material from the interviews has been synthesised into nine ideal types of actors. These nine 'model actors' are seen as representing the whole material and form the basis for the further analysis of the competitiveness of bioenergy as depending on patterns of thinking called logics. Three idealized logics are developed. The three logics developed in the study are production logic, market logic and socio-economic logic. (Upholders of the logics rank energy sources after production cost, profitability, and socio-economic legitimacy, respectively.) The logics co-exist within the different parts of the energy system. A single person can even uphold more than one logic. The three logics have however different weight in different organisations and in different parts of the energy system. Finally, the study proposes an enlarged description of the competitiveness of bioenergy in three dimensions: price

  8. Research on routing algorithm based on the VANET

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    AN Li

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available For the characteristics of high speed mobility of nodes, frequent changes of dynamic topology and frequent interrupts of the communication links in the VANET, this paper analyzed the defect of the current mobile ad-hoc network routing protocol, and carried on the simulation analysis on the adaptability of AODV, DSR and DSDV routing protocols in VANET applications in the VANET. Through the above research, this paper obtained the conclusion that the AODV routing protocol is more suitable for vehicular ad hoc network environment

  9. Route selection for the transport of hazardous materials

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Seiler, F A

    1988-12-01

    The factors governing the risk-weighted selection of routes for transport of hazardous materials are analyzed. Starting from a formulation for the total risk of these transports that assumes complete information, approximations for the more realistic case of partial and uncertain information are discussed. These approximations involve well-known risk assessment techniques and mathematical methods; among the latter, Monte Carlo calculations hold the most promise. The actual route selection is based on an index of total societal cost, evaluated for a set of potential routes. (author)

  10. The Effects of Nurse Staffing on Hospital Financial Performance: Competitive Versus Less Competitive Markets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Everhart, Damian; Neff, Donna; Al-Amin, Mona; Nogle, June; Weech-Maldonado, Robert

    2013-01-01

    Background Hospitals facing financial uncertainty have sought to reduce nurse staffing as a way to increase profitability. However, nurse staffing has been found to be important in terms of quality of patient care and nursing related outcomes. Nurse staffing can provide a competitive advantage to hospitals and as a result better financial performance, particularly in more competitive markets Purpose In this study we build on the Resource-Based View of the Firm to determine the effect of nurse staffing on total profit margin in more competitive and less competitive hospital markets in Florida. Methodology/Approach By combining a Florida statewide nursing survey with the American Hospital Association Annual Survey and the Area Resource File, three separate multivariate linear regression models were conducted to determine the effect of nurse staffing on financial performance while accounting for market competitiveness. The analysis was limited to acute care hospitals. Findings Nurse staffing levels had a positive association with financial performance (β=3.3; p=0.02) in competitive hospital markets, but no significant association was found in less competitive hospital markets. Practice Implications Hospitals in more competitive hospital markets should reconsider reducing nursing staff, as these cost cutting measures may be inefficient and negatively affect financial performance. PMID:22543824

  11. Competitive intransitivity promotes species coexistence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laird, Robert A; Schamp, Brandon S

    2006-08-01

    Using a spatially explicit cellular automaton model with local competition, we investigate the potential for varied levels of competitive intransitivity (i.e., nonhierarchical competition) to promote species coexistence. As predicted, on average, increased levels of intransitivity result in more sustained coexistence within simulated communities, although the outcome of competition also becomes increasingly unpredictable. Interestingly, even a moderate degree of intransitivity within a community can promote coexistence, in terms of both the length of time until the first competitive exclusion and the number of species remaining in the community after 500 simulated generations. These results suggest that modest levels of intransitivity in nature, such as those that are thought to be characteristic of plant communities, can contribute to coexistence and, therefore, community-scale biodiversity. We explore a potential connection between competitive intransitivity and neutral theory, whereby competitive intransitivity may represent an important mechanism for "ecological equivalence."

  12. ARBR: Adaptive reinforcement-based routing for DTN

    KAUST Repository

    Elwhishi, Ahmed

    2010-10-01

    This paper introduces a novel routing protocol in Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs), aiming to solve the online distributed routing problem. By manipulating a collaborative reinforcement learning technique, a group of nodes can cooperate with each other and make a forwarding decision for the stored messages based on a cost function at each contact with another node. The proposed protocol is characterized by not only considering the contact time statistics under a novel contact model, but also looks into the feedback on user behavior and network conditions, such as congestion and buffer occupancy sampled during each previous contact with any other node. Therefore, the proposed protocol can achieve high efficiency via an adaptive and intelligent routing mechanism according to network conditions. Extensive simulation is conducted to verify the proposed protocol, where a comparison is made with a number of existing encounter-based routing protocols in term of the number of transmissions of each message, message delivery delay, and delivery ratio. The results of the simulation demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.

  13. Route Monopolie and Optimal Nonlinear Pricing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tournut, Jacques

    2003-01-01

    To cope with air traffic growth and congested airports, two solutions are apparent on the supply side: 1) use larger aircraft in the hub and spoke system; or 2) develop new routes through secondary airports. An enlarged route system through secondary airports may increase the proportion of route monopolies in the air transport market.The monopoly optimal non linear pricing policy is well known in the case of one dimension (one instrument, one characteristic) but not in the case of several dimensions. This paper explores the robustness of the one dimensional screening model with respect to increasing the number of instruments and the number of characteristics. The objective of this paper is then to link and fill the gap in both literatures. One of the merits of the screening model has been to show that a great varieD" of economic questions (non linear pricing, product line choice, auction design, income taxation, regulation...) could be handled within the same framework.VCe study a case of non linear pricing (2 instruments (2 routes on which the airline pro_ddes customers with services), 2 characteristics (demand of services on these routes) and two values per characteristic (low and high demand of services on these routes)) and we show that none of the conclusions of the one dimensional analysis remain valid. In particular, upward incentive compatibility constraint may be binding at the optimum. As a consequence, they may be distortion at the top of the distribution. In addition to this, we show that the optimal solution often requires a kind of form of bundling, we explain explicitly distortions and show that it is sometimes optimal for the monopolist to only produce one good (instead of two) or to exclude some buyers from the market. Actually, this means that the monopolist cannot fully apply his monopoly power and is better off selling both goods independently.We then define all the possible solutions in the case of a quadratic cost function for a uniform

  14. Route Fidelity during Marine Megafauna Migration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Travis W. Horton

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The conservation and protection of marine megafauna require robust knowledge of where and when animals are located. Yet, our ability to predict animal distributions in space and time remains limited due to difficulties associated with studying elusive animals with large home ranges. The widespread deployment of satellite telemetry technology creates unprecedented opportunities to remotely monitor animal movements and to analyse the spatial and temporal trajectories of these movements from a variety of geophysical perspectives. Reproducible patterns in movement trajectories can help elucidate the potential mechanisms by which marine megafauna navigate across vast expanses of open-ocean. Here, we present an empirical analysis of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae, great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias, and northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris satellite telemetry-derived route fidelity movements in magnetic and gravitational coordinates. Our analyses demonstrate that: (1 humpback whales, great white sharks and northern elephant seals are capable of performing route fidelity movements across millions of square kilometers of open ocean with a spatial accuracy of better than 150 km despite temporal separations as long as 7 years between individual movements; (2 route fidelity movements include significant (p < 0.05 periodicities that are comparable in duration to the lunar cycles and semi-cycles; (3 latitude and bedrock-dependent gravitational cues are stronger predictors of route fidelity movements than spherical magnetic coordinate cues when analyzed with respect to the temporally dependent moon illumination cycle. We further show that both route fidelity and non-route fidelity movement trajectories, for all three species, describe overlapping in-phase or antiphase sinusoids when individual movements are normalized to the gravitational acceleration present at migratory departure sites. Although these empirical results provide an

  15. A competitive thorium fuel cycle for pressurized water reactors of current technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Galperin, A.; Radkowsky, A.; Todosow, M.

    2002-01-01

    Two important issues may influence the development and public acceptance of the nuclear power worldwide: a reduction of proliferation potential and spent fuel disposal requirements of the nuclear fuel cycle. Both problems may be addressed effectively by replacement of uranium by thorium fertile part of the fuel. A practical and competitive fuel design to satisfy the described design objectives and constraints may be achieved by seed-blanket core, proposed by A. Radkowsky and implemented in Shippingport reactors. The main idea is to separate spatially the uranium part of the core (seed) from the thorium part of the core (blanket), and thus allow two separate fuel management routes for uranium and thorium parts of the fuel. The uranium part (seed) is optimized to supply neutrons to the subcritical thorium blanket. The blanket is designed to generate and bum insitu 233 U. (author)

  16. A Family of ACO Routing Protocols for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rupérez Cañas, Delfín; Sandoval Orozco, Ana Lucila; García Villalba, Luis Javier; Kim, Tai-hoon

    2017-01-01

    In this work, an ACO routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks based on AntHocNet is specified. As its predecessor, this new protocol, called AntOR, is hybrid in the sense that it contains elements from both reactive and proactive routing. Specifically, it combines a reactive route setup process with a proactive route maintenance and improvement process. Key aspects of the AntOR protocol are the disjoint-link and disjoint-node routes, separation between the regular pheromone and the virtual pheromone in the diffusion process and the exploration of routes, taking into consideration the number of hops in the best routes. In this work, a family of ACO routing protocols based on AntOR is also specified. These protocols are based on protocol successive refinements. In this work, we also present a parallelized version of AntOR that we call PAntOR. Using programming multiprocessor architectures based on the shared memory protocol, PAntOR allows running tasks in parallel using threads. This parallelization is applicable in the route setup phase, route local repair process and link failure notification. In addition, a variant of PAntOR that consists of having more than one interface, which we call PAntOR-MI (PAntOR-Multiple Interface), is specified. This approach parallelizes the sending of broadcast messages by interface through threads. PMID:28531159

  17. A Family of ACO Routing Protocols for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rupérez Cañas, Delfín; Sandoval Orozco, Ana Lucila; García Villalba, Luis Javier; Kim, Tai-Hoon

    2017-05-22

    In this work, an ACO routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks based on AntHocNet is specified. As its predecessor, this new protocol, called AntOR, is hybrid in the sense that it contains elements from both reactive and proactive routing. Specifically, it combines a reactive route setup process with a proactive route maintenance and improvement process. Key aspects of the AntOR protocol are the disjoint-link and disjoint-node routes, separation between the regular pheromone and the virtual pheromone in the diffusion process and the exploration of routes, taking into consideration the number of hops in the best routes. In this work, a family of ACO routing protocols based on AntOR is also specified. These protocols are based on protocol successive refinements. In this work, we also present a parallelized version of AntOR that we call PAntOR. Using programming multiprocessor architectures based on the shared memory protocol, PAntOR allows running tasks in parallel using threads. This parallelization is applicable in the route setup phase, route local repair process and link failure notification. In addition, a variant of PAntOR that consists of having more than one interface, which we call PAntOR-MI (PAntOR-Multiple Interface), is specified. This approach parallelizes the sending of broadcast messages by interface through threads.

  18. Evolution Strategies in the Multipoint Connections Routing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Krulikovska

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available Routing of multipoint connections plays an important role in final cost and quality of a found connection. New algorithms with better results are still searched. In this paper, a possibility of using the evolution strategies (ES for routing is presented. Quality of found connection is evaluated from the view of final cost and time spent on a searching procedure. First, parametrical analysis of results of the ES are discussed and compared with the Prim’s algorithm, which was chosen as a representative of the deterministic routing algorithms. Second, ways for improving the ES are suggested and implemented. The obtained results are reviewed. The main improvements are specified and discussed in conclusion.

  19. Pheromone Static Routing Strategy for Complex Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Mao-Bin; Henry, Y. K. Lau; Ling, Xiang; Jiang, Rui

    2012-12-01

    We adopt the concept of using pheromones to generate a set of static paths that can reach the performance of global dynamic routing strategy [Phys. Rev. E 81 (2010) 016113]. The path generation method consists of two stages. In the first stage, a pheromone is dropped to the nodes by packets forwarded according to the global dynamic routing strategy. In the second stage, pheromone static paths are generated according to the pheromone density. The output paths can greatly improve traffic systems' overall capacity on different network structures, including scale-free networks, small-world networks and random graphs. Because the paths are static, the system needs much less computational resources than the global dynamic routing strategy.

  20. Hazardous materials routing - risk management of mismanagement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Glickman, T.S.

    1988-01-01

    Along with emergency planning and preparedness, the placement of restrictions on routing has become an increasingly popular device for managing the highway and rail risks of hazardous materials transportation. Federal studies conducted in 1985 indicate that at that time there were 513 different state and local restrictions on the routing of hazardous materials for these two modes of transportation, and that there were 136 state and local notification requirements, that is, restrictions that take the form of a statute or ordinance requiring advance warning or periodic reporting about hazardous materials shipments. Routing restrictions also take the form of prohibiting the use of road, a tunnel, or a bridge for a specified set of hazardous materials

  1. Heterogeneous logics of competition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mossin, Christiane

    2015-01-01

    of competition are only realized as particular forms of social organization by virtue of interplaying with other kinds of logics, like legal logics. (2) Competition logics enjoy a peculiar status in-between constructedness and givenness; although competition depends on laws and mechanisms of socialization, we...... still experience competition as an expression of spontaneous human activities. On the basis of these perspectives, a study of fundamental rights of EU law, springing from the principle of ‘free movement of people’, is conducted. The first part of the empirical analysis seeks to detect the presence...... of a presumed logic of competition within EU law, whereas the second part focuses on particular legal logics. In this respect, the so-called ‘real link criterion’ (determining the access to transnational social rights for certain groups of unemployed people) is given special attention. What is particularly...

  2. Recent progress in competitive intelligence, competitive technical intelligence and knowledge management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dou Henri

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses the role of competitive intelligence and knowledge management to create, maintain and sustain competitive advantages. The triple helix model, based on the integration of the public sector (government, business models (private corporations and universities to promote innovation is examined. Research trends in competitive intelligence are presented. It concludes that the systematic use of the technology monitoring should support the comparison between various business models of companies that hold the market best practices and form a basis to knowledge for the decision making process and strategies development.

  3. Evaluation of geocast routing trees on random and actual networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Meijerink, Berend Jan; Baratchi, Mitra; Heijenk, Geert; Koucheryavy, Yevgeni; Mamatas, Lefteris; Matta, Ibrahim; Ometov, Aleksandr; Papadimitriou, Panagiotis

    2017-01-01

    Efficient geocast routing schemes are needed to transmit messages to mobile networked devices in geographically scoped areas. To design an efficient geocast routing algorithm a comprehensive evaluation of different routing tree approaches is needed. In this paper, we present an analytical study

  4. Energy Reduction Multipath Routing Protocol for MANET Using Recoil Technique

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rakesh Kumar Sahu

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available In Mobile Ad-hoc networks (MANET, power conservation and utilization is an acute problem and has received significant attention from academics and industry in recent years. Nodes in MANET function on battery power, which is a rare and limited energy resource. Hence, its conservation and utilization should be done judiciously for the effective functioning of the network. In this paper, a novel protocol namely Energy Reduction Multipath Routing Protocol for MANET using Recoil Technique (AOMDV-ER is proposed, which conserves the energy along with optimal network lifetime, routing overhead, packet delivery ratio and throughput. It performs better than any other AODV based algorithms, as in AOMDV-ER the nodes transmit packets to their destination smartly by using a varying recoil off time technique based on their geographical location. This concept reduces the number of transmissions, which results in the improvement of network lifetime. In addition, the local level route maintenance reduces the additional routing overhead. Lastly, the prediction based link lifetime of each node is estimated which helps in reducing the packet loss in the network. This protocol has three subparts: an optimal route discovery algorithm amalgamation with the residual energy and distance mechanism; a coordinated recoiled nodes algorithm which eliminates the number of transmissions in order to reduces the data redundancy, traffic redundant, routing overhead, end to end delay and enhance the network lifetime; and a last link reckoning and route maintenance algorithm to improve the packet delivery ratio and link stability in the network. The experimental results show that the AOMDV-ER protocol save at least 16% energy consumption, 12% reduction in routing overhead, significant achievement in network lifetime and packet delivery ratio than Ad hoc on demand multipath distance vector routing protocol (AOMDV, Ad hoc on demand multipath distance vector routing protocol life

  5. A Multicast Protocol Utilizing On-demand Routing Strategy for MPRN

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2002-01-01

    This paper proposes a multicast protocol utilizing ondemand routing strategy for mobile packet radio network. It does not maintain permanent route tables with full topological views. Instead, multicast senders apply on-demand procedures to dynamically discover routes and build forwarding group in this protocol. The data packets are propagated by each forwarding group member via scoped flooding, so the protocol can reduce network bandwidth overhead and avoid the propagation of potentially large routing updates throughout the network.

  6. An Evolutionary Real-Time 3D Route Planner for Aircraft

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    郑昌文; 丁明跃; 周成平

    2003-01-01

    A novel evolutionary route planner for aircraft is proposed in this paper. In the new planner, individual candidates are evaluated with respect to the workspace, thus the computation of the configuration space is not required. By using problem-specific chromosome structure and genetic operators, the routes are generated in real time,with different mission constraints such as minimum route leg length and flying altitude, maximum turning angle, maximum climbing/diving angle and route distance constraint taken into account.

  7. CBHRP: A Cluster Based Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Network

    OpenAIRE

    Rashed, M. G.; Kabir, M. Hasnat; Rahim, M. Sajjadur; Ullah, Sk. Enayet

    2012-01-01

    A new two layer hierarchical routing protocol called Cluster Based Hierarchical Routing Protocol (CBHRP) is proposed in this paper. It is an extension of LEACH routing protocol. We introduce cluster head-set idea for cluster-based routing where several clusters are formed with the deployed sensors to collect information from target field. On rotation basis, a head-set member receives data from the neighbor nodes and transmits the aggregated results to the distance base station. This protocol ...

  8. A lower bound for the node, edge, and arc routing problem

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bach, Lukas; Hasle, Geir; Wøhlk, Sanne

    2013-01-01

    The Node, Edge, and Arc Routing Problem (NEARP) was defined by Prins and Bouchenoua in 2004, although similar problems have been studied before. This problem, also called the Mixed Capacitated General Routing Problem (MCGRP), generalizes the classical Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP......), the Capacitated Arc Routing Problem (CARP), and the General Routing Problem. It captures important aspects of real-life routing problems that were not adequately modeled in previous Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) variants. The authors also proposed a memetic algorithm procedure and defined a set of test instances...... called the CBMix benchmark. The NEARP definition and investigation contribute to the development of rich VRPs. In this paper we present the first lower bound procedure for the NEARP. It is a further development of lower bounds for the CARP. We also define two novel sets of test instances to complement...

  9. Interval Routing and Minor-Monotone Graph Parameters

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bakker, E.M.; Bodlaender, H.L.; Tan, R.B.; Leeuwen, J. van

    2006-01-01

    We survey a number of minor-monotone graph parameters and their relationship to the complexity of routing on graphs. In particular we compare the interval routing parameters κslir(G) and κsir(G) with Colin de Verdi`ere’s graph invariant μ(G) and its variants λ(G) and κ(G). We show that for all the

  10. Indoor 3D Route Modeling Based On Estate Spatial Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, H.; Wen, Y.; Jiang, J.; Huang, W.

    2014-04-01

    Indoor three-dimensional route model is essential for space intelligence navigation and emergency evacuation. This paper is motivated by the need of constructing indoor route model automatically and as far as possible. By comparing existing building data sources, this paper firstly explained the reason why the estate spatial management data is chosen as the data source. Then, an applicable method of construction three-dimensional route model in a building is introduced by establishing the mapping relationship between geographic entities and their topological expression. This data model is a weighted graph consist of "node" and "path" to express the spatial relationship and topological structure of a building components. The whole process of modelling internal space of a building is addressed by two key steps: (1) each single floor route model is constructed, including path extraction of corridor using Delaunay triangulation algorithm with constrained edge, fusion of room nodes into the path; (2) the single floor route model is connected with stairs and elevators and the multi-floor route model is eventually generated. In order to validate the method in this paper, a shopping mall called "Longjiang New City Plaza" in Nanjing is chosen as a case of study. And the whole building space is constructed according to the modelling method above. By integrating of existing path finding algorithm, the usability of this modelling method is verified, which shows the indoor three-dimensional route modelling method based on estate spatial data in this paper can support indoor route planning and evacuation route design very well.

  11. HIGHWAY, a transportation routing model: program description and users' manual

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joy, D.S.; Johnson, P.E.; Gibson, S.M.

    1982-12-01

    A computerized transportation routing model has been developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to be used for predicting likely routes for shipping radioactive materials. The HIGHWAY data base is a computerized road atlas containing descriptions of the entire interstate highway system, the federal highway system, and most of the principal state roads. In addition to its prediction of the most likely commercial route, options incorporated in the HIGHWAY model can allow for maximum use of interstate highways or routes that will bypass urbanized areas containing populations > 100,000. The user may also interactively modify the data base to predict routes that bypass any particular state, city, town, or specific highway segment

  12. Far-from-Equilibrium Route to Superthermal Light in Bimodal Nanolasers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mathias Marconi

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Microscale and nanoscale lasers inherently exhibit rich photon statistics due to complex light-matter interaction in a strong spontaneous emission noise background. It is well known that they may display superthermal fluctuations—photon superbunching—in specific situations due to either gain competition, leading to mode-switching instabilities, or carrier-carrier coupling in superradiant microcavities. Here we show a generic route to superbunching in bimodal nanolasers by preparing the system far from equilibrium through a parameter quench. We demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, that transient dynamics after a short-pump-pulse-induced quench leads to heavy-tailed superthermal statistics when projected onto the weak mode. We implement a simple experimental technique to access the probability density functions that further enables quantifying the distance from thermal equilibrium via the thermodynamic entropy. The universality of this mechanism relies on the far-from-equilibrium dynamical scenario, which can be mapped to a fast cooling process of a suspension of Brownian particles in a liquid. Our results open up new avenues to mold photon statistics in multimode optical systems and may constitute a test bed to investigate out-of-equilibrium thermodynamics using micro or nanocavity arrays.

  13. Far-from-Equilibrium Route to Superthermal Light in Bimodal Nanolasers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marconi, Mathias; Javaloyes, Julien; Hamel, Philippe; Raineri, Fabrice; Levenson, Ariel; Yacomotti, Alejandro M.

    2018-02-01

    Microscale and nanoscale lasers inherently exhibit rich photon statistics due to complex light-matter interaction in a strong spontaneous emission noise background. It is well known that they may display superthermal fluctuations—photon superbunching—in specific situations due to either gain competition, leading to mode-switching instabilities, or carrier-carrier coupling in superradiant microcavities. Here we show a generic route to superbunching in bimodal nanolasers by preparing the system far from equilibrium through a parameter quench. We demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, that transient dynamics after a short-pump-pulse-induced quench leads to heavy-tailed superthermal statistics when projected onto the weak mode. We implement a simple experimental technique to access the probability density functions that further enables quantifying the distance from thermal equilibrium via the thermodynamic entropy. The universality of this mechanism relies on the far-from-equilibrium dynamical scenario, which can be mapped to a fast cooling process of a suspension of Brownian particles in a liquid. Our results open up new avenues to mold photon statistics in multimode optical systems and may constitute a test bed to investigate out-of-equilibrium thermodynamics using micro or nanocavity arrays.

  14. Routing of Electric Vehicles: City Distribution in Copenhagen

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Linde, Esben; Larsen, Allan; Nørrelund, Anders Vedsted

    In this work, a Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows considering EV constraints of limited driving range and freight capacity is addressed (EVRPTW). The EVs are allowed to recharge at certain locations, and aspects of intelligent location of these recharging points are considered....... The objective is to find the least cost plan for EV routing and compare this to conventional routing. A heuristic method is developed and tested on data based on real-life collected data on distribution vehicles in central Copenhagen, Denmark. The EVRPTW has so far received little attention in the literature...

  15. Energy-Aware Routing Optimization in Dynamic GMPLS Controlled Optical Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wang, Jiayuan; Ricciardi, Sergio; Fagertun, Anna Manolova

    2012-01-01

    In this paper, routing optimizations based on energy sources are proposed in dynamic GMPLS controlled optical networks. The influences of re-routing and load balancing factors on the algorithm are evaluated, with a focus on different re-routing thresholds. Results from dynamic network simulations...

  16. Competition Regime

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danilo Icaza Ortiz

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper is a review of the competition regime works of various authors, published under the auspices of the University of the Hemispheres and the Corporation for Studies and Publications. Analyzes the structure, the general concepts, case law taken for development. Includes comments on the usefulness of this work for the study of competition law and the contribution to the lawyers who want to practice in this branch of economic law.

  17. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE ENTERPRISE PERFORMANCE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    PRUNEA Ana Daniela

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Rapid changes in market characteristics and the technological innovations are common and faster challenges, resulting in products, processes and technologies. The competitive advantage is volatile, difficult to obtain and more difficult to maintain and strengthened with consumers who through their individual choices polarization confirms the recognition performance and award competitive advantages, thus causing the competitive ranking of companies present in a particular market. The competitive advantage lies in the focus of the performance of companies in competitive markets and innovation is a source for obtaining and consolidating it. Companies will need to demonstrate the capacity to adapt to changes in the business environment so as to maintain the helded positions. This paper treats this aspect behavior that companies should adopt to get on the account of innovation a sustainable competitive advantage. I started of the work in the elaboration from the theory of developed by Michael Porter in his book "Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance" we applied methods listed thus trying to point out possible ways of creating competitive advantage by companies. We have presented the sources of competitive advantage and the factors on which depends its creation. Walking theoretical research revealed how lack of competitive advantage leads to a lack of competitiveness of companies and the benefits that arise with the creation of this type of asset. Among the most important benefits is to increase performances. Once the competitive advantage is achieved, it must be maintained and updated market conditions and the methods that can be created a sustainable competitive advantage represent the answers to many of the companies questions are fighting for survival in an environment of fierce competition. The implementation of methods for obtaining competitive advantages, but also exist dangers, that every company should know them

  18. 5 CFR 351.403 - Competitive level.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Competitive level. 351.403 Section 351... FORCE Scope of Competition § 351.403 Competitive level. (a)(1) Each agency shall establish competitive levels consisting of all positions in a competitive area which are in the same grade (or occupational...

  19. Competition in education

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Knudsen, Hanne; Christensen, Søren

    Competition in education has two functions: selection and motivation. How do these two functions correlate, contradict or co-exist? How has the educational system reflected on the relation between competition as motivational technology and as a technology for selection? The aim of this paper...... is to formulate the problem of competition in education as a relation between selection and motivation and provide an analytical strategy to grasp this problem. Our ambition is to theorize the problem and give empirical illustrations of how the connection between selection and motivation has been articulated...... in various educational institutions and programs....

  20. Acquisition of business intelligence from human experience in route planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bello Orgaz, Gema; Barrero, David F.; R-Moreno, María D.; Camacho, David

    2015-04-01

    The logistic sector raises a number of highly challenging problems. Probably one of the most important ones is the shipping planning, i.e. plan the routes that the shippers have to follow to deliver the goods. In this article, we present an artificial intelligence-based solution that has been designed to help a logistic company to improve its routes planning process. In order to achieve this goal, the solution uses the knowledge acquired by the company drivers to propose optimised routes. Hence, the proposed solution gathers the experience of the drivers, processes it and optimises the delivery process. The solution uses data mining to extract knowledge from the company information systems and prepares it for analysis with a case-based reasoning (CBR) algorithm. The CBR obtains critical business intelligence knowledge from the drivers experience that is needed by the planner. The design of the routes is done by a genetic algorithm that, given the processed information, optimises the routes following several objectives, such as minimise the distance or time. Experimentation shows that the proposed approach is able to find routes that improve, on average, the routes made by the human experts.

  1. 5 CFR 351.402 - Competitive area.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Competitive area. 351.402 Section 351.402... Competition § 351.402 Competitive area. (a) Each agency shall establish competitive areas in which employees compete for retention under this part. (b) A competitive area must be defined solely in terms of the...

  2. Secure Trust Based Key Management Routing Framework for Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jugminder Kaur

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Security is always a major concern in wireless sensor networks (WSNs. Several trust based routing protocols are designed that play an important role in enhancing the performance of a wireless network. However they still have some disadvantages like limited energy resources, susceptibility to physical capture, and little protection against various attacks due to insecure wireless communication channels. This paper presents a secure trust based key management (STKF routing framework that establishes a secure trustworthy route depending upon the present and past node to node interactions. This route is then updated by isolating the malicious or compromised nodes from the route, if any, and a dedicated link is created between every pair of nodes in the selected route with the help of “q” composite random key predistribution scheme (RKPS to ensure data delivery from source to destination. The performance of trust aware secure routing framework (TSRF is compared with the proposed routing scheme. The results indicate that STKF provides an effective mechanism for finding out a secure route with better trustworthiness than TSRF which avoids the data dropping, thereby increasing the data delivery ratio. Also the distance required to reach the destination in the proposed protocol is less hence effectively utilizing the resources.

  3. Competition in investment banking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katrina Ellis

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available We construct a comprehensive measure of overall investment banking competitiveness for follow-on offerings that aggregates the various dimensions of competition such as fees, pricing accuracy, analyst recommendations, distributional abilities, market making prowess, debt offering capabilities, and overall reputation. The measure allows us to incorporate trade-offs that investment banks may use in competing for new or established clients. We find that firms who switch to similar-quality underwriters enjoy more intense competition among investment banks which manifests in lower fees and more optimistic recommendations. Investment banks do compete vigorously for some clients, with the level of competition related to the likelihood of gaining or losing clients. Finally, investment banks not performing up to market norms are more likely to be dropped in the follow-on offering. In contrast, firms who seek a higher reputation underwriter face relatively non-competitive markets.

  4. Application of cloud computing in power routing for clusters of microgrids using oblivious network routing algorithm

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Amini, M. Hadi; Broojeni, Kianoosh G.; Dragicevic, Tomislav

    2017-01-01

    of microgrid while preventing congestion as well as minimizing the power loss. Then, we present a two-layer simulation platform which considers both communication layer and physical layer of the microgrids' cluster. In order to improve the security of communication network, we perform the computations...... regarding the oblivious power routing via a cloud-based network. The proposed framework can be used for further studies that deal with the real-time simulation of the clusters of microgrids. In order to validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, we implement our proposed oblivious routing scheme...

  5. Optimization Model for Headway of a Suburban Bus Route

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaohong Jiang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Due to relatively low passenger demand, headways of suburban bus route are usually longer than those of urban bus route. Actually it is also difficult to balance the benefits between passengers and operators, subject to the service standards from the government. Hence the headway of a suburban bus route is usually determined on the empirical experience of transport planners. To cope with this problem, this paper proposes an optimization model for designing the headways of suburban bus routes by minimizing the operating and user costs. The user costs take into account both the waiting time cost and the crowding cost. The feasibility and validity of the proposed model are shown by applying it to the Route 206 in Jiangning district, Nanjing city of China. Weightages of passengers’ cost and operating cost are further discussed, considering different passenger flows. It is found that the headway and objective function are affected by the weightages largely.

  6. Transmission Scheduling and Routing Algorithms for Delay Tolerant Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dudukovich, Rachel; Raible, Daniel E.

    2016-01-01

    The challenges of data processing, transmission scheduling and routing within a space network present a multi-criteria optimization problem. Long delays, intermittent connectivity, asymmetric data rates and potentially high error rates make traditional networking approaches unsuitable. The delay tolerant networking architecture and protocols attempt to mitigate many of these issues, yet transmission scheduling is largely manually configured and routes are determined by a static contact routing graph. A high level of variability exists among the requirements and environmental characteristics of different missions, some of which may allow for the use of more opportunistic routing methods. In all cases, resource allocation and constraints must be balanced with the optimization of data throughput and quality of service. Much work has been done researching routing techniques for terrestrial-based challenged networks in an attempt to optimize contact opportunities and resource usage. This paper examines several popular methods to determine their potential applicability to space networks.

  7. Influence of the Built Environment on Pedestrian Route Choices of Adolescent Girls

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rodriguez, Daniel A.; Merlin, Louis; Prato, Carlo Giacomo

    2015-01-01

    We examined the influence of the built environment on pedestrian route selection among adolescent girls. Portable global positioning system units, accelerometers, and travel diaries were used to identify the origin, destination, and walking routes of girls in San Diego, California, and Minneapolis...... of route choice. Shorter distance had the strongest positive association with route choice, whereas the presence of a greenway or trail, higher safety, presence of sidewalks, and availability of destinations along a route were also consistently positively associated with route choice at both sites...

  8. Apparent competition and native consumers exacerbate the strong competitive effect of an exotic plant species.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orrock, John L; Dutra, Humberto P; Marquis, Robert J; Barber, Nicholas

    2015-04-01

    Direct and indirect effects can play a key role in invasions, but experiments evaluating both are rare. We examined the roles of direct competition and apparent competition by exotic Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) by manipulating (1) L. maackii vegetation, (2) presence of L. maackii fruits, and (3) access to plants by small mammals and deer. Direct competition with L. maackii reduced the abundance and richness of native and exotic species, and native consumers significantly reduced the abundance and richness of native species. Although effects of direct competition and consumption were more pervasive, richness of native plants was also reduced through apparent competition, as small-mammal consumers reduced richness only when L. maackii fruits were present. Our experiment reveals the multiple, interactive pathways that affect the success and impact of an invasive exotic plant: exotic plants may directly benefit from reduced attack by native consumers, may directly exert strong competitive effects on native plants, and may also benefit from apparent competition.

  9. Comparison of MANET routing protocols using a scaled indoor wireless grid

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Johnson, DL

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available accumulation feature of Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) by adding the accumulated route, back to the source, to the Route Request packet. It retains the destination sequence number feature of AODV but HELLO packets are an optional feature and are normally left... than the inbound traffic as the routing algorithm makes a decision to rebroadcast the packet or not and Figure 20 confirms this. DYMO shows the least amount of routing traffic due to its lack of HELLO packets. This is also due to no further...

  10. How well do modelled routes to school record the environments children are exposed to?: a cross-sectional comparison of GIS-modelled and GPS-measured routes to school

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Background The school journey may make an important contribution to children’s physical activity and provide exposure to food and physical activity environments. Typically, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been used to model assumed routes to school in studies, but these may differ from those actually chosen. We aimed to identify the characteristics of children and their environments that make the modelled route more or less representative of that actually taken. We compared modelled GIS routes and actual Global Positioning Systems (GPS) measured routes in a free-living sample of children using varying travel modes. Methods Participants were 175 13-14 yr old children taking part in the Sport, Physical activity and Eating behaviour: Environmental Determinants in Young people (SPEEDY) study who wore GPS units for up to 7 days. Actual routes to/from school were extracted from GPS data, and shortest routes between home and school along a road network were modelled in a GIS. Differences between them were assessed according to length, percentage overlap, and food outlet exposure using multilevel regression models. Results GIS routes underestimated route length by 21.0% overall, ranging from 6.1% among walkers to 23.2% for bus users. Among pedestrians food outlet exposure was overestimated by GIS routes by 25.4%. Certain characteristics of children and their neighbourhoods that improved the concordance between GIS and GPS route length and overlap were identified. Living in a village raised the odds of increased differences in length (odds ratio (OR) 3.36 (1.32-8.58)), while attending a more urban school raised the odds of increased percentage overlap (OR 3.98 (1.49-10.63)). However none were found for food outlet exposure. Journeys home from school increased the difference between GIS and GPS routes in terms of food outlet exposure, and this measure showed considerable within-person variation. Conclusions GIS modelled routes between home and school were not

  11. 77 FR 54805 - Revocation of Jet Route J-528; WA

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-09-06

    ...-0749; Airspace Docket No. 11-ANM-29] RIN 2120-AA66 Revocation of Jet Route J-528; WA AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: This action removes Jet Route J-528... 20591; telephone: (202) 267-8783. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background Jet Route J-528 is currently...

  12. On the Core of Routing Games with Revenues

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    A. Estévez-Fernandéz (Arantza); P. Borm; M. Meertens; H. Reijnierse

    2006-01-01

    htmlabstract Traveling salesman problems with revenues form a generalization of traveling salesman problems. Here, next to travel costs an explicit revenue is generated by visiting a city. We analyze routing problems with revenues, where a predetermined route on all cities determines the tours

  13. On the Core of Routing Games with Revenues

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Estevez Fernandez, M.A.; Borm, P.E.M.; Meertens, M.; Reijnierse, J.H.

    2006-01-01

    Traveling salesman problems with revenues form a generalization of traveling salesman problems.Here, next to travel costs an explicit revenue is generated by visiting a city.We analyze routing problems with revenues, where a predetermined route on all cities determines the tours along

  14. Generalized routing protocols for multihop relay networks

    KAUST Repository

    Khan, Fahd Ahmed

    2011-07-01

    Performance of multihop cooperative networks depends on the routing protocols employed. In this paper we propose the last-n-hop selection protocol, the dual path protocol, the forward-backward last-n-hop selection protocol and the forward-backward dual path protocol for the routing of data through multihop relay networks. The average symbol error probability performance of the schemes is analysed by simulations. It is shown that close to optimal performance can be achieved by using the last-n-hop selection protocol and its forward-backward variant. Furthermore we also compute the complexity of the protocols in terms of number of channel state information required and the number of comparisons required for routing the signal through the network. © 2011 IEEE.

  15. Competitive Pressure: Competitive Dynamics as Reactions to Multiple Rivals

    OpenAIRE

    Zucchini, Leon; Kretschmer, Tobias

    2011-01-01

    Competitive dynamics research has focused primarily on interactions between dyads of firms. Drawing on the awareness-motivation-capability framework and strategic group theory we extend this by proposing that firms’ actions are influenced by perceived competitive pressure resulting from actions by several rivals. We predict that firms’ action magnitude is influenced by the total number of rival actions accumulating in the market, and that this effect is moderated by strategic group membership...

  16. Locating Depots for Capacitated Vehicle Routing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gørtz, Inge Li; Nagarajan, Viswanath

    2011-01-01

    that all demands are satisfied and the total cost is minimized. Our main result is a constant-factor approximation algorithm for k-LocVRP. To achieve this result, we reduce k-LocVRP to the following generalization of k median, which might be of independent interest. Given a metric (V, d), bound k...... median forest, which leads to a (12+E)-approximation algorithm for k-LocVRP, for any constant E > 0. The algorithm for k median forest is t-swap local search, and we prove that it has locality gap 3 + 2 t ; this generalizes the corresponding result for k median [3]. Finally we consider the k median......We study a location-routing problem in the context of capacitated vehicle routing. The input to k-LocVRP is a set of demand locations in a metric space and a fleet of k vehicles each of capacity Q. The objective is to locate k depots, one for each vehicle, and compute routes for the vehicles so...

  17. Competitiveness and Management of Technology

    OpenAIRE

    Cheng, Ming Yu

    2015-01-01

    This paper delves into competition and technology management as a means of economic development. Expanding from Porter's framework on competitiveness and using a novel framework of PTGE(People, Technology, Government and Environment), this paper argues that three types of competitive advantage could be created. These competitive advantages range from passive to active advantages, i.e. natural advantage, duplicated advantage and niche advantage. Technology and effective management of technolog...

  18. LENIENCY POLICY FOR COMPETITIVE ACTIVITY

    OpenAIRE

    Ilie Moga

    2013-01-01

    A market driven economy is inconceivable without competition. In this system, the competition is beneficial firstly for consumers, but also for producers. The former have the ability to satisfy their needs according to taste and financial ability, while the latter are incentivized to innovate and increase efficiency. Competition induces natural selection among companies. This selection must adhere to strictly abiding by competition law regulation, while regulation must benefit both consumers ...

  19. Energy Efficient MANET Routing Using a Combination of Span and BECA/AFECA

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kristensen, Mads Darø; Bouvin, Niels Olof

    2008-01-01

    This paper presents some novel approaches for energy efficient routing in mobile ad-hoc networks. Two known energy preserving techniques, Span and BECA/AFECA, are combined with a well-known re-active routing protocol, AODV, to create a new energy efficient routing protocol. Furthermore, the proto......This paper presents some novel approaches for energy efficient routing in mobile ad-hoc networks. Two known energy preserving techniques, Span and BECA/AFECA, are combined with a well-known re-active routing protocol, AODV, to create a new energy efficient routing protocol. Furthermore...

  20. Evolutionary algorithms for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bräysy, Olli; Dullaert, Wout; Gendreau, Michel

    2004-01-01

    This paper surveys the research on evolutionary algorithms for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW). The VRPTW can be described as the problem of designing least cost routes from a single depot to a set of geographically scattered points. The routes must be designed in such a way

  1. Competitive versus comparative advantage

    OpenAIRE

    Neary, J. Peter

    2002-01-01

    I explore the interactions between comparative, competitive and absolute advantage in a two-country model of oligopoly in general equilibrium. Comparative advantage always determines the direction of trade, but both competitive and absolute advantage affect resource allocation, trade patterns and trade volumes. Competitive advantage in the sense of more home firms drives foreign firms out of marginal sectors but also makes some marginal home sectors uncompetitive. Absolute advantage in the se...

  2. COMPETITION AS MARKET MECHANISM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Ya. Kazhuro

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The essence of a competition as an objective law for development of the commodities production based on private ownership of the means of production and commodity exchange has been revealed in the paper. The paper presents an economic basis of market economy (private ownership which generates a corresponding production objective. Such purpose is a maximization of profit and a minimization of market subject expenses. Therefore, a struggle for the most favourable conditions on commodity production and sales is inevitable in such situation. The struggle is considered in the community with developed market economy as a competition.The competition is regarded not as an exogenic factor exerting its influence on market economic system from the outside, but as an objective phenomenon which is inherent to management market system in itself. Such treatment is substantiated by economic disintegration of individual commodity producers. Being an important engine of market economy, the competition does not establish its laws, and its role is to be an executive of data which are internally inherent in commodity production laws and firstly it concerns a profit maximization law which defines a purpose and guiding motif of economic entities in the given economy.The competition plays a contradictory role under conditions of market economy. On the one hand, it makes manufacturers constantly to aspire to expense reduction for the sake of profit increase. This has resulted in labour productivity increase, production cost decrease and a company receives an opportunity to reduce retail price for its products. Consequently, the competition acts as a potential factor for lowering of prices while increasing production efficiency. On the other hand, sellers have more freedom in price fixing under conditions of imperfect competition as they sell their products under the conditions of a monopolistic competition or an oligopoly. This is the main weakest point of the market

  3. Marketing Aspect of Banking Competition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nieizviestna Olena V.

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the article is to study the need for application of marketing tools in order to improve competitiveness and competitive advantages of banks. By analyzing, systematizing and summarizing the scientific works of many scientists, the relationship between the competitiveness of the commercial bank and its share in the banking market has been discovered. In the process of studying the integration of the strategy of maximizing customer satisfaction in the practice of strategic competition in the banking market there was presented the author’s position regarding the need to take into account the structure of the customer loyalty, as it is it that helps to properly distribute the bank’s marketing efforts. It has been proved that the technology of bank marketing should not only include the systems of identifying customer needs, creation of new financial products, but also contribute to the formation of the multi-factor strategic model of competitive strategy of the bank competitive development. It has been proposed to use the SWOT-analysis in order to effectively manage the bank’s competitiveness.

  4. On the core of routing games with revenues

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Estevez Fernandez, M.A.; Borm, P.; Meertens, M.; Reijnierse, H.

    2009-01-01

    Traveling salesman problems with revenues form a generalization of traveling salesman problems. Here, next to travel costs an explicit revenue is generated by visiting a city. We analyze routing problems with revenues, where a predetermined route on all cities determines the tours along subgroups.

  5. k-Shortest routing of trains on shunting yards

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Riezebos, Jan; van Wezel, Wout

    2009-01-01

    We consider the problem of designing algorithmic support for k-best routing decisions in train shunting scheduling. A study at the Netherlands Railways revealed that planners like to interact with the solution process of finding suitable routes. Two types of interaction were required: the

  6. Reverse stream flow routing by using Muskingum models

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Reverse stream flow routing is a procedure that determines the upstream hydrograph given the downstream hydrograph. This paper presents the development of methodology for Muskingum models parameter estimation for reverse stream flow routing. The standard application of the Muskingum models involves calibration ...

  7. Tourism Routes, Local Economic Promotion and Pro-Poor ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In southern Africa, there is growing interest in the potential for establishing tourism routes as vehicles for tourism expansion and the promotion of local economic development. This article contributes towards understanding the potential and importance of organising routes for local tourism promotion and economic ...

  8. Automated Flight Routing Using Stochastic Dynamic Programming

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ng, Hok K.; Morando, Alex; Grabbe, Shon

    2010-01-01

    Airspace capacity reduction due to convective weather impedes air traffic flows and causes traffic congestion. This study presents an algorithm that reroutes flights in the presence of winds, enroute convective weather, and congested airspace based on stochastic dynamic programming. A stochastic disturbance model incorporates into the reroute design process the capacity uncertainty. A trajectory-based airspace demand model is employed for calculating current and future airspace demand. The optimal routes minimize the total expected traveling time, weather incursion, and induced congestion costs. They are compared to weather-avoidance routes calculated using deterministic dynamic programming. The stochastic reroutes have smaller deviation probability than the deterministic counterpart when both reroutes have similar total flight distance. The stochastic rerouting algorithm takes into account all convective weather fields with all severity levels while the deterministic algorithm only accounts for convective weather systems exceeding a specified level of severity. When the stochastic reroutes are compared to the actual flight routes, they have similar total flight time, and both have about 1% of travel time crossing congested enroute sectors on average. The actual flight routes induce slightly less traffic congestion than the stochastic reroutes but intercept more severe convective weather.

  9. Competition Advocacy: the Italian Experience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Salvatore Rebecchini

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Competition advocacy is considered, together with enforcement, the core business of an antitrust authority. Broadly speaking there are at least three main tasks regularly performed by most, if not all, antitrust agencies that are amenable to the advocacy function: addressing laws and regulations in order to remove unnecessary impediments to competition; engaging in sector enquiries to understand markets behavior and identify critical issues; explaining the benefits of open competitive markets to the public opinion. This article examines these three main tasks and outlines the challenges for competition agencies, with references to the experience of the Italian Competition Authority (ICA and the initiatives undertaken at international level.

  10. Efficient Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks with Multiple Sessions

    OpenAIRE

    Dianjie Lu; Guijuan Zhang; Ren Han; Xiangwei Zheng; Hong Liu

    2014-01-01

    Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are subject to node failures because of limited energy and link unreliability which makes the design of routing protocols in such networks a challenging task. The multipath routing scheme is an optimal alternative to address this problem which splits the traffic across multiple paths instead of routing all the traffic along a single path. However, using more paths introduces more contentions which degrade energy efficiency. The problem becomes even more difficu...

  11. Applied Multiprotocol Routing in IP Telephony

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miroslav Voznak

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the project was to create a multi-protocol system using SIP, H.323 and MGCP standards, which would ensure routing to various types of VoIP networks. The priority was to provide multi-protocol support to SIP and H.323 signalling and the support of the routing using the ENUM standard which has recently passed from the trial phase into full operation in the Czech Republic. The document describes the system's architecture and the components used. It also briefly describes ENUM.

  12. The influence of advertisements on the conspicuity of routing information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boersema, T; Zwaga, H J

    1985-12-01

    An experiment is described in which the influence of advertisements on the conspicuity of routing information was investigated. Stimulus material consisted of colour slides of 12 railway station scenes. In two of these scenes, number and size of advertisements were systematically varied. Subjects were instructed to locate routing signs in the scenes. Performance on the location task was used as a measure of the routing sign conspicuity. The results show that inserting an advertisement lessens the conspicuity of the routing information. This effect becomes stronger if more or larger advertisements are added.

  13. 40 CFR 35.6555 - Competition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... current and include enough qualified sources to ensure maximum open and free competition. Recipients must... transactions in a manner providing maximum full and open competition. (a) Restrictions on competition... bonding requirements; (3) Noncompetitive pricing practices between firms or between affiliated companies...

  14. Public healthcare interests require strict competition enforcement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loozen, Edith M H

    2015-07-01

    Several countries have introduced competition in their health systems in order to maintain the supply of high quality health care in a cost-effective manner. The introduction of competition triggers competition enforcement. Since healthcare is characterized by specific market failures, many favor healthcare-specific competition enforcement in order not only to account for the competition interest, but also for the healthcare interests. The question is whether healthcare systems based on competition can succeed when competition enforcement deviates from standard practice. This paper analyzes whether healthcare-specific competition enforcement is theoretically sound and practically effective. This is exemplified by the Dutch system that is based on regulated competition and thus crucially depends on getting competition enforcement right. Governments are responsible for correcting market failures. Markets are responsible for maximizing the public healthcare interests. By securing sufficient competitive pressure, competition enforcement makes sure they do. When interpreted according to welfare-economics, competition law takes into account both costs and benefits specific market behavior may have for healthcare. Competition agencies and judiciary are not legitimized to deviate from standard evidentiary requirements. Dutch case law shows that healthcare-specific enforcement favors the healthcare undertakings concerned, but to the detriment of public health care. Healthcare-specific competition enforcement is conceptually flawed and counterproductive. In order for healthcare systems based on competition to succeed, competition enforcement should be strict. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. The competitiveness of national tourism industry

    OpenAIRE

    Rūtelionė, Aušra

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of the scientific research is to suggest the model of national tourism industry competitiveness and determine the main factors that increase national tourism industry competitiveness basing on fundamental national competitiveness theories and national tourism industry competitiveness conceptions.

  16. Competition between biofuels. Modeling technological learning and cost reductions over time

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    De Wit, M.; Junginger, M.; Faaij, A.; Lensink, S.M.; Londo, H.M.

    2009-10-01

    A key aspect in modeling the (future) competition between biofuels is the way in which production cost developments are computed. The objective of this study was threefold: (1) to construct a (endogenous) relation between cost development and cumulative production (2) to implement technological learning based on both engineering study insights and an experience curve approach, and (3) to investigate the impact of different technological learning assumptions on the market diffusion patterns of different biofuels. The analysis was executed with the European biofuel model BioTrans, which computes the least cost biofuel route. The model meets an increasing demand, reaching a 25% share of biofuels of the overall European transport fuel demand by 2030. Results show that 1st generation biodiesel is the most cost competitive fuel, dominating the early market. With increasing demand, modestly productive oilseed crops become more expensive rapidly, providing opportunities for advanced biofuels to enter the market. While biodiesel supply typically remains steady until 2030, almost all additional yearly demands are delivered by advanced biofuels, supplying up to 60% of the market by 2030. Sensitivity analysis shows that (a) overall increasing investment costs favour biodiesel production, (b) separate gasoline and diesel subtargets may diversify feedstock production and technology implementation, thus limiting the risk of failure and preventing lock-in and (c) the moment of an advanced technology's commercial market introduction determines, to a large degree, its future chances for increasing market share.

  17. Comparison of MANET Routing Protocols in Different Traffic and Mobility Models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Baraković

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Routing protocol election in MANET (Mobile Ad Hoc Network is a great challenge, because of its frequent topology changes and routing overhead. This paper compares performances of three routing protocols: Destination Sequenced Distance Vector (DSDV, Ad Hoc Ondemand Distance Vector (AODV and Dynamic Source Routing (DSR, based on results analysis obtained using simulations with different load and mobility scenarios performed with Network Simulator version 2 (NS-2. In low load and low mobility scenarios routing protocols perform in a similar manner. However, with mobility and load increasing DSR outperforms AODV and DSDV protocols.

  18. Alternative route to metal halide free ionic liquids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takao, Koichiro; Ikeda, Yasuhisa

    2008-01-01

    An alternative synthetic route to metal halide free ionic liquids using trialkyloxonium salt is proposed. Utility of this synthetic route has been demonstrated by preparing 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ionic liquid through the reaction between 1-methylimidazole and triethyloxonium tetra-fluoroborate in anhydrous ether. (author)

  19. Adaptive Probabilistic Routing in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

    OpenAIRE

    Hasan, Affaf; Liaqat, Ismail

    2013-01-01

    The goal of this thesis work is to analyze how design elements and wireless attributes affect opportunistic routing, and in this context develop a new protocol. The algorithm developed aims to improve opportunistic elements in comparison to a well-known opportunistic protocol Simple Opportunistic Adaptive Routing (SOAR).

  20. Competition in electricity markets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Taylor, W.

    1996-01-01

    This article examines expanded wholesale and retail competition and the effect that they are likely to have on the electric power industry. The author believes that expanded wholesale competition is good and will bring immediate benefit to all electric consumers; however, based on the experience of the natural gas industry and the electric power industry in California and other parts of the world, the author counsels caution in moving toward expanded retail competition

  1. Assessing green waste route by using Network Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hasmantika, I. H.; Maryono, M.

    2018-02-01

    Green waste, such as waste from park need treat proper. One of the main problems of green waste management is how to design optimum collection. This research aims to determine the optimum green waste collection by determining optimum route among park. The route optimum was assessed by using network analysis method. And the region five of Semarang city’s park within 20 parks in chose as case study. To enhancing recycle of green waste, three scenarios of treatment are proposed. Scenario 1 used one integrated treatment facility as terminal for enhancing recycle of green waste, Scenario 2 used two sites and scenario 3 used three sites. According to the assessment, the length of route of scenario 1 is 36.126 km and the time for collection estimated is 46 minutes. In scenario 2, the length of route is 36.471 km with a travel time is 47 minutes. The length of scenario three is 46.934 km and the time of collection is 60 minutes.

  2. Routing Protocol for Mobile Ad-hoc Wireless Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. M. B. Nogales

    2007-09-01

    Full Text Available Bluetooth is a cutting-edge technology used for implementing wireless ad hoc networks. In order to provide an overall scheme for mobile ad hoc networks, this paper deals with scatternet topology formation and routing algorithm to form larger ad hoc wireless Networks. Scatternet topology starts by forming a robust network, which is less susceptible to the problems posed by node mobility. Mobile topology relies on the presence of free nodes that create multiple connections with the network and on their subsequently rejoining the network. Our routing protocol is a proactive routing protocol, which is tailor made for the Bluetooth ad hoc network. The connection establishment connects nodes in a structure that simplifies packet routing and scheduling. The design allows nodes to arrive and leave arbitrarily, incrementally building the topology and healing partitions when they occur. We present simulation results that show that the algorithm presents low formation latency and also generates an efficient topology for forwarding packets along ad-hoc wireless networks.

  3. I/O routing in a multidimensional torus network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Dong; Eisley, Noel A.; Heidelberger, Philip

    2018-04-24

    A method, system and computer program product are disclosed for routing data packet in a computing system comprising a multidimensional torus compute node network including a multitude of compute nodes, and an I/O node network including a plurality of I/O nodes. In one embodiment, the method comprises assigning to each of the data packets a destination address identifying one of the compute nodes; providing each of the data packets with a toio value; routing the data packets through the compute node network to the destination addresses of the data packets; and when each of the data packets reaches the destination address assigned to said each data packet, routing said each data packet to one of the I/O nodes if the toio value of said each data packet is a specified value. In one embodiment, each of the data packets is also provided with an ioreturn value used to route the data packets through the compute node network.

  4. On the multidimensionality of political competition: Measuring political competition in a Bartolinian Way

    OpenAIRE

    Bühlmann, M; Zumbach, D

    2011-01-01

    Political competition plays a crucial role in the democratic cycle, be it as a possible mainspring of political participation or as the essential element of democratic accountability and responsiveness. Thus, it is not surprising that many scholars focus on the impact and meaning of political competition. Unfortunately, such is very often misspecified as a unidimensional concept. At least since Stefano Bartolini's seminal paper Collusion, Competition and Democracy (1999, 2000), however, th...

  5. Competitive Intelligence and Social Advantage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davenport, Elisabeth; Cronin, Blaise

    1994-01-01

    Presents an overview of issues concerning civilian competitive intelligence (CI). Topics discussed include competitive advantage in academic and research environments; public domain information and libraries; covert and overt competitive intelligence; data diversity; use of the Internet; cooperative intelligence; and implications for library and…

  6. On the Capacity of Hybrid Wireless Networks with Opportunistic Routing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Le Tan

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper studies the capacity of hybrid wireless networks with opportunistic routing (OR. We first extend the opportunistic routing algorithm to exploit high-speed data transmissions in infrastructure network through base stations. We then develop linear programming models to calculate the end-to-end throughput bounds from multiple source nodes to single as well as multiple destination nodes. The developed models are applied to study several hybrid wireless network examples. Through case studies, we investigate several factors that have significant impacts on the hybrid wireless network capacity under opportunistic routing, such as node transmission range, density and distribution pattern of base stations (BTs, and number of wireless channels on wireless nodes and base stations. Our numerical results demonstrate that opportunistic routing could achieve much higher throughput on both ad hoc and hybrid networks than traditional unicast routing (UR. Moreover, opportunistic routing can efficiently utilize base stations and achieve significantly higher throughput gains in hybrid wireless networks than in pure ad hoc networks especially with multiple-channel base stations.

  7. Optimization of the Costs and the Safety of Maritime Transport by Routing: The use of Currents Forecast in the Routing of Racing Sail Boats as a Prototype of Rout Optimization for Trading Ships

    Science.gov (United States)

    Theunynck, Denis; Peze, Thierry; Toumazou, Vincent; Zunquin, Gauthier; Cohen, Olivier; Monges, Arnaud

    2005-03-01

    It is interesting to see whether the model of routing designed for races and great Navy operations could be transferred to commercial navigation and if so, within which framework.Sail boat routing conquered its letters of nobility during great races like the « Route du Rhum » or the transatlantic race « Jacques Vabre ». It is the ultimate stage of the step begun by the Navy at the time of great operations, like D-day (Overlord )June 6, 1944, in Normandy1.Routing is, from the beginning, mainly based on statistical knowledge and weather forecast, but with the recent availability of reliable currents forecast, sail boats routers and/or skippers now have to learn how to use both winds and currents to obtain the best performance, that is to travel between two points in the shortest time possible in acceptable security conditions.Are the currents forecast only useful to racing sail boat ? Of course not, they are a great help to fisherman for whom the knowledge of currents is also the knowledge of sea temperature who indicates the probability of fish presence. They are also used in offshore work to predict the hardness of the sea during operation.A less developed field of application is the route optimization of trading ships. The idea is to optimize the use of currents to increase the relative speed of ships with no augmentation of fuel expense. This new field will require that currents forecasters learn about the specific needs of another type of clients. There is also a need of teaching because the future customers will have to learn how to use the information they will get.At this point, the introduction of the use of currents forecast in racing sail boats routing is only the first step. It is of great interest because it can rely on a high knowledge in routing.The main difference is of course that the wind direction and its force are of greater importance to a sail boat that they are for a trading ship for whom the point of interest will be the fuel consumption

  8. Integrated model of destination competitiveness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Armenski Tanja

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to determine the weakest point of Serbian destination competitiveness as a tourist destination in comparation with its main competitors. The paper is organized as follows. The short introduction of the previous research on the destination competitiveness is followed by description of the Integrated model of destination competitiveness (Dwyer et al, 2003 that was used as the main reference framework. Section three is devoted to the description of the previous studies on competitiveness of Serbian tourism, while section four outlines the statistical methodology employed in this study and presents and interprets the empirical results. The results showed that Serbia is more competitive in its natural, cultural and created resources than in destination management while, according to the Integrated model, Serbia is less competitive in demand conditions that refer to the image and awareness of the destination itself.

  9. Comparison of actual and predicted routes used in the shipment of radioactive materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joy, D.S.; Johnson, P.E.; Harrison, I.G.

    1985-01-01

    A number of highway controlled shipments of radioactive materials have been made over the past several years. An excellent example showing the variability of actual routes is the transfer of 45 shipments between the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania and Scoville, Idaho in 1982 and 1983. Six different routes varying between 2273 and 2483 miles were used. Approximately 75% of these shipments followed a common route which passed through ten Urbanized Areas, defined by the Census Bureau as having a population exceeding 100,000 people. Other routes, while shorter in distance, passed through as many as 14 Urbanized Areas. Routes predicted by the Oak Ridge routing model did not exactly duplicate actual routes used. However, the analysis shows that the routing model does make a good estimate of transportation routes actually chosen by shippers of radioactive materials. In actual practice, a number of factors (weather, road conditions, driver preference, etc.) influence the actual route taken. 5 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab

  10. A model for competitiveness level analysis in sports competitions: Application to basketball

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Saá Guerra, Y.; Martín González, J. M.; Sarmiento Montesdeoca, S.; Rodríguez Ruiz, D.; García-Rodríguez, A.; García-Manso, J. M.

    2012-05-01

    The degree of overall competitiveness of a sport league is a complex phenomenon. It is difficult to assess and quantify all elements that yield the final standing. In this paper, we analyze the general behavior of the result matrices of each season and we use the corresponding results as a probably density. Thus, the results of previous seasons are a way to investigate the probability that each team has to reach a certain number of victories. We developed a model based on Shannon entropy using two extreme competitive structures (a hierarchical structure and a random structure), and applied this model to investigate the competitiveness of two of the best professional basketball leagues: the NBA (USA) and the ACB (Spain). Both leagues’ entropy levels are high (NBA mean 0.983; ACB mean 0.980), indicating high competitiveness, although the entropy of the ACB (from 0.986 to 0.972) demonstrated more seasonal variability than that of the NBA (from 0.985 to 0.990), a possible result of greater sporting gradients in the ACB. The use of this methodology has proven useful for investigating the competitiveness of sports leagues as well as their underlying variability across time.

  11. Competition Experiments for Legume Infection Identify Burkholderia phymatum as a Highly Competitive β-Rhizobium

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martina Lardi

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Members of the genus Burkholderia (β-proteobacteria have only recently been shown to be able to establish a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with several legumes, which is why they are also referred to as β-rhizobia. Therefore, very little is known about the competitiveness of these species to nodulate different legume host plants. In this study, we tested the competitiveness of several Burkholderia type strains (B. diazotrophica, B. mimosarum, B. phymatum, B. sabiae, B. symbiotica and B. tuberum to nodulate four legumes (Phaseolus vulgaris, Macroptilium atropurpureum, Vigna unguiculata and Mimosa pudica under our closely defined growth conditions. The assessment of nodule occupancy of these species on different legume host plants revealed that B. phymatum was the most competitive strain in the three papilionoid legumes (bean, cowpea and siratro, while B. mimosarum outcompeted the other strains in mimosa. The analysis of phenotypes known to play a role in nodulation competitiveness (motility, exopolysaccharide production and additional in vitro competition assays among β-rhizobial strains suggested that B. phymatum has the potential to be a very competitive legume symbiont.

  12. PROPOSAL OF ALGORITHM FOR ROUTE OPTIMIZATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert Ramon de Carvalho Sousa

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This article uses “Six Sigma” methodology for the elaboration of an algorithm for routing problems which is able to obtain more efficient results than those from Clarke and Wright´s (CW algorithm (1964 in situations of random increase of product delivery demands, facing the incapability of service level increase . In some situations, the algorithm proposed obtained more efficient results than the CW algorithm. The key factor was a reduction in the number of mistakes (one way routes and in the level of result variation.

  13. Eco-sustainable routing in optical networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ricciardi, Sergio; Wang, Jiayuan; Palmieri, Francesco

    2013-01-01

    infrastructures are now widely recognized to play a fundamental role in the emission of green-house gases (GHG) in the at- mosphere, signicantly aecting the environmental sustainability of new evolutions in network architectures as well as technological developments in communication devices. In this paper......, a novel eco-sustainable Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) algorithm, based on shortest-path routing with an adaptive link weighting function relying on an extension of the OSPF-TE protocol to convey carbon footprint information, has been proposed to decrease the network ecological impact while...

  14. Multi-objective evacuation routing optimization for toxic cloud releases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gai, Wen-mei; Deng, Yun-feng; Jiang, Zhong-an; Li, Jing; Du, Yan

    2017-01-01

    This paper develops a model for assessing the risks associated with the evacuation process in response to potential chemical accidents, based on which a multi-objective evacuation routing model for toxic cloud releases is proposed taking into account that the travel speed on each arc will be affected by disaster extension. The objectives of the evacuation routing model are to minimize travel time and individual evacuation risk along a path respectively. Two heuristic algorithms are proposed to solve the multi-objective evacuation routing model. Simulation results show the effectiveness and feasibility of the model and algorithms presented in this paper. And, the methodology with appropriate modification is suitable for supporting decisions in assessing emergency route selection in other cases (fires, nuclear accidents). - Highlights: • A model for assessing and visualizing the risks is developed. • A multi-objective evacuation routing model is proposed for toxic cloud releases. • A modified Dijkstra algorithm is designed to obtain an solution of the model. • Two heuristic algorithms have been developed as the optimization tool.

  15. 75 FR 66344 - Amendment of Jet Route J-93; CA

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-28

    ...-1022; Airspace Docket No. 10-AWP-4] RIN 2120-AA66 Amendment of Jet Route J-93; CA AGENCY: Federal... proposes to amend Jet Route J-93 in California between the Julian VHF Omnidirectional Radio Range Tactical... is necessary to realign Jet Route J-93 with the revised location of the Penasco VOR. The Proposal The...

  16. Business Ideas Competition

    CERN Multimedia

    2003-01-01

    Business Ideas Competition "The Rainbow Seed Fund is a UK fund, which provides finance to support the commercialization of good ideas founded on scientific research; it is for the benefit of the UK industry in particular. To encourage ideas from CERN the Rainbow Seed Fund is running a business ideas competition.The winner of this competition will receive an immediate cash prize of GBP £1,000. In addition the Rainbow Seed Fund may well provide finance for market research, for protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and for prototyping to take the idea forward. Further awards of GBP £750 will be made for ideas which gain investment from the Fund.Candidates will only be required to prepare a 2-4-page summary of their business idea, and not a full business plan. Full details and an entry form are available at www.rainbowseedfund.com ." ALL Members of the Personnel seeking participation in the business ideas competition are asked to submit their ideas via the CERN TT Unit (Jean-Marie.Le Goff@cern.ch) th...

  17. Innovation and strategic competitiveness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jović Mile B.

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available Paper discussed relationships of innovation to achieving strategic competitiveness in today globalized economic environment. Special attention is devoted to the nature of competitive advantages on global industries as well national level. Competitive advantage is a firm's ability to transform inputs into goods and services at a profit on a sustained basis, better than competitors. Comparative advantage resides in the factor endowments and created endowments of particular regions. Beside the traditional endowment approach (land, natural resources, labor and the size of the local population it is emphasized the importance of created one such as skilled labor, the technology and knowledge base, government support and culture. Creating corporate or country competitiveness roadmap there are no substantial difference - innovative as well strategic approach is essential.

  18. The extended TRIP supporting VoIP routing reservation with distributed QoS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Furong; Wu, Ye

    2004-04-01

    In this paper, an existing protocol, i.e. TRIP (Telephony Routing over IP) is developed to provide distributed QoS when making resource reservations for VoIP services such as H.323, SIP. Enhanced LSs (location servers) are deployed in ITADs (IP Telephony Administrative Domains) to take in charge of intra-domain routing policy because of small propagation price. It is an easy way to find an IP telephone route for intra-domain VoIP media association and simultaneously possess intra-domain load balancing features. For those routing reservations bridging domains, inter-domain routing policy is responsible for finding the shortest inter-domain route with enough resources. I propose the routing preference policy based on QoS price when the session traffic is shaped by a token bucket, related QoS messages, and message cooperation.

  19. Synthesis of graphene platelets by chemical and electrochemical route

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ramachandran, Rajendran; Felix, Sathiyanathan [Centre for Nanotechnology Research, VIT University, Vellore 632014, Tamil Nadu (India); Joshi, Girish M. [Materials Physics Division, School of Advanced Sciences, VIT University, Vellore 632014, Tamil Nadu (India); Raghupathy, Bala P.C., E-mail: balapraveen2000@yahoo.com [Centre for Nanotechnology Research, VIT University, Vellore 632014, Tamil Nadu (India); Research and Advanced Engineering Division (Materials), Renault Nissan Technology and Business Center India (P) Ltd., Chennai, Tamil Nadu (India); Jeong, Soon Kwan, E-mail: jeongsk@kier.re.kr [Climate Change Technology Research Division, Korea Institute of Energy Research, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-343 (Korea, Republic of); Grace, Andrews Nirmala, E-mail: anirmalagrace@vit.ac.in [Centre for Nanotechnology Research, VIT University, Vellore 632014, Tamil Nadu (India); Climate Change Technology Research Division, Korea Institute of Energy Research, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-343 (Korea, Republic of)

    2013-10-15

    Graphical abstract: A schematic showing the overall reduction process of graphite to reduced graphene platelets by chemical and electrochemical route. - Highlights: • Graphene was prepared by diverse routes viz. chemical and electrochemical methods. • NaBH{sub 4} was effective for removing oxygen functional groups from graphene oxide. • Sodium borohydride reduced graphene oxide (SRGO) showed high specific capacitance. • Electrochemical rendered a cheap route for production of graphene in powder form. - Abstract: Graphene platelets were synthesized from graphene oxide by chemical and electrochemical route. Under the chemical method, sodium borohydride and hydrazine chloride were used as reductants to produce graphene. In this paper, a novel and cost effective electrochemical method, which can simplify the process of reduction on a larger scale, is demonstrated. The electrochemical method proposed in this paper produces graphene in powder form with good yield. The atomic force microscopic images confirmed that the graphene samples prepared by all the routes have multilayers of graphene. The electrochemical process provided a new route to make relatively larger area graphene sheets, which will have interest for further patterning applications. Attempt was made to quantify the quantum of reduction using cyclic voltammetry and choronopotentiometry techniques on reduced graphene samples. As a measure in reading the specific capacitance values, a maximum specific capacitance value of 265.3 F/g was obtained in sodium borohydride reduced graphene oxide.

  20. Synthesis of graphene platelets by chemical and electrochemical route

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ramachandran, Rajendran; Felix, Sathiyanathan; Joshi, Girish M.; Raghupathy, Bala P.C.; Jeong, Soon Kwan; Grace, Andrews Nirmala

    2013-01-01

    Graphical abstract: A schematic showing the overall reduction process of graphite to reduced graphene platelets by chemical and electrochemical route. - Highlights: • Graphene was prepared by diverse routes viz. chemical and electrochemical methods. • NaBH 4 was effective for removing oxygen functional groups from graphene oxide. • Sodium borohydride reduced graphene oxide (SRGO) showed high specific capacitance. • Electrochemical rendered a cheap route for production of graphene in powder form. - Abstract: Graphene platelets were synthesized from graphene oxide by chemical and electrochemical route. Under the chemical method, sodium borohydride and hydrazine chloride were used as reductants to produce graphene. In this paper, a novel and cost effective electrochemical method, which can simplify the process of reduction on a larger scale, is demonstrated. The electrochemical method proposed in this paper produces graphene in powder form with good yield. The atomic force microscopic images confirmed that the graphene samples prepared by all the routes have multilayers of graphene. The electrochemical process provided a new route to make relatively larger area graphene sheets, which will have interest for further patterning applications. Attempt was made to quantify the quantum of reduction using cyclic voltammetry and choronopotentiometry techniques on reduced graphene samples. As a measure in reading the specific capacitance values, a maximum specific capacitance value of 265.3 F/g was obtained in sodium borohydride reduced graphene oxide

  1. BUSINESS COMPETITORS AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    SUCIU TITUS

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents the concept of competition, both from the perspective of the economic sector –where it is characteristic for pure monopole, oligopoly, monopole competition and pure competition, as well asfrom the market’s point of view – where it determines the strategies, objectives, advantages and weaknesses of acompany. The main point of the paper is the criticism of the pure and perfect competition theory. Concluding,the author insists on innovation, especially on the model of open innovation.

  2. Closure of the Route de Meyrin as of 11 February 2008

    CERN Multimedia

    In the framework of the work on the new Cornavin-Meyrin-CERN tramline, an underpass is to be cut into the hill of Meyrin village where the Route de Meyrin meets the Avenue de Vaudagne and the Avenue Virginio-Malnati. As a result, the Route de Meyrin will be closed to through traffic for a period of two years, starting on Monday 11 February 2008. The following traffic diversions will be in operation: - Traffic travelling in the Geneva-France direction will be diverted along the Avenue de Mategnin and the Avenue Louis-Rendu or the Route du Nant-d'Avril and the Route du Mandement, - Traffic travelling in the France-Geneva direction will be diverted along the Route du Mandement and the Route du Nant-d'Avril. There will also be special diversion routes in the centre of Meyrin reserved for access to shops, houses and flats and the La Tour hospital. The map is available at the following link. Relations with the Host States Service Tel. 72848

  3. Closure of the Route de Meyrin as of 11 February 2008

    CERN Multimedia

    DSU Department

    2008-01-01

    In the framework of the work on the new Cornavin-Meyrin-CERN tramline, an underpass is to be cut into the hill of Meyrin village where the Route de Meyrin meets the Avenue de Vaudagne and the Avenue Virginio-Malnati. As a result, the Route de Meyrin will be closed to through traffic for a period of two years, starting on Monday 11 February 2008. The following traffic diversions will be in operation: Traffic travelling in the Geneva-France direction will be diverted along the Avenue de Mategnin and the Avenue Louis-Rendu or the Route du Nant-d’Avril and the Route du Mandement, Traffic travelling in the France-Geneva direction will be diverted along the Route du Mandement and the Route du Nant-d’Avril. There will also be special diversion routes in the centre of Meyrin reserved for access to shops, houses and flats and the La Tour hospital. Full details of the project (in French) can be consulted on the following website: http://w...

  4. One Kind of Routing Algorithm Modified in Wireless Sensor Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei Ni Ni

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The wireless sensor networks are the emerging next generation sensor networks, Routing technology is the wireless sensor network communication layer of the core technology. To build reliable paths in wireless sensor networks, we can consider two ways: providing multiple paths utilizing the redundancy to assure the communication reliability or constructing transmission reliability mechanism to assure the reliability of every hop. Braid multipath algorithm and ReInforM routing algorithm are the realizations of these two mechanisms. After the analysis of these two algorithms, this paper proposes a ReInforM routing algorithm based braid multipath routing algorithm.

  5. Influence of queue propagation and dissipation on route travel times

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Raovic, Nevena

    into account (Bliemer, 2008). Yperman (2007) indicates that there is a significant difference in queue-propagation and queue-dissipation between the LTM and DQM. This results in different route travel times, and can further affect route choice. In this paper, different approaches to represent queue propagation...... and dissipation through the CTM, LTM and DQM are studied. A simple network allows to show how these approaches influence route travel time. Furthermore, the possibility of changing the existing DQM is considered in order to more realistically represent queue propagation and dissipation, which would lead to more...... accurate route travel times....

  6. WSN ene rgy balance multi-hop lc ustering routing algorithm%能量均衡多跳分簇路由算法

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    叶润; 王缓缓

    2014-01-01

    The lifetime of ZigBee wireless sensor network is directly related to energy consumption of nodes .In order to extend the life of the network, the clustering routing methods are used.The improved clustering routing algo-rithm-EBMHC ( energy balance multi-hop clustering routing algorithm) , which adopts centralized rotation-cluste-ring method and distributed competition method of cluster head.This makes the network’ s idle nodes sleep and cluster head node work acting as multiple transmission.It also has data fusion and routing maintenance in a single cycle, so as to make full and effective use of network energy.Hierarchical management can solve imbalance of net-work node energy consumption.The simulation shows that EBMHC algorithm outperforms LEACH and SEP, making the network energy consumption more balanced and prolonging the network lifetime.%ZigBee无线传感器网络的生存寿命与节点的能耗直接相关。为了延长网络的寿命,通常采用分簇路由方法。通过集中成簇管理以及分布簇头竞争的能量均衡多跳分簇路由算法EBMHC( energy balance multi-hop clustering rou-ting algorithm),在一个周期内,使得网络空闲节点休眠,簇头节点担任多条传输、数据融合以及路由维护的功能,以充分有效利用网络能量。分层管理方式可以缓解网络节点能耗不均衡问题。通过仿真表明, EBMHC算法优于LEACH和SEP算法,使网络能耗更均衡,延长了网络生存周期。

  7. Improving competitive ability of chickpea with sowthistle

    OpenAIRE

    Cici, S.-Z.-H.; Kristiansen, P.; Sindel, B.M.

    2005-01-01

    An experiment was conducted to examine the extent of root and canopy interference of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) with sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus L.). Sowthistle was surrounded with either two or eight chickpea plants. There were different types of competition: no competition, shoot competition, root competition and full competition (root and shoot). The performance of sowthistle grown in full competition with two chickpea plants was the same as that grown with root competition only. Al...

  8. Routing Unmanned Vehicles in GPS-Denied Environments

    OpenAIRE

    Sundar, Kaarthik; Misra, Sohum; Rathinam, Sivakumar; Sharma, Rajnikant

    2017-01-01

    Most of the routing algorithms for unmanned vehicles, that arise in data gathering and monitoring applications in the literature, rely on the Global Positioning System (GPS) information for localization. However, disruption of GPS signals either intentionally or unintentionally could potentially render these algorithms not applicable. In this article, we present a novel method to address this difficulty by combining methods from cooperative localization and routing. In particular, the article...

  9. Radon exposure in selected underground touring routes in Poland

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Olszewski, J.; Chruscielewski, W.; Jankowski, J.

    2006-01-01

    The radioactive elements abounding in the natural environment cause that the whole human population is exposed to radiation. In Poland, mean gamma radiation dose power is 45.4 n Gy h -1 , while atmospheric radon concentration is 4.4 Bq m -3 [1]. In closed rooms, where radon tends to accumulate, the concentrations may be many times higher.Underground touring routes located in caves, mines, ancient cellars, vaults may accumulate radon at concentrations several thousand times exceeding its atmospheric levels. Studies on natural radioactivity in underground touring routes, with particular reference to caves, have continued worldwide since the 80's. Current register of underground touring routes in Poland comprises over 30 items, which include caves (e.g. Niedzwiedzia), mines (Wieliczka), cellars and underground stores (Opatow City vaults) and military objects (underground factories of Walim). The Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine has for several years already continued determinations of periodical mean radon concentrations in four underground touring routes (starting date in parentheses): Niedzwiedzia Cave (1995); Kowary Drifts closed uranium mine (2001); closed uranium mine in Kletno (2004); Zloty Stok closed gold mine (2004); Osowka underground city in Gluszyca (2004).The results of our determinations of radon concentrations at five selected touring routes lead to the following conclusions. 1. The exposure in the Kowary Drifts touring route is at the level of 5% of the recommended maximum annual admissible limit of 20 mSv. 2. It is assessed that workers of the touring routes where exposures are estimated from the measured concentrations and the time spent underground may receive doses ranging from 0.01 to 5 mSv. (N.C.)

  10. Radon exposure in selected underground touring routes in Poland

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Olszewski, J.; Chruscielewski, W.; Jankowski, J. [Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Dept. of Radiation Protection, Lodz (Poland)

    2006-07-01

    The radioactive elements abounding in the natural environment cause that the whole human population is exposed to radiation. In Poland, mean gamma radiation dose power is 45.4 n Gy h{sup -1}, while atmospheric radon concentration is 4.4 Bq m{sup -3} [1]. In closed rooms, where radon tends to accumulate, the concentrations may be many times higher.Underground touring routes located in caves, mines, ancient cellars, vaults may accumulate radon at concentrations several thousand times exceeding its atmospheric levels. Studies on natural radioactivity in underground touring routes, with particular reference to caves, have continued worldwide since the 80's. Current register of underground touring routes in Poland comprises over 30 items, which include caves (e.g. Niedzwiedzia), mines (Wieliczka), cellars and underground stores (Opatow City vaults) and military objects (underground factories of Walim). The Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine has for several years already continued determinations of periodical mean radon concentrations in four underground touring routes (starting date in parentheses): Niedzwiedzia Cave (1995); Kowary Drifts closed uranium mine (2001); closed uranium mine in Kletno (2004); Zloty Stok closed gold mine (2004); Osowka underground city in Gluszyca (2004).The results of our determinations of radon concentrations at five selected touring routes lead to the following conclusions. 1. The exposure in the Kowary Drifts touring route is at the level of 5% of the recommended maximum annual admissible limit of 20 mSv. 2. It is assessed that workers of the touring routes where exposures are estimated from the measured concentrations and the time spent underground may receive doses ranging from 0.01 to 5 mSv. (N.C.)

  11. Improved routing strategies for data traffic in scale-free networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu, Zhi-Xi; Peng, Gang; Wong, Wing-Ming; Yeung, Kai-Hau

    2008-01-01

    We study the information packet routing process in scale-free networks by mimicking Internet traffic delivery. We incorporate both the global shortest paths information and local degree information of the network in the dynamic process, via two tunable parameters, α and β, to guide the packet routing. We measure the performance of the routing method by both the average transit times of packets and the critical packet generation rate (above which packet aggregation occurs in the network). We found that the routing strategies which integrate ingredients of both global and local topological information of the underlying networks perform much better than the traditional shortest path routing protocol taking into account the global topological information only. Moreover, by doing comparative studies with some related works, we found that the performance of our proposed method shows universal efficiency characteristic against the amount of traffic

  12. The competitive challenge

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burr, M.T.

    1992-01-01

    This article examines the strategies necessary to succeed in the increasingly competitive independent power industry. The topics of the article include the factors encouraging mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures, the availability of financing, changes in the market, regulatory climate changes, competition and power planning, Not In My Back Yard and project siting, and the road ahead

  13. Periodic Heterogeneous Vehicle Routing Problem With Driver Scheduling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mardiana Panggabean, Ellis; Mawengkang, Herman; Azis, Zainal; Filia Sari, Rina

    2018-01-01

    The paper develops a model for the optimal management of logistic delivery of a given commodity. The company has different type of vehicles with different capacity to deliver the commodity for customers. The problem is then called Periodic Heterogeneous Vehicle Routing Problem (PHVRP). The goal is to schedule the deliveries according to feasible combinations of delivery days and to determine the scheduling of fleet and driver and routing policies of the vehicles. The objective is to minimize the sum of the costs of all routes over the planning horizon. We propose a combined approach of heuristic algorithm and exact method to solve the problem.

  14. DIRECTIONAL OPPORTUNISTIC MECHANISM IN CLUSTER MESSAGE CRITICALITY LEVEL BASED ZIGBEE ROUTING

    OpenAIRE

    B.Rajeshkanna *1, Dr.M.Anitha 2

    2018-01-01

    The cluster message criticality level based zigbee routing(CMCLZOR) has been proposed for routing the cluster messages in wireless smart energy home area networks. It employs zigbee opportunistic shortcut tree routing(ZOSTR) and AODV individually for routing normal messages and highly critical messages respectively. ZOSTR allows the receiving nodes to compete for forwarding a packet with the priority of left-over hops rather than stating single next hop node like unicast protocols. Since it h...

  15. Short-term memory, executive control, and children's route learning

    OpenAIRE

    Purser, H. R.; Farran, E. K.; Courbois, Y.; Lemahieu, A.; Mellier, D.; Sockeel, P.; Blades, M.

    2012-01-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate route-learning ability in 67 children aged 5 to 11years and to relate route-learning performance to the components of Baddeley's model of working memory. Children carried out tasks that included measures of verbal and visuospatial short-term memory and executive control and also measures of verbal and visuospatial long-term memory; the route-learning task was conducted using a maze in a virtual environment. In contrast to previous research, correlation...

  16. Competition between deformability and charge transport in semiconducting polymers for flexible and stretchable electronics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Printz, Adam D.; Lipomi, Darren J.

    2016-01-01

    The primary goal of the field concerned with organic semiconductors is to produce devices with performance approaching that of silicon electronics, but with the deformability—flexibility and stretchability—of conventional plastics. However, an inherent competition between deformability and charge transport has long been observed in these materials, and achieving the extreme (or even moderate) deformability implied by the word “plastic” concurrently with high charge transport may be elusive. This competition arises because the properties needed for high carrier mobilities—e.g., rigid chains in π-conjugated polymers and high degrees of crystallinity in the solid state—are antithetical to deformability. On the device scale, this competition can lead to low-performance yet mechanically robust devices, or high-performance devices that fail catastrophically (e.g., cracking, cohesive failure, and delamination) under strain. There are, however, some observations that contradict the notion of the mutual exclusivity of electronic and mechanical performances. These observations suggest that this problem may not be a fundamental trade-off, but rather an inconvenience that may be negotiated by a logical selection of materials and processing conditions. For example, the selection of the poly(3-alkylthiophene) with a critical side-chain length—poly(3-heptylthiophene) (n = 7)—marries the high deformability of poly(3-octylthiophene) (n = 8) with the high electronic performance (as manifested in photovoltaic efficiency) of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (n = 6). This review explores the relationship between deformability and charge transport in organic semiconductors. The principal conclusions are that reducing the competition between these two parameters is in fact possible, with two demonstrated routes being: (1) incorporation of softer, insulating material into a stiffer, semiconducting material and (2) increasing disorder in a highly ordered film, but not

  17. Competition between deformability and charge transport in semiconducting polymers for flexible and stretchable electronics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Printz, Adam D.; Lipomi, Darren J., E-mail: dlipomi@ucsd.edu [Department of NanoEngineering, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, Mail Code 0448, La Jolla, California 92093-0448 (United States)

    2016-06-15

    The primary goal of the field concerned with organic semiconductors is to produce devices with performance approaching that of silicon electronics, but with the deformability—flexibility and stretchability—of conventional plastics. However, an inherent competition between deformability and charge transport has long been observed in these materials, and achieving the extreme (or even moderate) deformability implied by the word “plastic” concurrently with high charge transport may be elusive. This competition arises because the properties needed for high carrier mobilities—e.g., rigid chains in π-conjugated polymers and high degrees of crystallinity in the solid state—are antithetical to deformability. On the device scale, this competition can lead to low-performance yet mechanically robust devices, or high-performance devices that fail catastrophically (e.g., cracking, cohesive failure, and delamination) under strain. There are, however, some observations that contradict the notion of the mutual exclusivity of electronic and mechanical performances. These observations suggest that this problem may not be a fundamental trade-off, but rather an inconvenience that may be negotiated by a logical selection of materials and processing conditions. For example, the selection of the poly(3-alkylthiophene) with a critical side-chain length—poly(3-heptylthiophene) (n = 7)—marries the high deformability of poly(3-octylthiophene) (n = 8) with the high electronic performance (as manifested in photovoltaic efficiency) of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (n = 6). This review explores the relationship between deformability and charge transport in organic semiconductors. The principal conclusions are that reducing the competition between these two parameters is in fact possible, with two demonstrated routes being: (1) incorporation of softer, insulating material into a stiffer, semiconducting material and (2) increasing disorder in a highly ordered film, but not

  18. Sternal Route More Effective than Tibial Route for Intraosseous Amiodarone Administration in a Swine Model of Ventricular Fibrillation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burgert, James M; Martinez, Andre; O'Sullivan, Mara; Blouin, Dawn; Long, Audrey; Johnson, Arthur D

    2018-01-01

    The pharmacokinetics of IO administered lipid soluble amiodarone during ventricular fibrillation (VF) with ongoing CPR are unknown. This study measured mean plasma concentration over 5 minutes, maximum plasma concentration (Cmax), and time to maximum concentration (Tmax) of amiodarone administered by the sternal IO (SIO), tibial IO (TIO), and IV routes in a swine model of VF with ongoing CPR. Twenty-one Yorkshire-cross swine were randomly assigned to three groups: SIO, TIO, and IV. Ventricular fibrillation was induced under general anesthesia. After 4 minutes in VF, 300 mg amiodarone was administered as indicated by group assignment. Serial blood specimens collected at 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 240, and 300 seconds were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. The mean plasma concentration of IV amiodarone over 5 minutes was significantly higher than the TIO group at 60 seconds (P = 0.02) and 90 seconds (P = 0.017) post-injection. No significant differences in Cmax between the groups were found (P <0.05). The Tmax of amiodarone was significantly shorter in the SIO (99 secs) and IV (86 secs) groups compared to the TIO group (215 secs); P = 0.002 and P = 0.002, respectively. The SIO and IV routes of amiodarone administration were comparable. The TIO group took nearly three times longer to reach Tmax than the SIO and IV groups, likely indicating depot of lipid-soluble amiodarone in adipose-rich tibial yellow bone marrow. The SIO route was more effective than the TIO route for amiodarone delivery in a swine model of VF with ongoing CPR. Further investigations are necessary to determine if the kinetic differences found between the SIO and TIO routes in this study affect survival of VF in humans.

  19. The Competitiveness of Alternative Hydrogen Pathways

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Anders Chr.

    to transport services and in market competitiveness and societal competitiveness. The major societal competitive advantage of hydrogen is its convertibility to electricity and from any other source of energy. This enables a flexible use of natural gas and primary electricity as transport fuels. The major...... advantage in market competitiveness is the energy efficiency of the fuel cell. This advantage is, however, to some extent balanced by the costs associated with conversion, transport, and storage. The balance between these factors required for market competitiveness is identified.......The paper surveys the literature on the competitiveness of alternative hydrogen pathways in the transport sector. The competitiveness of the alternative systems can be differentiated in the “well-to-tank (WtT)” and “tank-to-wheel (TtW)” sections of the pathway transforming primary energy...

  20. 40 CFR 35.382 - Competitive process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Competitive process. 35.382 Section 35...)(3)) § 35.382 Competitive process. State Wetlands Development Grants are awarded on a competitive... established by EPA. After the competitive process is complete, the recipient can, at its discretion, accept...

  1. 40 CFR 35.603 - Competitive process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Competitive process. 35.603 Section 35... (section 104(b)(3)) § 35.603 Competitive process. EPA will award water quality cooperative agreement funds through a competitive process in accordance with national program guidance. After the competitive process...

  2. COMPETITION IN ROMANIAN BANKING SECTOR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Capraru Bogdan

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Recent turmoil in the global financial system has impacted severely on the banking sector with many banks suffering large losses and necessitating the need to raise additional capital privately or through their respective national governments. In our study we investigate the impact of structural reforms performed throughout the European Union (EU accession process on competition and contestability of banking systems in Romania. The literature of the measurement of competition can be divided into two major approaches: structural and non-structural. The structural approach to the assessment of competition embraces the Structure-Conduct-Performance Hypothesis (SCP and the Efficient Structure Hypothesis (ESH. The structural approach, as the name suggests, assesses bank competition by examining measures of market structure such as concentration ratios (the share of assets held by the top 3 or 5 institutions or indices (e.g., the Herfindhal-Hirschman index and supposes that higher concentration in the banking market causes less competitive bank conduct and leads to higher bank profitability. The SCP model is originally developed by Bain (1956. The second approach, ESH, developed by Demsetz (1973 and Peltzmann (1977 suggests that the superior performance of the market leaders determines the market structure, implying that higher efficiency produces both higher concentration and greater profitability. The non-structural indicators of competition are mainly based on the measures of monopoly power developed by Lerner (1934. The Lerner Index suggests the mark-up of price over marginal cost. An alternative non-structural indicator of the degree of market competition is the Panzar and Rosse (1987 H-statistic. The H-statistic measures the extent to which changes in banking costs are reflected in changes in banking revenues. In order to examine the level of competition and market power of banks in Romania for period 2003 - 2009, we estimate the non

  3. Routing protocol extension for resilient GMPLS multi-domain networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Manolova, Anna Vasileva; Ruepp, Sarah Renée; Romeral, Ricardo

    2010-01-01

    This paper evaluates the performance of multi-domain networks under the Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching control framework in case of a single inter-domain link failure. We propose and evaluate a routing protocol extension for the Border Gateway Protocol, which allows domains to obtain...... two Autonomous System disjoint paths and use them efficiently under failure conditions. Three main applications for the protocol extension are illustrated: reducing traffic loss on existing connections by xploiting pre-selected backup paths derived with our proposal, applying multi-domain restoration...... as survivability mechanism in case of single link failure, and employing proper failure notification mechanisms for routing of future connection requests under routing protocol re-convergence. Via simulations we illustrate the benefits of utilizing the proposed routing protocol extension for networks employing...

  4. Predicting Catastrophic BGP Routing Instabilities

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Nguyen, Lien

    2004-01-01

    .... Currently, this critical function is performed by the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) version 4 RF01771. Like all routing protocols, BGP is vulnerable to instabilities that reduce its effectiveness...

  5. Performance analysis of routing protocols for IoT

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manda, Sridhar; Nalini, N.

    2018-04-01

    Internet of Things (IoT) is an arrangement of advancements that are between disciplinary. It is utilized to have compelling combination of both physical and computerized things. With IoT physical things can have personal virtual identities and participate in distributed computing. Realization of IoT needs the usage of sensors based on the sector for which IoT is integrated. For instance, in healthcare domain, IoT needs to have integration with wearable sensors used by patients. As sensor devices produce huge amount of data, often called big data, there should be efficient routing protocols in place. To the extent remote systems is worried there are some current protocols, for example, OLSR, DSR and AODV. It additionally tosses light into Trust based routing protocol for low-power and lossy systems (TRPL) for IoT. These are broadly utilized remote directing protocols. As IoT is developing round the corner, it is basic to investigate routing protocols that and evaluate their execution regarding throughput, end to end delay, and directing overhead. The execution experiences can help in settling on very much educated choices while incorporating remote systems with IoT. In this paper, we analyzed different routing protocols and their performance is compared. It is found that AODV showed better performance than other routing protocols aforementioned.

  6. Competitiveness on the International Tourism Market

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anca Gabriela Turtureanu

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper comes to present and analyse the features of tourism in the main countries in Central and Western Europe, as well as the different strategies these countries adopt in order to maintain the competitiveness of the field.In the beginning, we have defined competitiveness, as the prerequisite of market success, we have analysed its components and the main factors that determine it, as well as the competitivenesscompetitive advantage relation.During the last years, competitiveness has turned into one of the common concepts used in order to approach and describe the sustainable development of the tourism and travel industry. Expert literature has defined concepts such as tourism and travel competitiveness or touristic destinations competitiveness, suggesting not only the significance of the concept but also the emphasis that touristic organizations should lay on this aspect.The competitiveness of touristic destinations and, generally speaking, the global competitiveness of the tourism industry became vital for the survival and growth of the touristic organizations on the international market, provided by the growth of spare time and the growth of the level of income that is available for spending the time.

  7. Improved AODV route recovery in mobile ad-hoc networks using a genetic algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmad Maleki

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available An important issue in ad-hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV routing protocols is route failure caused by node mobility in the MANETs. The AODV requires a new route discovery procedure whenever a route breaks and these frequent route discoveries increase transmission delays and routing overhead. The present study proposes a new method for AODVs using a genetic algorithm to improve the route recovery mechanism. When failure occurs in a route, the proposed method (GAAODV makes decisions regarding the QOS parameter to select source or local repair. The task of the genetic algorithm is to find an appropriate combination of weights to optimize end-to-end delay. This paper evaluates the metrics of routing overhead, average end-to-end delay, and packet delivery ratio. Comparison of the new algorithm and AODV (RFC 3561 using a NS-2 simulator shows that GAAODV obtains better results for the QOS parameters.

  8. SOCIAL ASPECTS OF COMPETITIVENESS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Klimova A. V.

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available One of the most important conditions of the existence of every organization, every enterprise is to insure the long-term sustainable development, one of the conditions of which is the increase of an organizational competitiveness. In modern economic conditions, social aspects of competitiveness are now in the foreground of interest, because just the strategy of social responsibility (SSR of modern enterprises can assure some commercial benefits, in responding, at the same time, to the social demands and in creating its well-being. Such an approach is in the basis of the notion of competitiveness. Along with «rigid parameters», such as price characteristics, the capability to deal with competitors, effective financial and production policies, «flexible factors» of competitiveness are of a big importance: a personnel potential, individual and collective competencies, organizational and managerial capabilities. As a result, we have formulated a research hypothesis: the organizational competitiveness is defined by individual and collective competencies of an organization, is based on socially responsible actions, confirms the demand for the object and insures its sustainable long-term development. Any organization should base all its actions aimed to increase its competitiveness on its intellectual potential, or on the management of individual and collective competencies that assure the sustainable development and the goal achievement. For every organizational strategic action, an effective combination of these competencies exists. So, we suggest a new definition of competitiveness: it is a social and economic category of understanding of the social responsibility, having as a central element individual and collective competencies, based on socially responsible actions of an enterprise, insuring its long-term sustainable development.

  9. CulRoute: Gamified WebGIS3D platform for selection of touristic routes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E.P.L. Baptista

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The importance of tourist information disclosure on digital platforms is, nowadays, reinforced by public entities such as Turismo de Portugal and Turismo do Algarve. The incorporation of strategies to encourage greater interest and involvement of the users are likely to contribute to a more effective dissemination of tourist destinations and their historical and cultural heritage. This paper presents the concepts, strategies and technologies in the design and implementation of the gamified WebGIS3D platform named CulRoute. This platform enables the users to visualize and navigate the three-dimensional virtual models of monuments and to explore the 'treasures' of each monument in a gaming environment, as well as to test their knowledge by answering optional quizzes. From the list of visited monuments and other information available on the platform, the user can create customized routes, save them into files or print as maps for later use.

  10. Designing competitions for education in robotics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Nils Axel; Ravn, Ole

    2012-01-01

    The paper describes design considerations for making a robot competition. Topics as level of participants, learning objective, evaluation form, task design and competition rules are treated. It is shown that careful design considering these topics are necessary for a succesful outcome of a compet......The paper describes design considerations for making a robot competition. Topics as level of participants, learning objective, evaluation form, task design and competition rules are treated. It is shown that careful design considering these topics are necessary for a succesful outcome...... of a competition. The conclusions are based on examples from more than 15 years of experience with robotic competitions....

  11. Neighboring and Connectivity-Aware Routing in VANETs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huma Ghafoor

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available A novel position-based routing protocol anchor-based connectivity-aware routing (ACAR for vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs is proposed in this paper to ensure connectivity of routes with more successfully delivered packets. Both buses and cars are considered as vehicular nodes running in both clockwise and anticlockwise directions in a city scenario. Both directions are taken into account for faster communication. ACAR is a hybrid protocol, using both the greedy forwarding approach and the store-carry-and-forward approach to minimize the packet drop rate on the basis of certain assumptions. Our solution to situations that occur when the network is sparse and when any (source or intermediate node has left its initial position makes this protocol different from those existing in the literature. We consider only vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V communication in which both the source and destination nodes are moving vehicles. Also, no road-side units are considered. Finally, we compare our protocol with A-STAR (a plausible connectivity-aware routing protocol for city environments, and simulation results in NS-2 show improvement in the number of packets delivered to the destination using fewer hops. Also, we show that ACAR has more successfully-delivered long-distance packets with reasonable packet delay than A-STAR.

  12. Next Generation Network Routing and Control Plane

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fu, Rong

    proved, the dominating Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) cannot address all the issues that in inter-domain QoS routing. Thus a new protocol or network architecture has to be developed to be able to carry the inter-domain traffic with the QoS and TE consideration. Moreover, the current network control also...... lacks the ability to cooperate between different domains and operators. The emergence of label switching transport technology such as of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) or Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) supports the traffic transport in a finer granularity and more dedicated end-to-end Quality...... (RACF) provides the platform that enables cooperation and ubiquitous integration between networks. In this paper, we investigate in the network architecture, protocols and algorithms for inter-domain QoS routing and traffic engineering. The PCE based inter-domain routing architecture is enhanced...

  13. The Economics of Sorruption and Cronyism: an institutional approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    B. Krug (Barbara); H. Hendrischke (Hans)

    2001-01-01

    textabstractMoral outrage was the response of the Chinese press, when Cheng Kejie, one of the country's highest officials, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) and former Governor of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was arrested on grounds of

  14. MACROECONOMIC ASPECTS OF COMPETITIVENESS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oleg Hooke

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available In the process of globalization of world economic processes, the role of individual national economies increases, comparative advantages of the development of a country are formed, and their competitiveness is ensured. That is why it is worth emphasizing the importance of increasing the competitiveness of each individual country, based on its internal capacity. In a broad aspect, the competitiveness of the national economy is perceived as the ability of the country to ensure the balance of its external proportions and to avoid those constraints imposed by the foreign economic sphere, to self-organizing the improvement of their world economic ties. The competitiveness of the economy at the macro level is associated with the duration of the cycle of reproduction of the main productive assets and, accordingly, the jobs, productive forces of society and determined by the overall economic efficiency of investment. The criteria of competitiveness of the national economy are the growth of social productivity of labor, increase of social and economic efficiency of production and standard of living of the population. The competitiveness of the national economy determines sustainable socio-economic development of the country, as well as sustainable development predetermines the competitiveness of not only the country, but also all its levels. Scientific results are obtained using special methods of research of economic objects and phenomena, that is, based on the correlation and regressive, comparative analysis (establishing the relationship between the indicator factor, as well as economic modeling. Findings. Generalizing analysis and the importance of the macroeconomic aspect of competitiveness were used in the research paper, which will allow to better respond to the economic situation, in accordance with the trends of the “green” transformation of the economy; which in turn will solve important problems of the development and implementation of its

  15. Competition Policy and Innovation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Møllgaard, Peter; Lorentzen, Jo

    2005-01-01

    We briefly review the rationale behind technological alliances and provide a snapshot oftheir role in global competition, especially insofar as it is based around intellectual capital.They nicely illustrate the increased importance of horizontal agreements and thusestablish the relevance of the t......We briefly review the rationale behind technological alliances and provide a snapshot oftheir role in global competition, especially insofar as it is based around intellectual capital.They nicely illustrate the increased importance of horizontal agreements and thusestablish the relevance...... of the topic. We move on to discuss the organisation of industriesin a dynamic context and draw out consequences for competition policy. We concludewith an outlook on the underlying tensions between technology alliances, competitionpolicy, and industrial policy.JEL codes: L4, L5, O31Keywords: Competition...

  16. COMPETITIVENESS FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nelu Eugen POPESCU

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available The current economic environment puts pressure on all national economies which struggle to improve their competitiveness and innovativeness in a sustainable way. This article aims to present the current state of the competitiveness by reviewing the main literature and worldwide researches, in order to provide a brief overview of the determinants that drive productivity and economic success at global and national level, taking into consideration the entrepreneurial activity for a country’s competitiveness and economic growth. The paper identifies the ways in which efficiency driven countries can improve their policies and get a better return on their investments, underlining a set of competitiveness enhancing policies (measures that can be implemented by public and private institutions in order to strengthen the economic fundamentals of the economies.

  17. Metro passengers’ route choice model and its application considering perceived transfer threshold

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Fanglei; Zhang, Yongsheng; Liu, Shasha

    2017-01-01

    With the rapid development of the Metro network in China, the greatly increased route alternatives make passengers’ route choice behavior and passenger flow assignment more complicated, which presents challenges to the operation management. In this paper, a path sized logit model is adopted to analyze passengers’ route choice preferences considering such parameters as in-vehicle time, number of transfers, and transfer time. Moreover, the “perceived transfer threshold” is defined and included in the utility function to reflect the penalty difference caused by transfer time on passengers’ perceived utility under various numbers of transfers. Next, based on the revealed preference data collected in the Guangzhou Metro, the proposed model is calibrated. The appropriate perceived transfer threshold value and the route choice preferences are analyzed. Finally, the model is applied to a personalized route planning case to demonstrate the engineering practicability of route choice behavior analysis. The results show that the introduction of the perceived transfer threshold is helpful to improve the model’s explanatory abilities. In addition, personalized route planning based on route choice preferences can meet passengers’ diversified travel demands. PMID:28957376

  18. Product market competition and corporate governance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julia Chou

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigates whether product market competition acts as an external mechanism for disciplining management and also whether there is any relationship between the degree of competition a firm faces and its corporate governance. We find that firms in competitive industries or with low market power tend to have weak corporate governance structures. Results are robust to various competition measures at firm and industry levels, even after controlling for firm-specific variables. We further find that corporate governance quality has a significant effect on performance only when product market competition is weak. The overall evidence suggests that product market competition has a substantial impact on corporate governance and that it substitutes for corporate governance quality. Finally, we provide evidence that the disciplinary force of competition on management is from the fear of liquidation.

  19. The Necessity of ASEAN Competition Law: Rethinking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Udin Silalahi

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available As outlined in the AEC Blueprint, all ASEAN member states (AMSs will endeavour to introduce competition policy by 2015. At present 7 (seven AMSs, namely: Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar have the national competition laws to supervise anti-competitive conduct in the domestic market. But the question is what if happened unfair competition between ASEAN member states, due to the agreement or businesses activities by business actors that harm competition? ASEAN has an ASEAN Regional Guidelines on Competition Policy (ARGCP that developed by ASEAN Experts Group on Competition (AEGC as framework for member states to develop its own competition law or policy and as a guideline in measuring that directly affect the behaviour of enterprises and the structure of industry and markets. Regional Guideline is just to help AMSs in increasing of awareness of important policy, not to sustain the competition among ASEAN member countries. Until now there is no ASEAN Competition Law and Institution to oversee competition among ASEAN member countries. In this era, ASEAN economic integration it is a certainty that anti-competitive among AMSs will happen.

  20. Efficient Networks Communication Routing Using Swarm Intelligence

    OpenAIRE

    Koushal Kumar

    2012-01-01

    As demonstrated by natural biological swarm’s collective intelligence has an abundance of desirable properties for problem-solving like in network routing. The focus of this paper is in the applications of swarm based intelligence in information routing for communication networks. As we know networks are growing and adopting new platforms as new technologies comes. Also according to new demands and requirements networks topologies and its complexity is increasing with time. Thus it is becomin...