http://scholars.ntou.edu.tw/handle/123456789/20311 Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:16:45 GMT 2026-04-08T12:16:45Z http://scholars.ntou.edu.tw:80/retrieve/5167/11_SUSTAINABLE_CITIES_&_COMMUNITIES.png http://scholars.ntou.edu.tw/handle/123456789/20311 http://scholars.ntou.edu.tw/handle/123456789/22465 標題: Automatic Meter Reading Based on Bi-Fusion MSP Network and Carry-Out Rechecking 作者: Liao, Jia-Yuan; Hsieh, Jun-Wei; Ma, Ching-Wen 摘要: Automatic meter reading is important for power billing in a smart city. Most SoTA (State-of-the-Art) vision-based methods can read only cyclometers and fail to handle dial meters due to their in-between problem and ambiguous patterns to interpret a digit and are not light enough to be run on an embedded platform. This paper focuses on the design and development of an Internet of Things (IoT)-assisted real-time Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system for utility billing in a smart city. To enhance the accuracy of object detection, most SoTA methods use a very deep CNN-based architecture to create rich feature maps. However, this backbone also makes small objects in the last layer become one pixel or less. This paper proposes a novel BI-Fusion Mixed Stage Partial (BIF-MSP) network to hold the spatial information of a smaller object at the end of network architecture and also increase the efficiency while operating on an embedded system. It can accurately detect small digits not only from cyclometers but also from dial meters. It can automatically decide a rule (anticlockwise or clockwise) to accurately read digits on a dial-type meter. After that, a carry-out re-checking module is proposed to further improve the accuracy of this AMR system. The experiments show the superiorities of our ARM system in terms of accuracy and efficiency. The dataset can be publicly accessed from the following URL: https://140.113.110.150:5000/sharing/52HCvjly2 Thu, 03 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMT http://scholars.ntou.edu.tw/handle/123456789/22465 2022-02-03T00:00:00Z http://scholars.ntou.edu.tw/handle/123456789/22207 標題: Vehicle Assignment For Chemicals Transportation 作者: Liu, Yu-Liang; Huang, Juan; Chu, Ching-Wu 摘要: Vehicle assignment is a significant challenge faced by chemical logistics companies. The chemical industry typically outsources the delivery of chemicals to professional logistics companies to meet customers' complex and demanding needs. In this regard, this research explores the case study of a logistics company that selects its delivery modes and formulates its vehicle assignment plans based on its personnel's experience rather than any formal system and plans its vehicle routes on the day before the delivery. This study seeks to improve the efficiency and immediacy of logistics companies' vehicle assignments, understand vehicle route planning, maximize space utilization, and minimize transportation costs. This paper presents both a mathematical programming model and a heuristic algorithm. The algorithm development process comprises four steps: constructing the initial condition, improving transportation cost, reducing customers, and splitting vehicles. The case study company's transportation costs and vehicle distribution results indicate that the proposed heuristic algorithm can effectively save transportation costs and the time cost involved in delivery route planning. Thu, 01 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT http://scholars.ntou.edu.tw/handle/123456789/22207 2022-09-01T00:00:00Z http://scholars.ntou.edu.tw/handle/123456789/22202 標題: Confllicts of Interest in Decision-making for the Transportation of Dangerous Goods by Sea: Perspectives of Freight-forwarding Sales People 作者: Chen, Hsi-Kun; Chen, Shiou-YU; Ye, Kung-Don 摘要: This study develops and investigates an ethical decision-making model to evaluate the major factors -moral sensi-tivity, moral consensus, desire for power, and desire for money -that influence conflicts of interest in decision-making among ocean-freight-forwarding salespeople. To empirically test this conceptual model, we used a scenario-based questionnaire to collect 139 valid samples and then conducted further analyses using Pearson product-moment corre-lation coefficients and hierarchical regressions. The results of the preliminary analysis revealed two types of conflicts of interest in decision-making, namely avoidance of negative effects and positive promotion, which were significantly related to moral sensitivity and moral consensus. Advanced regressions partially supported the six hypotheses proposed herein; thus, salespeople's ethical decision-making was influenced by their moral sensitivities, moral consensus, and desire for power. These findings provide new insight into the relevant factors that influence freight-forwarding sales-people's ethical judgments when making decisions concerning the transportation of dangerous goods. We also discuss the implications for daily operations of conflicts of interest in decision-making and provide managerial insights for freight-forwarding companies. Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT http://scholars.ntou.edu.tw/handle/123456789/22202 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z http://scholars.ntou.edu.tw/handle/123456789/22195 標題: Development of Fermented Shrimp Shell Product with Hypoglycemic and Hypolipidemic Effects on Diabetic Rats 作者: Huang, Chung-Hsiung; Lin, Chih-Heng; Huang, Hsiao-Han; Tsai, Guo-Jane 摘要: In 2020, approximately 9.3 billion tons of crustaceans were consumed, and 45-48% of shrimp shell (SS) by-products were discarded as waste. In this study, the SS of Litopenaeus vannamei was fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum LV33204, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia LV2122 (strong proteolytic activity), and Aeromonas dhakensis LV1111 (chitin-degrading activity), and the optimal fermentation conditions of liquid-fermented SS was established. Contents of total peptide, astaxanthin, and total phenolic content of the fermented SS were significantly higher than that of unfermented SS. In the presence of fermented SS, glucose uptake and insulin resistance of TNF-alpha-stimulated FL83B hepatocytes were markedly improved. Furthermore, daily oral supplement of fermented SS to streptozotocin (STZ)/nicotinamide (NA)-induced diabetic rats for 7 weeks significantly reduced plasma glucose and insulin resistance. Meanwhile, ingestion of fermented SS might enhance hepatic catabolism of glucose by increasing hexokinase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity and decreasing glucose-6-phosphatase activity. In addition, the fermented SS downregulated plasma total cholesterol (TG), triglycerides (TCs), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), liver TG, and TC and lipid peroxidation levels in diabetic rats. In conclusion, a biorefinery process for waste SS was established through mixed strain fermentation. The in vitro and in vivo data reveal that the fermented SS is a promising functional food for the management of diabetic hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia. Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMT http://scholars.ntou.edu.tw/handle/123456789/22195 2022-08-01T00:00:00Z