The impact of grouping efficiency measures in cellular manufacturing systems

© IEOM Society International. The worth of machine-part groups in cellular manufacturing systems is evaluated by different grouping measures available in the literature. Three of the well-known grouping efficiency measures will be used, analyzed and tested against two case studies taken from the literature to compare the effectiveness of cell formation. In this paper it is found that in both cases grouping efficiency measures may not lead to choose the optimal or best distribution. For that in the first case the designer will choose the optimal distribution based on optimality rather than efficiency. While in the second case his decision will be based on the constraints on the shop floor. Moreover, it is found that these measures have some deficiencies comparing to optimal manufacturing systems having the same sum of voids and exceptions

A Spam Email Detection Mechanism for English Language Text Emails Using Deep Learning Approach

© 2020 IEEE. Phishing emails are emails that pretend to be from a trusted company that target users to provide personal or financial information. Sometimes, they include links that may download malicious software on user\u27s computers, when clicked. Such emails are easily detected by spam filters that classify any email with a link as a phishing email. However, emails that have no links, link-less emails, requires more effort from the spam filters. Although many researches have been done on this topic, spam filters are still classifying some benign emails as phishing and vice-versa. This paper is focused on classifying link-less emails using machine learning approach, deep neural networks. Deep neural networks differs from simple neural network by having multiple hidden layers where data must be processed before reaching the output layer. The data used in this research is publicly available online. Hyper parameter optimization, was performed, using different settings on the data. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach, precision, recall and accuracy were computed. The results show that the deep neural network performed well in many of its settings

Sustainable maritime crude oil transportation: a split pickup and split delivery problem with time windows

This paper studies a novel sustainable vessel routing problem modeling considering the multi-compartment, split pickup and split delivery, and time windows concepts. In the presented problem, oil tankers transport crude oil from supply ports to demand ports around the globe. The objective is to find ship routes, as well as port arrival and departure times, in a way that minimizes transportation costs. As a second objective, we considered the sustainability aspect by minimizing the vessel energy efficiency operational indicator. Multiple products are transported by a heterogeneous fleet of tankers. Small realistic test instances are solved with the exact method

Blockchain-enabled Platform for a Meta Customer Loyalty Program

The competitive value of customer loyalty programs is well-known among marketing strategists. With the emergence of digital platforms, their impact has skyrocketed, with mobile applications replacing more cumbersome physical cards with unique identification numbers on embedded magnetic strips or smart chips. However, these programs generally suffer from two major drawbacks that limit their growth. Firstly, physical cards and mobile applications are restricted to particular merchants and programs. There is no mechanism for customers to transfer their loyalty points between programs or to other customers (although airlines are pioneering efforts in this direction). Secondly, the payoffs of participating in these programs and transactions are not fair to all players (customers, merchants and program operators). Finally, the operational mechanisms of such programs are rarely transparent and traceable; hence, disputes are not easily mediated. Using the innovative strengths of blockchain technology, we present a conceptual architecture for a meta or universal customer loyalty program that supports the design principles of transparency, accountability, fairness and ethics

Solving the Multi-objective 2-Dimensional Vector Packing Problem Using ϵ-constraint Method

In this paper, an exact method is designed to solve the multi-objective 2-dimensional vector packing problem. The algorithm is an adapted version of an efficient ϵ\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\epsilon$$\end{document}-constraint method which proves its efficiency in solving a large variety of multi-objective optimization problems. This method is based on a clever decomposition of the initial problem into sub-problems which are iteratively solved through mathematical programming. To accelerate the search process, we propose a new integer programming model for solving the multi-objective 2-dimensional vector packing problem based on the compact model for the bin packing problem with fragile objects. Instead of scanning all possible solutions, we consider the solutions while solving a Subset-Sum Problem. Hence, non-useful subproblems are avoided and thus the search space is reduced. An experimental study is performed based instances from the literature. A comparison between the exact method and a grounded metaheuristic which provides good results in solving the multi-objective 2-dimensional vector packing problem

Phytosociological analysis of the Sidi Boughaba Biological Reserve, Kénitra, Morocco

The biological reserve of Sidi Boughaba has a unique plant biodiversity, with many animals, including birds, finding refuge there. Data on this biodiversity is old and incomplete. This phytosociological study was carried out to define the vegetation structure of the area. Stratified sampling was carried out and 124 relevés were recorded. Multivariate statistical analyses (correspondence factorial analysis and hierarchical ascending classification) used to process the relevés revealed the presence of 9 plant groups, including 4 plant associations and 5 subassociations, which belong to 3 phytosociological classes (Ammophiletea, Quercetea ilicis and Querco roboris-Fagetea sylvaticae). Quercetea ilicis is the most widespread in the area, showing several successional stages on grey and consolidated dunes. Vegetation of Ammophiletea can only be found on mobile sand. Vegetation of the class Querco roboris-Fagetea sylvaticae occupies an inter-dunar depression on hydromorphic soil. The association Pterido aquilinum-Populetum albae is newly described as five sub-associations of Clematido cirrhosae-Juniperetum lyciae

Welcome Wagons: A Block Chain based Web Application for Car Booking

Blockchain applications are decentralized applications that provides security assurance for any online transactions. Online car reservation system is nowadays popular that makes the travel easier than the traditional methods. Welcome Wagons is a decentralized web application (DApp) for car booking that allows passengers to hail a ride and drivers to charge fares and get paid. This web application is built with an advanced tools such as React js, Next js. Tailwind CSS is used for styling. Firebase, Blockchain web3.0 is used as backend. This new web application provides secure payment based car booking serive

Durum Wheat Yield and Grain Quality in Early Transition from Conventional to Conservation Tillage in Semi-Arid Mediterranean Conditions

In semi-arid Mediterranean areas, there is a growing interest in adopting conservation tillage practices for their advantages in improving soils fertility, reducing production costs, and stabilizing crop yields. The aim of this study conducted in the 2019 and 2020 seasons was to investigate the effect of three tillage systems—conventional tillage (CT), minimum tillage (MT), and no-tillage (NT)—on grain yield, yield components, and quality indices of a durum wheat crop (Triticum durum Desf. cv. Simeto) grown in monoculture in semi-arid conditions of Northern Algeria. Tillage systems had a significant effect on the average yield of the 2 years, with NT being 28% and 35% higher than CT and MT, respectively—a trend even more evident in the second year under observation. The superiority of NT (p < 0.001) in the second year (2020) is mainly due to the increased spikes density (318.93 spikes m2 under NT vs. 225.07 and 215.20 spikes m2 under MT and CT, respectively). Yield components and quality parameters were more affected by climatic conditions than by tillage treatments. The number of kernels per spike being the most affected by water and heat stresses occurred in 2020 season. A decrease of 51% is noted regardless of the tillage treatment, which negatively affected the grain yield in that year (1.9 vs. 1.3 t ha-1 in 2019 and 2020, respectively). This stress also induced an increase in grain protein content, but a reduction of its weight. The results of this study conducted in the early transition from conventional to conservation tillage show that durum wheat grown under NT results in higher grain yield than the other systems in the specific operative conditions of the study region, providing better seed emergence and better spikes density, especially in the dry years. Moreover, the quality parameters are more affected by weather conditions than by the tillage system—with an interaction year tillage system significant only for the grain

Study of Bryophytic Flora in the Ramsar Wetland of Merja Zerga (North-west of Morocco)

The research undertaken in the IBA and Ramsar wetland of Merja Zerga at Moulay Bousselham were interested only in the higher plants. Our study tends then to contribute to enrich the knowledge about the bryophytic flora of this area by filling the gaps in this field. Thus, we carried out a systematic sampling with a stop and a harvest in each encountered bryophyte population. This prospection enabled us to find 26 species of bryophytes including 22 species of mosses belonging to 15 genera and 9 families, and 4 species of liverworts belonging to 3 genera and 3 families. The relative low specificity of this wetland can be explained by the influence of sea spray and the strong anthropic disturbance. A comparison with previous studies allowed us to conclude that 11 species were observed for the first time in the area

Cotula australis Hook.f. (Asteraceae), a species newly introduced in Morocco

We report the discovery of Cotula australis Hook.f. for the first time in Morocco and North Africa. We found it living in the cork-oak forest of Maamora (Northwest). This species, a member of the family Asteraceae, is introduced to Morocco and has potential to be highly invasive and destructive to the native environment. We describe the distinctive taxonomic and morphological characters of this species and provide notes on its distribution, ecology, and habitat