Search results for: life cycle cost analysis

Authors: Jingyi Li, Laurence Stamford, Alejandro Gallego-Schmid

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Renewable electricity has become an indispensable contributor to achieving net-zero by the mid-century to tackle climate change. Unlike solar, wind, or hydro, geothermal was stagnant in its electricity production development for decades. However, with the significant breakthrough made in recent years, especially the implementation of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) in various regions globally, geothermal electricity could play a pivotal role in alleviating greenhouse gas emissions. Life cycle assessment has been applied to analyze specific geothermal power generation technologies, which proposed suggestions to optimize its environmental performance. For instance, selecting a high heat gradient region enables a higher flow rate from the production well and extends the technical lifespan. Although such process-level improvements have been made, the significance of geothermal power generation technologies so far has not explicitly displayed its competitiveness on a broader horizon. Therefore, this review-based study integrates a circular economy framework into life cycle assessment, clarifying the underlying added values for geothermal power plants to complete the sustainability profile. The derived results have provided an enlarged platform to discuss geothermal power generation technologies: (i) recover the heat and electricity from the process to reduce the fossil fuel requirements; (ii) recycle the construction materials, such as copper, steel, and aluminum for future projects; (iii) extract the lithium ions from geothermal brine and make geothermal reservoir become a potential supplier of the lithium battery industry; (iv) repurpose the abandoned oil and gas wells to build geothermal power plants; (v) integrate geothermal energy with other available renewable energies (e.g., solar and wind) to provide heat and electricity as a hybrid system at different weather; (vi) rethink the fluids used in stimulation process (EGS only), replace water with CO2 to achieve negative emissions from the system. These results provided a new perspective to the researchers, investors, and policymakers to rethink the role of geothermal in the energy supply network.

Keywords: climate, renewable energy, R strategies, sustainability

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Authors: Bita Mashayekhi, Mohammad Ara

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The purpose of this study is to provide some empirical evidence about implementing Activity-Based Costing (ABC) in the hospitality industry in Iran. For this purpose, we consider the Tabriz International Hotel as our sample hotel and then gather the relevant data from its cost accounting system in 2012. Then, we use ABC as our costing method and compare the cost of each service unit with that cost which had been extracted for the traditional costing method. The results show a different cost per unit for two methods. Also, because of its more precise and detailed provided information, an ABC system facilitates the decision-making process for managers on decisions related to profitability analysis, budgeting, pricing, and so on.

Keywords: Activity-Based Costing (ABC), activity, cost driver, hospitality industry

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Authors: Anastasia Constantinou, Panayiotis Laouris, Stephen Morris

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Background: Climate change has been reported as one of the worst threats to healthcare. The healthcare sector is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions with primary care being responsible for 23% of the NHS’ total carbon footprint. Digital interventions, primarily focusing on telemedicine, offer a route to change. This systematic review aims to quantify and characterize the carbon footprint savings associated with the implementation of digital interventions in the setting of primary care. Methods: A systematic review of published literature was conducted according to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. MEDLINE, PubMed, and Scopus databases as well as Google scholar were searched using key terms relating to “carbon footprint,” “environmental impact,” “sustainability”, “green care”, “primary care,”, and “general practice,” using citation tracking to identify additional articles. Data was extracted and analyzed in Microsoft Excel. Results: Eight studies were identified conducted in four different countries between 2010 and 2023. Four studies used interventions to address primary care services, three studies focused on the interface between primary and specialist care, and one study addressed both. Digital interventions included the use of mobile applications, online portals, access to electronic medical records, electronic referrals, electronic prescribing, video-consultations and use of autonomous artificial intelligence. Only one study carried out a complete life cycle assessment to determine the carbon footprint of the intervention. It estimate that digital interventions reduced the carbon footprint at primary care level by 5.1 kgCO2/visit, and at the interface with specialist care by 13.4 kg CO₂/visit. When assessing the relationship between travel-distance saved and savings in emissions, we identified a strong correlation, suggesting that most of the carbon footprint reduction is attributed to reduced travel. However, two studies also commented on environmental savings associated with reduced use of paper. Patient savings in the form of reduced fuel cost and reduced travel time were also identified. Conclusion: All studies identified significant reductions in carbon footprint following implementation of digital interventions. In the future, controlled, prospective studies incorporating complete life cycle assessments and accounting for double-consulting effects, use of additional resources, technical failures, quality of care and cost-effectiveness are needed to fully appreciate the sustainable benefit of these interventions

Keywords: carbon footprint, environmental impact, primary care, sustainable healthcare

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Authors: Andrea Schnabl, Mario Bernhart

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The controlling instrument of an internal cost allocation (IT chargeback) is commonly used to make IT costs transparent and controllable. Information Technology (IT) became, especially for information industries, a central competitive factor. Consequently, the focus is not on minimizing IT costs but on the strategic aligned application of IT. Hence, an internal IT cost allocation should be designed to enhance the business-IT alignment (strategic alignment of IT) in order to support the effective application of IT from a company’s point of view. To identify design criteria for an internal cost allocation to support business alignment a case study analysis at a typical medium-sized firm in information industry is performed. Documents, Key Performance Indicators, and cost accounting data over a period of 10 years are analyzed and interviews are performed. The derived design criteria are evaluated by 6 heads of IT departments from 6 different companies, which have an internal IT cost allocation at use. By applying these design criteria an internal cost allocation serves not only for cost controlling but also as an instrument in strategic IT management.

Keywords: accounting for IT services, Business IT Alignment, internal cost allocation, IT controlling, IT governance, strategic IT management

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Authors: Hong Dongchen, Chen Qiuxiao, Wu Shuang

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Systematic science reveals the complex nonlinear mechanisms of behaviour in urban system. However, in China, when the current city planners face with the system, most of them are still taking simple linear thinking to consider the open complex giant system. This paper introduces the hyper-cycle theory, which is one of the basis theories of systematic science, based on the analysis of the reasons why the current urban planning failed, and proposals for optimization ideas that urban planning compilation should change, from controlling quantitative to the changes of relationship, from blueprint planning to progressive planning based on the nonlinear characteristics and from management control to dynamically monitor feedback.

Keywords: systematic science, hyper-cycle theory, urban planning, urban management

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Authors: Cihan Çetinkaya, Eren Özceylan, Kerem Elibal

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This paper presents a solution method for selection of production facility. The motivation has been taken from a real life case, an automotive subcontractor which has two production facilities at different cities and parts. The problem is to decide which part(s) should be produced at which facility. To the best of our knowledge, until this study, there was no scientific approach about this problem at the firm and decisions were being given intuitively. In this study, some logistic cost parameters have been defined and with these parameters a mathematical model has been constructed. Defined and collected cost parameters are handling cost of parts, shipment cost of parts and shipment cost of welding fixtures. Constructed multi-objective mathematical model aims to minimize these costs while aims to balance the workload between two locations. Results showed that defined model can give optimum solutions in reasonable computing times. Also, this result gave encouragement to develop the model with addition of new logistic cost parameters.

Keywords: automotive subcontract, facility assignment, logistic costs, multi-objective models

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Authors: Oscar Orlando Ortiz Rodriguez, Raquel A. Villamizar-G, Alexander Araque

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There is a total of 1027 municipal development plants in Colombia, 70% of municipalities had Potable Water Treatment Plants (PWTPs) in urban areas and 20% in rural areas. These PWTPs are typically supplied by surface waters (mainly rivers) and resort to gravity, pumping and/or mixed systems to get the water from the catchment point, where the first stage of the potable water process takes place. Subsequently, a series of conventional methods are applied, consisting in a more or less standardized sequence of physicochemical and, sometimes, biological treatment processes which vary depending on the quality of the water that enters the plant. These processes require energy and chemical supplies in order to guarantee an adequate product for human consumption. Therefore, in this paper, we applied the environmental methodology of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental loads of a potable water treatment plant (PWTP) located in northeastern Colombia following international guidelines of ISO 14040. The different stages of the potable water process, from the catchment point through pumping to the distribution network, were thoroughly assessed. The functional unit was defined as 1 m³ of water treated. The data were analyzed through the database Ecoinvent v.3.01, and modeled and processed in the software LCA-Data Manager. The results allowed determining that in the plant, the largest impact was caused by Clarifloc (82%), followed by Chlorine gas (13%) and power consumption (4%). In this context, the company involved in the sustainability of the potable water service should ideally reduce these environmental loads during the potable water process. A strategy could be the use of Clarifloc can be reduced by applying coadjuvants or other coagulant agents. Also, the preservation of the hydric source that supplies the treatment plant constitutes an important factor, since its deterioration confers unfavorable features to the water that is to be treated. By concluding, treatment processes and techniques, bioclimatic conditions and culturally driven consumption behavior vary from region to region. Furthermore, changes in treatment processes and techniques are likely to affect the environment during all stages of a plant’s operation cycle.

Keywords: climate change, environmental impact, life cycle assessment, treated water

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Authors: Noemia Gomes de Mattos de Mesquita, José Eduardo Ferreira de Oliveira, Arimatea Quaresma Ferraz

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Stops to exchange cutting tool, to set up again the tool in a turning operation with CNC or to measure the workpiece dimensions have a direct influence on production. The premature removal of the cutting tool results in high cost of machining since the parcel relating to the cost of the cutting tool increases. On the other hand, the late exchange of cutting tool also increases the cost of production because getting parts out of the preset tolerances may require rework for its use when it does not cause bigger problems such as breaking of cutting tools or the loss of the part. Therefore, the right time to exchange the tool should be well defined when wanted to minimize production costs. When the flank wear is the limiting tool life, the time predetermination that a cutting tool must be used for the machining occurs within the limits of tolerance can be done without difficulty. This paper aims to show how the life of the cutting tool can be calculated taking into account the cutting parameters (cutting speed, feed and depth of cut), workpiece material, power of the machine, the dimensional tolerance of the part, the finishing surface, the geometry of the cutting tool and operating conditions of the machine tool, once known the parameters of Taylor algebraic structure. These parameters were raised for the ABNT 1038 steel machined with cutting tools of hard metal.

Keywords: machining, productions, cutting condition, design, manufacturing, measurement

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Authors: Yoon- Ho Shin, Jin-Seung Choi, Dong-Won Kang, Jeong-Woo Seo, Joo-Hack Lee, Ju-Young Kim, Dae-Hyeok Kim, Seung-Tae Yang, Gye-Rae Tack

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It is difficult to study the effect of various variables on cycle fitting through actual experiment. To overcome such difficulty, the forward dynamics of a musculoskeletal model was applied to cycle fitting in this study. The measured EMG data were compared with the muscle activities of the musculoskeletal model through forward dynamics. EMG data were measured from five cyclists who do not have musculoskeletal diseases during three minutes pedaling with a constant load (150 W) and cadence (90 RPM). The muscles used for the analysis were the Vastus Lateralis (VL), Tibialis Anterior (TA), Bicep Femoris (BF), and Gastrocnemius Medial (GM). Person’s correlation coefficients of the muscle activity patterns, the peak timing of the maximum muscle activities, and the total muscle activities were calculated and compared. BIKE3D model of AnyBody (Anybodytech, Denmark) was used for the musculoskeletal model simulation. The comparisons of the actual experiments with the simulation results showed significant correlations in the muscle activity patterns (VL: 0.789, TA: 0.503, BF: 0.468, GM: 0.670). The peak timings of the maximum muscle activities were distributed at particular phases. The total muscle activities were compared with the normalized muscle activities, and the comparison showed about 10% difference in the VL (+10%), TA (+9.7%), and BF (+10%), excluding the GM (+29.4%). Thus, it can be concluded that muscle activities of model & experiment showed similar results. The results of this study indicated that it was possible to apply the simulation of further improved musculoskeletal model to cycle fitting.

Keywords: musculoskeletal modeling, EMG, cycle fitting, simulation

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Authors: Ching-Feng Chen, Ching-Chih Tsai

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With the size of the transistor gradually approaching the physical limit, it challenges the persistence of Moore’s Law due to the development of the high numerical aperture (high-NA) lithography equipment and other issues such as short channel effects. In the context of the ever-increasing technical requirements of portable devices and high-performance computing, relying on the law continuation to enhance the chip density will no longer support the prospects of the electronics industry. Weighing the chip’s power consumption-performance-area-cost-cycle time to market (PPACC) is an updated benchmark to drive the evolution of the advanced wafer nanometer (nm). The advent of two and half- and three-dimensional (2.5 and 3D)- Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) packaging based on Through Silicon Via (TSV) technology has updated the traditional die assembly methods and provided the solution. This overview investigates the up-to-date and cutting-edge packaging technologies for 2.5D and 3D integrated circuits (ICs) based on the updated transistor structure and technology nodes. The author concludes that multi-chip solutions for 2.5D and 3D IC packagings are feasible to prolong Moore’s Law.

Keywords: moore’s law, high numerical aperture, power consumption-performance-area-cost-cycle time to market, 2.5 and 3D- very-large-scale integration, packaging, through silicon via

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Authors: Khachen Kongpakwattana, Charungthai Dejthevaporn, Orapitchaya Krairit, Piyameth Dilokthornsakul, Devi Mohan, Nathorn Chaiyakunapruk

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Background: Although an increase in the burden of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is evident worldwide, knowledge of costs and health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) associated with AD in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) is still lacking. We, therefore, aimed to collect real-world cost and HR-QoL data, and investigate their associations with multiple disease-severity indicators among AD patients in Thailand. Methods: We recruited AD patients aged ≥ 60 years accompanied by their caregivers at a university-affiliated tertiary hospital. A one-time structured interview was conducted to collect disease-severity indicators, HR-QoL and caregiving information using standardized tools. The hospital’s database was used to retrieve healthcare resource utilization occurred over 6 months preceding the interview date. Costs were annualized and stratified based on cognitive status. Generalized linear models were employed to evaluate determinants of costs and HR-QoL. Results: Among 148 community-dwelling patients, average annual total societal costs of AD care were 8,014 US$ [95% Confidence Interval (95% CI): 7,295 US$ - 8,844 US$] per patient. Total costs of patients with severe stage (9,860 US$; 95% CI: 8,785 US$ - 11,328 US$) were almost twice as high as those of mild stage (5,524 US$; 95% CI: 4,649 US$ - 6,593 US$). The major cost driver was direct medical costs, particularly those incurred by AD prescriptions. Functional status was the strongest determinant for both total costs and patient’s HR-QoL (p-value < 0.001). Conclusions: Our real-world findings suggest the distinct major cost driver which results from expensive AD treatment, emphasizing the demand for country-specific cost evidence. Increases in cognitive and functional status are significantly associated with decreases in total costs of AD care and improvement on patient’s HR-QoL.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, associations, costs, disease-severity indicators, health-related quality of life

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Authors: Erhan Çetin, Ali Kurşun, Şafak Aksoy, Merve Tunay Çetin

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The closed form study deal with elastic stress analysis of annular bi-material discs with variable thickness subjected to the mechanical and termomechanical loads. Those discs have many applications in the aerospace industry, such as gas turbines and gears. Those discs normally work under thermal and mechanical loads. Their life cycle can increase when stress components are minimized. Each material property is assumed to be isotropic. The results show that material combinations and thickness profiles play an important role in determining the responses of bi-material discs and an optimal design of those structures. Stress distribution is investigated and results are shown as graphs.

Keywords: bi-material discs, elastic stress analysis, mechanical loads, rotating discs

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Authors: Ashley R. Logsdon, Becky F. Antle, Cynthia M. Kamer

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This study examines the cost and benefits of a family treatment drug court in an urban county in a southeastern state. Additionally, this cost analysis will provide a detailed description of the type and cost of activities to produce the services provided to child welfare families. This study utilized return-on-investment analysis, which uses child welfare practices, disaggregates them into separate activities and estimates costs for these activities including child-level placement data for total cost of care for the child. Direct and indirect costs were considered as well as saving calculations what costs would be associated with child welfare outcomes both short and long term. The costs included were general program costs (salaries, drug screens, transportation, childcare, parent education, program evaluation, visitation, incentives) or personnel costs for other team members (judges, court administrators, child welfare workers, child welfare supervisors, and community mental health provider). The savings that were used in the study were length of time in out of home care, Medicaid costs, substance exposed births, emergency room utilization and jail/probation costs. This study documents an overall savings of between $168,993.30 and $837,993.30. The total savings per family divided by the 40 families who have participated in the program was between $4,224.83 to $20,949.83 per family. The results of this cost benefit analysis are consistent with prior research documenting savings associated with out of home care and jail/probation; however, there are also unique contributions of this study to the literature on cost effectiveness of family treatment drug courts. We will present recommendations for further utilization of family treatment drug courts and how to expand the current model.

Keywords: child welfare, cost analysis, family drug court, family treatment drug court

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Authors: Tetsuya Yabuki, Yasunori Arizumi, Tetsuhiro Shimozato, Samy Guezouli, Hiroaki Matsusita, Masayuki Tai

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The main object of this paper is to present the research results of the development of a hybrid stainless steel girder system for bridge construction undertaken at University of Ryukyu. In order to prevent the corrosion damage and reduce the fabrication costs, a hybrid stainless steel girder in bridge construction is developed, the stainless steel girder of which is stiffened and braced by structural carbon steel materials. It is verified analytically and experimentally that the ultimate strength of the hybrid stainless steel girder is equal to or greater than that of conventional carbon steel girder. The benefit of the life-cycle cost of the hybrid stainless steel girder is also shown.

Keywords: smart structure, hybrid stainless steel members, ultimate strength, steel bridge, corrosion prevention

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Authors: Iman Fakhrian, Ali Salehi Manzari

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Consistent Profitability is one of the most important priorities in manufacturing companies. One of the fundamental factors for increasing the companies profitability is cost management. Isfahan's mobarakeh steel company is one of the largest producers of the slab product grades in the middle east. Raw material cost constitutes about 70% of the company's expenditures. The costs of the ferro alloys have a remarkable contribution of the raw material costs. This research aims to determine the ferro alloys which have significant effect on the variability of the standard cost of the slab product grades. Used data in this study were collected from standard costing system of isfahan's mobarakeh steel company in 2022. The results of conducting the regression analysis model show that expense items: 03020, 03045, 03125, 03130 and 03150 have dominant role in variability of the standard cost of the slab product grades. In other words, the mentioned ferro alloys have noticeable and significant role in variability of the standard cost of the slab product grades.

Keywords: consistent profitability, ferro alloys, slab product grades, regression analysis

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Authors: Mehran Fadaeinasab, Hamed Karimian, Najihah Mohd Hashim, Hapipah Mohd Ali

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In this study, three indole alkaloids namely; rauvolfine B, macusine B, and isoreserpiline have been isolated from the dichloromethane crude extract of Rauvolfia reflexa bark (Apocynaceae). The structural elucidation of the isolated compounds has been performed using spectral methods such as UV, IR, MS, 1D, and 2D NMR. Rauvolfine B showed anti proliferation activity on HCT-116 cancer cell line, its cytotoxicity induction was observed using MTT assay in eight different cell lines. Annexin-V is serving as a marker for apoptotic cells and the Annexin-V-FITC assay was carried out to observe the detection of cell-surface Phosphatidylserine (PS). Apoptosis was confirmed by using caspase-8 and -9 assays. Cell cycle arrest was also investigated using flowcytometric analysis. rauvolfine B had exhibited significantly higher cytotoxicity against HCT-116 cell line. The treatment significantly arrested HCT-116 cells in the S phase. Together, the results presented in this study demonstrated that rauvolfine B inhibited the proliferation of HCT-116 cells and programmed cell death followed by cell cycle arrest.

Keywords: apocynacea, indole alkaloid, apoptosis, cell cycle arrest

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Authors: Lai Ving Kam

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Many markets are maturing, consumer buying powers are weakening and customer preferences change rapidly. To survive, many adopt fast paced continuous cost reduction and competitive pricing to remain relevance. Marketers desire to push for more sales to increase revenues have intensified competitions at time cannibalize the product and market. The amazing technologies changes have created both hope and despair to the industries. The pressure to constantly reduce cost, on the one hand, create and market new products in cheaper prices and shorter life cycles, on the other has become a continuous endeavour. The twin trends appear irreconcilable. Can core strategic vision provides and adapts new directions in continuous cost reduction? This study investigates core strategic vision able to meet this need, for firms to survive and stay profitable. Under current uncertainty market, are firms falling back on their core strategic visions to take them out of the unfavourable positions?

Keywords: core strategy vision, continuous cost reduction, fashionable products industry, competitive pricing

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Authors: E. A. Tkachenko, E. M. Rogova, V. V. Klimov

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One of the basic issues of development management is connected with performance measurement as a prerequisite for identifying the achievement of development objectives. The aim of our research is to develop an improved model of assessing a company’s development results. The model should take into account the cyclical nature of development and the high degree of uncertainty in dealing with numerous management tasks. Our hypotheses may be formulated as follows: Hypothesis 1. The cycle of a company’s development may be studied from the standpoint of a project cycle. To do that, methods and tools of project analysis are to be used. Hypothesis 2. The problem of the uncertainty when justifying managerial decisions within the framework of a company’s development cycle can be solved through the use of the mathematical apparatus of fuzzy logic. The reasoned justification of the validity of the hypotheses made is given in the suggested article. The fuzzy logic toolkit applies to the case of technology shift within an enterprise. It is proven that some restrictions in performance measurement that are incurred to conventional methods could be eliminated by implementation of the fuzzy logic apparatus in performance measurement models.

Keywords: logic, fuzzy sets, performance measurement, project analysis

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Authors: Ilaria Barletta, Mahesh Mani, Björn Johansson

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The concept of sustainability encompasses economic, environmental, social and institutional considerations. Sustainable manufacturing (SM) is, therefore, a multi-faceted concept. It broadly implies the development and implementation of technologies, projects and initiatives that are concerned with the life cycle of products and services, and are able to bring positive impacts to the environment, company stakeholders and profitability. Because of this, achieving SM-related goals requires a holistic, life-cycle-thinking approach from manufacturing companies. Further, such an approach must rely on a logic of continuous improvement and ease of implementation in order to be effective. Currently, there exists in the academic literature no comprehensively structured frameworks that support manufacturing companies in the identification of the issues and the capabilities that can either hinder or foster sustainability. This scarcity of support extends to difficulties in obtaining quantifiable measurements in order to objectively evaluate solutions and programs and identify improvement areas within SM for standards conformance. To bridge this gap, this paper proposes the concept of a framework for assessing and continuously improving the sustainability of manufacturing companies. The framework addresses strategies and projects for SM and operates in three sequential phases: analysis of the issues, design of solutions and continuous improvement. A set of interviews, observations and questionnaires are the research methods to be used for the implementation of the framework. Different decision-support methods - either already-existing or novel ones - can be 'plugged into' each of the phases. These methods can assess anything from business capabilities to process maturity. In particular, the authors are working on the development of a sustainable manufacturing maturity model (SMMM) as decision support within the phase of 'continuous improvement'. The SMMM, inspired by previous maturity models, is made up of four maturity levels stemming from 'non-existing' to 'thriving'. Aggregate findings from the use of the framework should ultimately reveal to managers and CEOs the roadmap for achieving SM goals and identify the maturity of their companies’ processes and capabilities. Two cases from two manufacturing companies in Australia are currently being employed to develop and test the framework. The use of this framework will bring two main benefits: enable visual, intuitive internal sustainability benchmarking and raise awareness of improvement areas that lead companies towards an increasingly developed SM.

Keywords: life cycle management, continuous improvement, maturity model, sustainable manufacturing

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Authors: Hendrik Bernard Van Der Walt, Frik Van Niekerk

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Fuel models render a reduction in BOL when thorium is added to a reactor core. Thorium emulates the role of a fertile poison, and is beneficial for reducing beginning of cycle (BOC) excess reactivity. In spite of the build-up of 233U over the duration of a fuel cycle, the effects of fuel reloading have a significant impact on fuel viability, especially in the case of heterogeneous thorium-based fuels. The most common practice of compensating for the reduction of BOC reactivity is the addition of fissile isotopes (uranium fuel with increased enrichment or plutonium). This study introduces a heterogeneous thorium-based fuel with minimal fissile isotope additions. A pseudo reloading scheme was developed for numerical simulations of an infinite reactor based on the North-Anna 1 reactor operating in Virginia, USA. Use of this reloading pattern allows new thorium-based fuel to be loaded into the reactor model as part of a phasing in strategy at the end of any conventional reactor cycle. Results demonstrate the effects of thorium-based fuel on fuel cycle characteristics such as fuel cycle length, neutron economy and material matrix. Application of the above mentioned approach delivered promising results and presents a heterogeneous thorium-based fuel which could replace conventional fuel of typical, currently operating (or future) reactors without the need for expensive reactor redesign or fuel recycling strategies.

Keywords: nuclear fuel, nuclear characteristics, nuclear fuel cycle, thorium-based fuel, heterogeneous design, fuel reloading

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Authors: Omar Farahat Hassanein, A. Samer Ezeldin

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The construction industry is a very dynamic field. Every day new technologies and methods are developing to fasten the process and increase its efficiency. Hence, if a project uses fewer resources, it will be more efficient. This paper examines the recycling of concrete construction and demolition (C&D) waste to reuse it as aggregates in on-site applications for construction projects in Egypt and possibly in the Middle East. The study focuses on a stationary plant setting. The machinery set-up used in the plant is analyzed technically and financially. The findings are gathered and grouped to obtain a comprehensive cost-benefit financial model to demonstrate the feasibility of establishing and operating a concrete recycling plant. Furthermore, a detailed business plan including the time and hierarchy is proposed.

Keywords: construction wastes, recycling, sustainability, financial model, concrete recycling, concrete life cycle

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Authors: Cecilia Amponsem-Boateng, Timothy Bonney Oppongx, Weidong Zhang, Jonathan Boakye Yiadom, Lianke Wang, Kwabena Acheampong, Godfrey Opolot

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In Ghana, the management of hypertension in primary health care is a cost-effective way of addressing premature deaths from vascular disorders that include hypertension. There is little or no evidence of large-scale studies on the prevalence, risk, and knowledge/awareness of hypertension in students aged 12–22 years in Ghana. In a cross-sectional study, blood pressure, anthropometric indices, and knowledge/awareness assessment of students at second-cycle schools were recorded from 2018 to 2020 in three regions of Ghana. Multistage cluster sampling was used in selecting regions and the schools. Prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension was categorized by the Joint National Committee 7, where appropriate, chi-square, scatter plots, and correlations were used in showing associations. A total of 3165 students comprising 1776 (56.1%) females and 1389 (43.9%) males participated in this study within three regions of Ghana. The minimum age was 12 years and the maximum age was 22 years. The mean age was 17.21 with standard deviation (SD: 1.59) years. A 95% confidence interval was set for estimations and a P value < 0.05 was set as significant. The prevalence rate of overall hypertension was 19.91% and elevated (prehypertension) was 26.07%. Risk indicators such as weight, BMI, waist circumference, physical activity, and form of the diet were positively correlated with hypertension. Among Ghanaian students currently in second-cycle educational institutions, 19.91% were hypertensive and 26.07% were prehypertensive. This may indicate a probable high prevalence of hypertension in the future adult population if measures are not taken to curb the associated risks.

Keywords: hypertension, second-cycle schools, Ghana, youth

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Authors: Sónia Ribeiro, Diana Farinha, Elsa Pereira, Hélia Sales, Filipa Figueiredo, Rita Pontes, João Nunes

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Conventional plastic impacts on Planet, natural resources contamination, human health as well as animals are the most attractive environmental and health attention. The lack of treatment in the end-of-life (EOL) phase and uncontrolled discard allows plastic to be found everywhere in the world. Food waste is increasing significantly, with a final destination to landfills. To face these difficulties, new packaging solutions are needed with the objective of prolonging the shelf-life of products as well as equipment solutions for the development of the mentioned packaging. FLUI project thus presents relevance and innovation to reach a new level of knowledge and industrial development focused in Ecodesign. Industrial equipment field for the manufacture of new packaging solutions based on biodegradable plastics films to apply in the food sector. With lesser environmental impacts and new solutions that make it possible to prevent food waste, reduce the production e consequent poor disposal of plastic of fossil origin. It will be a paradigm shift at different levels, from industry to waste treatment stations, passing through commercial agents and consumers. It can be achieved through the life cycle assessment (LCA) and ecodesign of the products, which integrates the environmental concerns in the design of the product as well as through the entire life cycle. The FLUI project aims to build a piece of new bio-PLA extrusion equipment with the incorporation of bioactive extracts through the production of flexible mono- and multi-layer functional films (FLUI systems). The biofunctional and biodegradable films will prompt the extension of packaged products’ shelf-life, reduce food waste and contribute to reducing the consumption of non-degradable fossil plastics, as well as the use of raw material from renewable sources.

Keywords: food packing, bioplastics, ecodesign, circular economy

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Authors: I. Inthanongsone, C. Drebenstedt, J. C. Bongaerts, P. Sontamino

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The major concern in evaluating the value of mining projects related to the deficiency of the traditional discounted cash flow (DCF) method. This method does not take uncertainties into account and, hence it does not allow for an economic assessment of managerial flexibility and operational adaptability, which are increasingly determining long-term corporate success. Such an assessment can be performed with the real options valuation (ROV) approach, since it allows for a comparative evaluation of unforeseen uncertainties in a project life cycle. This paper presents an economic evaluation model for open pit mining projects based on real options valuation approach. Uncertainties in the model are caused by metal prices and cost uncertainties and the system dynamics (SD) modeling method is used to structure and solve the real options model. The model is applied to a case study. It can be shown that that managerial flexibility reacting to uncertainties may create additional value to a mining project in comparison to the outcomes of a DCF method. One important insight for management dealing with uncertainty is seen in choosing the optimal time to exercise strategic options.

Keywords: DCF methods, ROV approach, system dynamics modeling methods, uncertainty

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Authors: Abolfazl Hosseinpour, Javad Marzbanrad

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In this research, the topology and shape optimization of a Macpherson control arm has been accomplished to achieve lighter weight. Present automotive market demands low cost and light weight component to meet the need of fuel efficient and cost effective vehicle. This in turn gives the rise to more effective use of materials for automotive parts which can reduce the mass of vehicle. Since automotive components are under dynamic loads which cause fatigue damage, considering fatigue criteria seems to be essential in designing automotive components. At first, in order to create severe loading condition for control arm, some rough roads are generated through power spectral density. Then, the most critical loading conditions are obtained through multibody dynamics analysis of a full vehicle model. Then, the topology optimization is performed based on fatigue life criterion using HyperMesh software, which resulted to 50 percent mass reduction. In the next step a CAD model is created using CATIA software and shape optimization is performed to achieve accurate dimensions with less mass.

Keywords: topology optimization, shape optimization, fatigue life, MacPherson control arm

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Authors: Mansour Abdi, Hadi Molaei Yasavoli

Abstract:

The purpose of this research is to comparison of self- efficacy and life satisfaction in normal users and users with internet addiction. The present study was descriptive and causal-comparative. Therefore, 304 students were selected random sampling method from students of Semnan University and completed questionnaires of internet addiction (young), Self-Efficacy Questionnaire and Life Satisfaction (SWIS). For data analysis was used the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). The results showed that internet addiction users have lower levels of self-efficacy and life satisfaction in comparison with normal users and the difference in p=0/0005 significantly. The findings showed that 78 percent of the variance in the dependent variables of self-efficacy and life satisfaction by grouping variables (internet addiction users and normal) is determined. Finally, considering that the rate of self-efficacy and life satisfaction is effective in the incidence of Internet addiction, it is proposed required measures are taken to enhance self-efficacy and life satisfaction in Internet users.

Keywords: self-efficacy, life satisfaction, users, internet addiction, normal users

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Authors: Sina Saadati, Mohammadreza Razzazi

Abstract:

In this article, we have tried to present an agent-based model of human muscle. A suitable model of muscle is necessary for the analysis of mankind's movements. It can be used by clinical researchers who study the influence of motion sicknesses, like Parkinson's disease. It is also useful in the development of a prosthesis that receives the electromyography signals and generates force as a reaction. Since we have focused on computational efficiency in this research, the model can compute the calculations very fast. As far as it concerns prostheses, the model can be known as a charge-efficient method. In this paper, we are about to illustrate an agent-based model. Then, we will use it to simulate the human gait cycle. This method can also be done reversely in the analysis of gait in motion sicknesses.

Keywords: agent-based modeling and simulation, human muscle, gait cycle, motion sickness

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Authors: Tarek Fatouh, Chehab Elbelehy, Alaa Abdelsalam, Eman Elakkad, Alaa Abdelshafie

Abstract:

This paper aims to explore the possibility of time compression in Engineer to Order production networks. A case study research method is used in a Norwegian shipbuilding project by implementing a value stream mapping lean tool with total cycle time as a unit of analysis. The analysis resulted in demonstrating the time deviations for the planned tasks in one of the processes in the shipbuilding project. So, authors developed a future state map by removing time wastes from value stream process.

Keywords: engineer to order, total cycle time, value stream mapping, shipbuilding

Procedia PDF Downloads 163

Authors: Wenjun Hou, Marek Perkowski

Abstract:

The Traveling Salesman problem is famous in computing and graph theory. In short, it asks for the Hamiltonian cycle of the least total weight in a given graph with N nodes. All variations on this problem, such as those with K-bounded-degree nodes, are classified as NP-complete in classical computing. Although several papers propose theoretical high-level designs of quantum algorithms for the Traveling Salesman Problem, no quantum circuit implementation of these algorithms has been created up to our best knowledge. In contrast to previous papers, the goal of this paper is not to optimize some abstract complexity measures based on the number of oracle iterations, but to be able to evaluate the real circuit and time costs of the quantum computer. Using the emerging quantum programming language Q# developed by Microsoft, which runs quantum circuits in a quantum computer simulation, an implementation of the bounded-degree problem and its respective quantum circuit were created. To apply Grover’s algorithm to this problem, a quantum oracle was designed, evaluating the cost of a particular set of edges in the graph as well as its validity as a Hamiltonian cycle. Repeating the Grover algorithm with an oracle that finds successively lower cost each time allows to transform the decision problem to an optimization problem, finding the minimum cost of Hamiltonian cycles. N log₂ K qubits are put into an equiprobablistic superposition by applying the Hadamard gate on each qubit. Within these N log₂ K qubits, the method uses an encoding in which every node is mapped to a set of its encoded edges. The oracle consists of several blocks of circuits: a custom-written edge weight adder, node index calculator, uniqueness checker, and comparator, which were all created using only quantum Toffoli gates, including its special forms, which are Feynman and Pauli X. The oracle begins by using the edge encodings specified by the qubits to calculate each node that this path visits and adding up the edge weights along the way. Next, the oracle uses the calculated nodes from the previous step and check that all the nodes are unique. Finally, the oracle checks that the calculated cost is less than the previously-calculated cost. By performing the oracle an optimal number of times, a correct answer can be generated with very high probability. The oracle of the Grover Algorithm is modified using the recalculated minimum cost value, and this procedure is repeated until the cost cannot be further reduced. This algorithm and circuit design have been verified, using several datasets, to generate correct outputs.

Keywords: quantum computing, quantum circuit optimization, quantum algorithms, hybrid quantum algorithms, quantum programming, Grover’s algorithm, traveling salesman problem, bounded-degree TSP, minimal cost, Q# language

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Authors: Belau Olatunde Gbadamosi, Oluchi Okere

Abstract:

Spurred by the ease of access to and the cost-effectiveness of open-source software such as DSpace, EPrints, and Greenstone Digital Libraries for hosting digital content, many libraries have added institutional repositories (IRs) to their repertoire of digital assets. This paper adopts a qualitative approach based on focus group discussions and the system development life cycle model (SDLC) to describe the experience of Albert Ilemobade Library (the Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria (FUTA) in the development of their IR - FUTASpace. Peculiar challenges experienced in the course of the development and solutions adopted are also reported. This study will serve as a reference point to other institutions, particularly those operating in developing countries, which may be poorly funded.

Keywords: institutional repository, digital libraries, university libraries, DSpace

Procedia PDF Downloads 173