• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.13 no.8
• /
• pp.1162-1172
• /
• 2000

The research was conducted to quantify farm and household characteristics of sheep farmers, evaluate farmer access to and the effectiveness of livestock services in sheep farming areas, and examine regional constraints to improving sheep productivity and profitability in Nepal. A rapid diagnostic socioeconomic survey of 200 sheep farmers was carried out in 1996 and all four ecological regions (Trans-Himalayan, Mountains, Hills and Terai), each with a distinct local sheep breed, were represented in the survey. Six major constraints were identified: (a) poor performance of local sheep breeds, (b) a serious seasonal deficit of pasture and other feed, (c) the lack of an organized market for wool and meat, (d) poor access to agricultural credit, (e) primitive shearing equipment, and (f) an inadequate supply of drinking water for sheep. Strategies to assist farmers develop their sheep management skills, improve access and quality of support services, improved technology adaptable to local conditions and effective linkages with local carpet and meat industry are likely to overcome the constraints and alleviate persistent poverty faced by sheep farmers in Nepal.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.29 no.6 s.237
• /
• pp.842-851
• /
• 2005

In this paper, a new method for constrained optimization of noisy functions is proposed. In approximate optimization using response surface methods, if constraints have severe noise, the approximate feasible region defined by approximate constraints is apt to include some of the infeasible region defined by actual constraints. This can cause the approximate optimum to converge into the infeasible region. In the proposed method, the approximate optimization is performed with the approximate constraints shifted by their deviations, which are calculated using a diagonal quadratic response surface method. This can prevent the approximate optimum from converging into the infeasible region. To fit the objective and constraints into diagonal quadratic models, we select the center and 4 additional points along each axis of design variables as experimental points. The deviation of each function is calculated using the differences between the real and approximate function values at the experimental points. A sequential approximate optimization technique based on the trust region algorithm is adopted to manage approximate models. The proposed approach is validated by solving some design problems. The results of the problems show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.21 no.11
• /
• pp.1680-1688
• /
• 2008

Development of village chicken production can be a sustainable way of helping to meet the welfare needs of rural populations and raise their living standards. There is a dearth of information on research conducted to characterize, understand and develop the village chicken production systems in Zimbabwe. This review focuses on constraints, opportunities and research needs for the improvement of village chicken productivity in Zimbabwe. Village chicken production in Zimbabwe is extensive and dominated by indigenous chickens that exhibit remarkable adaptation to local environments. The multitude functions of village chickens, which include the provision of high quality protein meat and eggs, cash through sales and socio-cultural roles, are discussed in detail. Human gender aspects in village chicken production are highlighted. The factors that hamper village chicken productivity are reviewed together with opportunities and research needs. The major constraints include shortage of feed, poor health and housing management. Any improvements in these constraints may lead to sustainable increase in village chicken productivity.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
• /
• v.53 no.1
• /
• pp.54-61
• /
• 2016

This paper defines the design constraint in consideration of the dynamic characteristics and stability in the longitudinal direction of a supercavitating vehicle. Available range of the design variables is calculated by numerical simulation and the cavity modeling of vehicle dynamics is performed first. Configuration parameters of the supercavitating vehicle to determine the vehicle dynamics and characteristics of the cavity are defined as design variables. Design constraints are supercavitation, trim velocity, stability and vehicle dynamics in transition phase. Numerical results show that in accordance with the change of the design variables, the proposed design constraints reflect the physical characteristics of the supercavitating vehicle. This research finds the design region where the constraints of supercavity and the trim velocity are satisfied, and the stability analysis refines the design results by excluding the region where the stability is not guaranteed. The stability analysis is particularly important for a vehicle with the short fin span.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.81-92
• /
• 2014

This paper explores factors associated with multiple concurrent care and education arrangements in early childhood in South Korea. It draws on a subsample from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families. Results show that about one-fifth of the families utilized multiple arrangements for their first preschool child. The primary non-parental option in multiplicity was nurseries or kindergartens. Home care and education options such as home study materials were found to be most prevalent secondary non-parental option, followed by services at private institution as well as relative care. Children's age, care cost, non-parental care time and time constraints were found to be positively related to the incidence of multiplicity for the first preschool child while family income and cost constraints were negatively associated. As a secondary option in the multiplicity, services at private institutions increased with children's age, care cost and when the grandparents live far from the parents' house. Home care and education utilization was found more among mothers with low degree of time constraints. Utilization of relative support decreased with the children's age and meant lower care cost and increased with mother's employment, fathers' education, family income, cost constraints and when grandparents live nearby. This paper, based on the associated factors, suggests how issues of children enrichment and constraints might be related to the multiplicity.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.362-371
• /
• 2009

Shipbuilding is a typical 'build to order' industry. It has a business model that generates revenues from building various ships and offshore products in accordance with owner's requirements at each production stage. Under uncertainty in shipping market, it is very essential for the shipbuilder to prepare the fast and competitive decision for product portfolio strategy in order to maximize contribution margin by exploiting production facilities and constraints. In this study, we introduce the unique decision supporting methodology for the optimal product portfolio sets based on Theory of Constraints(TOC). This methodology is established by adopting the concept of Drum Buffer Rope(DBR) in constraints planning and Throughput Accounting (TA) in management accounting of TOC. In addition, Decision Supporting System(DSS) is implemented. This DSS system provides a throughput estimator with reflecting the cost structure of shipbuilding industry and a resource simulator built on heuristic algorithms to operate major constraint-resources in shipyard such as dock, quay and pre-erection area etc. Several examples are presented to show that the proposed methodology and system can effectively support the strategic decision-making process of a global shipbuilding company.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.45 no.6
• /
• pp.759-777
• /
• 2013

In this paper, a topology optimization method based on the element independent nodal density (EIND) is developed for continuum solids with multiple load cases and multiple constraints. The optimization problem is formulated ad minimizing the volume subject to displacement constraints. Nodal densities of the finite element mesh are used a the design variable. The nodal densities are interpolated into any point in the design domain by the Shepard interpolation scheme and the Heaviside function. Without using additional constraints (such ad the filtering technique), mesh-independent, checkerboard-free, distinct optimal topology can be obtained. Adopting the rational approximation for material properties (RAMP), the topology optimization procedure is implemented using a solid isotropic material with penalization (SIMP) method and a dual programming optimization algorithm. The computational efficiency is greatly improved by multithread parallel computing with OpenMP to run parallel programs for the shared-memory model of parallel computation. Finally, several examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed techniques.

• The Journal of Information Systems
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.159-182
• /
• 2016

Purpose This paper aims to develop a novel tabu search algorithm for solving the sequencing problems with precedence constraints. Due to constraints, the traditional meta heuristic methods can generate infeasible solutions during search procedure, which must be carefully dealt with. On the contrary, the candidate order based tabu search (COTS) is based on a novel neighborhood structure that guarantees the feasibility of solutions, and can dealt with a wide range of sequencing problems in flexible manner. Design/methodology/approach Candidate order scheme is a strategy for constructing a feasible sequence by iteratively appending an item at a time, and it has been successfully applied to genetic algorithm. The primary benefit of the candidate order scheme is that it can effectively deal with the additional constraints of sequencing problems and always generates the feasible solutions. In this paper, the candidate order scheme is used to design the neighborhood structure, tabu list and diversification operation of tabu search. Findings The COTS has been applied to the single machine job sequencing problems, and we can see that COTS can find the good solutions whether additional constraints exist or not. Especially, the experiment results reveal that the COTS is a promising approach for solving the sequencing problems with precedence constraints. In addition, the operations of COTS are intuitive and easy to understand, and it is expected that this paper will provide useful insights into the sequencing problems to the practitioners.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
• /
• v.4 no.3
• /
• pp.267-280
• /
• 2012

An approximate method based on an assumed mode method has been presented for the free vibration analysis of a rectangular plate with arbitrary edge constraints. In the presented method, natural frequencies and their mode shapes of the plate are calculated by solving an eigenvalue problem of a multi-degree-of-freedom system matrix equation derived by using Lagrange's equations of motion. Characteristic orthogonal polynomials having the property of Timoshenko beam functions which satisfies edge constraints corresponding to those of the objective plate are used. In order to examine the accuracy of the proposed method, numerical examples of the rectangular plates with various thicknesses and edge constraints have been presented. The results have shown good agreement with those of other methods such as an analytic solution, an approximate solution, and a finite element analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.33 no.8
• /
• pp.669-681
• /
• 2016

Mechanical designers often make mistakes that result in unwanted over-constraints, causing difficulty in assembly operations and residual stress due to interference among parts. This study is concerned with detection and elimination of over-constraints. Screw theory is a general method that is used for constraint analysis of an assembly and motion analysis of a mechanism. Mechanical assemblies with plane-plane, pin-hole, and pin-slot constraint pairs are analyzed using screw theory to illustrate its utility. As a real-world problem, a ball valve design is analyzed using the same method, and several unwanted over-constraints are detected. Elimination measures are proposed. Nominal dimensions of some parts are adjusted, and dimensions and tolerances of the pins and holes are modified using the virtual condition boundary concept. The revised design is free of over-constraints. General procedure for applying screw theory to constraint analysis is established and demonstrated; it will contribute to improving quality of assembly designs.