Search results for: German mining industry

Authors: Gor Muradyan

Abstract:

The paper is about friction and wear, including mechanisms, modeling, characterization, measurement and testing case in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a country under development, A lot of people live here, approximately 145 million. The territory of this country is very small. Therefore buildings are very close to each other. As the pipe lines are very old, and people get almost dirty water, there are a lot of ongoing projects under ADB. In those projects the contractors using HDD machines (Horizontal Directional Drilling ) and grundoburst. These machines are working underground. As ground in Bangladesh is very sludge, machine can't work relevant because of big friction in the soil. When drilling works are finished machine is pulling the pipe underground. Very often the pulling of the pipes becomes very complicated because of the friction. Therefore long section of the pipe laying can’t be done because of a big friction. In that case, additional problems rise, as well as additional work must be done. As we mentioned above it is not possible to do big section of the pipe laying because of big friction in the soil, Because of this it is coming out that contractors must do more joints, more pressure test. It is always connected with additional expenditure and losing time. This machine can pull in 75 mm to 500 mm pipes connected with the soil condition. Length is possible till 500m related how much friction it will had on the puller. As less as much it can pull. Another machine grundoburst is not working at this soil condition at all. The machine is working with air compressor. This machine are using for the smaller diameter pipes, 20 mm to 63 mm. Most of the cases these machines are being used for the installing of the house connection pipes, for making service connection. To make a friction less contractors using bigger pulling had then the pipe. It is taking down the friction, But the problem of this machine is that it can't work at sludge. Because of mentioned reasons the friction has a big mining during this kind of works. There are a lot of ways to reduce the friction. In this paper we'll introduce the ways that we have researched during our practice in Bangladesh.

Keywords: Bangladesh, friction and wear, HDD machines, reducing friction

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Authors: Leonardo Ko

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In an era marked by rapid technological innovation, the classical instrument industry nonetheless has not seen significant change. Is this a matter of stubborn traditionalism, or do old, conventional instruments really sound better? Because of the widespread use of 3-D printing, it seems feasible to produce modern, 3-D printed instruments that adhere to the basic conventions of standard construction. This study aimed to design and create a practical, effective 3-D printed acoustic violin. A cost-benefit analysis of materials and design is presented in addition to a report on sound tests in which a pool of professional musicians compared the traditional violin to its synthetic counterpart with regard to acoustic properties. With a low-cost yet functional instrument, musicians of all levels would be able to afford instruments with much greater ease; the present study thus hopes to contribute to efforts to increase the accessibility of classical music education.

Keywords: acoustic musical instrument, classical musical education, low-cost, 3-D printing

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Authors: Caroline E. Mendes, Alberto C. Badino

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Pneumatic reactors have been widely employed in various sectors of the chemical industry, especially where are required high heat and mass transfer rates. This study aimed to obtain correlations that allow the prediction of gas hold-up (Ԑ) and volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient (kLa), and compare these values, for three models of pneumatic reactors on two scales utilizing Newtonian fluids. Values of kLa were obtained using the dynamic pressure-step method, while  was used for a new proposed measure. Comparing the three models of reactors studied, it was observed that the mass transfer was superior to draft-tube airlift, reaching  of 0.173 and kLa of 0.00904s-1. All correlations showed good fit to the experimental data (R2≥94%), and comparisons with correlations from the literature demonstrate the need for further similar studies due to shortage of data available, mainly for airlift reactors and high viscosity fluids.

Keywords: bubble column, internal loop airlift, gas hold-up, kLa

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Authors: Saurabh Ahluwalia, Sul Kassicieh

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The conventional wisdom has maintained that being in proximity to entrepreneurial ecosystems helps startups to raise financing, develop and grow. In this paper, we examine the effect of a major component of an entrepreneurial ecosystem- financial or venture capital clusters on the exit of a startup through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). We find that the presence of a venture capitalist in a venture capital (VC) cluster is a major success factor for M&A exits. The location of startups in the top VC clusters did not turn out to be significant for success. Our results are robust to different specifications of the model that use different time periods, types of success, the reputation of VC, industry and the quality of the startup company. Our results provide evidence for VCs, startups and policymakers who want to better understand the components of entrepreneurial ecosystems and their relation to the M&A exits of startups.

Keywords: financial institution, mergers and acquisitions, startup financing, venture capital

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Authors: Abdul Amir Hazbavi

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The present study is an attempt to provide a relatively comprehensive preview of the Iranian English translators’ perception on Machine Translation. Furthermore, the study tries to shed light on the status of implementation of Machine Translation among the Iranian English Translators. To reach the aforementioned objectives, the Localization Industry Standards Association’s questioner for measuring perceptions with regard to the adoption of a technology innovation was adapted and used to investigate three parameter among the participants of the study, namely familiarity with Machine Translation, general perception on Machine Translation and implementation of Machine Translation systems in translation tasks. The participants of the study were 224 last-year undergraduate Iranian students of English translation at 10 universities across the country. The study revealed a very low level of adoption and a very high level of willingness to get familiar with and learn about Machine Translation, as well as a positive perception of and attitude toward Machine Translation by the Iranian English translators.

Keywords: translation technology, machine translation, perception, implementation

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Authors: Rafał Szmajser, Katarzyna Świetla, Mariusz Andrzejewski

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Robotic process automation (RPA) is a technology of repeatable business processes performed using computer programs, robots that simulate the work of a human being. This approach assumes replacing an existing employee with the use of dedicated software (software robots) to support activities, primarily repeated and uncomplicated, characterized by a low number of exceptions. RPA application is widespread in modern business services, particularly in the areas of Finance, Accounting and Human Resources Management. By utilizing this technology, the effectiveness of operations increases while reducing workload, minimizing possible errors in the process, and as a result, bringing measurable decrease in the cost of providing services. Regardless of how the use of modern information technology is assessed, there are also some doubts as to whether we should replace human activities in the implementation of the automation in business processes. After the initial awe for the new technological concept, a reflection arises: to what extent does the implementation of RPA increase the efficiency of operations or is there a Business Case for implementing it? If the business case is beneficial, in which business processes is the greatest potential for RPA? A closer look at these issues was provided by in this research during which the respondents’ view of the perceived advantages resulting from the use of robotization and automation in financial and accounting processes was verified. As a result of an online survey addressed to over 500 respondents from international companies, 162 complete answers were returned from the most important types of organizations in the modern business services industry, i.e. Business or IT Process Outsourcing (BPO/ITO), Shared Service Centers (SSC), Consulting/Advisory and their customers. Answers were provided by representatives of the positions in their organizations: Members of the Board, Directors, Managers and Experts/Specialists. The structure of the survey allowed the respondents to supplement the survey with additional comments and observations. The results formed the basis for the creation of a business case calculating tangible benefits associated with the implementation of automation in the selected financial processes. The results of the statistical analyses carried out with regard to revenue growth confirmed the correctness of the hypothesis that there is a correlation between job position and the perception of the impact of RPA implementation on individual benefits. Second hypothesis (H2) that: There is a relationship between the kind of company in the business services industry and the reception of the impact of RPA on individual benefits was thus not confirmed. Based results of survey authors performed simulation of business case for implementation of RPA in selected Finance and Accounting Processes. Calculated payback period was diametrically different ranging from 2 months for the Account Payables process with 75% savings and in the extreme case for the process Taxes implementation and maintenance costs exceed the savings resulting from the use of the robot.

Keywords: automation, outsourcing, business process automation, process automation, robotic process automation, RPA, RPA business case, RPA benefits

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Authors: Ji Sun Kim, Jae Ho Baek, Kyeong Ho Kim, Ji Hae Ha, Seong Soo Hong, Jung-Wook Park, Man Sig Lee

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Carbon supported palladium catalysts have been used in many industrial reactions, especially for hydrogenation in the fine chemical industry. Porous carbons had been widely used as catalyst supports due to its higher surface area and larger pore volume. The specific surface area, pore structure and surface chemical functional groups of porous carbon affects metal dispersion and particle size. In this paper, we confirm the effect of support texture on the dispersion of Pd. Pd catalyst supported on activated carbon having various specific surface area were characterized by BET, XRD and FE-TEM. Catalyst activity and dispersion of prepared catalyst were evaluated on the basis of the CO adsorption capacity by CO-chemisorption. As concluding remark to this part of our study, let us note that specific area of carbon play important role on the synthesis of Pd/C catalyst/.

Keywords: carbon, dispersion, Pd/C, specific are, support

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Authors: Matthias Haenisch, Marc Godau, Julia Barreiro, Dominik Maxelon

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In times of ubiquitous digitalization and the increasing entanglement of humans and technologies in musical practices in the 21st century, it is to be asked, how popular musicians learn in the (post)digital Age. Against the backdrop of the increasing interest in transferring informal learning practices into formal settings of music education the interdisciplinary research association »MusCoDA – Musical Communities in the (Post)Digital Age« (University of Erfurt/University of Applied Sciences Clara Hoffbauer Potsdam, funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research, pursues the goal to derive an empirical model of collective songwriting practices from the study of informal lelearningf songwriters and bands that can be translated into pedagogical concepts for music education in schools. Drawing on concepts from Community of Musical Practice and Actor Network Theory, lelearnings considered not only as social practice and as participation in online and offline communities, but also as an effect of heterogeneous networks composed of human and non-human actors. Learning is not seen as an individual, cognitive process, but as the formation and transformation of actor networks, i.e., as a practice of assembling and mediating humans and technologies. Based on video stimulated recall interviews and videography of online and offline activities, songwriting practices are followed from the initial idea to different forms of performance and distribution. The data evaluation combines coding and mapping methods of Grounded Theory Methodology and Situational Analysis. This results in network maps in which both the temporality of creative practices and the material and spatial relations of human and technological actors are reconstructed. In addition, positional analyses document the power relations between the participants that structure the learning process of the field. In the area of online informal lelearninginitial key research findings reveal a transformation of the learning subject through the specific technological affordances of TikTok and Instagram and the accompanying changes in the learning practices of the corresponding online communities. Learning is explicitly shaped by the material agency of online tools and features and the social practices entangled with these technologies. Thus, any human online community member can be invited to directly intervene in creative decisions that contribute to the further compositional and structural development of songs. At the same time, participants can provide each other with intimate insights into songwriting processes in progress and have the opportunity to perform together with strangers and idols. Online Lelearnings characterized by an increase in social proximity, distribution of creative agency and informational exchange between participants. While it seems obvious that traditional notions not only of lelearningut also of the learning subject cannot be maintained, the question arises, how exactly the observed informal learning practices and the subject that emerges from the use of social media as online learning technologies can be transferred into contexts of formal learning

Keywords: informal learning, postdigitality, songwriting, actor-network theory, community of musical practice, social media, TikTok, Instagram, apps

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Authors: Wei-Hsuan Hsu, Yi-Xuan Huang

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Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) possesses the advantages of sub-10-nm feature and low cost. NIL patterns the resist with physical deformation using a mold, which can easily reproduce the required nano-scale pattern. However, the variation of process parameters and environmental conditions seriously affect reproduction quality. How to ensure the quality of imprinted pattern is essential for industry. In this study, the authors used the electrowetting technology to assist mold filling in the NIL process. A special mold structure was designed to cause electrowetting. During the imprinting process, when a voltage was applied between the mold and substrate, the hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of the surface of the mold can be converted. Both simulation and experiment confirmed that the electrowetting technology can assist mold filling and avoid incomplete filling rate. The proposed method can also reduce the crack formation during the de-molding process. Therefore, electrowetting technology can improve the process quality of NIL.

Keywords: electrowetting, mold filling, nano-imprint, surface modification

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Authors: Sandra H. Fukurozaki, Andre L. N. Silva, Joao B. F. Neto, Fernando J. G. Landgraf

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Nowadays, the rare earth (RE) metals play an important role in emerging technologies that are crucial for the decarbonisation of the energy sector. Their unique properties have led to increasing clean energy applications, such as wind turbine generators, and hybrid and electric vehicles. Despite the substantial media coverage that has recently surrounded the mining and processing of rare earth metals, very little quantitative information is available concerning their subsequent life stages, especially related to the metallic production of didymium (Nd-Pr) in fluoride molten salt system. Here we investigate a gate to gate scale life cycle assessment (LCA) of the didymium electrolysis based on three different scenarios of operational conditions. The product system is modeled with SimaPro Analyst 8.0.2 software, and IMPACT 2002+ was applied as an impact assessment tool. In order to develop a life cycle inventories built in software databases, patents, and other published sources together with energy/mass balance were utilized. Analysis indicates that from the 14 midpoint impact categories evaluated, the global warming potential (GWP) is the main contributors to the total environmental burden, ranging from 2.7E2 to 3.2E2 kg CO2eq/kg Nd-Pr. At the damage step assessment, the results suggest that slight changes in materials flows associated with enhancement of current efficiency (between 2.5% and 5%), could lead a reduction up to 12% and 15% of human health and climate change damage, respectively. Additionally, this paper highlights the knowledge gaps and future research efforts needing to understand the environmental impacts of Nd-Pr electrolysis process from the life cycle perspective.

Keywords: didymium electrolysis, environmental impacts, life cycle assessment, rare earth metals

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Authors: Hasan Vural

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In this study, innovation subject is explained firstly. Later the basic concepts of innovation and new food products development in marketing of bee products are investigated. Examples of the application of research results will be presented. Subject will be discussed benefiting from scientific studies based on literature review. Innovation is widely recognised as important to commercial success in the food industry, as both a major source of competitive advantage and the creation of a company’s future. However, the new product development process is described as being fraught with failures, with only approximately 10% of new products remaining on the market within a year of commercialisation. In addition, for every new food product that does reach commercialisation, there are likely to be many concepts that are rejected during the new food product development process. No roadmap exactly describes a route to a goal: exhortations to follow ‘10 Steps to a successful Product’ or use ‘Smith’s Method to Do Successful Products’ are, therefore, all approximations. Roadmaps do not describe the actual journey, only the general direction.

Keywords: innovation, agrofood product development, beekeeping products, honey marketing

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Authors: Joaquin Ticzon, Christian Demition, Jaime Honra

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Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing has been one of the emerging trends present in various industries, particularly in prototyping. This review focuses on the impact of additive manufacturing on a motor vehicle's performance aiming to investigate potential advancements to further revolutionize the way parts are manufactured. One of the most common problems faced in the automotive industry is carbon footprint emissions from motor vehicles, which was stated to be remedied by lightweight; additively manufactured parts helped reduce these emissions due to weight reduction provided by additively manufactured parts. Composed of various techniques for AM as well as materials utilized during the manufacturing process, which differ in terms of the quality and performance it provides during its application on the final product. Given this, the generative design will not be discussed in such a detailed manner because the focus will revolve around the effects on the performance of a vehicle due to additively manufactured parts.

Keywords: additive manufacturing (AM), automotive, computer aided design (CAD), generative design

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Authors: Mohammadreza Bakhtiari, Mehrdad Maghsoudi, Hamidreza Bakhtiari

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The widespread adoption of laptops has become essential to modern lifestyles, supporting work, education, and entertainment. Social media platforms have emerged as key spaces where users share real-time feedback on laptop performance, providing a valuable source of data for understanding consumer preferences. This study leverages aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) on 1.5 million tweets to examine how users from developed and developing countries perceive and prioritize 16 key laptop features. The analysis reveals that consumers in developing countries express higher satisfaction overall, emphasizing affordability, durability, and reliability. Conversely, users in developed countries demonstrate more critical attitudes, especially toward performance-related aspects such as cooling systems, battery life, and chargers. The study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining ABSA using the PyABSA framework with expert insights gathered through a Delphi panel of ten industry professionals. Data preprocessing included cleaning, filtering, and aspect extraction from tweets. Universal issues such as battery efficiency and fan performance were identified, reflecting shared challenges across markets. However, priorities diverge between regions, while users in developed countries demand high-performance models with advanced features, those in developing countries seek products that offer strong value for money and long-term durability. The findings suggest that laptop manufacturers should adopt a market-specific strategy by developing differentiated product lines. For developed markets, the focus should be on cutting-edge technologies, enhanced cooling solutions, and comprehensive warranty services. In developing markets, emphasis should be placed on affordability, versatile port options, and robust designs. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of universal charging solutions and continuous sentiment monitoring to adapt to evolving consumer needs. This research offers practical insights for manufacturers seeking to optimize product development and marketing strategies for global markets, ensuring enhanced user satisfaction and long-term competitiveness. Future studies could explore multi-source data integration and conduct longitudinal analyses to capture changing trends over time.

Keywords: consumer behavior, durability, laptop industry, sentiment analysis, social media analytics

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Authors: Ali Abdallah, Shaima Al Mohannadi

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This study explores shopping tourism in the UK and examines it as an attraction tool for wealthy tourists to the UK’s capital city London. The study aims to identify the scope of shopping tourism used by countries such as the UK as a tool for attracting wealthy tourists. This study adopts the quantitative research approach through surveys in attaining the results required. Results demonstrate how the UK tourism market is an experience-based market and has recently become an attraction for luxurious brand shoppers. The term Trexit is introduced as a new form of tourism generated by the Brexit. If addressed appropriately the Trexit can assist in any negative economic retaliations of the Brexit. The study concludes that shopping tourism is yet to further incline in years to come, however, government support and cooperative planning with the retail industry is required as a means of further strengthening this developing sector.

Keywords: Brexit tourism, luxury shopping, UK tourism, wealthy tourists

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Authors: Lalith Edirisinghe, Zhihong Jin, A.W. Wijeratne, Hansa Edirisinghe, Lakshmi Ranwala Rashika Mudunkotuwa

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A paradigm shift in container inventory management (CIM) is a long-awaited industry need. Virtual container yard (VCY) is a concept developed in 2013 and its primary objective is to minimize shipping transport cost through implementing container exchange between carriers. Shipping lines always try to maintain lower container idle time and provide higher customer satisfaction. However, it is disappointing to note that carriers turn a blind eye to the escalating cost resulted from the present inefficient CIM mechanism. The cost of empty container management is simply transferred to the importers and exporters as freight adjustments. It also creates an environmental hazard. Therefore, it has now become a problem for the society. Therefore, a paradigm shift may be required as the present CIM system is not working for common interests of human beings as it should be.

Keywords: collaboation, inventory, shipping, virtual container yard

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Authors: A. Samer Ezeldin, Sarah A. Fotouh

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Optimization of resources is very important in all fields, as in construction management. Project managers have to face problems regarding management of cost, time and available resources of single projects and more problems arise when managing multiple projects. Most of the studies focused on optimization of resources for a single project, but, this paper will discuss the design and modeling of multiple resources optimization for multiple projects using Genetic Algorithm. Most of the companies in construction industry optimize the resources for single projects only, but with the presence of several mega projects in several developing countries running at the same time, there is a need for a model to enhance the efficiency of available resources and decreases the fluctuation as much as possible. The proposed model calculates the cost of each resource, tries to minimize the cost of extra resources as much as possible and generates the schedule of each project within a selected program.

Keywords: construction management, genetic algorithm, multiple projects, multiple resources, optimization

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Authors: Penina Orenstein

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In today’s world, particularly with COVID-19 a constant worldwide threat, organizations need greater visibility over their supply chains more than ever before, in order to find areas for improvement and greater efficiency, reduce the chances of disruption and stay competitive. The concept of supply chain mapping is one where every process and route is mapped in detail between each vendor and supplier. The simplest method of mapping involves sourcing publicly available data including news and financial information concerning relationships between suppliers. An additional layer of information would be disclosed by large, direct suppliers about their production and logistics sites. While this method has the advantage of not requiring any input from suppliers, it also doesn’t allow for much transparency beyond the first supplier tier and may generate irrelevant data—noise—that must be filtered out to find the actionable data. The primary goal of this research is to build data maps of supply chains by focusing on a layered approach. Using these maps, the secondary goal is to address the question as to whether the supply chain is re-engineered to make improvements, for example, to lower the carbon footprint. Using a drill-down approach, the end result is a comprehensive map detailing the linkages between tier-one, tier-two, and tier-three suppliers super-imposed on a geographical map. The driving force behind this idea is to be able to trace individual parts to the exact site where they’re manufactured. In this way, companies can ensure sustainability practices from the production of raw materials through the finished goods. The approach allows companies to identify and anticipate vulnerabilities in their supply chain. It unlocks predictive analytics capabilities and enables them to act proactively. The research is particularly compelling because it unites network science theory with empirical data and presents the results in a visual, intuitive manner.

Keywords: data mining, supply chain, empirical research, data mapping

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Authors: Lopamudra D. Satpathy, Bani Chatterjee, Jitendra Mahakud

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The rapid economic growth in terms of output and investment necessitates a substantial growth of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of firms which is an indicator of an economy’s technological change. The strong empirical relationship between financial sector development and economic growth clearly indicates that firms financing decisions do affect their levels of output via their investment decisions. Hence it establishes a linkage between the financial factors and productivity growth of the firms. To achieve the smooth and continuous economic growth over time, it is imperative to understand the financial channel that serves as one of the vital channels. The theoretical or logical argument behind this linkage is that when the internal financial capital is not sufficient enough for the investment, the firms always rely upon the external sources of finance. But due to the frictions and existence of information asymmetric behavior, it is always costlier for the firms to raise the external capital from the market, which in turn affect their investment sentiment and productivity. This kind of financial position of the firms puts heavy pressure on their productive activities. Keeping in view this theoretical background, the present study has tried to analyze the role of both external and internal financial factors (leverage, cash flow and liquidity) on the determination of total factor productivity of the firms of manufacturing industry and its sub-industries, maintaining a set of firm specific variables as control variables (size, age and disembodied technological intensity). An estimate of total factor productivity of the Indian manufacturing industry and sub-industries is computed using a semi-parametric approach, i.e., Levinsohn- Petrin method. It establishes the relationship between financial factors and productivity growth of 652 firms using a dynamic panel GMM method covering the time period between 1997-98 and 2012-13. From the econometric analyses, it has been found that the internal cash flow has a positive and significant impact on the productivity of overall manufacturing sector. The other financial factors like leverage and liquidity also play the significant role in the determination of total factor productivity of the Indian manufacturing sector. The significant role of internal cash flow on determination of firm-level productivity suggests that access to external finance is not available to Indian companies easily. Further, the negative impact of leverage on productivity could be due to the less developed bond market in India. These findings have certain implications for the policy makers to take various policy reforms to develop the external bond market and easily workout through which the financially constrained companies will be able to raise the financial capital in a cost-effective manner and would be able to influence their investments in the highly productive activities, which would help for the acceleration of economic growth.

Keywords: dynamic panel, financial factors, manufacturing sector, total factor productivity

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Authors: Bhupinder Kaur, O. P. Pandey

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An automobile industry is using variety of materials for better comfort and utility. The present work describes the details of failure analysis done for windshield glass of a four-wheeler class. The failure occurred in two different models of the heavy duty class of four wheelers, which analysed separately. The company reported that the failure has occurred only in their rear windshield when vehicles parked under shade for several days. These glasses were characterised by dilatometer, differential thermal analyzer, and X-ray diffraction. The glasses were further investigated under scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray dot mapping. The microstructural analysis of the glasses done at the surface as well as at the fractured area indicates that carbon as an impurity got segregated as banded structure throughout the glass. Since carbon absorbs higher heat, it causes thermal mismatch to the entire glass system, and glass shattered down. In this work, the details of sequential analysis done to predict the cause of failure are present.

Keywords: failure, windshield, thermal mismatch, carbon

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Authors: Anis A. Ansari, Aftab A. Ansari

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Electronic waste is inundating the traditional solid-waste-disposal facilities, which are inadequately designed to handle and manage such type of new wastes. Since electronic waste contains mostly hazardous and even toxic materials, the seriousness of its effects on human health and the environment cannot be ignored in present scenario. Waste from the electronic industry is increasing exponentially day by day. From the last 20 years, we are continuously generating huge quantities of e-waste such as obsolete computers and other discarded electronic components, mainly due to evolution of newer technologies as a result of constant efforts in research and development in this sector. Polymers, one of the major constituents in almost every electronic waste, such as computers, printers, electronic equipment, entertainment devices, mobile phones, television sets etc., are if properly recycled can create a new business opportunity. This would not only create potential market for polymers to improve economy but also the priceless land used as dumping sites of electronic waste, can be utilized for other productive purposes.

Keywords: polymer recycling, electronic waste, hazardous materials, electronic components

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Authors: Dominik Kowitzke

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Housing constructions have direct and indirect environmental impacts especially caused by soil sealing and gray energy consumption related to the use of construction materials. Accordingly, the German government introduced regulations limiting additional annual soil sealing. At the same time, in many regions like metropolitan areas the demand for further housing is high and of current concern in the media and politics. It is argued that meeting this demand by making better use of the existing housing supply is more sustainable than the construction of new housing units. In this context, targeting the phenomenon of so-called over the housing of empty nest households seems worthwhile to investigate for its potential to free living space and thus, reduce the need for new housing constructions and related environmental harm. Over housing occurs if no space adjustment takes place in household lifecycle stages when children move out from home and the space formerly created for the offspring is from then on under-utilized. Although in some cases the housing space consumption might actually meet households’ equilibrium preferences, frequently space-wise adjustments to the living situation doesn’t take place due to transaction or information costs, habit formation, or government intervention leading to increasing costs of relocations like real estate transfer taxes or tenant protection laws keeping tenure rents below the market price. Moreover, many detached houses are not long-term designed in a way that freed up space could be rent out. Findings of this research based on socio-economic survey data, indeed, show a significant difference between the living space of empty nest and a comparison group of households which never had children. The approach used to estimate the average difference in living space is a linear regression model regressing the response variable living space on a two-dimensional categorical variable distinguishing the two groups of household types and further controls. This difference is assumed to be the under-utilized space and is extrapolated to the total amount of empty nests in the population. Supporting this result, it is found that households that move, despite market frictions impairing the relocation, after children left their home tend to decrease the living space. In the next step, only for areas with tight housing markets in Germany and high construction activity, the total under-utilized space in empty nests is estimated. Under the assumption of full substitutability of housing space in empty nests and space in new dwellings in these locations, it is argued that in a perfect market with empty nest households consuming their equilibrium demand quantity of housing space, dwelling constructions in the amount of the excess consumption of living space could be saved. This, on the other hand, would prevent environmental harm quantified in carbon dioxide equivalence units related to average constructions of detached or multi-family houses. This study would thus provide information on the amount of under-utilized space inside dwellings which is missing in public data and further estimates the external effect of over housing in environmental terms.

Keywords: empty nests, environment, Germany, households, over housing

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Authors: Flavio A. F. Da Ponte, Jackson Q. Malveira, Monica C. G. Albuquerque

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In recent years a worldwide interest in renewable resources from the biomass has spurred the industry. In this work the chemical structure of oleic acid chains was modified by homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis in order to produce esters. The homogeneous epoxidation was carried out at H2O2 to oleic acid unsaturation molar ratio of 20:1. The reaction temperature was 338 K and reaction time 16 h. Formic acid was used as catalyst. For heterogeneous catalysis reaction temperature was 343 K and reaction time 24 h. The esters production was carried out by heterogeneous catalysis of the epoxidized oleic acid and butanol using Mg/SBA-15 as catalyst. The resulting products were confirmed by NMR (1H and 13C) and FTIR spectroscopy. The products were characterized before and after each reaction. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and BET surface areas. The results were satisfactory for the bioproducts formed.

Keywords: acid oleic, bioproduct, esters, epoxidation

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Authors: Zhiqiang Zhu, Khalegh Barati, Xuesong Shen

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Due to the energy consumption caused by the construction industry, the public is paying more and more attention to the sustainability of the buildings. With the advancement of research on recycled aggregates, it has become possible to replace natural aggregates with recycled aggregates and to achieve a reduction in energy consumption of materials during construction. The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively compare the emergy consumption of natural aggregate concrete (NAC) and recycled aggregate concrete (RAC). To do so, the emergy analysis method is adopted. Using this technique, it can effectively analyze different forms of energy and substance. The main analysis object is the direct and indirect emergy consumption of the stages in concrete production. Therefore, for indirect energy, consumption of production machinery and transportation vehicle also need to be considered. Finally, the emergy values required to produce the two concrete types are compared to analyze whether the RAC can reduce emergy consumption.

Keywords: sustainable construction, NAC, RAC, emergy, concrete

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Authors: Amit Kumar Dwivedi, Priyanko Ghosh

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Data Envelopment analysis (DEA) has been used to calculate the technical and scale efficiency measures of the public and private sugar manufacturing firms of the Indian Sugar Industry (2006 to 2010). Within DEA framework, the input & Output oriented Variable Returns to Scale (VRS) & Constant Return to Scale (CRS) model is employed for the study of Decision making units (DMUs). A representative sample of 43 firms which account for major portion of the total market share is studied. The selection criterion for the inclusion of a firm in the analysis was the total sales of INR 5,000 million or more in the year 2010. After reviewing the literature it is found that no study has been conducted in the context of Indian sugar manufacturing firms in the Post-liberalization era which motivates us to initiate the study.

Keywords: technical efficiency, Indian sugar manufacturing units, DEA, input output oriented

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Authors: José Manuel Palma, Paula Pereira, Margarida Tomás

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Foreseen the future: Human factors integration in European Horizon Projects The development of new technology as artificial intelligence, smart sensing, robotics, cobotics or intelligent machinery must integrate human factors to address the need to optimize systems and processes, thereby contributing to the creation of a safe and accident-free work environment. Human Factors Integration (HFI) consistently pose a challenge for organizations when applied to daily operations. AGILEHAND and FORTIS projects are grounded in the development of cutting-edge technology - industry 4.0 and 5.0. AGILEHAND aims to create advanced technologies for autonomously sort, handle, and package soft and deformable products, whereas FORTIS focuses on developing a comprehensive Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) solution. Both projects employ different approaches to explore HFI. AGILEHAND is mainly empirical, involving a comparison between the current and future work conditions reality, coupled with an understanding of best practices and the enhancement of safety aspects, primarily through management. FORTIS applies HFI throughout the project, developing a human-centric approach that includes understanding human behavior, perceiving activities, and facilitating contextual human-robot information exchange. it intervention is holistic, merging technology with the physical and social contexts, based on a total safety culture model. In AGILEHAND we will identify safety emergent risks, challenges, their causes and how to overcome them by resorting to interviews, questionnaires, literature review and case studies. Findings and results will be presented in “Strategies for Workers’ Skills Development, Health and Safety, Communication and Engagement” Handbook. The FORTIS project will implement continuous monitoring and guidance of activities, with a critical focus on early detection and elimination (or mitigation) of risks associated with the new technology, as well as guidance to adhere correctly with European Union safety and privacy regulations, ensuring HFI, thereby contributing to an optimized safe work environment. To achieve this, we will embed safety by design, and apply questionnaires, perform site visits, provide risk assessments, and closely track progress while suggesting and recommending best practices. The outcomes of these measures will be compiled in the project deliverable titled “Human Safety and Privacy Measures”. These projects received funding from European Union’s Horizon 2020/Horizon Europe research and innovation program under grant agreement No101092043 (AGILEHAND) and No 101135707 (FORTIS).

Keywords: human factors integration, automation, digitalization, human robot interaction, industry 4.0 and 5.0

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Authors: K. Sathishkumar, V. Thiagarasu

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Due to recent advances in DNA microarray technology, it is now feasible to obtain gene expression profiles of tissue samples at relatively low costs. Many scientists around the world use the advantage of this gene profiling to characterize complex biological circumstances and diseases. Microarray techniques that are used in genome-wide gene expression and genome mutation analysis help scientists and physicians in understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms, in diagnoses and prognoses, and choosing treatment plans. DNA microarray technology has now made it possible to simultaneously monitor the expression levels of thousands of genes during important biological processes and across collections of related samples. Elucidating the patterns hidden in gene expression data offers a tremendous opportunity for an enhanced understanding of functional genomics. However, the large number of genes and the complexity of biological networks greatly increase the challenges of comprehending and interpreting the resulting mass of data, which often consists of millions of measurements. A first step toward addressing this challenge is the use of clustering techniques, which is essential in the data mining process to reveal natural structures and identify interesting patterns in the underlying data. This work presents an analysis of several clustering algorithms proposed to deals with the gene expression data effectively. The existing clustering algorithms like Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-means algorithm and evolutionary algorithm etc. are analyzed thoroughly to identify the advantages and limitations. The performance evaluation of the existing algorithms is carried out to determine the best approach. In order to improve the classification performance of the best approach in terms of Accuracy, Convergence Behavior and processing time, a hybrid clustering based optimization approach has been proposed.

Keywords: microarray technology, gene expression data, clustering, gene Selection

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Authors: A. M. Ferrari, L. Volpi, M. Pini, C. Siligardi, F. E. Garcia Muina, D. Settembre Blundo

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A long tradition in the ceramic manufacturing since the 18th century, primarily due to the availability of raw materials and an efficient transport system, let to the birth and development of the Italian ceramic tiles district that nowadays represents a reference point for this sector even at global level. This economic growth has been coupled to attention towards environmental sustainability issues throughout various initiatives undertaken over the years at the level of the production sector, such as certification activities and sustainability policies. In this way, starting from an evaluation of the sustainability in all its aspects, the present work aims to develop a benchmarking helping both producers and consumers. In the present study, throughout the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) framework, the sustainability has been assessed in all its dimensions: environmental with the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), economic with the Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and social with the Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA). The annual district production of stoneware tiles during the 2016 reference year has been taken as reference flow for all the three assessments, and the system boundaries cover the entire life cycle of the tiles, except for the LCC for which only the production costs have been considered at the moment. In addition, a preliminary method for the evaluation of local and indoor emissions has been introduced in order to assess the impact due to atmospheric emissions on both people living in the area surrounding the factories and workers. The Life Cycle Assessment results, obtained from IMPACT 2002+ modified assessment method, highlight that the manufacturing process is responsible for the main impact, especially because of atmospheric emissions at a local scale, followed by the distribution to end users, the installation and the ordinary maintenance of the tiles. With regard to the economic evaluation, both the internal and external costs have been considered. For the LCC, primary data from the analysis of the financial statements of Italian ceramic companies show that the higher cost items refer to expenses for goods and services and costs of human resources. The analysis of externalities with the EPS 2015dx method attributes the main damages to the distribution and installation of the tiles. The social dimension has been investigated with a preliminary approach by using the Social Hotspots Database, and the results indicate that the most affected damage categories are health and safety and labor rights and decent work. This study shows the potential of the LCSA framework applied to an industrial sector; in particular, it can be a useful tool for building a comprehensive benchmark for the sustainability of the ceramic industry, and it can help companies to actively integrate sustainability principles into their business models.

Keywords: benchmarking, Italian ceramic industry, life cycle sustainability assessment, porcelain stoneware tiles

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Authors: Maulik Parmar, Sumeet Sandhu

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The online fashion industry experiences high product return rates. Many returns are because of size/fit mismatches -the size scale on labels can vary across brands, the size parameters may not capture all fit measurements, or the product may have manufacturing defects. Warehouse quality check of garment sizes can be semi-automated to improve speed and accuracy. This paper presents an approach for automatically measuring garment sizes from a single image of the garment -using Deep Learning to learn garment keypoints. The paper focuses on the waist size measurement of jeans and can be easily extended to other garment types and measurements. Experimental results show that this approach can greatly improve the speed and accuracy of today’s manual measurement process.

Keywords: convolutional neural networks, deep learning, distortion, garment measurements, image warping, keypoints

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Authors: Ammarah Irum, Muhammad Ali Tahir

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Document-level sentiment analysis in Urdu is a challenging Natural Language Processing (NLP) task due to the difficulty of working with lengthy texts in a language with constrained resources. Deep learning models, which are complex neural network architectures, are well-suited to text-based applications in addition to data formats like audio, image, and video. To investigate the potential of deep learning for Urdu sentiment analysis, we implemented five different deep learning models, including Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory (BiLSTM), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Convolutional Neural Network with Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory (CNN-BiLSTM), and Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformer (BERT). In this study, we developed a hybrid deep learning model called BiLSTM-Single Layer Multi Filter Convolutional Neural Network (BiLSTM-SLMFCNN) by fusing BiLSTM and CNN architecture. The proposed and baseline techniques are applied on Urdu Customer Support data set and IMDB Urdu movie review data set by using pre-trained Urdu word embedding that are suitable for sentiment analysis at the document level. Results of these techniques are evaluated and our proposed model outperforms all other deep learning techniques for Urdu sentiment analysis. BiLSTM-SLMFCNN outperformed the baseline deep learning models and achieved 83%, 79%, 83% and 94% accuracy on small, medium and large sized IMDB Urdu movie review data set and Urdu Customer Support data set respectively.

Keywords: urdu sentiment analysis, deep learning, natural language processing, opinion mining, low-resource language

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Authors: Somnath Bhattacharya, Kamal Sharma, Vaibhav Sonkar

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Composite materials emerged in the middle of the 20th century as a promising class of engineering materials providing new prospects for modern technology. Recently, a new class of composite materials known as functionally graded materials (FGMs) has drawn considerable attention of the scientific community. In general, FGMs are defined as composite materials in which the composition or microstructure or both are locally varied so that a certain variation of the local material properties is achieved. This gradual change in composition and microstructure of material is suitable to get gradient of properties and performances. FGMs are synthesized in such a way that they possess continuous spatial variations in volume fractions of their constituents to yield a predetermined composition. These variations lead to the formation of a non-homogeneous macrostructure with continuously varying mechanical and / or thermal properties in one or more than one direction. Lightweight functionally graded composites with high strength to weight and stiffness to weight ratios have been used successfully in aircraft industry and other engineering applications like in electronics industry and in thermal barrier coatings. In the present work, elastic-plastic crack growth problems (using Ramberg-Osgood Model) in an FGM plate under cyclic load has been explored by extended finite element method. Both edge and centre crack problems have been solved by taking additionally holes, inclusions and minor cracks under plane stress conditions. Both soft and hard inclusions have been implemented in the problems. The validity of linear elastic fracture mechanics theory is limited to the brittle materials. A rectangular plate of functionally graded material of length 100 mm and height 200 mm with 100% copper-nickel alloy on left side and 100% ceramic (alumina) on right side is considered in the problem. Exponential gradation in property is imparted in x-direction. A uniform traction of 100 MPa is applied to the top edge of the rectangular domain along y direction. In some problems, domain contains major crack along with minor cracks or / and holes or / and inclusions. Major crack is located the centre of the left edge or the centre of the domain. The discontinuities, such as minor cracks, holes, and inclusions are added either singly or in combination with each other. On the basis of this study, it is found that effect of minor crack in the domain’s failure crack length is minimum whereas soft inclusions have moderate effect and the effect of holes have maximum effect. It is observed that the crack growth is more before the failure in each case when hard inclusions are present in place of soft inclusions.

Keywords: elastic-plastic, fatigue crack, functionally graded materials, extended finite element method (XFEM)

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