Search

The efficiencies of supply chain management (SCM) are often impaired by inconsistent exchange and sharing of knowledge semantics among supply chain partners. To address this problem with semantic integration, this paper presents an approach to developing ontologies of supply chain management (Onto-SCM) as a common semantic model of the SCM domain. The Onto-SCM semantic model is constructed in a modular way in order to enhance its reusability and maintainability. The IDEF5 schematic language is employed to provide the graphical representation of Onto-SCM for intuitive communication between domain experts and users. Furthermore, Ontolingua is adopted to define formal semantics of Onto-SCM for effective knowledge interoperability. In addition, a case study of a printer supply chain is illustrated to demonstrate the proposed approach to semantic integration for SCM. Finally, a prototype is developed to support visualized knowledge modeling of the case system using the IDEF5 schematic language and to implement consistent knowledge transformation among heterogeneous applications in the supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanical properties of unsaturated soils are a function of the saturation degree or matric suction, and can be obtained based on currently available procedures. However, each procedure has its limitations and consequently, care should be taken in the selection of a proper procedure. The fractal approach seems to be a potentially useful tool to describe hierarchical systems and is suitable to model the structure and hydraulic properties of unsaturated soils. In this paper, the soil-water characteristics, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function, unsaturated shear strength, swelling deformation and compression were derived from the fractal model for the pore-size distribution, and were expressed by only two independent physical parameters, the fractal dimension and the air entry value. The predictions of the proposed soil-water characteristics, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, unsaturated shear strength, swelling deformation and compression were in good agreement with published experimental data. Comparisons between the experimental results of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and the predictions of the both fractal model and the van Genuchten-Mualem model were also performed, and it was found that the predictions of the fractal model were better than that of the van Genuchten-Mualem model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]