A hierarchical model to enhance financial and strategic performance of an oil and gas company in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this study intends to develop a hierarchical model through prioritisation of the core competencies with respect to competitive advantage, financial and strategic performance for an oil and gas company in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach – Mixed method approach used in the present research. Initially, interviews were conducted to solicit information about the company’s core competencies, competitive advantage, and financial and strategic performance. The interview findings used for questionnaire development to rank core competencies with respect to competitive advantage, financial and strategic performance. The survey results were analysed using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a mathematical model and is synthesised using Super Decisions Software. Findings – The study developed a hierarchical model and can be set as a benchmark for prioritising core competencies, with respect to competitive advantage, financial and strategic performance for oil and gas companies. Practical implications – The prioritisation results will help the company considered in the present research and also the similar companies to optimise their resources and energy to focus on the desired and the most influential core competencies. Social implications – As the oil industry develops competitive advantage, its success will cascade down to stimulate the nation’s growth, support industry and services expansion and eventually develop the nation. Originality/value – This study is a first of its kind in using AHP to rank core competencies with respect to competitive advantage, financial and strategic performance for an oil and gas company. The results can be used by oil and gas companies to enhance their overall performance

Performance Optimization in Video Transmission over ZigBee using Particle Swarm Optimization

IEEE 802.15.4 - ZigBee is a wireless sensor targeted at applications that require low data rate, low power and inexpensive. IEEE 802.15.4 is limited to a throughput of 250kbps and is designed to provide highly efficient connec-tivity. Hence, IEEE 802.15.4 is not designed to transfer large amounts of da-ta or MPEG-4 as its bandwidth is too low. In engineering and computer sci-ence often use optimization techniques, as do real environment applications in order to overcome complex issues and now this paper a solution has been accomplished by applying Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to improve the quality of transmitted MPEG-4 over IEEE 802.15.4. The proposed intelligent system should minimize data loss and distortion. The computer simulation results confirm that applying PSO in video transmission improve the quality of picture and reduce data loss when compared with the conventional MPEG video transmission in ZigBee

Routing in mobile Ad Hoc Networks

A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is built on the fly where a number of wireless mobile nodes work in cooperation without the engagement of any centralized access point or any fixed infrastructure. Two nodes in such a network can communicate in a bidirectional manner if and only if the distance between them is at most the minimum of their transmission ranges. When a node wants to communicate with a node outside its transmission range, a multihop routing strategy is used which involves some intermediate nodes. Because of the movements of nodes, there is a constant possibility of topology change in MANET. Considering this unique aspect of MANET, a number of routing protocols have been proposed so far. This chapter gives an overview of the past, current, and future research areas for routing in MANET. In this chapter we will learn about the following things: - The preliminaries of mobile ad hoc network - The challenges for routing in MANET - Expected properties of a MANET routing protocol - Categories of routing protocols for MANET - Major routing protocols for MANET - Criteria for performance comparison of the routing protocols for MANET - Achievements and future research directions - Expectations and realit

Port competitiveness in North East Asia : an integrated fuzzy approach to expert evaluations

Despite the fact that the Northeast Asia (NEA) region, which had four of the top five and 20 of the top 30 container ports in the world in 2003, can be regarded as holding a central position in liner shipping and the handling of container cargo volumes, very little research has been done into the evaluation of its port competitiveness (EPC). For this reason, the EPC in NEA can be regarded as a problematic and urgent issue to be solved, and worthy of academic attention. From this aspect, this research set out to attempt to address the above issue by means of utilizing expert knowledge. However, the EPC contains problems of complex multipleattributes and multiple-hierarchies (CMAMH). In addition, difficulties concerning certain characteristics of evaluation such as complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity are also involved. To deal with such problems, in this research, the employment of integrated fuzzy evaluation (IFE) as a methodology was decided upon. As a result of the adaptation of the methodology, certain indications from this research to the theory and practice for container ports have emerged and are clearly identifiable. With regard to theory, this study has contributed to theoretical development significantly in four ways. First, the factors and taxonomy of port competitiveness for the container ports in NEA have been provided for the first time. Second, this is the first integrated approach for the EPC in NEA, the most competitive area in the world. Third, this research was also the first to attempt extracting critical weak points and/or influential factors affecting current port competitiveness. Finally, the adoption of IFE made it possible for the first time to uncover the interactive relationships between the competing container ports. In terms of practice, this research has also provided certain contributions of utmost importance. First of all, the study has provided a suggestion for the most recent port ranking in respect of port competitiveness. Moreover, changes in competitiveness power, which are dynamically and interactively affected by the relationship between the ports, have been successfully estimated and suggested. Thus, such changes in the competitiveness in NEA can now be easily forecasted by port actors

Cognitive Radio Systems

Cognitive radio is a hot research area for future wireless communications in the recent years. In order to increase the spectrum utilization, cognitive radio makes it possible for unlicensed users to access the spectrum unoccupied by licensed users. Cognitive radio let the equipments more intelligent to communicate with each other in a spectrum-aware manner and provide a new approach for the co-existence of multiple wireless systems. The goal of this book is to provide highlights of the current research topics in the field of cognitive radio systems. The book consists of 17 chapters, addressing various problems in cognitive radio systems

Implementación de una arquitectura para movilidad de sesiones entre dispositivos

Las aplicaciones de reproducción musical y de video en streaming han visto su uso aumentado en los últimos años. Vivimos en la cultura del aquí y ahora, y gracias a internet y la proliferación de los dispositivos móviles con conexión a la red, ya sean teléfonos móviles, tablets u otros, han hecho que estos contenidos estén disponibles en todas partes. A su vez, los servicios de la nube han hecho que nuestros datos estén interconectados entre todos y cada uno de nuestros dispositivos. Aprovechando esta interconexión nace “SuSSo”, un framework para transmisión de sesiones entre dispositivos. Android es, actualmente, el sistema operativo móvil más utilizado en smartphones, y el segundo más utilizado en tablets. En cuanto a los servicios en streaming, si nos centramos en los musicales, Spotify presenta más de 40 millones de usuarios activos en 58 países, cifra que le ha valido para convertirse en el principal proveedor de estos servicios. De estos 40 millones, más de 12 son usuarios Premium. Este proyecto tiene como objetivo la movilidad de sesiones de Spotify entre dispositivos Android, haciendo así que el usuario pueda continuar su actividad en un dispositivo distinto de aquel en el que comenzó. Para ello, se ha hecho uso del recién estrenado Android SDK de Spotify para crear una aplicación que utiliza las credenciales del usuario para reproducir una lista musical. Una vez el usuario termina su actividad en el dispositivo, esta se transfiere a otro mediante el uso de sockets, donde puede continuar desde el punto en el que quedó. Cabe destacar que SuSSo presenta muchas más posibilidades, y esto es tan sólo un prototipo de ejemplo de utilización, pudiendo implementarse en otros servicios.Applications of music and video in streaming have increased their use in the last few years. We live in the culture of here and now, and, thanks to the Internet and the new devices capable of connecting to the network, like smartphones, tablets or others, these contents available everywhere. Also, the cloud services have made our private data interconnected in all our devices. Taking advantage of this interconnection we have created “SuSSo”, a framework of session transmission between devices. Android is, right now, the mobile operating system used the most in smartphones all around the world, and the second one in the tablets market. Referring to streaming services, if we focus on the musical ones, Spotify has got more than 40 million users around 58 countries. These numbers have made it become the principal provider of these services. Of the 40 million users, more than 12 own Premium accounts. This project has got as a goal the transference of Spotify’s sessions between Android devices, so the user can continue his activity in a different device from the one he started it on. In order to do this, the brand new Spotify Android SDK has been used to create an application that uses the user’s credentials to reproduce a playlist. Once the user finishes his activity in the devices, this is transferred to another one using sockets, making it possible to continue from the point it ended. It is worth to notice that SuSSo presents a lot more of possibilities, and this is only a prototype of an example of use, being able to be implemented in some other services.Ingeniería Telemátic

Semantic Integration in the Context of Cyber-Physical Systems

Industrial systems have been developing into more and more complex systems during last decades. They have changed from centralized solutions to distributed, more robust, and more exible eco-systems comprising a high number of embedded systems. In recent years, we are witnessing the research trend in the area of embedded systems which concerns the very close integration of physical and computing systems. This dissertation thesis deals with the problem of the semantic integration of components (sensors and actuators) of cyber-physical systems within industrial automation domain and presents resulting bene ts. Cyber-physical systems were created based on the aforementioned trend of the close integration of computing systems and physical systems. This tight integration involves infrastructures responsible for control, computation, communication, and sensing. These systems are composed of many subsystems produced by various manufacturers, and the subsystems produce an enormous volume of data. Furthermore, data generated from all of the system parts has di erent dimensions, sampling rates, levels of details, etc. Next, cyber-physical systems form systems which represent building blocks of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) for example (Industrial) Internet of Things, Smart Cities, Smart Factories. Thus, the right understanding of data (data meanings, given context, subsystems purposes, and possible ways of subsystems integration) belong to essential requirements for enabling Industry 4.0 visions. In this thesis, the utilization of ontologies was proposed to deal with the semantic heterogeneity for enabling easier cyber-physical system components integration. Moreover, the current widespread e ort to create exible highly customized manufacturing requires novel methods for data handling together with subsequent data utilization. Storing knowledge and data in an ontology o ers a needed solution. For example, an ontology employment brings easy system data model management, increase an e ciency of cyber-physical system components interoperability, advanced data processing, reusability of sensors and actuators, and utilization of ontology matching methods for an integration of other data models. This work concerns the problem, how to describe cyber-physical system components using ontologies to enable e ective integration. Next, the ontology matching system suitable for integration of heterogeneous data models in industrial automation domain is described. The proposed solution of the semantic interoperability is demonstrated on the Plug&Play cyber-physical system components. On the other hand, storing data in an ontology and mainly processing of RDF statements brings one signi cant bottleneck | performance issue. Thus, Big Data technologies are employed for overcoming this issue together with a proposal of suitable storage data models. The overall approach is demonstrated on the proposed and developed prototype named Semantic Big Data Historian. In particular, the main contributions of the dissertation thesis are as follows: 1. The proposal of the solution for CPS low-level semantic integration based on Semantic web Technologies together with a veri cation of a feasibility of proposed approach using Semantic Big Data Historian. 2. The overcoming performance issues of processing shop floor data represented as RDF-triples with the help of Big Data technologies and suitable storage data models | vertical partitioning and hybrid SBDH model. 3. The proposal and implementation of a suitable way how to integrate heterogeneous data models from industrial automation domain where the highest precision and recall are required. The approach is based on similarity measures aggregation using self-organizing maps and user involvement with the help of active learning and visualization of self-organizing map output layer. 4. Enabling reusability of cyber-physical system components together with effortless configuration based on utilization of Semantic Web technologies. This approach was named as Plug&Play cyber-physical system components.Katedra kybernetik

An intelligent approach to quality of service for MPEG-4 video transmission in IEEE 802.15.1

Nowadays, wireless connectivity is becoming ubiquitous spreading to companies and in domestic areas. IEEE 802.15.1 commonly known as Bluetooth is high-quality, high-security, high-speed and low-cost radio signal technology. This wireless technology allows a maximum access range of 100 meters yet needs power as low as 1mW. Regrettably, IEEE 802.15.1 has a very limited bandwidth. This limitation can become a real problem If the user wishes to transmit a large amount of data in a very short time. The version 1.2 which is used in this project could only carry a maximum download rate of 724Kbps and an upload rate of 54Kbps In its asynchronous mode. But video needs a very large bandwidth to be transmitted with a sufficient level of quality. Video transmission over IEEE 802.15.1 networks would therefore be difficult to achieve, due to the limited bandwidth. Hence, a solution to transmit digital video with a sufficient quality of picture to arrive at the receiving end is required. A hybrid scheme has been developed in this thesis, comprises of a fuzzy logic set of rules and an artificial neural network algorithms. MPEG-4 video compression has been used in this work to optimise the transmission. This research further utilises an ‘added-buffer’ to prevent excessive data loss of MPEG-4 video over IEEE 802.15.1transmission and subsequently increase picture quality. The neural-fuzzy scheme regulates the output rate of the added-buffer to ensure that MPEG-4 video stream conforms to the traffic conditions of the IEEE 802.15.1 channel during the transmission period, that is to send more data when the bandwidth is not fully used and keep the data in the buffers if the bandwidth is overused. Computer simulation results confirm that intelligence techniques and added-buffer do improve quality of picture, reduce data loss and communication delay, as compared with conventional MPEG video transmission over IEEE 802.15.1

Fuzzy multicriteria analysis and its applications for decision making under uncertainty

Multicriteria decision making refers to selecting or ranking alternatives from available alternatives with respect to multiple, usually conflicting criteria involving either a single decision maker or multiple decision makers. It often takes place in an environment where the information available is uncertain, subjective and imprecise. To adequately solve this decision problem, the application of fuzzy sets theory for adequately modelling the uncertainty and imprecision in multicriteria decision making has proven to be effective. Much research has been done on the development of various fuzzy multicriteria analysis approaches for effectively solving the multicriteria decision making problem, and numerous applications have been reported in the literature. In general, existing approaches can be categorized into (a) multicriteria decision making with a single decision maker and (b) multicriteria group decision making. Existing approaches, however, are not totally satisfactory due to various shortcomings that they suffer from including (a) the inability to adequately model the uncertainty and imprecision of human decision making, (b) the failure to effectively handle the requirements of decision maker(s), (c) the tedious mathematical computation required, and (d) cognitively very demanding on the decision maker(s). This research has developed four novel approaches for effectively solving the multicriteria decision making problem under uncertainty. To effectively reduce the cognitive demand on the decision maker, a pairwise comparison based approach is developed in Chapter 4 for solving the multicriteria problem under uncertainty. To adequately meet the interest of various stakeholders in the multicriteria decision making process, a decision support system (DSS) based approach is introduced in Chapter 5. In Chapter 6, a consensus oriented approach is presented in multicriteria group decision making on which a DSS is proposed for facilitating consensus building in solving the multicriteria group decision making problem. In Chapter 7, a risk-oriented approach is developed for adequately modelling the inherent risk in multicriteria group decision making with the use of the concept of ideal solutions so that the complex and unreliable process of comparing fuzzy utilities usually required in fuzzy multicriteria analysis is avoided. Empirical studies of four real fuzzy multicriteria decision making problems are presented for illustrating the applicability of the approaches developed in solving the multicriteria decision making problem. A hospital location selection problem is discussed in Chapter 8. An international distribution centre location problem is illustrated in Chapter 9. A supplier selection problem is presented in Chapter 10. A hotel location problem is discussed in Chapter 11. These studies have shown the distinct advantages of the approaches developed respectively in this research from different perspectives in solving the multicriteria decision making problem