Search results for: quality products

Authors: Azam Tabatabaee, Fereshteh Dastgoshadeh, Akram Tabatabaee

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This paper describes the use of by-products as adsorbents for removing heavy metals from aqueous effluent solutions. Products of almond skin, walnut shell, saw dust, rice bran and egg shell were evaluated as metal ion adsorbents in aqueous solutions. A comparative study was done with commercial adsorbents like ion exchange resins and activated carbon too. Batch experiments were investigated to determine the affinity of all of biomasses for, Cd(ΙΙ), Cr(ΙΙΙ), Ni(ΙΙ), and Pb(ΙΙ) metal ions at pH 5. The rate of metal ion removal in the synthetic wastewater by the biomass was evaluated by measuring final concentration of synthetic wastewater. At a concentration of metal ion (50 mg/L), egg shell adsorbed high levels (98.6 – 99.7%) of Pb(ΙΙ) and Cr(ΙΙΙ) and walnut shell adsorbed high levels (35.3 – 65.4%) of Ni(ΙΙ) and Cd(ΙΙ). In this study, it has been shown that by-products were excellent adsorbents for removal of toxic ions from wastewater with efficiency comparable to commercially available adsorbents, but at a reduced cost. Also statistical studies using Independent Sample t Test and ANOVA Oneway for statistical comparison between various elements adsorption showed that there isn’t a significant difference in some elements adsorption percentage by by-products and commercial adsorbents.

Keywords: adsorbents, heavy metals, commercial adsorbents, wastewater, by-products

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Authors: Punrapha Praditpong, Surangkana Pipatchokchaiyo

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The objectives of this study were to study the consumer behavior of the Baby boomers, the X & the Y generation towards Online Travel Agents in purchasing tourism-related products and services. The research methodology of this research used the quantitative study and the sample size consisted of 400 questionnaires in five districts of Bangkok. The data was analyzed by frequency, percentage, mean and SD. Moreover, all the hypotheses were tested by One-Way ANOVA and Pearson-Correlation statistics. The research findings were as follows: 1) There were significant effects to the purchasing decision making process towards purchasing tourism related products and services via OTAs; 2) There were different consumer behaviors from the Baby boomers, the X generation and the Y generation towards purchasing tourism related products and services via OTAs, which are explained in detail in finding. The research offers a discussion and presents some recommendations for the OTA websites.

Keywords: consumer behavior, online travel agent, x generations, y generations

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Authors: N. Ravikumar, S. Krishnan, B. Yokeshkumar

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In present days, the power quality issues are increases due to non-linear loads like fridge, AC, washing machines, induction motor, etc. This power quality issues will affects the output voltages, output current, and output power of the total performance of the generator. This paper explains how to test the generator using the Fluke 435 II series power quality analyser. This Fluke 435 II series power quality analyser is used to measure the voltage, current, power, energy, total harmonic distortion (THD), current harmonics, voltage harmonics, power factor, and frequency. The Fluke 435 II series power quality analyser have several advantages. They are i) it will records output in analog and digital format. ii) the fluke analyzer will records at every 0.25 sec. iii) it will also measure all the electrical parameter at a time.

Keywords: THD, harmonics, power quality, TNEB, Fluke 435

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Authors: Guity Karim, Valiollah Ayareh

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Probiotic dairy products are those that contain biologically active components that may affect beneficially one or more target functions in the body, beyond their adequate nutritional effects. As far as chocolate milk is a popular dairy product in the country especially among children and youth, production of a symbiotic (probiotic + peribiotic) new product using chocolate milk, Bifidobacterium lactis (DSM, Netherland) and inulin (Bene, Belgium) would help to promote the nutritional and functional properties of this product. Bifidobacterium Lactis is used as a probiotic in a variety of foods, particularly dairy products like yogurt and as a probiotic bacterium has benefit effects on the human health. Inulin as a peribiotic agent is considered as functional food ingredient. Experimental studies have shown its use as bifidogenic agent. Chocolate milk with different percent of fat (1 and 2 percent), 6 % of sugar and 0.9 % cacao was made, sterilized (UHT) and supplemented with Bifidobacterium lactis and inulin (0.5 %) after cooling . A sample was made without inulin as a control. Bifidobacterium lactis population was enumerated at days 0, 4, 8 and 12 together with measurement of pH, acidity and viscosity of the samples. Also sensory property of the product was evaluated by a 15 panel testers. The number of live bacterial cells was maintained at the functional level of 106-108 cfu/ml after keeping for 12 days in refrigerated temperature (4°C). Coliforms were found to be absent in the products during the storage. Chocolate milk containing 1% fat and inulin has the best effect on the survival and number of B. lactis at day 8 and after that. Moreover, the addition of inulin did not affect the sensorial quality of the product. In this work, chocolate has been evaluated as a potential protective carrier for oral delivery of B. lactis and inulin.

Keywords: chocolate milk, synbiotic, bifidobacterium lactis, inulin

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Authors: Prajakta Bhadgaonkar

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Forgiveness is taught since birth in Indian tradition. However, delivering a disabled child is a trauma for the parents. They keep on blaming themselves for the fault, which they are not responsible. Hence, due to lack of forgiving oneself the quality of life of both parent and child gets affected. In forgiveness, person tries to relieve oneself from the feeling of hatred towards oneself or other person. Forgiveness helps move ahead in the life. Hence, one can handle problem more efficiently resulting into better quality of life. In this study, the 30 parents of children with intellectual disability were contacted to find out quality of life. They were administered standardized measure of quality of life (QOL). The children were between 6 to 8 years of age. Out of these 30 parents, 12 parents (7 females and 5 males) were given forgiveness therapy for three months span. After every one month, the QOL scale was administered. At the end of three months, the significant difference was observed in quality of life of parents of children with intellectual disability. Genderwise there was no significant difference between male and female on quality of life.

Keywords: children with intellectual disability, forgiveness, parents, quality of life

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Authors: Mei-Yi Wu, Shang-Ming Huang

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The online shoppers nowadays often search the product information on the Internet using some keywords of products. To use this kind of information searching model, shoppers should have a preliminary understanding about their interesting products and choose the correct keywords. However, if the products are first contact (for example, the worn clothes or backpack of passengers which you do not have any idea about the brands), these products cannot be retrieved due to insufficient information. In this paper, we discuss and study the applications in E-commerce using image retrieval and text mining techniques. We design a reasonable E-commerce application system containing three layers in the architecture to provide users product information. The system can automatically search and retrieval similar images and corresponding web pages on Internet according to the target pictures which taken by users. Then text mining techniques are applied to extract important keywords from these retrieval web pages and search the prices on different online shopping stores with these keywords using a web crawler. Finally, the users can obtain the product information including photos and prices of their favorite products. The experiments shows the efficiency of proposed system.

Keywords: mobile image retrieval, text mining, product information service system, online marketing

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Authors: KVNKC Sharma, Soujanya Pasumarthi

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Globalization, coupled with increase in competition is compelling organizations to adopt innovative strategies and identify core competencies in order to distinguish themselves from the competition. The capability of an organization is no longer determined by their products or services alone. The intellectual assets and quality of the human resource are fast emerging as key differentiators. Corporations are now positioning themselves as ‘brands’ not solely to market their products and services, but also to lure and to retain the best talent in the business. This paper identifies leadership as the ‘key element’ in developing an organization’s brand, which has a significant influence on the employee’s eventual perception of this external brand as portrayed by the organization. External branding incorporates innovation, consumer concern, trust, quality and sustainability. The paper contends that employees are indeed an organization’s ‘brand ambassadors. Internal branding involves taking care of these ambassadors of corporate brand i.e. human resource. If employees of an organization are not exposed to the organization’s branding (an ongoing process that functionally aligns, motivates and empower employees at all levels to consistently provide a satisfying customer experience), the external brand could be jeopardized. Internal branding, on the other hand, refers to employee’s perception of the organization’s brand. The current business environment can at best, be termed as volatile. Employees with the right technical and behavioral skills remain a scarce resource and the employers need to be ready to capture the attention, interest and commitment of the best and brightest candidates. This paper attempts to review and understand the relationship between employer branding and employee retention. The paper also seeks to identify potential impact of employer branding across all the factors affecting employees.

Keywords: alignment, external branding, internal branding, leadership

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Authors: A. Dehghani, S. Shirin

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We propose in this article a new configuration of quantum states, |α, β> := |α>×|β>. Which are composed of vector products of two different copies of spin coherent states, |α> and |β>. Some mathematical as well as physical properties of such states are discussed. For instance, it has been shown that the cross products of two coherent vectors remain coherent again. They admit a resolution of the identity through positive definite measures on the complex plane. They represent packets similar to the true coherent states, in other words we would not expect to take spin squeezing in any of the field quadratures Lˆx, Lˆy and Lˆz. Depending on the particular choice of parameters in the above scenarios, they can be converted into the so-called Dicke states which minimize the uncertainty relations of each pair of the angular momentum components.

Keywords: vector (Cross-)products, minimum uncertainty, angular momentum, measurement, Dicke states

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Authors: K. V. N. K. C. Sharma

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Globalization, coupled with increase in competition is compelling organizations to adopt innovative strategies and identify core competencies in order to distinguish themselves from the competition. The capability of an organization is no longer determined by their products or services alone. The intellectual assets and quality of the human resource are fast emerging as key differentiators. Corporations are now positioning themselves as ‘brands’ not solely to market their products and services, but also to lure and to retain the best talent in the business. This paper identifies leadership as the ‘key element’ in developing an organization’s brand, which has a significant influence on the employee’s eventual perception of this external brand as portrayed by the organization. External branding incorporates innovation, consumer concern, trust, quality and sustainability. The paper contends that employees are indeed an organization’s ‘brand ambassadors. Internal branding involves taking care of these ambassadors of corporate brand i.e. human resource. If employees of an organization are not exposed to the organization’s branding (an ongoing process that functionally aligns, motivates and empower employees at all levels to consistently provide a satisfying customer experience), the external brand could be jeopardized. Internal branding, on the other hand, refers to employee’s perception of the organization’s brand. The current business environment can at best, be termed as volatile. Employees with the right technical and behavioral skills remain a scarce resource and the employers need to be ready to capture the attention, interest and commitment of the best and brightest candidates. This paper attempts to review and understand the relationship between employer branding and employee retention. The paper also seeks to identify potential impact of employer branding across all the factors affecting employees.

Keywords: external branding, organisation personnel, internal branding, leadership

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Authors: Tadele Tesfaw, Ajit Pal Singh, Abebaw Mekonnen Gezahegn

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Welding is a basic manufacturing process for making components or assemblies. Recent welding economics research has focused on developing the reliable machinery database to ensure optimum production. Research on welding of materials like steel is still critical and ongoing. Welding input parameters play a very significant role in determining the quality of a weld joint. The metal active gas (MAG) welding parameters are the most important factors affecting the quality, productivity and cost of welding in many industrial operations. The aim of this study is to investigate the optimization process parameters for metal active gas welding for 60x60x5mm dead mild steel plate work-piece using Taguchi method to formulate the statistical experimental design using semi-automatic welding machine. An experimental study was conducted at Bishoftu Automotive Industry, Bishoftu, Ethiopia. This study presents the influence of four welding parameters (control factors) like welding voltage (volt), welding current (ampere), wire speed (m/min.), and gas (CO2) flow rate (lit./min.) with three different levels for variability in the welding hardness. The objective functions have been chosen in relation to parameters of MAG welding i.e., welding hardness in final products. Nine experimental runs based on an L9 orthogonal array Taguchi method were performed. An orthogonal array, signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and analysis of variance (ANOVA) are employed to investigate the welding characteristics of dead mild steel plate and used in order to obtain optimum levels for every input parameter at 95% confidence level. The optimal parameters setting was found is welding voltage at 22 volts, welding current at 125 ampere, wire speed at 2.15 m/min and gas flow rate at 19 l/min by using the Taguchi experimental design method within the constraints of the production process. Finally, six conformations welding have been carried out to compare the existing values; the predicated values with the experimental values confirm its effectiveness in the analysis of welding hardness (quality) in final products. It is found that welding current has a major influence on the quality of welded joints. Experimental result for optimum setting gave a better hardness of welding condition than initial setting. This study is valuable for different material and thickness variation of welding plate for Ethiopian industries.

Keywords: Weld quality, metal active gas welding, dead mild steel plate, orthogonal array, analysis of variance, Taguchi method

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Authors: Mina Kargozari, Isabel Revilla Martin, Ángel A. Carbonell-Barrachina

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Different formulations of Turkish fermented sausages (sucuks) prepared with camel meat-hump (CH), camel meat-beef fat (CB), beef-hump (BH) and beef-beef fat (BB), were characterized. The sausages were analytically compared to determine differences in proximate composition and total cholesterol content (TCC), quality parameters such as fatty acids profile and fat quality characteristics, and lipid oxidation parameters including peroxide value, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) and resulted carbonyl compounds. The PUFAs/SFAs ratio was higher in CB and BB samples than CH and BH (p<0.05). The higher calculated atherogenic and thrombogenic indexes (AI and TI) were obtained from the samples made with hump (p< 0.05) as a result of high amounts of their SFAs. The CH sausages contained high amount of total fat (p<0.05) among all samples. The CB sucuks exhibited the highest protein content and the lowest TCC and rancidity at the end of ripening (p<0.05). The TBARS results showed that beef fat samples were more susceptible to lipid oxidation. Moreover, no significant difference (p<0.05) was observed for the values of short aldehydes among the sucuk samples excepting nonanal. This study demonstrated that supplementing camel meat for the production of dry-fermented sausage resulted in high quality products with good functional and nutritional characteristics.

Keywords: fermented sausages, quality properties, SPME, total cholesterol content

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Authors: V. Markogianni, D. Kalivas, G. Petropoulos, E. Dimitriou

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Lake water quality monitoring in combination with the use of earth observation products constitutes a major component in many water quality monitoring programs. Landsat 8 images of Trichonis Lake (Greece) acquired on 30/10/2013 and 30/08/2014 were used in order to explore the possibility of Landsat 8 to estimate water quality parameters and particularly CDOM absorption at specific wavelengths, chlorophyll-a and nutrient concentrations in this oligotrophic freshwater body, characterized by inexistent quantitative, temporal and spatial variability. Water samples have been collected at 22 different stations, on late August of 2014 and the satellite image of the same date was used to statistically correlate the in-situ measurements with various combinations of Landsat 8 bands in order to develop algorithms that best describe those relationships and calculate accurately the aforementioned water quality components. Optimal models were applied to the image of late October of 2013 and the validation of the results was conducted through their comparison with the respective available in-situ data of 2013. Initial results indicated the limited ability of the Landsat 8 sensor to accurately estimate water quality components in an oligotrophic waterbody. As resulted by the validation process, ammonium concentrations were proved to be the most accurately estimated component (R = 0.7), followed by chl-a concentration (R = 0.5) and the CDOM absorption at 420 nm (R = 0.3). In-situ nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and total nitrogen concentrations of 2014 were measured as lower than the detection limit of the instrument used, hence no statistical elaboration was conducted. On the other hand, multiple linear regression among reflectance measures and total phosphorus concentrations resulted in low and statistical insignificant correlations. Our results were concurrent with other studies in international literature, indicating that estimations for eutrophic and mesotrophic lakes are more accurate than oligotrophic, owing to the lack of suspended particles that are detectable by satellite sensors. Nevertheless, although those predictive models, developed and applied to Trichonis oligotrophic lake are less accurate, may still be useful indicators of its water quality deterioration.

Keywords: landsat 8, oligotrophic lake, remote sensing, water quality

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Authors: Mohammed A. A. Sarhan, Issam A. Al-Khatib

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Complying with the technical specifications of compost production is of high importance not only for environmental protection but also for increasing the productivity and promotion of compost use by farmers in agriculture. This study focuses on the compost quality of the Palestinian market and farmers’ attitudes toward agricultural use of compost. The quality is assessed through selection of 20 compost samples of different suppliers and producers and lab testing for quality parameters, while the farmers’ attitudes to compost use for agriculture are evaluated through survey questionnaire of 321 farmers in the Hebron area. The results showed that the compost in the Palestinian markets is of medium quality due to partial or non-compliance with the quality standards and guidelines. The Palestinian farmers showed a positive attitude since 91.2% of them have the desire to use compost in agriculture. The results also showed that knowledge of difference between compost and chemical fertilizers, perception of compost benefits and previously experiencing problems in compost use, are significant factors affecting the farmers’ attitude toward the use of compost as an organic fertilizer.

Keywords: attitude, compost, compost quality, organic fertilizer, manure

Procedia PDF Downloads 157

Authors: Elisabetta Cianfanelli, Margherita Tufarelli, Paolo Pupparo

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The dialectical mediation between desires and objects or between mass production and consumption continues to evolve over time. This relationship is influenced both by variable geometries of contexts that are distant from the mere design of product form and by aspects rooted in the very definition of industrial design. In particular, the overcoming of macro-areas of innovation in the technological, social, cultural, formal, and morphological spheres, supported by recent theories in critical and speculative design, seems to be moving further and further away from the design of the formal dimension of advanced products. The articulated fabric of theories and practices that feed the definition of “hyperobjects”, and no longer objects describes a common tension in all areas of design and production of industrial products. The latter are increasingly detached from the design of the form and meaning of the same in mass productions, thus losing the quality of products capable of social transformation. For years we have been living in a transformative moment as regards the design process in the definition of the industrial product. We are faced with a dichotomy in which there is, on the one hand, a reactionary aversion to the new techniques of industrial production and, on the other hand, a sterile adoption of the techniques of mass production that we can now consider traditional. This ambiguity becomes even more evident when we talk about industrial products, and we realize that we are moving further and further away from the concepts of "form" as a synthesis of a design thought aimed at the aesthetic-emotional component as well as the functional one. The design of forms and their contents, as statutes of social acts, allows us to investigate the tension on mass production that crosses seasons, trends, technicalities, and sterile determinisms. The design culture has always determined the formal qualities of objects as a sum of aesthetic characteristics functional and structural relationships that define a product as a coherent unit. The contribution proposes a reflection and a series of practical experiences of research on the form of advanced products. This form is understood as a kaleidoscope of relationships through the search for an identity, the desire for democratization, and between these two, the exploration of the aesthetic factor. The study of form also corresponds to the study of production processes, technological innovations, the definition of standards, distribution, advertising, the vicissitudes of taste and lifestyles. Specifically, we will investigate how the genesis of new forms for new meanings introduces a change in the relative innovative production techniques. It becomes, therefore, fundamental to investigate, through the reflections and the case studies exposed inside the contribution, also the new techniques of production and elaboration of the forms of the products, as new immanent and determining element inside the planning process.

Keywords: industrial design, product advanced design, mass productions, new meanings

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Authors: Maria Komal, Zaineb Khalil, Mehreen Sirshar

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Due to the recent technological advancements, Games have become one of the most demanding applications. Gaming industry is rapidly growing and the key to success in this industry is the development of good quality games, which is a highly competitive issue. The ultimate goal of game developers is to provide player’s satisfaction by developing high-quality games. This research is the comprehensive survey of techniques followed by game industries to ensure games quality. After analysis of various techniques, it has been found that quality simulation according to ISO standards and play test methods are used to ensure games quality. Because game development requires cross-disciplined team, an increasing trend towards distributed game development has been observed. This paper evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of current methodologies used in game industry and draws a conclusion. We have also proposed quality parameters which can be used as a heuristic framework to identify those attributes which have high testing priorities.

Keywords: game development, computer games, video games, gaming industry, quality assurance, playability, user experience

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Authors: Manjinder Singh, Anish Sachdeva

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Research on total quality management (TQM), total productive maintenance (TPM), international organization for standardization (ISO) and six sigma generally investigate the implementation and impact of these programs in isolation. However, none of these quality improvement programs is self-sufficient and they may not be powerful enough to deliver the improvements and innovations that are required nowadays to ensure the survival and growth of a firm. They are not mutually exclusive and inconsistent. On the contrary, they need complementary support and may reinforce mutually to make use of their complementarity, inducement of side-effects in favor of other quality improvement program, mutual simulation and exploitation of shared values. In this paper, first of all, the various management activities were identified which are normally under focus when any quality improvement program is implemented in any organization. Then TOPSIS methodology was applied to establish the ranking of various quality improvement programs (total quality management, total productive maintenance, ISO and six sigma which were brought to the corporate boardroom to improve the quality) with respect to different management activities (operations related activities, quality related activities, maintenance related activities, organizational related activities, human related activities and finance related activities).

Keywords: total productive maintenance (TPM), total quality management (TQM), TOPSIS, international organization for standardization (ISO)

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Authors: Leesa Mohanty, Ashok Banerjee

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Better audit quality signifies the financial statements of the auditee firm reflect true and fair view of their actual state of affairs, which reduces information asymmetry between management and shareholders, as a result, helps protect interests of shareholders. This study examines the impact of joint audit on audit quality. It is motivated by the ongoing debate where The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the regulatory body governing auditors, has advocated the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the mandatory use of joint audit in private banks to enhance the quality of audit. Earlier, the Government of India had rejected the plea by ICAI for mandatory joint audits in large companies stating it is not a viable option for promoting domestic firms. We introduce a new measure of audit quality. Drawing from the domain of text analytics, we use relevant phrases in audit reports to gauge audit quality and demonstrate that joint audit improves audit quality. We also, for robustness, use prevalent proxy for audit quality (Big N Auditor, ratio of audit fees to total fees) and find negative effect of joint audit on audit quality. We, therefore highlight that different proxy for audit quality show opposite effect of joint audit.

Keywords: audit fees, audit quality, Big N. Auditor, joint audit

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Authors: Pin-Wei Chiang, Wen-Liang Chang, Ruey-Huei Yeh

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This paper investigates optimal replacement and preventative maintenance policies of secondhand products under a Finite Planning Horizon (FPH). Any consumer wishing to replace their product under FPH would have it undergo minimal repairs. The replacement provided would be required to undergo periodical preventive maintenance done to avoid product failure. Then, a mathematical formula for disbursement cost for products under FPH can be derived. Optimal policies are then obtained to minimize cost. In the first of two segments of the paper, a model for initial product purchase of either new or secondhand products is used. This model is built by analyzing product purchasing price, surplus value of product, as well as the minimal repair cost. The second segment uses a model for replacement products, which are also secondhand products with no limit on usage. This model analyzes the same components as the first as well as expected preventative maintenance cost. Using these two models, a formula for the expected final total cost can be developed. The formula requires four variables (optimal preventive maintenance level, preventive maintenance frequency, replacement timing, age of replacement product) to find minimal cost requirement. Based on analysis of the variables using the expected total final cost model, it was found that the purchasing price and length of ownership were directly related. Also, consumers should choose the secondhand product with the higher usage for replacement. Products with higher initial usage upon acquisition require an earlier replacement schedule. In this case, replacements should be made with a secondhand product with less usage. In addition, preventative maintenance also significantly reduces cost. Consumers that plan to use products for longer periods of time replace their products later. Hence these consumers should choose the secondhand product with lesser initial usage for replacement. Preventative maintenance also creates significant total cost savings in this case. This study provides consumers with a method of calculating both the ideal amount of usage of the products they should purchase as well as the frequency and level of preventative maintenance that should be conducted in order to minimize cost and maintain product function.

Keywords: finite planning horizon, second hand product, replacement, preventive maintenance, minimal repair

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Authors: Sohail Yasin, Massimo Curti, Nemeshwaree Behary, Giorgio Rovero

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It is well-known that the presence of discarded textile products in municipal landfills poses environmental problems due to leaching of chemical products from the textile to the environment. Incineration of such textiles is considered to be an efficient way to produce energy and reduce environmental impacts of textile materials at their end-of life stage. However, the presence of flame retardant products on textiles would decrease the energy yield and emit toxic gases during incineration stage. While some non-durable flame retardants can be removed by wet treatments (e.g. washing), these substances pollute water and pose concerns towards environmental health. Our study shows that infrared radiation can be used efficiently to degrade flame retardant products on the textiles. This method is finalized to minimize the decrease in energy yield during the incineration or gasification processes of flame retardant cotton fabrics.

Keywords: degradation, flame retardant, infrared radiation, cotton, incineration

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Authors: Marc Dorval, Marie-Hélène Jobin

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This work presents the various perspectives, dimensions, components and definitions given to quality in the operations management (OM) and healthcare services (HCS) literature in time, highlighting gaps and learning opportunities between the two disciplines through a thorough search into their rich and distinct body of knowledge. Greater and new insights about the general nature of quality are obtained with findings such as in OM, quality has been approached in six fairly distinct paradigms (excellence, value, conformity to specifications, attributes, satisfaction and meeting or exceeding customer expectations), whereas in HCS, two approaches are prominent (Donabedian’s structure, process and outcomes model and Lohr and Schroeder’s circumscribed definition). The two disciplines views on quality seem to have progressed much in parallel with little cross-learning from each other. This work then proposes an encompassing definition of quality as a lever and suggests further research and development avenues for a better use of the concept of quality by academics and practitioners alike toward the goals of greater organizational performance and improved management in healthcare and possibly other service domains.

Keywords: healthcare, management, operations, quality, services

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Authors: Won Jung, Wan Emri

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Ferrite magnet is widely used in many automotive components such as motors and alternators. Magnets used inside the components must be in good quality to ensure the high level of performance. The purpose of this study is to design input parameters that optimize the ferrite magnet production process to ensure the quality and reliability of manufactured products. Design of Experiments (DOE) and Statistical Process Control (SPC) are used as mutual supplementations to optimize the process. DOE and SPC are quality tools being used in the industry to monitor and improve the manufacturing process condition. These tools are practically used to maintain the process on target and within the limits of natural variation. A mixed Taguchi method is utilized for optimization purpose as a part of DOE analysis. SPC with proportion data is applied to assess the output parameters to determine the optimal operating conditions. An example of case involving the monitoring and optimization of ferrite magnet process was presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach. Through the utilization of these tools, reliable magnets can be produced by following the step by step procedures of proposed framework. One of the main contributions of this study was producing the crack free magnets by applying the proposed parameter design.

Keywords: ferrite magnet, crack, reliability, process optimization, Taguchi method

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Authors: Khadije Khazaeli, Farzane Saberi

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Spinal cord injury is one of the traumatic events which has a great impact on the quality of life. spirituality has been used to improve many disorders and abnormalities in recent years and positive results have been seen; accordingly, the present study investigated the relationship between spirituality and quality of life in these patients. This study is a cross-sectional study of the correlation type was conducted on 100 people with spinal cord injury in Isfahan province in 2016 by the available sample method. Spirituality was assessed through the Spiritual Attitude Questionnaire and quality of life through the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire. Pearson correlation and regression tests were used to analyze the data. The results of this study showed that spirituality has a significant relationship with the quality of life of patients with spinal cord injury. It was also proved that all sub-units of spirituality, including attitude and spiritual ability, can affect all components of quality of life. The findings suggest that spirituality, along with other factors, can lead to a significant improvement in quality of life and, ultimately, general health of patients with SCI.

Keywords: spinal cord injury, quality of life, spirituality, patients

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Authors: Chengxuan Geng, Yizhou E

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This paper mainly examines the changes in the relationship between earnings management and audit quality before and after financial crisis in the context of American firms from 2005 to 2010. Based on a sample of 3584 firm year observations, we find that there are changes concerning the relation between accrual-based earnings management and audit quality during the pre-crisis and post-crisis periods. However, the results do not provide enough evidence with regard to the variances in the association between real activities earnings management and audit quality during these two periods.

Keywords: audit quality, earnings management, financial crisis, relationship

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Authors: Karen Hong

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Smart tactile textiles are a series of textile-based products that incorporates smart embedded technology to be utilized as tactile therapeutic applications for 2 main groups of target users. The first group of users will be children with sensory processing disorder who are suffering from tactile sensory dysfunction. Children with tactile sensory issues may have difficulty tolerating the sensations generated from the touch of certain textures on the fabrics. A series of smart tactile textiles, collectively known as ‘Tactile Toys’ are developed as tactile therapy play objects, exposing children to different types of touch sensations within textiles, enabling them to enjoy tactile experiences together with interactive play which will help them to overcome fear of certain touch sensations. The second group of users will be the elderly or geriatric patients who are suffering from deteriorating sense of touch. One of the common consequences of aging is suffering from deteriorating sense of touch and a decline in motoric function. With the focus in stimulating the sense of touch for this particular group of end users, another series of smart tactile textiles, collectively known as ‘Tactile Aids’ are developed also as tactile therapy. This range of products can help to maintain touch sensitivity and at the same time allowing the elderly to enjoy interactive play to practice their hand-eye coordination and enhancing their motor skills. These smart tactile textile products are being designed and tested out by the end users and have proofed their efficacy as tactile therapy enabling the users to lead a better quality of life.

Keywords: smart textiles, embedded technology, tactile therapy, tactile aids, tactile toys

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Authors: M. Olmedilla, M. R. Martinez-Torres, S. L. Toral

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Electronic Word-Of-Mouth (eWOM) communities represent today an important source of information in which more and more customers base their purchasing decisions. They include thousands of reviews concerning very different products and services posted by many individuals geographically distributed all over the world. Due to their massive audience, eWOM communities can help users to find the product they are looking for even if they are less popular or rare. This is known as the long tail effect, which leads to a larger number of lower-selling niche products. This paper analyzes the long tail effect in a well-known eWOM community and defines a tool for finding niche products unavailable through conventional channels.

Keywords: eWOM, online user reviews, long tail theory, product categorization, social network analysis

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Authors: Bruno Pinto Vieira, Marco Antonio Calijorne Soares, Armando Sérgio de Aguiar Filho

Abstract:

Nowadays, a massive amount of information has been produced by different data sources, including mobile devices and transactional systems. In this scenario, concerns arise on how to maintain or establish data quality, which is now treated as a product to be defined, measured, analyzed, and improved to meet consumers' needs, which is the one who uses these data in decision making and companies strategies. Information that reaches low levels of quality can lead to issues that can consume time and money, such as missed business opportunities, inadequate decisions, and bad risk management actions. The step of selecting, identifying, evaluating, and selecting data sources with significant quality according to the need has become a costly task for users since the sources do not provide information about their quality. Traditional data quality control methods are based on user experience or business rules limiting performance and slowing down the process with less than desirable accuracy. Using advanced machine learning algorithms, it is possible to take advantage of computational resources to overcome challenges and add value to companies and users. In this study, machine learning is applied to data quality analysis on different datasets, seeking to compare the performance of the techniques according to the dimensions of quality assessment. As a result, we could create a ranking of approaches used, besides a system that is able to carry out automatically, data quality assessment.

Keywords: machine learning, data quality, quality dimension, quality assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: Shayma Mohammed, Adel Trabelsi

Abstract:

Radiopharmacy is the art of preparing high-quality, radioactive, medicinal products for use in diagnosis and therapy. Radiopharmaceuticals unlike normal medicines, this dual aspect (radioactive, medical) makes their management highly critical. One of the most convincing applications of modern technologies is the ability to delegate the execution of repetitive tasks to programming scripts. Automation has found its way to the most skilled jobs, to improve the company's overall performance by allowing human workers to focus on more important tasks than document filling. This project aims to contribute to implement a comprehensive system to insure rigorous management of radiopharmaceuticals through the use of a platform that links the Nuclear Medicine Service Management System to the Nuclear Radio-pharmacy Management System in accordance with the recommendations of World Health Organization (WHO) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In this project we attempt to build a web application that targets radiopharmacies, the platform is built atop the inherently compatible web stack which allows it to work in virtually any environment. Different technologies are used in this project (PHP, Symfony, MySQL Workbench, Bootstrap, Angular 7, Visual Studio Code and TypeScript). The operating principle of the platform is mainly based on two parts: Radiopharmaceutical Backoffice for the Radiopharmacian, who is responsible for the realization of radiopharmaceutical preparations and their delivery and Medical Backoffice for the Doctor, who holds the authorization for the possession and use of radionuclides and he/she is responsible for ordering radioactive products. The application consists of sven modules: Production, Quality Control/Quality Assurance, Release, General Management, References, Transport and Stock Management. It allows 8 classes of users: The Production Manager (PM), Quality Control Manager (QCM), Stock Manager (SM), General Manager (GM), Client (Doctor), Parking and Transport Manager (PTM), Qualified Person (QP) and Technical and Production Staff. Digital platform bringing together all players involved in the use of radiopharmaceuticals and integrating the stages of preparation, production and distribution, Web technologies, in particular, promise to offer all the benefits of automation while requiring no more than a web browser to act as a user client, which is a strength because the web stack is by nature multi-platform. This platform will provide a traceability system for radiopharmaceuticals products to ensure the safety and radioprotection of actors and of patients. The new integrated platform is an alternative to write all the boilerplate paperwork manually, which is a tedious and error-prone task. It would minimize manual human manipulation, which has proven to be the main source of error in nuclear medicine. A codified electronic transfer of information from radiopharmaceutical preparation to delivery will further reduce the risk of maladministration.

Keywords: automated system, management, radiopharmacy, technical papers

Procedia PDF Downloads 149

Authors: Meimei Zheng

Abstract:

Product personalization could not only bring new profits to companies but also provide the direction of long-term development for companies. However, the characteristics of personalized product cause some new problems. This paper investigates how companies make decisions on the supply of personalized products when facing different customer attitudes to personalized product and service, constraints due to limited capacity and updates of personalized demand information. This study will provide optimal decisions for companies to develop personalized markets, resulting in promoting business transformation and improving business competitiveness.

Keywords: demand forecast updating, limited capacity, personalized products, optimization

Procedia PDF Downloads 245

Authors: Siti Rahmawati

Abstract:

Indonesia has had long period of monetary economic crisis and it is followed by an upward trend in the price of fuel oil. This situation impacts all aspects of tuna fishermen community. For instance, the basic needs of fishing communities increase and the lower purchasing power then lead to economic and social instability as well as the health of fishermen household. To understand this AHP method is applied to acknowledge the model of tuna fisheries management priorities and cold chain marketing channel and the utilization levels that impact on human health. The study is designed as a development research with the number of 180 respondents. The data were analyzed by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The development of tuna fishery business can improve productivity of production with economic empowerment activities for coastal communities, improving the competitiveness of products, developing fish processing centers and provide internal capital for the development of optimal fishery business. From economic aspects, fishery business is more attracting because the benefit cost ratio of 2.86. This means that for 10 years, the economic life of this project can work well as B/C> 1 and therefore the rate of investment is economically viable. From the health aspects, tuna can reduce the risk of dying from heart disease by 50%, because tuna contain selenium in the human body. The consumption of 100 g of tuna meet 52.9% of the selenium in the body and activating the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidaxe which can protect the body from free radicals and stimulate various cancers. The results of the analytic hierarchy process that the quality of tuna products is the top priority for export quality as well as quality control in order to compete in the global market. The implementation of the policy can increase the income of fishermen and reduce the poverty of fishermen households and have impact on the human health whose has high risk of disease.

Keywords: management of tuna, social, economic, health

Procedia PDF Downloads 308

Authors: Jeh-Nan Pan, Chung-I Li

Abstract:

Measurement system analysis (MSA) plays an important role in helping organizations to improve their product quality. Generally speaking, the gauge repeatability and reproducibility (GRR) study is performed according to the MSA handbook stated in QS9000 standards. Usually, GRR study for assessing the adequacy of gauge variation needs to be conducted prior to the process capability analysis. Traditional MSA only considers a single quality characteristic. With the advent of modern technology, industrial products have become very sophisticated with more than one quality characteristic. Thus, it becomes necessary to perform multivariate GRR analysis for a measurement system when collecting data with multiple responses. In this paper, we take the correlation coefficients among tolerances into account to revise the multivariate precision-to-tolerance (P/T) ratio as proposed by Majeske (2008). We then compare the performance of our revised P/T ratio with that of the existing ratios. The simulation results show that our revised P/T ratio outperforms others in terms of robustness and proximity to the actual value. Moreover, the optimal allocation of several parameters such as the number of quality characteristics (v), sample size of parts (p), number of operators (o) and replicate measurements (r) is discussed using the confidence interval of the revised P/T ratio. Finally, a standard operating procedure (S.O.P.) to perform the GRR study for multivariate measurement systems is proposed based on the research results. Hopefully, it can be served as a useful reference for quality practitioners when conducting such study in industries. Measurement system analysis (MSA) plays an important role in helping organizations to improve their product quality. Generally speaking, the gauge repeatability and reproducibility (GRR) study is performed according to the MSA handbook stated in QS9000 standards. Usually, GRR study for assessing the adequacy of gauge variation needs to be conducted prior to the process capability analysis. Traditional MSA only considers a single quality characteristic. With the advent of modern technology, industrial products have become very sophisticated with more than one quality characteristic. Thus, it becomes necessary to perform multivariate GRR analysis for a measurement system when collecting data with multiple responses. In this paper, we take the correlation coefficients among tolerances into account to revise the multivariate precision-to-tolerance (P/T) ratio as proposed by Majeske (2008). We then compare the performance of our revised P/T ratio with that of the existing ratios. The simulation results show that our revised P/T ratio outperforms others in terms of robustness and proximity to the actual value. Moreover, the optimal allocation of several parameters such as the number of quality characteristics (v), sample size of parts (p), number of operators (o) and replicate measurements (r) is discussed using the confidence interval of the revised P/T ratio. Finally, a standard operating procedure (S.O.P.) to perform the GRR study for multivariate measurement systems is proposed based on the research results. Hopefully, it can be served as a useful reference for quality practitioners when conducting such study in industries.

Keywords: gauge repeatability and reproducibility, multivariate measurement system analysis, precision-to-tolerance ratio, Gauge repeatability

Procedia PDF Downloads 253