Search results for: performance design

Authors: Agni Stylianou-Georgiou, Eliza Pitri

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This study is a design narrative that discusses researchers’ new learning based on changes made in pedagogies and learning opportunities in the context of a Cognitive Psychology and an Art History undergraduate course. The purpose of this study was to investigate how to encourage creative problem-based play in tertiary education engaging instructors and student-teachers in designing educational games. Course instructors modified content to encourage flexible thinking during game design problem-solving. Qualitative analyses of data sources indicated that Thinking Birds’ questions could encourage flexible thinking as instructors engaged in creative problem-based play. However, student-teachers demonstrated weakness in adopting flexible thinking during game design problem solving. Further studies of student-teachers’ shifting perspectives during different instructional design tasks would provide insights for developing the Thinking Birds’ questions as tools for creative problem solving.

Keywords: creative problem-based play, educational games, flexible thinking, tertiary education

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Authors: Eğinç Simay Ertürk, Ferhan Gezi̇ci̇

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The decline of large cities and the rise of second-tier cities have been observed as a global trend with significant implications for economic development and urban planning. In this context, the concepts of agglomeration shadow and borrowed size have gained importance as network externalities that affect the growth and development of surrounding areas. Istanbul, Izmir, and Ankara are Turkey's most significant metropolitan cities and play a significant role in the country's economy. The surrounding cities rely on these metropolitan cities for economic growth and development. However, the concentration of resources and investment in a single location can lead to agglomeration shadows in the surrounding areas. On the other hand, network connectivity between metropolitan and second-tier cities can result in borrowed function and performance, enabling smaller cities to access resources, investment, and knowledge they would not otherwise have access. The study hypothesizes that the network connectivity between second-tier and metropolitan cities in Turkey enables second-tier cities to increase their urban performance by borrowing size through these networks. Regression analysis will be used to identify specific network connectivity parameters most strongly associated with urban performance. Network connectivity will be measured with parameters such as transportation nodes and telecommunications infrastructure, and urban performance will be measured with an index, including parameters such as employment, education, and industry entrepreneurship, with data at the province levels. The contribution of the study lies in its research on how networking can benefit second-tier cities in Turkey.

Keywords: network connectivity, borrowed size, agglomeration shadow, secondary cities

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Authors: Ozoemelam Ikechukwu Lazarus, Nizamuddin B. Zainuddi, Abdul Kafi

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Numerous studies have been carried out on Green Logistics Management Practices (GLMPs) across the globe. The study on the practices and performance of green chain practices in Africa in particular has not gained enough scholarly attention. Again, the majority of supply chain sustainability research being conducted focus on environmental sustainability. Logistics has been a major cause of supply chain resource waste and environmental damage. Many sectors of the economy that engage in logistical operations significantly rely on vehicles, which emit pollutants into the environment. Due to urbanization and industrialization, the logistical operations of manufacturing companies represent a serious hazard to the society and human life, making the sector one of the fastest expanding in the world today. Logistics companies are faced with numerous difficulties when attempting to implement logistics practices along their supply chains. In Nigeria, manufacturing companies aspire to implement reverse logistics in response to stakeholders’ requirements to reduce negative environmental consequences. However, implementing this is impeded by a criteria framework, and necessitates the careful analysis of how such criteria interact with each other in the presence of uncertainty. This study integrates most of the green logistics management practices (GLMPs) into the Nigerian firms to improve generalizability, and credibility. It examines the effect of Green Logistics Management Practices on environmental performance, social performance, market performance, and financial performance in the logistics industries. It seeks to identify the critical success factors in order to develop a model that incorporates different factors from the perspectives of the technology, organization, human and environment to inform the adoption and use of technologies for logistics supply chain social sustainability in Nigeria. It uses exploratory research approach to collect and analyse the data.

Keywords: logistics, management, sustainability, environment, operations

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Authors: Dian Andari

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In several decades, Islamic Banks (IBs) has proliferated internationally. To ensure IBs’ accountability to all stakeholders, a governance system is established. Similar to conventional banks (CBs), IBs create corporate governance system. In addition, IBs have Shari’ah Supervisory Board (SSB) as part of Shari’ah governance formed purposively to ensure IBs innovative operations comply to the Shari’ah. Thus, all boards in IBs must actively participate in good corporate as well as Shari’ah governance. The research will analyze SSB’s performance and quality of disclosure by observing 10 IBs annual report from 2011 to 2015 in Gulf countries. The content analysis will be done to see the relationship between SSB’s performance and quality of disclosure in the annual report. The analysis found that event all aspects of disclosure have been meet, financial disclosure still dominates the annual report. This can indicate that the SSB’s focus is on the interest of capital providers.

Keywords: Islamic banks, Shari'ah supervisory board, accountability, quality of disclosure

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Authors: Z. Soleymani, M. Amirzadeh

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Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was developed in 1960 in Japan and introduced in 1983 in America and Europe. The paper presents a real application of this technique in a way that the method of applying QFD in design and production aero fuel pumps has been considered. While designing a product and in order to apply system engineering process, the first step is identification customer needs then its transition to engineering parameters. Since each change in deign after production process leads to extra human costs and also increase in products quality risk, QFD can make benefits in sale by meeting customer expectations. Since the needs identified as well, the use of QFD tool can lead to increase in communications and less deviation in design and production phases, finally it leads to produce the products with defined technical attributes.

Keywords: customer voice, engineering parameters, gear pump, QFD

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Authors: Zhang Tianci, Ding Meng, Zuo Hongfu, Zeng Lina, Sun Zejun

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Automation of airport operations can greatly improve ground movement efficiency. In this paper, we study the speed profile design problem for advanced airport ground movement control and guidance. The problem is constrained by the surface four-dimensional trajectory generated in taxi planning. A decomposed approach of two stages is presented to solve this problem efficiently. In the first stage, speeds are allocated at control points which ensure smooth speed profiles can be found later. In the second stage, detailed speed profiles of each taxi interval are generated according to the allocated control point speeds with the objective of minimizing the overall fuel consumption. We present a swarm intelligence based algorithm for the first-stage problem and a discrete variable driven enumeration method for the second-stage problem since it only has a small set of discrete variables. Experimental results demonstrate the presented methodology performs well on real world speed profile design problems.

Keywords: airport ground movement, fuel consumption, particle swarm optimization, smoothness, speed profile design

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Authors: Wen-Yuh Jywe, Bor-Jeng Lin, Jing-Chung Shen, Jeng-Dao Lee, Hsueh-Liang Huang, Tung-Hsien Hsieh

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In this study, a simple 2-D measurement system based on optical design was developed to measure the motion errors of the linear guideway. Compared with the transitional methods about the linear guideway for measuring the motion errors, our proposed 2-D optical measurement system can simultaneously measure horizontal and vertical running straightness errors for the linear guideway. The performance of the 2-D optical measurement system is verified by experimental results. The standard deviation of the 2-D optical measurement system is about 0.4 μm in the measurement range of 100 mm. The maximum measuring speed of the proposed automatic measurement instrument is 1 m/sec.

Keywords: 2-D measurement, linear guideway, motion errors, running straightness

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Authors: Axel Thallemer, Martin Danzer, Dominik Diensthuber, Aleksandar Kostadinov, Bernhard Rogler

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Nature has always inspired the creative mind, to a lesser or greater extent. Introduced around the 1950s, Biomimetics served as a systematic method to treat the natural world as a ‘pattern book’ for technical solutions with the aim to create innovative products. Unfortunately, this technique is prone to failure when performed as a mere reverse engineering of a natural system or appearance. Contrary to that, a solution which looks at the principles of a natural design, promises a better outcome. One such example is the here presented case study, which shows the design process of three distinctive grippers. The devices have biomimetic properties on two levels. Firstly, they use a kinematic chain found in beaks and secondly, they have a biomimetic structural geometry, which was realized using additive manufacturing. In a next step, the manufacturing method was evaluated to estimate its efficiency for commercial production. The results show that the fabrication procedure is still in its early stage and thus it is not able to guarantee satisfactory results. To summarize the study, we claim that a novel solution can be derived using principles from nature, however, for the solution to be actualized successfully, there are parameters which are beyond reach for designers. Nonetheless, industrial designers can contribute to product innovation using biomimetics.

Keywords: biomimetics, innovation, design process, additive manufacturing

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Authors: D. P. Rahardja, A. L. Toleng, M. Yusuf

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The objective of this study was to investigate the life-long effect of in utero nutrition fed at different stages of pregnancy in Bali cows (n = 40): (U1) without in utero nutrition (0 – parturition, negative control); (U2) 0 – 90 d of gestation; (U3) 90 - 180 d of gestation; (U4) 180 d – parturition; and (U5) in utero nutrition along gestation period (0 d to parturition – positive control) on the growth performance of the offspring to weaning age. The results indicated that effect of maternal nutrition on male and female offspring were particularly indicated by the growth performance of both the male and female offspring from birth to weaning.

Keywords: Bali cows, birth weight, maternal nutrition, pre-weaning daily gain, weaning weight

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Authors: Adam Y. Sulaiman, Gerard I.Obasi, Roma Chang, Hussein Sayed Moghaieb, Ming J. Huang, Neil J. Hewitt

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Residential air-conditioning units are essential for quality indoor comfort in hot climate countries. Nevertheless, because of their non-renewable energy sources and the contribution of ecologically unfriendly working fluids, these units are a major source of CO2 emissions in these countries. The utilisation of sustainable technologies nowadays is essential to reduce the adverse effects of CO2 emissions by replacing conventional technologies. This paper investigates the feasibility of running an off-grid solar-powered air-conditioning bed unit using three low GWP refrigerants (R32, R290, and R600a) to supersede conventional refrigerants.A prototype air conditioning unit was built to supply cold air to a canopy that was connected to it. The assembled unit was designed to distribute cold air to a canopy connected to it. This system is powered by two 400 W photovoltaic panels, with battery storage supplying power to the unit at night-time. Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software is used to mathematically model the vapor compression cycle (VCC) and predict the unit's energetic and exergetic performance. The TRNSYS software was used to simulate the electricity storage performance of the batteries, whereas the IES-VE was used to determine the amount of solar energy required to power the unit. The article provides an analytical design guideline, as well as a comprehensible process system. Combining a renewable energy source to power an AC based-VCC provides an excellent solution to the real problems of high-energy consumption in warm-climate countries.

Keywords: air-conditioning, refrigerants, PV panel, energy storages, VCC, exergy

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Authors: Behnoush Dousti, Ye Choi, Gil S. Lee

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Microsupercapacitors (MScs) are known as the future of miniaturized energy sources that can be coupled to a battery to deliver stable and constant energy to microelectronics. Among all their counterparts, electrochemical microsupercapacitor have drawn the most research attention due to their higher power density and long cycle life. Designing the microstructure and choosing the electroactive materials are two significant factors that greatly affect the performance of the device. Here, we report successful fabrication and characterization of a microsupercapacitor with interdigitated structure based on Carbon nanotube sheets (CNT sheet). Novel structure of highly aligned CNT sheet as the electrode materials which also offers excellent conductivity and large surface area along with doping with nitrogen, enabled us to develop a device with serval order of magnitude higher electrochemical performance than the pristine CNT in aqueous electrolyte including high specific capacitance and rate capabilities and excellent cycle life over 10000 cycles. Geometric parameters such as finger width and gap size were also studied and it was shown the device performance is much depended on them. Results of this study confirms the potential of CNT sheet for future energy storage devices.

Keywords: carbon nanotube, energy storage systems, microsupercapacitor, nitrogen doping

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Authors: Azmi Ilmi Aziz, Wisnu Sadasih, Rizal Fanany

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Purpose: This study describes systemic factors, intraocular lens (IOL), and ocular abnormalities in patients with IOL glistening at a tertiary hospital in Semarang. Methods: A retrospective, with a descriptive approach on patients with IOL glistening who visited the eye clinic between August 2019 to June 2023. Results: Twenty-five patients were examined; 11 patients (44%) had IOL glistening in their right eye, 4 patients (16%) in their left eye, and 10 patients (40%) in both eyes. The gender of patients consisted of 12 male patients (48%) and 13 female patients (52%). The median age of the patients was 68 years. The mean onset was 4.44 years after the first cataract surgery. Hypertension was found in 13 patients (52%), and diabetes was found in 9 patients (36%). Nine patients (36%) were identified with a foldable IOL with a closed loop design, and 1 patient (4%) with a PMMA IOL with an iris-fixated IOL design, while 15 other patients’ IOL were unrecorded. Glaucoma was found in 3 patients (12%). Conclusions: The result of this study showed that more than half of the patients were hypertensive, and some were glaucomatous, which had been discussed relevant in previous studies. Most IOL that could be identified was foldable IOL with a closed loop design. To our knowledge, the design of an IOL to glistening had never been explored. A longer study involving larger subjects is needed to better describe the systemic factors, IOL, and ocular abnormalities in patients with IOL glistening.

Keywords: glistening, intraocular lens, foldable IOL, PMMA IOL

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Authors: M. Jegannath, V. Akshaya, B. Arunkumar, G. Lakshmi Soundharya, V. Thenmozhi, S. Varun, V. R. S. Kumar

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For scarf inlet design, the primary variable of interest is the circumferential extent over which the extended lower lip is formed. In this paper, an attempt has been made to optimize the aerodynamic shape of a subsonic scarf inlet with aerodynamically shaped center-body with a particular value of the circumferential extent. The parametric analytical studies have been carried out using a Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model. From our preliminary studies, we concluded that for a particular value of circumferential extent, there will be an exact shape of the center-body with certain geometric orientation for the existence of an aerodynamically efficient scarf inlet for modern aircraft engines. This numerical study is a pointer towards for the design optimization of scarf inlets for modern aircraft engines.

Keywords: aerodynamics of scarf inlets, inlet design, modern aircraft inlets, subsonic scarf inlet

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Authors: Farzan Farhangian, Behnam Shakibafar, Bobda Cedric, Rene Jr. Landry

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Among the air navigation technologies, many of them are capable of increasing aviation sustainability as well as accuracy improvement in Alternative Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (APNT), especially avionics Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), Very high-frequency Omni-directional Range (VOR), etc. The integration of these air navigation solutions could make a robust and efficient accuracy in air mobility, air traffic management and autonomous operations. Designing a proper RF front-end, power amplifier and software-defined transponder could pave the way for reaching an optimized avionics navigation solution. In this article, the possibility of reaching an optimum front-end to be used with single low-cost Software-Defined Radio (SDR) has been investigated in order to reach a software-defined DME architecture. Our software-defined approach uses the firmware possibilities to design a real-time software architecture compatible with a Multi Input Multi Output (MIMO) BladeRF to estimate an accurate time delay between a Transmission (Tx) and the reception (Rx) channels using the synchronous scheduled communication. We could design a novel power amplifier for the transmission channel of the DME to pass the minimum transmission power. This article also investigates designing proper pair pulses based on the DO-178B avionics standard. Various guidelines have been tested, and the possibility of passing the certification process for each standard term has been analyzed. Finally, the performance of the DME was tested in the laboratory environment using an IFR6000, which showed that the proposed architecture reached an accuracy of less than 0.23 Nautical mile (Nmi) with 98% probability.

Keywords: avionics, DME, software defined radio, navigation

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Authors: Heidar Jafarizadeh, Hossein Keshtkar, Ahmad Sohankar

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Heat transfer and turbulent flow structure have been studied in a divergent ribbed duct with a varying duct geometry with Reynolds numbers of 7000 to 90000 using numerical methods. In this study, we confirmed our numerical results of a ribbed duct with an Initial slope of zero to 3 degree by comparing them to experimental data we had and investigated the impact of the ducts divergence on heat transfer and flow pattern in the 2-dimensional flow. Then we investigated the effect of tilting the ribs, on heat transfer and flow behavior. We achieved this by changing the ribs angles from a range of 40 to 75 degrees in a divergent duct and simulated the flow in 3-dimensions. Our results show that with an increase in duct divergence, heat transfer increases linearly and the coefficient of friction increases exponentially. As the results show, a duct with a divergence angle of 1.5 degree presents better thermal performance in comparison with all the angle range’s we studied. Besides, a ribbed duct with 40 degree rib orientation had the best thermal performance considering the simultaneous effects of pressure drop and heat transfer which were imposed on it.

Keywords: divergent ribbed duct, heat transfer, thermal performance, turbulent flow structure

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Authors: Ahmed Atef, Mohamed Alhasheem, Eman Beshr

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In this paper, an enhanced DC microgrid design is proposed using the DAB converter as a conversion unit in order to harvest the maximum power from the PV array. Each connected DAB converter is controlled with an enhanced control strategy. The controller is based on the artificial intelligence (AI) technique to regulate the terminal PV voltage through the phase shift angle of each DAB converter. In this manner, no need for a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) unit to set the reference of the PV terminal voltage. This strategy overcomes the stability issues of the DC microgrid as the response of converters is superior compared to the conventional strategies. The proposed PV interface system is modelled and simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK. The simulation results reveal an accurate and fast response of the proposed design in case of irradiance changes.

Keywords: DC microgrid, DAB converter, parallel operation, artificial intelligence, fast response

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Authors: Tzai-Shiung Li, Wen-Bin Young

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The wind turbine blade sustains various kinds of loadings during the operating and parking state. Due to the increasing size of the wind turbine blade, it is important to arrange the composite materials in a sufficient way to reach the optimal utilization of the material strength. In the fabrication process of the vacuum assisted resin transfer molding, the fiber content of the turbine blade depends on the vacuum pressure. In this study, a design of the fiber layup for the vacuum assisted resin transfer molding is conducted to achieve the efficient utilization the material strength. This design is for the wind turbine blade consisting of shell skins with or without the spar structure.

Keywords: resin film infiltration, vacuum assisted resin transfer molding process, wind turbine blade, composite materials

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Authors: Paolo Pilloni, Fabrizio Mulas, Salvatore Carta

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Nowadays, several research studies point up that an active lifestyle is essential for physical and mental health benefits. Mobile phones have greatly influenced people’s habits and attitudes also in the way they exercise. Our research work is mainly focused on investigating how to exploit mobile technologies to favour people’s exertion experience. To this end, we developed an exertion framework users can exploit through a real world mobile application, called BLINDED, designed to act as a virtual personal trainer to support runners during their trainings. In this work, inspired by both previous findings in the field of interaction design for people with visual impairments, feedback gathered from real users of our framework, and positive results obtained from two experimentations, we present some new interaction facilities we designed to enhance the interaction experience during a training. The positive obtained results helped us to derive some interaction design recommendations we believe will be a valid support for designers of future mobile systems conceived to be used in circumstances where there are limited possibilities of interaction.

Keywords: human computer interaction, interaction design guidelines, persuasive mobile technologies for sport and health

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Authors: Md. Belal Uudin Rabbi, Sakib Al Montasir, Saifur Rahman, Niger Nahid, Esmail Hossain Emon

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The practice of radiation shielding protects against the detrimental effects of ionizing radiation. Radiation shielding depletes radiation by inserting a shield of absorbing material between any radioactive source. It is a primary concern when building several industrial fields, so using potent (high activity) radioisotopes in food preservation, cancer treatment, and particle accelerator facilities is significant. Radiation shielding is essential for radiation-emitting equipment users to reduce or mitigate radiation damage. Polymer composites (especially epoxy based) with high atomic number fillers can replace toxic Lead in ionizing radiation shielding applications because of their excellent mechanical properties, superior solvent and chemical resistance, good dimensional stability, adhesive, and less toxic. Due to being lightweight, good neutron shielding ability in almost the same order as concrete, epoxy-based radiation shielding can be the next big thing. Micro and nano-particles for the epoxy resin increase the epoxy matrix's radiation shielding property. Shielding is required to protect users of such facilities from ionizing radiation as recently, and considerable attention has been paid to polymeric composites as a radiation shielding material. This research will examine the radiation shielding performance of epoxy-based nano-WO3 reinforced composites, exploring the performance of epoxy-based nano-WO3 reinforced composites. The samples will be prepared using the direct pouring method to block radiation. The practice of radiation shielding protects against the detrimental effects of ionizing radiation.

Keywords: radiation shielding materials, ionizing radiation, epoxy resin, Tungsten oxide, polymer composites

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Authors: O. B. Urhibo, D. Imhonopi, T. George

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The global rate of decline in entrepreneurial activities, and the prevalence in Africa, especially Nigeria, is more worrisome. In recent times, these problems, such as the lack of accessibility and utilization of financial incentives needed to promote entrepreneurial activities, have led to a decrease in entrepreneurial activities. The causes of the decline have been evaluated from a different perspective and have further confirmed the relevance and need for the sustainability of the Fashion industry. With the increasing rate of unemployment and poverty in Nigeria and the literature gap in the social context, this study investigated the patterns of sustainable financial incentives utilisation among fashion design entrepreneurs in Nigeria through a qualitative approach. The Eastern part of Nigeria was considered in this study because of the high rate of market activity for textile and clothing firms. Specifically, Delta state was considered in this study. A purposive sampling technique was used to select key informants consisting of twelve (12) executives of the associations (i.e., Fashion Designer & Exhibitors Association, Delta Fashion Designers, and Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria for the interview sessions. Four themes emanate from the thematic analysis -lack of sufficient collateral, difficulties and duration of loan application processes, unacceptable business proposal/plan, and the absence of audited financial accounts were found to be the patterns of sustainable financial incentives utilisation among fashion design entrepreneurs in Nigeria. The promotion of sustainable patterns and supports has been suggested to reduce the challenges of sustainable financial incentives utilisation among fashion design entrepreneurs.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, fashion design, financial incentives, patterns, sustainability, utilisation

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Authors: Ju-Na Hwang, Min-Hae Park, Kee-Joe Lim

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Many studies have been conducted on DC transmission. Of power apparatus for DC transmission, High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable systems are being evaluated because of the increase in power demand and transmission distance. Therefore, dc insulation characteristics of Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR), which has various advantages such as short curing time and the ease of maintenance, were investigated to assess its performance as a HVDC insulation material for cable joints. The electrical performance of LSR added to Nano-Aluminum Trihydrate (ATH) was confirmed by measurements of the breakdown strength and electrical conductivity. In addition, field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) was used as a means of confirmation of nano-filler dispersion state. The LSR nano-composite was prepared by compounding LSR filled nano-sized ATH filler. The DC insulation properties of LSR added to nano-sized ATH fillers were found to be superior to those of the LSR without filler.

Keywords: liquid silicone rubber, nano-composite, HVDC insulation, cable joints

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Authors: Tatyana T. Tabakova, Elitsa N. Kolentsova, Dimitar Y. Dimitrov, Krasimir I. Ivanov, Yordanka G. Karakirova, Petya Cv. Petrova, Georgi V. Avdeev

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The catalytic oxidation of CO and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is considered as one of the most efficient ways to reduce harmful emissions from various chemical industries. The effectiveness of gold-based catalysts for many reactions of environmental significance was proven during the past three decades. The aim of this work was to combine the favorable features of Au and Cu-Ce mixed oxides in the design of new catalytic materials of improved efficiency and economic viability for removal of air pollutants in waste gases from formaldehyde production. Supported oxides of copper and cerium with Cu: Ce molar ratio 2:1 and 1:5 were prepared by wet impregnation of g-alumina. Gold (2 wt.%) catalysts were synthesized by a deposition-precipitation method. Catalysts characterization was carried out by texture measurements, powder X-ray diffraction, temperature programmed reduction and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. The catalytic activity in the oxidation of CO, CH₃OH and (CH₃)₂O was measured using continuous flow equipment with fixed bed reactor. Both Cu-Ce/alumina samples demonstrated similar catalytic behavior. The addition of gold caused significant enhancement of CO and methanol oxidation activity (100 % degree of CO and CH₃OH conversion at about 60 and 140 ^oC, respectively). The composition of Cu-Ce mixed oxides affected the performance of gold-based samples considerably. Gold catalyst on Cu-Ce/γ-Al₂O₃ 1:5 exhibited higher activity for CO and CH₃OH oxidation in comparison with Au on Cu-Ce/γ-Al₂O₃ 2:1. The better performance of Au/Cu-Ce 1:5 was related to the availability of highly dispersed gold particles and copper oxide clusters in close contact with ceria.

Keywords: CO and VOCs oxidation, copper oxide, Ceria, gold catalysts

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Authors: Aikaterini Kentroti, Theodore H. Kaskalis

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Today, web servers are expected to serve thousands of client requests concurrently within stringent response time limits. In this paper, we evaluate experimentally and compare the performance as well as the resource utilization of popular web servers, which differ in their approach to handle concurrency. More specifically, Central Processing Unit (CPU)- and I/O intensive tests were conducted against the thread-based Apache and Go as well as the event-based Nginx and Node.js under increasing concurrent load. The tests involved concurrent users requesting a term of the Fibonacci sequence (the 10th, 20th, 30th) and the content of a table from the database. The results show that Go achieved the best performance in all benchmark tests. For example, Go reached two times higher throughput than Node.js and five times higher than Apache and Nginx in the 20th Fibonacci term test. In addition, Go had the smallest memory footprint and demonstrated the most efficient resource utilization, in terms of CPU usage. Instead, Node.js had by far the largest memory footprint, consuming up to 90% more memory than Nginx and Apache. Regarding the performance of Apache and Nginx, our findings indicate that Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) becomes a bottleneck when the servers are requested to respond by performing CPU-intensive tasks under increasing concurrent load.

Keywords: apache, Go, Nginx, node.js, web server benchmarking

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Authors: Nakul Agrawal, Y. M. Puri

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TPM methodology is a proven approach to increase Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of machine. OEE is an established method to monitor and improve the effectiveness of manufacturing process. OEE is a product of equipment availability, performance efficiency and quality performance of manufacturing operations. The paper presents a project work for improving OEE of CNC-VMC in a manufacturing industry with the help of TPM tools Kaizen and Autonomous Maintenance. The aim of paper is to enhance OEE by minimizing the breakdown and re-work, increase availability, performance and quality. The calculated OEE of bottle necking machines for 4 months is lower of 53.3%. Root Cause Analysis RCA tools like fishbone diagram, Pareto chart are used for determining the reasons behind low OEE. While Tool like Why-Why analysis is use for determining the basis reasons for low OEE. Tools like Kaizen and Autonomous Maintenance are effectively implemented on CNC-VMC which eliminate the causes of breakdown and prevent from reoccurring. The result obtains from approach shows that OEE of CNC-VMC improved from 53.3% to 73.7% which saves an average sum of Rs.3, 19,000.

Keywords: OEE, TPM, Kaizen, CNC-VMC, why-why analysis, RCA

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Authors: Alan Silva, Carla Cipolla

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The increase of life expectancy in the world is a current challenge for governments, demanding solutions towards elderly people. In this context, service design and age-friendly design appear as an approach to create solutions which favor active aging by social inclusion and better life quality. In essence, the age-friendly design aims to include elderly people in the democratic process of creation in order to strengthen the participation and empowerment of them through intellectual, social, civic, recreational, cultural and spiritual activities. All of these activities aim to provide resilience to this segment by granting access to the reserves needed for adaptation and growth in the face of life's challenges. On that approach, the following research brings an overview of the actions related to the integration and social qualification of the elderly people, considering a suburban area of Rio de Janeiro. Based on Design Thinking presented by Brown (2009), this research has a qualitative-exploratory approach demanding certain necessities and actions, which are collected through observation and interviews about the daily life of the elderly community individuals searching for information about personal capacitation and social integration of the studied population. Subsequently, a critical analysis is done on this overview, pointing out the potentialities and limitations of these actions. At the end of the research, a well-being map of solutions classified as physical, mental and social is created, also indicating which current services are relevant and which activities can be transformed into services to that community. In conclusion, the contribution of this research is the construction of a map of solutions that provides resilience to the studied public and favors the concept of active aging in society. From this map of solutions, it is possible to discriminate what are the resources necessary for the solutions to be operationalized and their journeys with the users of the elderly segment.

Keywords: resilience, age-friendly design, service design, active aging

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Authors: Gary Young, David Zepeda, Gilbert Nyaga

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This study investigated whether vertical integration of hospitals and physicians is associated with better care for patients with cardiac conditions. A dramatic change in the U.S. hospital industry is the integration of hospital and physicians through hospital acquisition of physician practices. Yet, there is little evidence regarding whether this form of vertical integration leads to better operational performance of hospitals. The study was conducted as an observational investigation based on a pooled, cross-sectional database. The study sample comprised over hospitals in the State of California. The time frame for the study was 2010 to 2012. The key performance measure was hospitals’ degree of compliance with performance criteria set out by the federal government for managing patients with cardiac conditions. These criteria relate to the types of clinical tests and medications that hospitals should follow for cardiac patients but hospital compliance requires the cooperation of a hospital’s physicians. Data for this measure was obtained from a federal website that presents performance scores for U.S. hospitals. The key independent variable was the percentage of cardiologists that a hospital employs (versus cardiologists who are affiliated but not employed by the hospital). Data for this measure was obtained from the State of California which requires hospitals to report financial and operation data each year including numbers of employed physicians. Other characteristics of hospitals (e.g., information technology for cardiac care, volume of cardiac patients) were also evaluated as possible complements or substitutes for physician employment by hospitals. Additional sources of data included the American Hospital Association and the U.S. Census. Empirical models were estimated with generalized estimating equations (GEE). Findings suggest that physician employment is positively associated with better hospital performance for cardiac care. However, findings also suggest that information technology is a substitute for physician employment.

Keywords: physician employment, hospitals, verical integration, cardiac care

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Authors: Angela Bargenda, Erhard Lick, Dhoha Trabelsi

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Research in retailing has identified the importance of atmospherics as an essential element in enhancing store image, store patronage intentions, and the overall shopping experience in a retail environment. However, in the area of atmospherics, store window design, which represents an essential component of external store atmospherics, remains a vastly underrepresented phenomenon in extant scholarship. This paper seeks to fill this gap by exploring the relevance of store window design as an atmospheric tool. In particular, empirical evidence of theme-based theatrical store front windows, which put emphasis on the use of verbo-visual design elements, was found in Paris and New York. The purpose of this study was to identify to what extent such multimodal window designs of high-end department stores in metropolitan cities have an impact on store entry decisions and attitudes towards the retailer’s image. As theoretical construct, the linguistic concept of multimodality and Mehrabian’s and Russell’s model in environmental psychology were applied. To answer the research question, two studies were conducted. For Study 1 a case study approach was selected to define three different types of store window designs based on different types of visual-verbal relations. Each of these types of store window design represented a different level of cognitive elaboration required for the decoding process. Study 2 consisted of an on-line survey carried out among more than 300 respondents to examine the influence of these three types of store window design on the consumer behavioral variables mentioned above. The results of this study show that the higher the cognitive elaboration needed to decode the message of the store window, the lower the store entry propensity. In contrast, the higher the cognitive elaboration, the higher the perceived image of the retailer’s image. One important conclusion is that in order to increase consumers’ propensity to enter stores with theme-based theatrical store front windows, retailers need to limit the cognitive elaboration required to decode their verbo-visual window design.

Keywords: consumer behavior, multimodality, store atmospherics, store window design

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Authors: Atefeh Omidkhah, Mohammadreza Bemanian

Abstract:

The issue of way-finding earmarks a wide range of literature in architecture and despite the 50 year background of way-finding studies, it still lacks a comprehensive theory for indoor settings. Way-finding has a notable role in emergency evacuation as well. People in the panic situation of a fire emergency need to find the safe egress route correctly and in as minimum time as possible. In this regard the parameters of an appropriate way-finding are mentioned in the evacuation related researches albeit scattered. This study reviews the fire safety related literature to extract a way-finding related framework for architectural purposes of the design of a safe evacuation route. In this regard a research trend review in addition with applied methodological approaches review is conducted. Then by analyzing eight original researches related to way-finding parameters in fire evacuation, main parameters that affect way-finding in emergency situation of a fire incident are extracted and a framework was developed based on them. Results show that the issues related to exit route and emergency evacuation can be chased in task oriented studies of way-finding. This research trend aims to access a high-level framework and in the best condition a theory that has an explanatory capability to define differences in way-finding in indoor/outdoor settings, complex/simple buildings and different building types or transitional spaces. The methodological advances demonstrate the evacuation way-finding researches in line with three approaches that the latter one is the most up-to-date and precise method to research this subject: real actors and hypothetical stimuli as in evacuation experiments, hypothetical actors and stimuli as in agent-based simulations and real actors and semi-real stimuli as in virtual reality environment by adding multi-sensory simulation. Findings on data-mining of 8 sample of original researches in way-finding in evacuation indicate that emergency way-finding design of a building should consider two level of space cognition problems in the time of emergency and performance consequences of them in the built environment. So four major classes of problems in way-finding which are visual information deficiency, confusing layout configuration, improper navigating signage and demographic issues had been defined and discussed as the main parameters that should be provided with solutions in design and interior of a building. In the design phase of complex buildings, which face more reported problem in way-finding, it is important to consider the interior components regarding to the building type of occupancy and behavior of its occupants and determine components that tend to become landmarks and set the architectural features of egress route in line with the directions that they navigate people. Research on topological cognition of environmental and its effect on way-finding task in emergency evacuation is proposed for future.

Keywords: architectural design, egress route, way-finding, fire safety, evacuation

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Authors: F. A. F. da Ponte, J. Q. Malveira, I. A. Maciel, M. C. G. Albuquerque

Abstract:

In this work aviation, biofuel production was studied by fatty acids (C6 to C16) esterification. The process variables in heterogeneous catalysis were evaluated using an experimental design. Temperature and reaction time were the studied parameters, and the methyl esters content was the response of the experimental design. An ion exchange resin was used as a heterogeneous catalyst. The process optimization was carried out using response surface methodology (RSM) and polynomial model of second order. Results show that the most influential variables on the linear coefficient of each effect studied were temperature and reaction time. The best result of methyl esters conversion in the experimental design was under the conditions: 10% wt of catalyst; 100 °C and 4 hours of reaction. The best-achieved conversion was 96.5% wt of biofuel.

Keywords: esterification, ion-exchange resins, response surface methodology, biofuel

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Authors: Dan Zhu, Jie Shi

Abstract:

This study explores the relationship between solar potential and block typology and density by analyzing sixteen existing typical street blocks with different topologies and densities in Shanghai, a representative high-density urban in China. Several indicators are proposed to quantify, and a methodology is conducted to evaluate and compare the solar potential both on façade and roof across various selected urban forms. 1) The importance of appropriate solar energy indicators and geometric parameters to be used in comparative studies, and 2) the relationship between urban typology, density, and solar performance are discussed. In this way, the results reveal the key design attributes contributing to increasing solar potential.

Keywords: block typology, geometric parameters, high-density urban, solar potential

Procedia PDF Downloads 331