National Taiwan University of Science and Technology

About: National Taiwan University of Science and Technology is a education organization based out in Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Fuzzy logic & Control theory. The organization has 16288 authors who have published 21577 publications receiving 426294 citations. The organization is also known as: Taiwan Tech & Taiwantech.

A hybrid genetic algorithm for the re-entrant flow-shop scheduling problem

Abstract: This study considers the production environment of the re-entrant flow-shop (RFS). In a RFS, all jobs have the same routing over the machines of the shop and the same sequence is traversed several times to complete the jobs. The aim of this study is to minimize makespan by using the genetic algorithm (GA) to move from local optimal solution to near optimal solution for RFS scheduling problems. In addition, hybrid genetic algorithms (HGA) are proposed to enhance the performance of pure GA. The HGA is compared to the optimal solutions generated by the integer programming technique, and to the near optimal solutions generated by pure GA and the non-delay schedule generation procedure. Computational experiments are performed to illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed HGA algorithm.

The study of optical band edge property of bismuth oxide nanowires α-Bi2O3.

Abstract: The α-phase Bi(2)O(3) (α-Bi(2)O(3)) is a crucial and potential visiblelight photocatalyst material needless of intentional doping on accommodating band gap. The understanding on fundamental optical property of α-Bi(2)O(3) is important for its extended applications. In this study, bismuth oxide nanowires with diameters from tens to hundreds nm have been grown by vapor transport method driven with vapor-liquid-solid mechanism on Si substrate. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and Raman measurement confirm α phase of monoclinic structure for the as-grown nanowires. The axial direction for the as-grown nanowires was along . The band-edge structure of α-Bi(2)O(3) has been probed experimentally by thermoreflectance (TR) spectroscopy. The direct band gap was determined accurately to be 2.91 eV at 300 K. Temperaturedependent TR measurements of 30-300 K were carried out to evaluate temperature-energy shift and line-width broadening effect for the band edge of α-Bi(2)O(3) thin-film nanowires. Photoluminescence (PL) experiments at 30 and 300 K were carried out to identify band-edge emission as well as defect luminescence for the α-Bi(2)O(3) nanowires. On the basis of experimental analyses of TR and PL, optical characteristics of direct band edge of α-Bi(2)O(3) nanowires have thus been realized.

An efficient flow-shop scheduling algorithm based on a hybrid particle swarm optimization model

Abstract: In this paper, a new hybrid particle swarm optimization model named HPSO that combines random-key (RK) encoding scheme, individual enhancement (IE) scheme, and particle swarm optimization (PSO) is presented and used to solve the flow-shop scheduling problem (FSSP). The objective of FSSP is to find an appropriate sequence of jobs in order to minimize makespan. Makespan means the maximum completion time of a sequence of jobs running on the same machines in flow-shops. By the RK encoding scheme, we can exploit the global search ability of PSO thoroughly. By the IE scheme, we can enhance the local search ability of particles. The experimental results show that the solution quality of FSSP based on the proposed HPSO is far better than those based on GA [Lian, Z., Gu, X., & Jiao, B. (2008). A novel particle swarm optimization algorithm for permutation flow-shop scheduling to minimize makespan. Chaos, Solitons and Fractals, 35, 851-861.] and NPSO [Lian, Z., Gu, X., & Jiao, B. (2008). A novel particle swarm optimization algorithm for permutation flow-shop scheduling to minimize makespan. Chaos, Solitons and Fractals, 35, 851-861.], respectively.

Analyzing knowledge dimensions and cognitive process of a project-based online discussion instructional activity using Facebook in an adult and continuing education course

Abstract: In recent years, social networking services (SNSs), for example, Facebook, have shown exponential growth in their number of users. Witnessing the popularity of these SNSs, educational researchers have also explored the potential educational value of using SNSs. Despite the few studies that have investigated learners' attitudes toward and the effects of incorporating SNSs in class, limited attention has been paid to examining learners' knowledge and cognitive processes involved in online discussions using SNSs. Although general public interest in life-long learning has been gradually increasing, relatively little attention has been devoted to exploring the application of SNSs in adult and continuing education programs. To promote a better understanding of using SNSs in learning, this study seeks to explore learners' online discussion behaviors in an art course that involved a project-based learning activity using a popular SNS, Facebook, to support students' asynchronous online discussions. The participants in our study included 62 students enrolled in the school of continuing education at a university in northern Taiwan. Adapting the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy as a coding scheme, this study employed a quantitative content analysis (QCA) and lag sequential analysis (LSA) to examine the content and behavioral patterns of students' discussions. The results indicate that the most prominent knowledge dimension in students' discussions is the meta-cognitive knowledge, while the cognitive process is primarily focused on understanding and comprehension. In addition, a moderate proportion of off-topic discussion was found in this study. Considering the different behaviors that may be exhibited by members of varied age and gender, a further analysis based on students' individual differences was conducted. The results showed that, in the context of online discussions, female and older learners are more likely to engage in off-topic discussions. Based on these findings, this study suggests that when conducting online discussion activities using SNSs, instructors should consider the characteristics of adult learners and their individual differences and design their teaching activities accordingly. Implications and limitations of this study are discussed, and pedagogical suggestions for adapting SNSs to teaching activities for adult and continuing education are proposed.