this article addresses a multi-stage flowshop scheduling problem with equal number of unrelated parallel machines. the objective is to minimize the makespan for a given set of jobs in the system. this problem class is np-hard in the strong sense, so a hybrid heuristic method for sequencing and then allocating operations of jobs to machines is developed. a number of test problems are randomly ge...

In this paper, we present a method for constructing Loop’s subdivision surface patches with given G boundary conditions and a given topology of control polygon, using several fourth-order geometric partial differential equations. These equations are solved by a mixed finite element method in a function space defined by the extended Loop’s subdivision scheme. The method is flexible to the shape ...

Transaction support is vital for reliability of business processes which nowadays can involve dynamically composed services across organizational boundaries. However, no single transaction model is comprehensive enough to accommodate various transactional properties demanded by those processes. Therefore we develop the Business Transaction Framework, which is based on Abstract Transactional Con...

An adaptive mesh projection method for the time-dependent incompressible Euler equations is presented. The domain is spatially discretised using quad/octrees and a multilevel Poisson solver is used to obtain the pressure. Complex solid boundaries are represented using a volume-of-fluid approach. Second-order convergence in space and time is demonstrated on regular, statically and dynamically re...

The objective of this paper is automatically to identify individual great white sharks in a database of thousands of unconstrained fin images. The approach put forward appreciates shark fins in natural imagery as smooth, flexible and partially occluded objects with an individuality encoding trailing edge. In order to recover animal identities therefrom we first introduce an open contour stroke ...

Risk is central to innovation, but in order to be theoretically interesting and of practical use, the relation between risk and innovation needs to be investigated in more specific situations. This paper explores the risk conceptions of innovators in two large corporations and identifies three themes that illuminate the relationship between risk and innovation in the corporate setting. The firs...

In this paper, we present a service design methodology and specification as a basis for a pervasive context-aware service infrastructure. The service specification is based on the OWL-s specification, a standard proposed to add a semantic layer on top of WSDL web service descriptions. We have defined a set of OWL-s concepts that make it possible to express various pervasive service related prop...

“ eutral” electronic marketplaces fail because their structure and mode of operation does not allow for the effective accommodation of multiple business models that could serve the interests of a critical mass of adopters. We propose a fresh approach for the creation of economically viable “neutral” electronic marketplaces showing that this can be accomplished through the ability to transcend t...

A versatile anodization method was reported to anodize Ti wires into cylindrical core-shell-like and thermally crystallized TiO2 nanotube (TNT) arrays that can be directly used as the photoanodes for semi- and all-solid fiber-type dye-sensitized solar cells (F-DSSC). Both F-DSSCs showed higher power conversion efficiencies than or competitive to those of previously reported counterparts fabrica...