bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Triangulation Approaches in Accounting Research
Authors: Ormin Koholga
Published: December 2019

Accounting research, like many other social science disciplines, has gradually moved from qualitative to quantitative research with an emphasis on the use of multiple evidence or methods in the conduct of research. This chapter explores the concerns and implications of triangulation in the conduct of research in the social sciences, particularly in the field of accounting. Based on evidence from existing literature, the chapter submits that triangulation is an important strategy for enhancing the quality of accounting research. Accounting researchers, like those from other social science disciplines, often adopt triangulation when investigating a complex phenomenon whereby using a single data source or method may not allow an exhaustive investigation to fully understand it, hence the inability to reach a dependable conclusion. Despite the concerns and implications of use of triangulation in accounting and social science research, the chapter concluded it is a relevant approach especially at a time when adequate evidence and analytical rigor is required to substantiate research findings.
Beyond Statistical Power and Significance in Entrepreneurship and Management Research
Authors: Sindambiwe Pierre
Published: December 2019

Findings in most empirical research on entrepreneurship and management focuses on a few things: statistical representativeness of the data, the methodological rigor used for arriving at the results, and the statistical power of the results. However, both results and data are far from being free of criticism. This chapter provides a way forward that uses the mixed-methods approach without falling into the common confusion of multiple methods used in one research. It looks back at the reliance of statistical testing, null-hypothesis, and testing the statistical significance as the criteria. It explores available alternatives that can offer to overcome the problem of non-significance, rather than rejecting it as is usually done. It acknowledges some quantitative solutions like replication, conjoint, and comparative analyses and extends the use of some qualitative methods like exploratory methods, case studies, and theory development studies that offer alternatives to treating the presence or absence of significance. It discusses the concepts used and gives the limitations of the study.
Developing the Research Study
Authors: Baran Mette L. , Jones Janice E.
Published: December 2019

This chapter serves as a guideline for outlining the core characteristics of qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods research (MMR) and the various steps researchers undertake in order to conduct a research study. While the focus is on MMR, the steps are similar for any type of research methodology. The purpose is to create a framework assisting the researcher with an outline following the seven steps to conducting research. It is important to note that MMR is not a limiting form of research. Researchers need a mixed method research question and a mixed methods purpose statement for the research project. This chapter will also help explain why MMR is one of the best approaches in answering a research question. Finally, the chapter includes a suggestion to the importance of adding a visual diagram of the mixed methods research project into the research project and into the final report.
Think Positive, Focus on Positive
Authors: Katlav Eda Ozgul , Percin Nilufer Sahin
Published: December 2019

The concept of psychological capital (PsyCap) has attracted a great deal of interest from both academics and practitioners and has been linked to employee attitudes, behavior, and performance at different levels of analysis. Since tourism enterprises are service-intensive enterprises, it is important for employees to recognize and develop their positive aspects. In this chapter, positive organizational behavior, psychological capital, dimensions, and studies on tourism enterprises are discussed. In addition, the importance of psychological capital in tourism sector is mentioned.
Is Silence the Source of Peace, a Heaven, or a Catastrophe?
Authors: Temizkan Rahman , Cankul Duran
Published: December 2019

Tourism is an industry in which the service providers and the service receivers are human, and it holds a labor-intensive feature. Culture of a business is very important in achieving the satisfaction of guests. Within the tourism industry, where competition is experienced harshly, businesses need to create an environment open to new ideas, criticism, and development in order to be fruitful. In the formation of such an environment, a great responsibility falls to business management. In businesses where employees can express their thoughts freely, democracy takes up a dominant place, and contemporary management philosophy is likely to survive. In the labor-intensive tourism industry, a high level of organizational silence of employees may lead to some negative states such as insecurity in terms of organization and individual, decrease in organizational commitment and loyalty, and lack of motivation and job dissatisfaction. This chapter explores organizational silence in the tourism industry.
The Changing Nature of Psychological Contract in the Tourism Industry
Authors: Ozkoc Aziz Gokhan , Caliskan Nurgul
Published: December 2019

The fact that new employment relations, which emerge as a result of changing market conditions, have a much higher level of instability, uncertainty, and variability than the traditional employment necessitated the reshaping of the content of the psychological contract according to the needs of the modern world. The concept of employability that emerges in this direction is of importance both in meeting the flexibility required by the industry and in increasing the professional commitment of employees and reducing the perception of job insecurity, especially in the tourism industry which has a fragile and sensitive structure. In this context, the chapter focuses on the theoretical content and necessity of the orientation from the “old psychological contract” to the “employability” paradigm. The information gathered in this context constitutes a source for emphasizing the importance of employability in the development of professional competence and professional commitment in the tourism industry.
Is It My Fault or Yours?
Authors: Yagci Kamil , Akcay Sureyya , Efendi Mahmut
Published: December 2019

Throughout life, individuals have sought ways to be successful and have endeavored to avoid failure. There may be times and situations when individuals face failure, although they strive for success. Today's era of change is forcing organizations to a continuous structure, system, and process to renewal. Although this inevitable change and development process is perceived as necessary by some organizations, only some of them are willing and determined in terms of vision-mission-strategy-action for this change. In this context, this study aims to reveal the sabotage areas of the accommodation, travel, and food and beverage enterprises within the tourism sector as well as the personnel within these enterprises and the effects on customers and organizations.
Can Whistleblowing Be a Solution to Unethical Behaviors in the Tourism Industry?
Authors: Gunay Gulsevim Yumuk , Ozyurt Basak
Published: December 2019

Researchers have discussed the concept of whistleblowing in a variety of fields including psychology, sociology, ethics, law, and public policy. Whistleblowing is expressed as the disclosure of illegal, unethical or illegitimate practices under the control of employers by members of the organization to persons or organizations that may affect the action. Whistleblowing is so important especially in the tourism industry that many tourist establishments cannot disregard it. Unethical behaviors may arise from the organization itself as well as the personality characteristics of the employees in the tourism industry as in different sectors. The behaviors of superiors and individuals within the organization, ethical practices in the tourism industry, moral climate of society, and organizational policies constitute sources of unethical behaviors in the tourism businesses. For this reason, it is very important to encourage and legally protect whistleblowers who will inform the authorities of ethical and illegal behavior.
Hotel Employees' Psychological Empowerment Influence on Their Organizational Citizenship Behavior Towards Their Job Performance
Authors: Francis Ruth Sabina , Alagas Elangkovan Narayanan
Published: December 2019

The success of the hospitality industry is dependent on its employees and their management towards the achievement of the organization's objectives. One of the perplexing concerns gripping the hotel industry is the dearth of qualified managerial and non-managerial human resources that drastically affects the job performance of the hotel employees and the organization as a whole. In the hospitality industry, especially hotels, where guests are treated with passion, the employees' organizational citizenship behaviour plays a crucial role to influence their job performance. This study is aimed at investigating the employees' psychological empowerment traits and their organizational citizenship behavior traits that influence their job performance. The conceptual model of the study is based on social exchange theory. The study's propositions will help review the policies of the hotel industry in terms of human resource management, add value to the existing body of literature, and give strategies for managers and supervisors in the hotel industry to achieve the desired performance through their employees.
The Relationship Between Psychological Contract Breach and Work Alienation
Authors: Unguren Engin , Arslan Serdar
Published: December 2019

One major problem for the tourism and hospitality sector seems to be work alienation, which causes low levels of satisfaction, performance, and high levels of turnover. Work alienation has many personal and organizational antecedents. This study aims to test a model: the moderating effect of psychological capital on the relationship between psychological contract breach and work alienation. The data was collected by fully structured questionnaires from the employees who work in four and five star hotels in Alanya, one of the leading tourism destinations in Turkey. The data was analyzed via hierarchical regression. The results show that psychological capital has a decreasing effect on the increasing effect of psychological contract breach on work alienation. The hypotheses are confirmed.
Relationship Between Work-Family Conflict and Turnover Intention
Authors: Dusmezkalender Ebru , Secilmis Cihan
Published: December 2019

The aim of this study is to analyze relationship between work-family conflict and turnover intention in tourism researches. In this respect, following the literature research, 18 quantitative studies in this area, which were conducted between 2005-2019, have been analyzed with meta-analysis method. The effect size of studies, the analysis of heterogeneity, publication bias, and intervening variable have been studied with Comprehensive Meta-Analysis v2.0 (CMA) statistics. The data obtained from the study have been interpreted within fixed effects model. As a result of the meta-analysis, it was found that the studies included in this research were homogeneous, and therefore, there was a moderate positive relationship between the effect sizes under the fixed effects model, the work-family conflict, and the turnover intention. The study is considered to be important because it synthesizes the experimental studies that examine relationship between work-family conflict and turnover intention.
The Mediating Role of Proactive Personality in the Relationship Between HEXACO Personality and Motivation to Learn
Authors: Dinc Mehmet , Akcakanat Tahsin
Published: December 2019

This study was based on the HEXACO personality model. The aim of the study was to reveal the role of proactive personality in the relationship between the six personality traits of HEXACO personality model and motivation to learn. The sample of the study consisted of the employees in a five-star hotel operating in the province of Antalya, Turkey. The data obtained from 273 employees with convenience sampling method were subjected to mediation analysis using the Bootstrap regression analysis technique. The findings showed the mediating role of proactive personality in the relationship between five of the traits making up the HEXACO personality model (humility-honesty, emotionality, extraversion, concientiousness, and openness to experience) and the motivation to learn. The sixth trait that is an exception is agreeableness. The findings were discussed within the scope of the existing literature, and recommendations were made for future research.
The Post-Parametric Attitude in the Digital Materialization of Architecture
Authors: Quartara Andrea
Published: December 2019

The purpose of this essay is to outline a particular evolution path of digital achievements and improvements in architecture. The author depicts the historical emergence of the digital in architecture presenting a sequence of world-renowned and pioneering researches focusing the dissertation on the materiality feature of the digital designs. The author paraphrases several scientific papers and books using the designer's words to support his story telling. In this way, this chapter proposes not only an illustration of several researches that go beyond the boundaries of computational thought. The author argues his standpoint that is the awareness of materiality as the substantial feature of architecture. The digital tools and any further related improvement of powerful parametric logics for design require the physical objecthood of fabrication to really enrich architecture. The chapter does not illustrate an own research project; it neither aims to establish a digital workflow for the digital fabrication of architecture. Rather it aims to highlight the fallacy of digital productions (in the meaning of simplistic virtual representation), pointing out the material instance as the address of the advancing of the digital as a method. The increasing availability of technical equipment kits should not be confused with the potential of the computation for architecture. According to these premises, it is necessary to start to examine some of the cornerstones of the last century to support the validation of digital fabrication and robotics as a powerful research field.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Decision Support Systems and a Classification Framework
Authors: Walczak Steven
Published: December 2019

Clinical decision support systems are meant to improve the quality of decision-making in healthcare. Artificial intelligence is the science of creating intelligent systems that solve complex problems at the level of or better than human experts. Combining artificial intelligence methods into clinical decision support will enable the utilization of large quantities of data to produce relevant decision-making information to practitioners. This article examines various artificial intelligence methodologies and shows how they may be incorporated into clinical decision-making systems. A framework for describing artificial intelligence applications in clinical decision support systems is presented.
Modelling, Control and Prediction using Hierarchical Fuzzy Logic Systems
Authors: Mohammadian Masoud
Published: December 2019

Hierarchical fuzzy logic systems are increasingly applied to solve complex problems. There is a need for a structured and methodological approach for the design and development of hierarchical fuzzy logic systems. In this paper a review of a method developed by the author for design and development of hierarchical fuzzy logic systems is considered. The proposed method is based on the integration of genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic to provide an integrated knowledge base for modelling, control and prediction. Issues related to the design and construction of hierarchical fuzzy logic systems using several applications are considered and methods for the decomposition of complex systems into hierarchical fuzzy logic systems are proposed. Decomposition and conversion of systems into hierarchical fuzzy logic systems reduces the number of fuzzy rules and improves the learning speed for such systems. Application areas considered are: the prediction of interest rate and hierarchical robotic control. The aim of this manuscript is to review and highlight the research work completed in the area of hierarchical fuzzy logic system by the author. The paper can benefit researchers interested in the application of hierarchical fuzzy logic systems in modelling, control and prediction.
Significance of Biologically Inspired Optimization Techniques in Real-Time Applications
Authors: Mishra Sushruta , Mishra Brojo Kishore , Tripathy Hrudaya Kumar
Published: December 2019

The techniques inspired from the nature based evolution and aggregated nature of social colonies have been promising and shown excellence in handling complicated optimization problems thereby gaining huge popularity recently. These methodologies can be used as an effective problem solving tool thereby acting as an optimizing agent. Such techniques are called Bio inspired computing. Our study surveys the recent advances in biologically inspired swarm optimization methods and Evolutionary methods, which may be applied in various fields. Four real time scenarios are demonstrated in the form of case studies to show the significance of bio inspired algorithms. The techniques that are illustrated here include Differential Evolution, Genetic Search, Particle Swarm optimization and artificial bee Colony optimization. The results inferred by implanting these techniques are highly encouraging.
A Multi Attribute Selection of Mobile Robot using AHP/M-GRA Technique
Authors: Kumar Surinder , Raj Tilak
Published: December 2019

Today's highly competitive environment and volatile market conditions at national and international level are forcing the manufacturing concerns and its management to adopt the advance automated material handling equipment like mobile robots in a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) to meet the customers' demand regarding quality and variety of product at minimal cost. Selection of a robot is one of the most difficult problems in today's manufacturing environment. The problem has become more challenging due to increasing specifications and complexity of the robot. The main aim of this paper is to develop and implement an integrated methodology based on AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) and M-GRA (Modified Grey Relational Analysis) for the selection of a mobile robot for material handling in FMS environment. In this methodology, AHP technique has been used to assign the relative importance between mobile robot selection attributes and M-GRA technique is applied to determine mobile robot selection utility index. The proposed AHP/M – GRA technique is more suitable for the decision making in the presence of vagueness. The methodology is illustrated by means of an example. The ranking and evaluation of this process will provide a good guidance to the decision maker/user to select the appropriate material handling equipment on the basis of attributes. This is the novel effort in the area of robot selection.
Implementation of the Communication Network for the Multi-Agent Robotic Systems
Authors: Kirichek Ruslan , Paramonov Alexander , Vladyko Andrei , Borisov Evgeny
Published: December 2019

The paper proposes a structure of self-organizing communication networks of the multi-robot system. The considered networks are organized on the basis of two radio channels: to transmit control (telemetry data) and to transmit data (video flow), which have the higher bandwidth requirements. The algorithm of self-organizing network is designed and presented based on the wideband channel quality control: data of the received signal strength indicator (RSSI), the capacity and the packet error ratio (PER).
Bioinspired Nanoparticles for Efficient Drug Delivery System
Authors: Al-Najar Basma Taqi , Bououdina Mohamed
Published: December 2019

Bioinspired nanoparticles have been involved in biomedicine field such as biosensors and drug delivery due to their small size and interesting characteristics that made them highly biocompatible, less toxic and hence greater influence on the biological systems. An effective drug delivery system can be achieved when applying these bioinspired material and herein we present several research work that involved bioinspired nanotechnology in drug delivery for cancer, therapeutic genes, calcium apatite nanocomposites, protein drugs and others.
Vision Based Localization for Multiple Mobile Robots Using Low-cost Vision Sensor
Authors: Lee Seokju , Tewolde Girma , Lim Jongil , Kwon Jaerock
Published: December 2019

This paper presents an efficient approach for a vision based localization of multiple mobile robots in an indoor environment by using a low cost vision sensor. The proposed vision sensor system that uses a single camera mounted over the mobile robots field takes advantages of small size, low energy consumption, and high flexibility to play an important role in the field of robotics. The nRF24L01 RF transceiver is connected to the vision system to enable wireless communication with multiple devices through 6 different data pipes. The downward-facing camera provides excellent performance that has the ability to identify a number of objects based on color codes, which form colored landmarks that provide mobile robots with useful image information for localization in the image view, which is then transformed to real world coordinates. Experimental results are given to show that the proposed method can obtain good localization performance in multi-mobile robots setting.
The Use of a Robotic Arm for Displacement Measurements in a Cantilever Beam
Authors: Dias George Lucas , Magalhães Ricardo Rodrigues , Ferreira Danton Diego , Vitoriano Felipe Augusto
Published: December 2019

This paper is aimed to present a displacement measurements technique which was performed automatically in a cantilever beam using a robotic arm manipulator. This technique is based on the difference of measured coordinates of the robotic arm manipulator in order to provide displacement results. The robotic arm was supported by a micro-switch sensor which in contact with a sample, measured 21x3 points distributed along the sample. Measurements were performed before and after adding the loads on the free end of the cantilever beam, manufactured in ASTM A36 steel. Experiments were performed through loads of 1.96 N, 4.9 N, 9.8 N and 19.6 N using the robotic manipulator controller. Ten sets of measurement were performed for each load. The average and standard deviation for each set of points were also performed. Results were compared to Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations in order to verify the accuracy of the proposed compared to FEM results. Sum of squared errors presented values lower than 3% demonstrating the potentiality of the proposed technique for industries application.
TAntNet-4
Authors: Ghazy Ayman M. , Hefny Hesham A.
Published: December 2019

Traffic Routing System (TRS) is one of the most important intelligent transport systems which is used to direct vehicles to good routes and reduce congestion on the road network. The performance of TRS mainly depends on a dynamic routing algorithm due to the dynamic nature of traffic on road network. AntNet algorithm is a routing algorithm inspired from the foraging behavior of ants. TAntNet is a family of dynamic routing algorithms that uses a threshold travel time to enhance the performance of AntNet algorithm when applied to traffic road networks. TAntNet-1 and TAntNet-2 adopt different techniques for path update to fast direct to the discovered good route and conserve on this good route. TAntNet-3 has been recently proposed by inspiring the scout behavior of bees to avoid the bad effect of forward ants that take bad routes. This chapter presents a new member in TAntNet family of algorithms called TAntNet-4 that uses two scouts instead of one compared with TAntNet-2. The new algorithm also saves the discovered route of each of the two scouts to use the best of them by the corresponding backward ant. The experimental results ensure the high performance of TAntNet-4 compared with AntNet, other members of TAntNet family.
New Approach to Optimize Cooperation Mobile Robots for Ideal Coverage with an Architecture Designed with Multi-Agent Systems
Authors: Amine Mami Mohammed , Fayçal Khelfi Mohamed , Laouici Zineb , Noria Benyettou
Published: December 2019

Mobile Robotics have taken an ever increasing role in everyday life in the past few years. The main objective often reflected in research is to try to have an optimal cooperation between the different robots to achieve a given objective. This cooperation allows one to have optimal solutions for sharing and resolving conflicts. This article proposes a solution to solve the problem of the coverage in environment with obstacles and the cooperation between several mobile robots. The authors developed a heuristic algorithm to optimize the coverage in a multi-robot system, while maintaining the connection between the robots. The proposed algorithm is based on the propagation of the robots as a function of the expansion of a wave in a uniform manner. The authors also integrate a self-reorientation approach to failure if a robot becomes out of race. Finally, this approach is modelled with the ADMs.
Natural Computing in Mobile Network Optimization
Authors: Mukherjee Anwesha , Deb Priti , De Debashis
Published: December 2019

Nature inspired computing has been widely used to solve various research challenges of mobile network. Mobile network refers to mobile network, sensor network and ad hoc network. This chapter has focused on the application of nature inspired computing in mobile network. In this chapter, the bio-inspired techniques for wireless sensor network, mobile ad hoc network and mobile cloud computing are discussed. Ant colony optimization is used in sensor network and mobile cloud computing for efficient routing and scheduling respectively. Bee swarm intelligence is used to develop routing schemes for mobile ad hoc network. Bird flocking behavior is used for congestion control in wireless sensor network. The research challenges of bio-inspired mobile network are also illustrated.
An Optimal Image Processing Method for Simultaneous Detection of Weld Seam Position and Weld Gap in Robotic Arc Welding
Authors: Rout Amruta , BBVL Deepak , Biswal Bibhuti Bhusan , Mahanta Golak Bihari , Gunji Bala Murali
Published: December 2019

For robot path planning the weld seam positions need to be known in advance as the industrial robot generally work in teach and playback mode. In this paper, a vision sensor has been utilized for automation of robotic welding path planning. A seam tracking algorithm has been proposed for a butt type of weld joint with varying weld gap for effective measurement of weld path positions and weld gap simultaneously. For this first an image acquisition algorithm technique has been proposed for capturing of image of weld seam in gray scale mode. Then in image processing at first one pattern matching algorithm for tracking of weld seam path is performed. Then different edge detection techniques have been applied to find the most efficient edge detection method for obtaining the characteristics of weld seam edge. Then best edge fitting method has been applied to fit the edges along the weld seam edge and the pixel values on the edges were measured. The weld gap and the midpoint between edges points are measured simultaneously by vision assistant toolbox in LabVIEW software background.
Dependability Levels on Autonomous Systems
Authors: Zacharaki Angeliki , Kostavelis Ioannis
Published: December 2019

Professional robots should be endorsed with great autonomy capabilities when designed for release into the market. The need for autonomy is further reinforced when robots are meant to be used for crisis management situations, where close collaboration with humans and trustworthy operation in hazardous environments is necessary. To this end, this article quantifies the system's autonomy by measuring its dependability. This is achieved by defining a qualitative metric system regarding the different levels of dependability that autonomous systems should retain in order to operate in various crisis situations. It provides a detailed analysis of each level of dependability and proposes the minimum requirements that should be fulfilled in each level, thus realizing a ranking system that outlines the overall system's ability to operate autonomously. The proposed analysis is applied on a real robotic prototype developed for crisis situations and evaluates the system's autonomy capabilities by qualitative assessing the levels of dependability it retains.
A Hybridization of Gravitational Search Algorithm and Particle Swarm Optimization for Odor Source Localization
Authors: Jain Upma , Godfrey W. Wilfred , Tiwari Ritu
Published: December 2019

This paper concerns with the problem of odor source localization by a team of mobile robots. The authors propose two methods for odor source localization which are largely inspired from gravitational search algorithm and particle swarm optimization. The intensity of odor across the plume area is assumed to follow the Gaussian distribution. As robots enter in the vicinity of plume area they form groups using K-nearest neighbor algorithm. The problem of local optima is handled through the use of search counter concept. The proposed approaches are tested and validated through simulation.
Appraise the Economic Values of Logistic Handling System under Mixed Information
Authors: Sahu Anoop Kumar , Sahu Nitin Kumar , Sahu Atul Kumar
Published: December 2019

Logistics activities are globally recognized as a core heart of each industry, as major content of productivity of industries exclusively depend on this. The system being used to manage logistic activities of firms is called as logistic system i.e. JCBs, robots, mono-trucks, trolleys conveyors etc. In recent years, assessments of logistic activities of firms are found as historic topic in the realm of industrial management. Each parameter leads the trait role in relation to materialize the economic values of material handling system. It is observed that in the context of decision making, MCDM problems under concerns of observed data rather than verbal data is resolved with short computation task by exploration of algorithmic techniques. It became indeed imperative to aid the managers from soft computing algorithmic technique for making decision under subjective or objective or subjective cum objective information. The present chapter flaunted an application of Multi Level Multi Criterion Decision Making (MLMCDM) algorithmic technique for appraising the economic values of MHS candidate choices under subjective (linguistic information provided by personnel) or objective or subjective cum objective information. A hypothetical research work is conveyed to end for aiding the firms from a DSS, in order that they could manage the logistic systems of their firms.
Robotics in Surgical Techniques Robotics in Surgical Techniques
Authors: Costarides Vassilia , Zygomalas Apollon , Giokas Kostas , Koutsouris Dimitris
Published: December 2019

Healthcare robotic applications are a growing trend due to rapid demographic changes that affect healthcare systems, professionals and quality of life indicators, for the elderly, the injured and the disabled. Current technological advances in robotic systems offer an exciting field for medical research, as the interdisciplinary approach of robotics in healthcare and specifically in surgery is continuously gaining ground. This chapter features a review of current applications, from external large scale robotic devices to nanoscale swarm robots programmed to interact on a cellular level.
Cloud Robotics
Authors: Saravanan K.
Published: December 2019

Cloud robotics is an emerging field which enables the web enabled robots to access the cloud services on the fly. Cloud Robotics was born by merging robotics with the cloud technologies. The robot intelligence is no more in the robot itself but remotely executed on the cloud. Robot acts as thin-client. There are several frameworks already in development and still growing. With the help of high speed networks using 4G/5G technologies, offloading of computation and storage in cloud is the further step in robotic evolution. This chapter deals the exploration of cloud robotics with its architecture, applications and existing frameworks. Also, existing research carried out is summarized in this chapter. The future challenges are discussed to foresee the opportunities in cloud robotics. It aims for the complete study on how robots leverages the cloud computing.
Adaptive Swarm Coordination and Formation Control
Authors: Guler Samet , Fidan Baris , Gazi Veysel
Published: December 2019

Swarm coordination and formation control designs focus on multi-agent dynamic system behavior and aim to achieve desired coordinated behavior or predefined geometric shape. They utilize techniques from the control theory and graph theory literature. On the other hand, adaptive control theory is concerned with uncertainties in the system dynamics, and has structured frameworks for various types of plant models. Therefore, in case there are uncertainties in the swarm dynamics, adaptive control methodologies can be utilized to achieve the desired coordinated behavior and there exist remarkable works in this direction. However, connection among swarm coordination, formation control, and adaptive control theory brings some restrictions as well as advantages. Hence adaptive swarm coordination and formation control has been developed in limited aspects. In this chapter, we review some existing works of the adaptive formation control literature along with non-adaptive ones, and discuss the advantages of application of adaptive control frameworks to swarm coordination and formation control.
Strategic Brand Management in SMEs for Competitive Advantage
Authors: Baporikar Neeta , Fotolela Rosalia
Published: December 2019

This study aimed to explore how SME owner-managers perceive their roles in marketing and brand management as a strategic approach to enhance their competitiveness to ensure profits, growth, and sustainability. For any organization to grow and thrive it is essential to become customers first choice and for that it is critical to communicate their brand content through effective and strategic brand management. Hence, adopting a qualitative, exploratory approach, 10 owner-managers of SMEs and entrepreneurs in Windhoek, Namibia, were interviewed using semi-structured in-depth interview protocol. Findings reflect that SME brand strategies both in modern and traditional aspects enhance company growth. The study also proposes a framework that is of practical significance for future entrepreneurs, SMEs and brand consultants to enable SMEs to create and develop their brands for better and competitive positioning in the markets. The unique contribution of this study is how SME-focused brand strategies can act as a driver and provide impetus to profits, growth, and sustainability.
A High-Level Interactive Query Language for Big Data Analytics Based on a Functional Model
Authors: Monsia Symphorien , Faiz Sami
Published: December 2019

Information technologies such as the internet, and social networks, produce vast amounts of data exponentially (known as Big Data) and use conventional information systems. Big Data is characterized by volume, a high rate of generation, and variety. Systems integration and data querying systems must be adapted to cope with the emergence of Big Data. The authors' interest is with the impact Big Data has on the decision-making environment, most particularly, the data querying phase. Their contribution is the development of a parallel and distributed platform, named high level query language for big data analytics (HLQL-BDA), created to query vast amounts of data in a computer cluster based on the MapReduce paradigm. The query language in HLQL-BDA is implemented by means of interactive query language based on a functional model. The researchers' experiment shows the scalability of HLQL-BDA when they increase the number of nodes and the size of data.
Technologies in Health Care Domain
Authors: Gupta Sonam , Goel Lipika , Agarwal Abhay Kumar
Published: December 2019

Blockchain and Internet of Thing (IoT) has been widely used to impart constructive and smart healthcare services to the community. Blockchain technology has also invaded complete facet of information communications technology (ICT) and it has been growing and growing in today's fast paced world. Use of Blockchain Technology will increase the certainty and efficiency of electronic healthcare records (EHRs). The data mining approaches and machine learning algorithms assist in predicting the chronic disorders in patient thereby helping in the identification of the patient's treatment. This article provides a survey of the state of art in this domain. The key features, as well as the challenges of the various approaches, have been analyzed. A novel methodology to overcome the existing limitations has been proposed for future work and research. This proposed framework will make the data aggregations much easier to save and for decision-making. The function of alerting to caretakers and to inform hospital in critical condition will make this system new and unique.
A Survey of Ontology Benchmarks for Semantic Web Ontology Tools
Authors: Zamazal Ondřej
Published: December 2019

Software engineering employs different benchmarks for a software evaluation. This enables software developers to continuously improve their product. The same needs are intrinsic for software tools in the semantic web field. While there are many different benchmarks already available, there has not been their overview and categorization yet. This work provides such an overview and categorization of benchmarks specifically oriented on benchmarks where an ontology plays an important role. Benchmarks are naturally categorized in line with ontology tool categorization along with an indication which activities those benchmarks are deliberate and which are non-deliberative. Although the article itself can already navigate a reader to an adequate benchmark, we moreover automatically designed a flexible rule-based recommendation tool based on the analysis of existing benchmarks.
A Tool for Transforming Semantic Web Rule Language to SPARQL Infererecing Notation
Authors: Bassiliades Nick
Published: December 2019

Semantic web rule language (SWRL) combines web ontology language (OWL) ontologies with horn logic rules of the rule markup language (RuleML) family. Being supported by ontology editors, rule engines and ontology reasoners, it has become a very popular choice for developing rule-based applications on top of ontologies. However, SWRL is probably not going to become a WWW Consortium standard, prohibiting industrial acceptance. On the other hand, SPARQL Inferencing Notation (SPIN) has become a de-facto industry standard to represent SPARQL rules and constraints on semantic web models, building on the widespread acceptance of SPARQL (SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language). In this article, we argue that the life of existing SWRL rule-based ontology applications can be prolonged by converting them to SPIN. To this end, we have developed the SWRL2SPIN tool in Prolog that transforms SWRL rules into SPIN rules, considering the object-orientation of SPIN, i.e. linking rules to the appropriate ontology classes and optimizing them, as derived by analysing the rule conditions.
Virtual Environments as Enablers of Civic Awareness and Engagement
Authors: Bellavista Paolo , Corradi Antonio , Foschini Luca , Gomes Eliza Helena , Lamberti Elena , Klein Gisiela , De Rolt Carlos Roberto , Torello Marco
Published: December 2019

The wide availability of accurate sensors currently hosted by smartphones are enabling new participative urban management opportunities. Mobile crowdsensing (MCS) allows people to actively participate in any aspect of urban planning, by collecting and sharing data, reporting issues to public administrations, proposing solutions to urban planners, and delivering information of potential social interest to their community. Although collected data can be very helpful to enhance the quality of life of citizens, mobile users are still reluctant to use their devices to take advantages of the opportunities offered by the digitized society, mainly due to privacy issues. From August to December 2018, the city of Florianópolis, capital of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil, was used as a living lab environment for an MCS application called ParticipACT Brazil, a socio/technical-aware crowdsensing platform. While the current literature focuses on MCS from a purely technical point of view, this research demonstrated that a multidisciplinary approach that includes both human sciences and ICT is needed in order to better identify critical issues, highlights the untapped potential of MCS paradigm, and suggests research methodologies that could provide benefits for all the actors involved (researchers, public administrators, and citizens).
Cultura e política no Brasil republicano: uma reflexão sobre as permanências autoritárias
Authors: Longhi Carla Reis
Published: December 2019

A onda conservadora que assola diferentes países e regiões do mundo contemporâneo, entre muitos outros aspectos, nos faz ponderar sobre as práticas culturais e suas permanências, principalmente as permanências autoritárias, ao longo dos anos. Para este artigo, propomos enfrentar esta questão considerando o contexto brasileiro. Refletir sobre a cultura é sempre difícil em função de sua enorme abrangência, temporal e temática e, por isso, propomos como delimitação, recuperar a visão que estratos da intelectualidade brasileira apresentaram sobre as camadas populares ao longo de nossa história republicana, definindo como recorte cronológico o período de 1920-2000. Ao percorrer este cenário, propomos identificar o conceito de cultura prevalecente em cada período e como este afetou o olhar da intelectualidade sobre a produção cultural popular.
Dry Mortar with Redispersible Polymeric Powder for Additive Technologies
Authors: Poluektova Valentina A. , Novosadov Nikolay I.
Published: December 2019

Special formulas of dry building mortars for construction concrete printing is one of the pertinent areas in the development of innovative construction. The research covers the dry building mortar technology with re-dispersible polymeric powders. The best regime of mixing components with a high-speed paddle wheel agitator was presented. It was shown that only the automation of the construction material production for 3D printing will provide the necessary level of composition stability and property optimization. The work presents some methods of technical control in the production environment. According to the devised functions the technical specifications for the material use were developed. The technical and operational characteristics of the obtained material were researched and the advantages of using polymer-cement concrete in construction 3D printing were identified. On the basis of the obtained results it was established that the specifically designed composition of the mortar reduces stiffening time, has good adhesion characteristics and the necessary plastic strength, this material also delivers impressive performance when it comes to strength and other technical and operational characteristics in comparison with the test mortar.
Theoretical Concepts of the Modification Effect on the Interparticle Energy of the Polymer-Mineral Dispersions for 3D Printing
Authors: Poluektova Valentina A.
Published: December 2019

The molecular gravity and electrostatic repulsion energies were calculated taking into account the structural forces between the modified particles of the polymer-chalk dispersion, which was chosen as a model polymer-chalk system when studying systems for the innovative construction industry using additive technologies (3D printing). In the above calculations, differences for the studied systems are taken into account in such quantities as the complex Hamaker constant, the ionic strength of the solution, and the diffuse layer potential. The calculation of the total potential curves of modified and unmodified polymer-chalk dispersions and the contribution of various factors of aggregative stability analysis showed that as a result of the adsorption of modifier molecules on the particles surface, the action of molecular attraction forces is overcome by the combined action of electrostatic and adsorption-solvate factors of aggregative stability.
Modification of Magnesia Binder with Iron Ore Concentrate
Authors: Klimenko Vasiliy G. , Chernyshev Alexander Z. , Strelnikova Alena I.
Published: December 2019

On the basis of the experimental data, a method and mechanism for modifying magnesia binders with iron ore concentrate has been proposed. It consists in form of a material reinforced fine-crystalline structure with elongated magnesium oxychloride crystals, which improves its physical and mechanical characteristics. The components of iron ore concentrate and magnesia binder, having improved sorption properties, significantly accelerates the formation of such a structure.
Thermal Insulating and Constructive Foamed Concrete on a Composite Gypsum Binder
Authors: Chernyisheva Natalia V. , Shatalova Svetlana V. , Drebezgova Maria Yu. , Lesnichenko Evgeniy N.
Published: December 2019

The article discusses the possibility of obtaining the effective thermal insulating and constructive foamed concrete on a composite gypsum binder. The composition was selected, the stepwise loading scheme of the foam concrete mixture components was proposed, the properties and microstructure of cellular concrete based on a composite gypsum binder with mineral addition of finely-dispersed concrete scrap were studied.
The Carbonate-Hardening Lime Construction Material Properties Formation during their Long-Term Storage and Use under Normal Conditions
Authors: Lyubomirskiy Nikolay V. , Bakhtina Tamara A. , Bakhtin Alexander S. , Fedorkin Sergey I.
Published: December 2019

This paper presents the lime binding forced carbonate-hardening materials properties formation study and determins the stability of these properties during long-term storage and use under normal conditions. The tests showed these materials stability properties over time, confirming the strength and density growth of the test samples after long storage due to the calcium hydroxide recrystallization completion into calcium carbonate processes. Also, the results of the samples carbonate hardening study under natural conditions during 18 months are presented. An efficiency assessment of forced carbonate hardening as one of the methods of recycling technogenic CO2 in order to reduce its emissions in the atmosphere, and, in the result, to obtain high-quality construction materials has been made.