Attitudinal and behavioural determinants influencing decision makers when adopting integration technologies in local government

Over the last few years, the advent of innovative or revolutionary integration technologies has influenced pivotal decisions within top management to strategically transform Local Government Authorities (LGAs). These technologies may represent a huge cost for adopting LGAs, but may also offer the chance to achieve competitive advantage through superior service delivery. With the emergence of electronic Government (e- Government), LGAs are turning to integration technologies to fully automate and e-enable their business processes and integrate their IT infrastructures. While prior research on the adoption of integration technologies in the private and public domain has considered several determinants (e.g. benefits, barriers, costs), little attention has been given to investigate the attitudinal and behavioural determinants influencing top management’s decision making process for the adoption of integration technologies in LGAs. Notwithstanding, the implications of this research have yet to be assessed, leaving scope for timeliness and novel research. Therefore, it is of high importance to investigate this area within LGAs and contribute to the area of strategic decision making by examining attitudinal and behavioural determinants of top management in relation to integration technologies adoption

Fuzzy Adaptive Tuning of a Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for Variable-Strength Combinatorial Test Suite Generation

Combinatorial interaction testing is an important software testing technique that has seen lots of recent interest. It can reduce the number of test cases needed by considering interactions between combinations of input parameters. Empirical evidence shows that it effectively detects faults, in particular, for highly configurable software systems. In real-world software testing, the input variables may vary in how strongly they interact, variable strength combinatorial interaction testing (VS-CIT) can exploit this for higher effectiveness. The generation of variable strength test suites is a non-deterministic polynomial-time (NP) hard computational problem \cite{BestounKamalFuzzy2017}. Research has shown that stochastic population-based algorithms such as particle swarm optimization (PSO) can be efficient compared to alternatives for VS-CIT problems. Nevertheless, they require detailed control for the exploitation and exploration trade-off to avoid premature convergence (i.e. being trapped in local optima) as well as to enhance the solution diversity. Here, we present a new variant of PSO based on Mamdani fuzzy inference system \cite{Camastra2015,TSAKIRIDIS2017257,KHOSRAVANIAN2016280}, to permit adaptive selection of its global and local search operations. We detail the design of this combined algorithm and evaluate it through experiments on multiple synthetic and benchmark problems. We conclude that fuzzy adaptive selection of global and local search operations is, at least, feasible as it performs only second-best to a discrete variant of PSO, called DPSO. Concerning obtaining the best mean test suite size, the fuzzy adaptation even outperforms DPSO occasionally. We discuss the reasons behind this performance and outline relevant areas of future work.Comment: 21 page

Observation of eta_b(2S) in Upsilon(2S) -> gamma eta_b(2S), eta_b(2S) -> hadrons, and Confirmation of eta_b(1S)

The data for 9.3 million Upsilon(2S) and 20.9 million Upsilon(1S) taken with the CLEO III detector has been used to study the radiative population of states identified by their decay into twenty six different exclusive hadronic final states. In the Upsilon(2S) decays an enhancement is observed at a ~5 sigma level at a mass of 9974.6+-2.3(stat)+-2.1(syst) MeV. It is attributed to eta_b(2S), and corresponds to the Upsilon(2S) hyperfine splitting of 48.7+-2.3(stat)+-2.1(syst) MeV. In the Upsilon(1S) decays, the identification of eta_b(1S) is confirmed at a ~3 sigma level with M(eta_b(1S)) in agreement with its known value.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Penentuan Kadar Cu, Fe, Zn Dalam Tanah, Tanaman Teh, Daun Teh Dan Minuman Teh

PENENTUAN KADAR Cu, Fe, Zn DALAM TANAH, TANAMAN TEH, DAUN TEH DAN MINUMAN TEH. Salah satupenyebab kerusakan kualitas tanah adalah terjadinya pencemaran Cu Fe danZn sehingga langsung maupun tidaklangsung dapat menimbulkan pencemaran tanaman yang tumbuh diatasnya antara lain tanaman teh yang selama inidigunakan masyarakat secara luas sebagai bahan pembuatan minuman teh. Pengambilan sampel tanah, akartanaman teh, daun teh, dan minuman teh dilakukan pada bulan Juni 2005 di kecamatan Keparakan, Temanggung,Jawa Tengah. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui kadar Cu Fe dan Zn di dalam tanah , akar tanamanteh, daun teh serta minuman teh. Penelitian dilakukan dengan cara sampel didigesti dengan asam nitrat pekat sampaidiperoleh larutan yang jernih kemudian diencerkan dengan akuabides sampai 10 ml. Penentuan kadar unsur Cu, Fe,dan Zn menggunakan alat AAS. Diperoleh hasil kadar rata rata Cu Fe dan Zn di dalamtanah dalam 0,155 ± 0,005ppm, 127,16 ± 2,65 ppm, dan 0,68 ± 0,02 ppm, di dalam tanah luar 0,355 ± 0,025 ppm, 360,59 ± 13,17 ppm dan 0,78± 0.01 ppm, di dalam akar tanaman teh 0,241 ± 0,098 ppm, 13,16 ± 1,34 ppm dan 2,64 ± 0,06 ppm, di dalam daun teh0,211 ± 0,013 ppm, 3,35 ± 0,886 ppm, dan 0,795 ± 0,016 ppm serta di dalam minuman teh 0,142 ± 0,086 ppm, 6,11 ±0,35 ppm dan 0,66 ± 0,02 ppm

A new methodology called dice game optimizer for capacitor placement in distribution systems

Purpose. Shunt capacitors are installed in power system for compensating reactive power. Therefore, feeder capacity releases, voltage profile improves and power loss reduces. However, determination optimal location and size of capacitors in distributionsystems is a complex optimization problem. In order to determine the optimum size and location of the capacitor, an objective function which is generally defined based on capacitor installation costs and power losses should be minimized According to operational limitations. This paper offers a newly developed metaheuristic technique, named dice game optimizerto determine optimal size and location of capacitors in a distribution network. Dice game optimizer is a game based optimization technique that is based on the rules of the dice game.Цель. Шунтирующие конденсаторы в энергосистеме устанавливаются для компенсации реактивной мощности. Следовательно, снижается емкость фидера, улучшается профиль напряжения и снижаются потери мощности. Однако определение оптимального местоположения и размера конденсаторов в системах распределения является сложной задачей оптимизации. Чтобы определить оптимальный размер и расположение конденсатора, целевую функцию, которая обычно определяется на основе затрат на установку конденсатора и потерь мощности, следует минимизировать в соответствии с эксплуатационными ограничениями. Данная статья предлагает недавно разработанный метаэвристический метод, называемый оптимизатором игры в кости, для определения оптимального размера и расположения конденсаторов в распределительной сети. Оптимизатор игры в кости – это игровой метод оптимизации, основанный на правилах игры в кости