A case study of customer satisfaction for information technology solutions

There are numerous information technology solutions including hardware and software. A company that provides the solution should have knowledge of the customer needs in the purpose of sailing strategy or upgrade policy. The needs are also directly connected to the user satisfaction. However, the users have respective points of view in the needs as well as they may not identify the requirements to improve the solution. SERVQUAL can be an appropriate method to define and measure the customer satisfaction for the information technology solutions. As a case study of the customer satisfaction, the modified SERVQUAL items and scoring method are applied to a cyber-infrastructure system named CyberL ab in Korea. The measurement results of user satisfaction for CyberL ab are provided to confirm that our proposed method performs as we intended. From the results, we can score the satisfaction level of users and identify their needs in the various aspects. The total user satisfaction level for CyberL ab is scored by 88.3.     

Fuzzy entropy design for non convex fuzzy set and application to mutual information

Fuzzy entropy was designed for non convex fuzzy membership function using well known Hamming distance measure. The proposed fuzzy entropy had the same structure as that of convex fuzzy membership case. Design procedure of fuzzy entropy was proposed by considering fuzzy membership through distance measure, and the obtained results contained more flexibility than the general fuzzy membership function. Furthermore, characteristic analyses for non convex function were also illustrated. Analyses on the mutual information were carried out through the proposed fuzzy entropy and similarity measure, which was also dual structure of fuzzy entropy. By the illustrative example, mutual information was discussed.     

Normalization of satellite imagery

Abstract

Sets of Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery taken over the Washington DC metropolitan area during the months of November, March and May were converted into a form of ground reflectance imagery. This conversion was accomplished by adjusting the incident sunlight and view angles and by applying a pixel-by-pixel correction for atmospheric effects. Seasonal colour changes of the area can be better observed when such normalization is applied to space imagery taken in time series. In normalized imagery, the grey scale depicts variations in surface reflectance and tonal signature of multi-band colour imagery can be directly interpreted for quantitative information of the target.     

LINEAR PROGRAMMING AND RECURRENT ASSOCIATIVE MEMORIES

Many optimization procedures presume the availability of an initial approximation in the neighborhood of a local or global optimum. Unfortunately, finding a set of good starting conditions is itself a nontrivial proposition. We describe a procedure for identifying approximate solutions to constrained optimization problems. Recurrent neural network structures are interpreted in the context of linear associative memory matrices. A recurrent associative memory (RAM) is trained to map the inputs of closely related transportation linear programs to optimal solution vectors. The procedure performs well when training cases are selected according to a simple rule, identifying good heuristic solutions for representative test cases. Modest infeasibilities exist in some of these estimated solutions, but the basic variables associated with true optimums are usually apparent. In the great majority of cases, rounding identifies the true optimum.     

Effects of elastic-plastic properties of materials on residual indentation impressions in nano-indentation using sharp indenter

One of the primary features of nano-indentation technique is that the contact area induced by an indenter is indirectly measured by a relationship between the penetration depth and the known geometry of the indenter.However,this indirect measurement occasionally leads to inaccurate properties of the indented material.The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of E/σr and the strain hardening exponents n of materials on the behaviors of pile-up and sink-in in nano-indentation and to predict n values of materials from the residual indentation impressions.The relations between the residual indentation profile and n value of the indented material were identified by dimensional analysis.Also,they were numerically formulated using FE analysis of nano-indentation for 140 different combinations of elastic-plastic parameters such as E,σy and n.The parameters of hrp/hm,herp/hm,Rr/hm and HOP/Hreal were introduced as various dimensionless parameters to represent and quantify the residual indentation profile after indentation.They were subsequently characterized as dimensionless functions using n and E/σr values.Finally,the validity of these functions was verified through 3D FE analysis of nano-indentation for Al 6061-T6 and AISI 1010 materials.     

Deformation prediction of porcelain-enameled steels with strain history by press forming and high-temperature behavior of coating layer

Porcelain enamel coatings were widely applied for the protection of steel products because they offered high corrosion protection,resistance to heat and abrasion,high hardness,hygiene and ease of cleaning.The typical process to produce enameled steels is roughly divided into two stages:the first stage consists of a forming process to give the desired shape to a steel substrate,and the second stage consists of a firing process to bond enamel frits on the substrate.This firing process requires a high temperature above 800 °C,which may lead to austenitic transformation and severe thermal deformation of the steel substrate.The aim of this study is to develop a finite element analysis (FE analysis) technique to predict the mechanical and thermal deformations of the enameled steels during forming and any further enameling process,including firing.The FE analysis involves analyzing the strain history of the steel substrate,which comprises the stress and thickness distributions of the substrate and its deformed shape,and the high-temperature behavior of the enamel coating layer.The validity of the FE analysis is verified through the U-bending test and firing test with various numbers and positions of enamel coating layers on the substrate.The results reveal that the FE analysis results agree well with the experimental results with 8% error.     

Investigation of drying characteristics of low rank coal of bubbling fluidization through experiment using lab scale

Lignite is a low rank coal which is evenly distributed throughout the world and accounts for 45% of the total coal reserves. As it has a higher moisture content, its moisture content must be reduced in order to utilize it in power plant. In the present work, experiments on lignite has been done using a lab scale fluidized-bed reactor. Drying lignite through fluidized-bed reactor has a higher drying rate because there is good contact between particles and gas in the fluidized-bed reactor. Fluidized-bed dryin...     

A mass and energy estimation for the hydrogen utilization in the iron-making process

The possibility of using hydrogen to lower CO 2 emissions in the iron-making process was confirmed by the heat and mass balances in the blast furnace operation. The mass and heat balances for hydrogen utilization in the blast furnace were estimated by using the basic concept of RIST operating diagram. In this study, the RIST operating diagram was modified to be suitable for representing the operation with respect to hydrogen, where the RIST operating diagram is a graphical representation of heat and mass ba...