Tomas Bata University in Zlín
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Natural weathering effects on the mechanical, rheological, and morphological properties of magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) in tropical climate
Get PDFMagnetorheological elastomer (MRE) materials have the potential to be used in a wide range of applications that require long-term service in hostile environments. These widespread applications will result in the emergence of MRE-specific durability issues, where durability refers to performance under in-service environmental conditions. In response, the outdoor tropical climatic environment, combined with the effects of weathering, will be the primary focus of this paper, specifically the photodegradation of the MRE. In this study, MRE made of silicone rubber (SR) and 70 wt% micron-sized carbonyl iron particles (CIP) were prepared and subjected to mechanical and rheological testing to evaluate the effects under natural weathering. Magnetorheological elastomer samples were exposed to the natural weathering conditions of a tropical climate in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for 30 days. To obtain a comprehensive view of MRE degradation during natural weathering, mechanical testing, rheology, and morphological evaluation were all performed. The mechanical and rheological properties test results revealed that after 30 days of exposure and known meteorological parameters, Young's modulus and storage modulus increased, while elongation at break decreased. The degradation processes of MRE during weathering, which are responsible for their undesirable change, were given special attention. With the help of morphological evidence, the relationship between these phenomena and the viscoelastic properties of MRE was comprehensively defined and discussed.UTM Fundamental Research [22H14]; Professional Development Research University (PDRU) [06E29]; Universitas Sebelas Maret through hibah non APBN 2022 LPPM; Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic [RP/CPS/2022/007]06E29; Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy, MŠMT; Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM: 22H14; Universitas Sebelas Maret, UNS; Lembaga Penelitian dan Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat, LPPM: RP/CPS/2022/00
Impact of boundary control methods on bound-constrained optimization benchmarking
Get PDFBenchmarking various metaheuristics and their new enhancements, strategies, and adaptation mechanisms has become standard in computational intelligence research. Recently, many challenges and issues regarding fair comparisons and recommendations toward good practices for benchmarking of metaheuristic algorithms, have been identified. This article is aimed at an important issues in metaheuristics design and benchmarking, which are boundary strategies or boundary control methods (BCMs). This work aims to investigate whether the choice of a BCM could significantly influence the performance of competitive algorithms. The experiments encompass the top three performing algorithms from IEEE CEC competitions 2017 and 2020 with six different BCMs. We provide extensive statistical analysis and rankings resulting in conclusions and recommendations for metaheuristics researchers and possibly also for the future direction of benchmark definitions. We conclude that the BCM should be considered another vital metaheuristics input variable for unambiguous reproducibility of results in benchmarking and for a better understanding of population dynamics, since the BCM setting could impact the optimization method performance.Internal Grant Agency of Tomas Bata University [IGA/CebiaTech/2022/001
Management of municipal waste in the EU Member States: Best practices
No full textPublikace poskytuje přehled o právním a institucionálním rámci nakládání s komunálním odpadem v členských zemích EU a prezentuje analýzu a hodnocení jednotlivých aspektů a tohoto nákládání a jeho fází.The publication provides an overview of the legal and institutional framework of waste management in the European Union and its Member States and presents an analysis and evaluation of individual aspects of such management and its phases. Although it mainly deals with solid municipal waste, it also provides broader perspectives and includes additional elements of waste management. Furthermore, it brings a description and analysis of financial tools used mainly within the Cohesion Policy for contribution to effective implementation of waste management. It also collects examples of best practices in the field of solid municipal waste management
Evaluation of the flexural rigidity of underground tanks manufactured by rotomolding
Get PDFThis study focuses on the flexural properties of the layered wall structures of plastic tanks produced by rotational molding technology. The aim was to assess the possibility of replacing the homogeneous walls of rotationally cast large-volume underground tanks with structural walls for stability and warpage prevention. The possibilities of material saving by combining lightweight and non-lightweight tank wall layers were investigated. By applying the engineering theory of bending inhomogeneous layered walls, the flexural rigidity values of the walls of the tanks of different structures were determined. The values of the flexural rigidity of the tank wall samples produced by rotomolding technology were determined experimentally. Moreover, a comparison of the calculated and experimentally determined flexural rigidity values of the layered walls and optimization of these structures was carried out. In the case under study, it was theoretically and experimentally confirmed that the optimum ratio of compact layer thickness versus total wall thickness is given by the resulting value: t(1OPT) = 0.189 h
Toward applying agglomerative hierarchical clustering in improving the software development effort estimation
No full textBackground: There are many studies on the effect of data clustering on the effort estimation process. Most of them are on partitioning and density-based clustering, and some use hierarchical clustering but fewer details on the linkage methods. Aim: we concentrate on the aspect of the agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithm's effectiveness on the accuracy of the effort estimation. Method: We used the agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithm to group the data into clusters then performed the IFPUG FPA method for effort estimation. The ISBSG dataset was used in this study. The number of clusters is determined using the dendrogram's cut points. Different cut points and linkage methods were employed to cluster the dataset for the comparison. The estimated results of these clusters were compared with the result from the whole dataset without clustering. Result: with the selected number of clusters, results are consistently better than without clustering with all selected evaluation criteria. Conclusion: the accuracy of the effort estimation can be significantly improved when using agglomerative hierarchical clustering.Faculty of Applied Informatics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin [IGA/CebiaTech/2022/001
The phenomenon of the teaching profession in kindergarten in the visual representations of (studying) teachers
Get PDFA deeper understanding of the kindergarten teacher's profession allows for the use of visual methodology and symbol analysis of visual representations in pedagogical research. The study seeks to gain a deeper understanding of verbally difficult to convey meanings through quantification of thematic motifs of drawings by student kindergarten teachers (n = 76) and a detailed qualitative analysis of selected images of 5 of them, based on a team-based free association method and subsequent symbolic interpretation of the images. In the results of the quantitative analysis, the kindergarten teacher's profession is based on the visualization of the relationships and interaction between adults (usually women) and children, most often in free play or learning, with the support of a set agenda and against the background of a positively attuned situation. However, the interpretation of the expressive symbolism of the 5 drawings also offers previously unnoticed contradictions that disrupt this schema. In them, other aspects of the profession emerge, such as overload, elements of unreasonable attachment, dependence or the sad transience of all their efforts and activities, resonating also the weakening of the profession's importance at the expense of external pressures. © 2021 Charles University in Prague - Karolinum Press. All rights reserved
Diversity of phytochemical and antioxidant characteristics of black mulberry (morus nigra l.) fruits from Turkey
Get PDFBlack mulberry (Morus nigra L.) fruits are known due to their delicious, sweet and slightly acid flavor and high anthocyanin content. In the present study, the diversity of phytochemical, sensory, and antioxidant characteristics of the fruits of 20 black mulberry genotypes, from the Artvin region of Turkey, were evaluated. As important phytochemical assessments in fruits, we chromatographically (HPLC/DAD) determined glucose (7.22 to 11.10 g/100 g fresh weight (fw)) and fructose content (6.32 and 9.94 g/100 g fw), as well as predominant organic acid in black mulberry genotypes fruits—malic acid (6.02–11.44 g/100 g fw), followed by citric acid. Titrative determination was used for ascorbic acid, finding contents of 17.41–28.33 mg/100 g fw. There was found a great diversity of sensory (taste, juiciness, and aroma) characteristics, indicating a richness of the fruit germplasm. Antioxidant parameters, such as total phenolic (TP) and anthocyanin (TA) content, were assessed spectrometrically; antioxidant activity (AA) was assessed by DPPH and FRAP assays; individual flavonoids and phenolic acids were determined chromatographically (HPLC/DAD). Antioxidant characteristics of the fruits, defined by TP and TA content, ranged from 1951 to 2733 μg GAE/g fw and 508–712 μg C3GE/g fw, respectively. The most abundant compounds of flavonoids and phenolic acids groups were determined to be rutin (47.10–97.20 mg/100 g fw) and chlorogenic acid (51.3–90.8 mg/100 g fw). AA results, measured by the DPPH method as EC50 value, ranged between 16.10 and 25.45 μg/mL; a FRAP assay revealed values of AA between 9.80 and 13.22 μmol TE/g fw. Significant differences in phytochemical and antioxidant qualities were observed among the analyzed M. nigra genotypes. Regarding the best values of phytochemical and antioxidant characteristics, three genotypes of M. nigra were selected to be recommended for fruit production. The results thus highlight the potential for the exploitation of local black mulberry genotypes through crop selection and breeding program.Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Faculty of Technology [IGA FT 2022/004]; Ataturk University, Faculty of Agriculture, Erzurum; Ataturk University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Erzurum; Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Faculty of Central European Studies, NitraIGA FT 2022/004; Atatürk Üniversites
Employee retention and the moderating role of psychological ownership in retail
No full textRetailing is one of the critical stages in supply chain operations, in which human resources and employee retention play a decisive role as in any organization. Based on motivation theories for employee retention (ER), this study examines the integrated indirect effects of organizational and personal motivators on ER through employee engagement (EE) in the retail industry. Furthermore, it assesses how psychological ownership (PO) directly affects ER and moderates the effect of ER on EE of full-time employees in the Vietnamese context as empirical evidence. The combination of a qualitative methodology (in-depth interviews with retail experts) and a quantitative methodology (a survey conducted with 571 fulltime retail employees) is deployed. PLS-SEM with SmartPLS is utilized for data analysis and hypothesis testing. The study findings demonstrate that the integrated roles of organizational and personal motivators significantly affect ER through EE in retail companies. Interestingly, the study discovered that PO has a significant positive influence on ER, but a higher PO can reduce the relationship between EE and ER. Practically, the study highlights the implication that organizational motivators may not be sufficient to retain employees, since the intention of employees to remain or quit also depends on personal factors. It also suggests that in the working environment with a solid relationship between EE and ER, PO can lead to negative employee behaviour, such as bias, misconduct, and disengagement, which may harm the company.Internal Grant Agency of FaME, Tomas Bata University in Zlin; Southeast Asia regionUniverzita Tomáše Bati ve Zlín
CBRN weapons as a threat to critical infrastructure elements
No full textDisruption of the critical infrastructure element can seriously impact the security of the state, the necessities of the population, and the state's economy. One essential element of infrastructure is healthcare. Due to the large concentration of inhabitants, the healthcare system can target terrorist attacks. These attacks may be by chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. The aim of the paper is to assess the hospital's preparedness to solve terrorist attacks. Secondly, the case study for the selected hospital in the Czech Republic was prepared. Heuristic preparedness analysis and TerEx software were selected for the preparing results. Based on the analytical method, we get an idea of the preparedness system to solve terrorist attacks in hospitals and vulnerabilities. TerEx software is used for the mathematical model of the case study. The preparedness of individual hospitals varies in the Czech Republic. Therefore, it is essential that hospitals, as elements of critical infrastructure, reduce the risk of terrorist attacks using CBRN weapons. © 2022 ACM.European Commission, EC: 83298
Revisiting consumers' intention to use peer-to-peer accommodation services: The role of positive emotional response from COVID-19 crisis response communication
Get PDFThe study revisits the predictors of consumers' intentions to use peer-to-peer accommodation (P2PA) services and accents the impact of positive emotional responses from COVID-19 crisis response communication efforts adopted by P2PA service providers. An online scenario-based survey was carried out among 265 consumers from the Philippines. The results of the analysis reveal that peer-to-peer accommodation usage intentions remain driven by perceived economic benefits, environmental benefits, and trust while dismissing the desire for social interaction. Emotions elicited from crisis response communication affect consumer psychology and behavior, hence, service providers should aptly communicate crisis response efforts along the route to crisis recovery.Univerzita Tomáše Bati ve Zlíně: IGA/FaME/2021/003, IGA/FaME/2022/007Tomas Bata University in Zlin's Internal Grant Agency Fund [IGA/FaME/2021/003, IGA/FaME/2022/007