E-ticket System as an example of Internet of Things application

We are entering a new revolution of technology called Internet of Things (IoT). It enables machines to be connected and exchange data. It brings a huge potential to different areas of technology. It is being used in several applications in different fields: building smart city, smart home, health care and agriculture. This thesis summarizes current IoT application development and the development of an E-ticket system as a demonstration of IoT application. The literature research was taken place prior to the implementation phase. Several studies on existing scientific articles were done about current IoT applications and its use cases. After that, current IoT technologies were studied and the best technologies were chosen to implement the E-ticket system. It involves Amazon web services (AWS) [8], Java Spring framework [9] and REST [10] calls over 3G [11] connections. As the result of the research and implementation, the E-ticket system was developed and demonstrated to the teacher. The solution provides police officers a quick and easy way to issue fine tickets and automates the fine payment process. Moreover, it also allows people to give feedback about performance of police officers. It is being sold to the government to solve cash payment issues in developing countries. The research shows that IoT can be utilized in many different existing applications. It will improve the scalability of the application and allow collecting a huge amount of data, which will be the resource for big data analysis, machine learning, etc. IoT is a part of a big technology revolution we are going through at the moment

Sense and Respond

The empirical objective of this research is to evaluate manufacturing strategy of a company in information technology segment by using two independent methods: “sense and respond” and “manufacturing strategy index” and validate them against each other by comparing the results. In Addition, this research also measures sustainable competitive advantage of the company and gives a prediction on future development. The data collection is gathered from a middle size software company with approximately 250 employees. The result indicates that the Company’s strategy belongs to Prospector type which focuses on product quality and customer satisfaction. The study also verifies that the Company is dynamically allocating its resources in order to adapt to the changes in the business environment so that it can follow the targeted operations strategy. However, due to the rapid development in geography and in quantity, the firm is taking relatively high operating risk and the development potential is narrower than expected. The result of method validation proves that there is a relation between sense and respond method and manufacturing strategy index method regarding operations strategy. The two methods indicate similar outcome concerning the Company’s operational strategy and its competitiveness in the market.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Rice monitoring using ENVISAT-ASAR data: preliminary results of a case study in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam

Vietnam is one of the world’s largest rice exporting countries, and the fertile Mekong River Delta at the southern tip of Vietnam accounts for more than half of the country’s rice production. Unfortunately, a large part of rice crop growing time coincides with a rainy season, resulting in a limited number of cloud-free optical remote sensing images for rice monitoring. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data allows for observations independent of weather conditions and solar illumination, and is potentially well suited for rice crop monitoring. The aim of the study was to apply new generation Envisat ASAR data with dual polarization (HH and VV) to rice cropping system mapping and monitoring in An Giang province, Mekong River Delta. Several sample areas were established on the ground, where selected rice parameters (e.g. rice height and biomass) are periodically being measured over a period of 12 months. A correlation analysis of rice parameters and radar imagery values is then being conducted to determine the significance and magnitude of the relationships. This paper describes a review of the previous research studies on rice monitoring using SAR data, the context of this on-going study, and some preliminary results that provide insights on how ASAR imagery could be useful for rice crop monitoring. More work is being done to develop algorithms for mapping and monitoring rice cropping systems, and to validate a rice yield prediction model for one year cycle using time-series SAR imagery

THE IMPACT OF CREATING SHARED VALUE ON PURCHASE INTENTION AND RECOMMENDATION INTENTION: A STUDY IN VIETNAM

Creating shared value (CSV) has been predicted as the next evolution of corporate social responsibility. Companies that follow the CSV approach integrate economic, societal, and environmental objectives in their strategy to pursue sustainability and competitive advantages. This study investigates the effects of CSV contributions (which are framed as economic, social, and environmental contributions) on brand attitude, and then the effects of brand attitude on consumer purchase and recommendation intentions. This research also examines the moderating role of perceived personal relevance on the relationships between economic, social, and environmental contributions and brand attitude. The proposed model was empirically tested on a sample of 234 consumers in a metropolitan city in Vietnam. The results confirm that positive links exist between the three CSV contributions and brand attitude as well as between brand attitude and consumer intentions of purchasing and recommending. The study also finds that perceived personal relevance moderates the effect of environmental contribution on brand attitude. These effects help us better understand previous findings in the literature regarding the influence of CSV on consumer intentions and enrich the limited CSV research. Moreover, this study also provides managerial suggestions for companies in making their CSV decisions

Human Resource Development and Poverty in the Philippines

In the last twenty years, the Philippines has gained a good progress in poverty reduction. However, compared to other countries in the region, the Philippines is still behind. In the early years of the 21st century, more than a third of the Philippine population lives below the poverty line. With landless status, the poor depended largely on labor with its embedded educational capital. However, in education, the rich and the poor are separated by two different educational divisions--private and public--and of high quality and low-quality education. Poor children encounter lack of access to quality education due to a high dropping out rate at an early age and going to public schools that offer low quality education. The lack of access to quality education has affected the poor more severely when there was poor job generation, relative deterioration of unskilled labor situation, and low rate of return on education at basic levels. The poor faced high rate of underemployment and low income. The government is aware of the educational lack of the poor, but there are a number of factors that prevent the poor having access to quality education. To an extent, government spending policies on education was not geared toward pro-poor. Furthermore, opportunity costs and their unfavorable outcomes in labor markets prevent further improvements of early and high dropout rate of the poor as a result of weaknesses in policy implementation

MODELING AND SIMULATION OF A LEAN SYSTEM. CASE STUDY OF A PAINT LINE IN A FURNITURE COMPANY

Since they were first developed, lean methodologies have grown in importance and scope and have been applied in both manufacturing and service. However, determining how to transform a common manufacturing company into a lean one, as well as how to evaluate the future company, are challenges for both researchers and manufacturers. This paper presents a case study of a lean manufacturing implementation for the paint line system in a furniture company. A systematic method for execution is shown. In addition, a simulation model is constructed to evaluate the new system in comparison with the MRP system. The new system promises much improvement in terms of a resource’s utility and the system’s productivity.Lean Techniques, Simulation Model, Paint Line, Furniture Company.

A Solution of Plane Stress Problem Subjected to Horizontal Shear Force by Using Polynomial Airy Stress Function

Many structural analysis problems in civil engineering and mechanical engineering can be treated as plane stress and plane strain problems introduced in the theory of elasticity. One of the popular analytical methods to tackle plane analysis is to determine Airy stress function. In general, the Airy stress function depends on the analyzed domain and the applied loads; however, the number of problems that can be solved by employing this method is limited because of the formidable challenges of guessing trial function. In many cases, the trial Airy stress functions are selected based on the results of a simple beam model or experimental results. This paper introduces a solution of the plane stress subjected to horizontal shear forces by using a polynomial Airy stress function, in which the trail function is predicted from the results of the elementary beam theory of an equivalent model. The numerical investigation on stress distributions was presented, and it showed that although the internal shear force acting on cross-sections have not appeared, shear stress still appeared, and the shear stress diagram had both negative and positive areas