The Impact of Supply Chain Management Approaches on Supply Chain Performance in Iraq

Indeed due to globalization and changing regional powers, supply chain (SC) has become an essential element. It is evident that political, social and economic changes over the few past decades become supply chain more uncertain and complex. The economy of Iraq is dominated by Oil that is contributing 95% in its foreign exchange. Meanwhile, War has destroyed its major infrastructure still supply is moving on but with more uncertainty. AlthoughWar destroyed the economy badly. However, there are numerous ways to reduce the uncertainty that will improve the performance; supply chain management (SCM) approaches cannot be neglected. Whereas, supply chain management approaches have determined the performance in various industries and in various regions. The aim of this study to explore the potential benefits of supply chain management approaches toward attaining supply chain performance. This is an empirical investigation conducting among members of oil and gas supply chain in Iraq. Data were collected from 260 members of thesupply chain that include drilling, processing, distribution areas of Iraq. Factor analysis and multiple regressions through SPSS have been used for data analysis. The finding of this study reveals that all three supply chain management approaches information sharing (IS), joint decision making (JDM) and risk and reward sharing (RRS) positively and significantly affect the supply chain performance

Directional Routing Techniques in VANET

Vehicle Ad hoc Networks (VANET) emerged as a subset of the Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) application; it is considered to be a substantial approach to the ITS (Intelligent Transportation System). VANETs were introduced to support drivers and improve safety issues and driving comfort, as a step towards constructing a safer, cleaner and more intelligent environment. At the present time vehicles are equipped with a number of sensors and devices, including On Board Units (OBU); this enables vehicles to sense situations affecting other vehicles and manage communications, by exploiting infrastructures such as the Road Side Unit (RSU); creating a Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) pathway, or interacting directly with other vehicles creating a Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) pathway. Owing to the lack of infrastructures and difficulties involved in providing comprehensive coverage for all roads because of the high expense associated with installation, the investigation in this research concentrates on the V2V communication type rather than theV2I communication type. Many challenges have emerged in VANET, encouraging researchers to investigate their research in an attempt to meet these challenges. Routing protocol issues are considered to be a critical dilemma that needs to be tackled in VANET, particularly in a sparse environment, by designing an effcient routing mechanism that impacts on enhancing network performance in terms of disseminating messages to a desireddestination, balancing the generated packet (overhead) on the network and increasing the ratio of packet delivery with a reduced time delay. VANET has some unique characteristics compared to MANET; specifically it includes high mobility and constrained patterns restricted by roads, which lead to generation of a disconnected area occurring continuously between vehicles creating a Delay Tolerant Network (DTN). This is in opposition to applying the multi-hope technique properly to deliver the packet to its desire destination. The aim in this thesis comprises two main contributions. First developing novel routing protocols for a sparse environment in VANET with the context of utilising the mobility feature, with the aid of the equipped devices, such as Global Position System (GPS) and Navigation System (NS). This approach exploits the knowledge of Second Heading Direction (SHD), which represents the knowledge of the next road direction the vehicle is intending to take, in order to increase the packet delivery ratio, and to increase the route stability by decreasing instances of route breakage. This approach comprises two approaches; the first approach was designed for a highway scenario, by selecting the next hop node based on a filtration process, to forward the packet to the desired destination, while the second approach was developed for the intersection and roundabout scenario, in order to deliver the packet to the destination (unknown location). The formalising and specification of the VSHDRP has been performed using the CCA (Calculus of Context-aware Ambient), in order to evaluate the protocols behaviours, the protocol has been validated using the ccaPL. In addition the performance of the VSHDRP has been evaluated using the NS-2 simulator; comparing it with Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing (GPSR) protocol, to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the protocol. Second, developing a novel approach to broadcasting the HELLO beacon message adaptively in VANET based on the node's circumstances (direction and speed), in order to minimise the broadcasting of unnecessary HELLO beacon messages. A novel architecture has been built based on the adaptive HELLO beacon message, which clarifies how the OBU components are interacting with the connected sensors, in order to portray any changes in the vehicle's circumstances, so as to take the right decision to determine appropriate action. This architecture has been built based on the concept of a context aware system, which divides the architecture into three main phases; sensing processing and acting

The impact of supply chain collaboration on performance in automotive industry: Empirical evidence

Purpose: Indeed due to global advancement, rapid technological innovation, and enhancing regional influence, supply chain (SC) has become an essential element. Now, competition has shifted from organization to industry level; any disruption can not only disturb organization but also affect the whole industry. Although Pakistan is agriculture land still industry sector is supporting more than half population, especially the automotive sector is the highest growing sector. Due to regional and economic shift toward China and India, this sector is facing numerous problems. Only thirteen large-scale automotive organizations are operational by creating collaboration among them many issues can be resolved. Supply chain collaboration has dogged the performance in various industries and in various regions. The aim of this study is to explore the potential benefits of supply chain collaboration toward achieving operational performance. Design/methodology/approach: This is an empirical investigation conducting among supply chain department of automotive industries in Pakistan. Data were collected from 232 members of the supply chain that include suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors. Factor analysis and multiple regressions through SPSS have been used for data analysis. Findings: The finding of this study reveals that two supply chain management approaches information sharing (IS), joint decision making (JDM) significantly effect, while Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) does not have a significant effect on operational performance. Research limitations: This study consists only three approaches, next study should include more approaches. Secondly, this study is limited to the automotive sector. Practical implications: [This study will help the managers of the automotive industry in making their operation smooth by applying information sharing, joint decision making, and electronic data interchange. Originality/value: First novelty of this study is the implementation of supply chain collaboration for developing country especially for Pakistan. Secondly, this study seed collaboration as communication and include all aspects of communication like formal communication, informal communication.Peer Reviewe

Syntheses and characterization of [4]Ferrocenophane

Metallocenophanes are metallocenes in which the cyclopentadienyl ligands are connected by a molecular bridge. Recently, metallocenophanes have received increasing attention because of their structure, chemical reactivity, and potential use as building blocks for new materials. Even though metallocenophanes have been synthesized by different methods, the majority of these methods involved the use of iron with rare examples of other metals. Therefore, a new method was employed that in addition to making ferrocenophane, will allow us to synthesize metallocenophanes with V, Cr, Mn, Co, and Ni as central metals. This thesis reports the synthesis of [4]ferrocenophane via a “flytrap” route. The reaction of sodium cyclopentadienide with 1,4-dibromobutane afforded the ligand 1,4-bis(cyclopentadienyl)butane (86% yield of crude product). The ligand was deprotonated by butyllithium which after treating it with ferrous chloride afforded the final product as an orange solid in overall of (13% yield of crude product). The 1H NMR confirmed the synthesis of [4]ferrocenophane. UV-Visible data analysis was used to confirm the parallel planar structure of the cyclopentadienyl rings in this compound

A simplified spatial Modulation MISO-OFDM scheme

Index modulation is one of the promising techniques for future communications systems due to many improvement over the classical Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems such as single RF chain, increased throughput for the same modulation order, achieved tradeoff between the efficiencies of the power and the spectral, and elimination of inter-channel interference. Many forms of index modulation researches exist where symbols are conveyed in antennas, subcarriers, time slots, and the space-time matrix.  Spatial modulation is one member of index modulation family where symbols are conveyed in activating transmit/receive antennas. In this paper, a modification to a standard multiple input single output scheme by integrating spatial modulation using simplified mathematical procedure is achieved. In the transmitter side, data and activation symbols are distributed simultaneously using mathematical module and floor functions. At the receiver, a simplified maximum likelihood detector is used to obtain transmitted pair of symbols. To verify this, MATLAB SIMULINK is used to simulate a downlink system where spatial modulation is applied to a base station. Results for different transmit antenna number and modulation order are obtained in the form of bit error rate versus signal to noise ratio

Robust bayesian estimators for binomial distribution under prior data conflict

In this paper, the regular Bayes method and robust Bayes method were used to estimate the parameter (p) and the survival function of the Binomial distribution in the case of prior data conflict for two simulation experiments. The first experiment was in the case of unconflicted prior data. The simulation results of the first experiment showed that the robust Bayes method is best by using the comparative criterion (IMSE). The second experiment was in case of prior data conflict. The simulation results showed that the robust Bayes method is best by using the comparative criterion (IMSE). Thus, the robust Bayes method is best in both cases to estimate the parameter (p) and the survival function of the Binomial distribution