Search results for: Analytic Network Process (ANP)
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 18941

Search results for: Analytic Network Process (ANP)

14291 Comparison of Two Maintenance Policies for a Two-Unit Series System Considering General Repair

Authors: Seyedvahid Najafi, Viliam Makis

Abstract:

In recent years, maintenance optimization has attracted special attention due to the growth of industrial systems complexity. Maintenance costs are high for many systems, and preventive maintenance is effective when it increases operations' reliability and safety at a reduced cost. The novelty of this research is to consider general repair in the modeling of multi-unit series systems and solve the maintenance problem for such systems using the semi-Markov decision process (SMDP) framework. We propose an opportunistic maintenance policy for a series system composed of two main units. Unit 1, which is more expensive than unit 2, is subjected to condition monitoring, and its deterioration is modeled using a gamma process. Unit 1 hazard rate is estimated by the proportional hazards model (PHM), and two hazard rate control limits are considered as the thresholds of maintenance interventions for unit 1. Maintenance is performed on unit 2, considering an age control limit. The objective is to find the optimal control limits and minimize the long-run expected average cost per unit time. The proposed algorithm is applied to a numerical example to compare the effectiveness of the proposed policy (policy Ⅰ) with policy Ⅱ, which is similar to policy Ⅰ, but instead of general repair, replacement is performed. Results show that policy Ⅰ leads to lower average cost compared with policy Ⅱ. 

Keywords: condition-based maintenance, proportional hazards model, semi-Markov decision process, two-unit series systems

Procedia PDF Downloads 104
14290 Texturing of Tool Insert Using Femtosecond Laser

Authors: Ashfaq Khan, Aftab Khan, Mushtaq Khan, Sarem Sattar, Mohammad A Sheikh, Lin Li

Abstract:

Chip removal processes are one of key processes of the manufacturing industry where chip removal is conducted by tool inserts of exceptionally hard materials. Tungsten carbide has been extensively used as tool insert for machining processes involving chip removal processes. These hard materials are generally fabricated by single step sintering process as further modification after fabrication in these materials cannot be done easily. Advances in tool surface modification have revealed that advantages such as improved tribological properties and extended tool life can be harnessed from the same tool by texturing the tool rake surface. Moreover, it has been observed that the shape and location of the texture also influences the behavior. Although texturing offers plentiful advantages the challenge lies in the generation of textures on the tool surface. Extremely hard material such as diamond is required to process tungsten carbide. Laser is unique processing tool that does not have a physical contact with the material and thus does not wear. In this research the potential of utilizing laser for texturing of tungsten carbide to develop custom features would be studied. A parametric study of texturing of Tungsten Carbide with a femtosecond laser would be conducted to investigate the process parameters and establish the feasible processing window. The effect of fluence, scan speed and number of repetition would be viewed in detail. Moreover, the mechanism for the generation of features would also be reviewed.

Keywords: laser, texturing, femtosecond, tungsten carbide

Procedia PDF Downloads 637
14289 Reviewing the Effect of Healing Design on Mental Health Establishments in the Context of India

Authors: Aratrika Sarkar, Jayita Guha Niyogi

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the application of general healing design theories to modulate them into case-specific and contextual design considerations. Existing literature focuses on the relationship between architecture and mental health. Primary case studies are selected in India to focus on the effect of a specific location on design considerations. They are qualitatively analysed to further contextualise the inferences from the literature study. An academic project is cited as an example to apply the learnings from the study and understand the influence of various parameters on the design process for further conclusion. Literature studies, case studies and hypothetical design applications helped in finding the different ways of achieving the similar goal of a sensitive approach toward mental health. Along with salutogenic parameters, category of establishment, age group, location of the site and user preference plays a crucial role in the design process. Design of mental health establishments, especially in India, has to involve transparency between stakeholders and users. Owing to different climatic zones and diverse sociocultural traditions, the approach toward healing should adapt accordingly. It should be an effort towards striking a balance between contradictory elements of healing design and resolving the dilemmas with sensitivity and consensus. Lastly, the design should not force a person towards communication or companionship but rather let the person realise that naturally through the healing process.

Keywords: contextual healing design, deinstitutionalisation, Indian mental healthcare establishments, environmental psychology, salutogenesis, therapeutic design

Procedia PDF Downloads 91
14288 Cryptocurrency Forensics: Analysis on Bitcoin E-Wallet from Computer Source Evidence

Authors: Muhammad Nooraiman bin Noorashid, Mohd Sharizuan bin Mohd Omar, Mohd Zabri Adil bin Talib, Aswami Fadillah bin Mohd Ariffin

Abstract:

Nowadays cryptocurrency has become a global phenomenon known to most people. People using this alternative digital money to do a transaction in many ways (e.g. Used for online shopping, wealth management, and fundraising). However, this digital asset also widely used in criminal activities since its use decentralized control as opposed to centralized electronic money and central banking systems and this makes a user, who used this currency invisible. The high-value exchange of these digital currencies also has been a target to criminal activities. The cryptocurrency crimes have become a challenge for the law enforcement to analyze and to proof the evidence as criminal devices. In this paper, our focus is more on bitcoin cryptocurrency and the possible artifacts that can be obtained from the different type of digital wallet, which is software and browser-based application. The process memory and physical hard disk are examined with the aims of identifying and recovering potential digital evidence. The stage of data acquisition divided by three states which are the initial creation of the wallet, transaction that consists transfer and receiving a coin and the last state is after the wallet is being deleted. Findings from this study suggest that both data from software and browser type of wallet process memory is a valuable source of evidence, and many of the artifacts found in process memory are also available from the application and wallet files on the client computer storage.

Keywords: cryptocurrency, bitcoin, digital wallet, digital forensics

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14287 Numerical Study of Jet Impingement Heat Transfer

Authors: A. M. Tiara, Sudipto Chakraborty, S. K. Pal

Abstract:

Impinging jets and their different configurations are important from the viewpoint of the fluid flow characteristics and their influence on heat transfer from metal surfaces due to their complex flow characteristics. Such flow characteristics results in highly variable heat transfer from the surface, resulting in varying cooling rates which affects the mechanical properties including hardness and strength. The overall objective of the current research is to conduct a fundamental investigation of the heat transfer mechanisms for an impinging coolant jet. Numerical simulation of the cooling process gives a detailed analysis of the different parameters involved even though employing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to simulate the real time process, being a relatively new research area, poses many challenges. The heat transfer mechanism in the current research is actuated by jet cooling. The computational tool used in the ongoing research for simulation of the cooling process is ANSYS Workbench software. The temperature and heat flux distribution along the steel strip with the effect of various flow parameters on the heat transfer rate can be observed in addition to determination of the jet impingement patterns, which is the major aim of the present analysis. Modelling both jet and air atomized cooling techniques using CFD methodology and validating with those obtained experimentally- including trial and error with different models and comparison of cooling rates from both the techniques have been included in this work. Finally some concluding remarks are made that identify some gaps in the available literature that have influenced the path of the current investigation.

Keywords: CFD, heat transfer, impinging jets, numerical simulation

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14286 Effect of Molybdenum Addition to Aluminum Grain Refined by Titanium Plus Boron on Its Grain Size and Mechanical Characteristics in the Cast and After Pressing by the Equal Channel Angular Pressing Conditions

Authors: A. I. O. Zaid, A. M. Attieh, S. M. A. Al Qawabah

Abstract:

Aluminum and its alloys solidify in columnar structure with large grain size which tends to reduce their mechanical strength and surface quality. They are, therefore, grain refined by addition of either titanium or titanium plus boron to their melt before solidification. Equal channel angular pressing, ECAP, process is a recent forming method for producing heavy plastic deformation in materials. In this paper, the effect of molybdenum addition to aluminum grain refined by Ti+B on its metallurgical and mechanical characteristics are investigated in the as cast condition and after pressing by the ECAP process. It was found that addition of Mo or Ti+B alone or together to aluminum resulted in grain refining of its microstructure in the as cast condition, as the average grain size was reduced from 139 micron to 46 micron when Mo and Ti+B are added together. Pressing by the ECAP process resulted in further refinement of the microstructure where 32 micron of average grain size was achieved in Al and the Al-Mo microalloy. Regarding the mechanical strength, addition of Mo or Ti+B alone to Al resulted in deterioration of its mechanical behavior but resulted in enhancement of its mechanical behavior when added together, increase of 10% in flow stress was achieved at 20% strain. However, pressing by ECAP addition of Mo or Ti+B alone to Al resulted in enhancement of its mechanical strength but reduced its strength when added together.

Keywords: ECAP, aluminum, cast, mechanical characteristics, Mo grain refiner

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14285 A Nonstandard Finite Difference Method for Weather Derivatives Pricing Model

Authors: Clarinda Vitorino Nhangumbe, Fredericks Ebrahim, Betuel Canhanga

Abstract:

The price of an option weather derivatives can be approximated as a solution of the two-dimensional convection-diffusion dominant partial differential equation derived from the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, where one variable represents the weather dynamics and the other variable represent the underlying weather index. With appropriate financial boundary conditions, the solution of the pricing equation is approximated using a nonstandard finite difference method. It is shown that the proposed numerical scheme preserves positivity as well as stability and consistency. In order to illustrate the accuracy of the method, the numerical results are compared with other methods. The model is tested for real weather data.

Keywords: nonstandard finite differences, Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, partial differential equations approach, weather derivatives

Procedia PDF Downloads 78
14284 Zinc Adsorption Determination of H2SO4 Activated Pomegranate Peel

Authors: S. N. Turkmen Koc, A. S. Kipcak, M. B. Piskin, E. Moroydor Derun, N. Tugrul

Abstract:

Active carbon can be obtained from agricultural sources. Due to the high surface area, the production of activated carbon from cheap resources is very important. Since the surface area of 1 g activated carbon is approximately between 300 and 2000 m2, it can be used to remove both organic and inorganic impurities. In this study, the adsorption of Zn metal was studied with the product of activated carbon, which is obtained from pomegranate peel by microwave and chemical activation methods. The microwave process of pomegranate peel was carried out under constant microwave power of 800 W and 1 to 4 minutes. After the microwave process, samples were treated with H2SO4 for 3 h. Then prepared product was used in synthetic waste water including 40 ppm Zn metal. As a result, removal of waste Zn in waste water ranged from 91% to 93%.

Keywords: activated carbon, chemical activation, H₂SO₄, microwave, pomegranate peel

Procedia PDF Downloads 149
14283 Information Tree: Establishment of Lifestyle-Based IT Visual Model

Authors: Chiung-Hui Chen

Abstract:

Traditional service channel is losing its edge due to emerging service technology. To establish interaction with the clients, the service industry is using effective mechanism to give clients direct access to services with emerging technologies. Thus, as service science receives attention, special and unique consumption pattern evolves; henceforth, leading to new market mechanism and influencing attitudes toward life and consumption patterns. The market demand for customized services is thus valued due to the emphasis of personal value, and is gradually changing the demand and supply relationship in the traditional industry. In respect of interior design service, in the process of traditional interior design, a designer converts to a concrete form the concept generated from the ideas and needs dictated by a user (client), by using his/her professional knowledge and drawing tool. The final product is generated through iterations of communication and modification, which is a very time-consuming process. Although this process has been accelerated with the help of computer graphics software today, repeated discussions and confirmations with users are still required to complete the task. In consideration of what is addressed above a space user’s life model is analyzed with visualization technique to create an interaction system modeled after interior design knowledge. The space user document intuitively personal life experience in a model requirement chart, allowing a researcher to analyze interrelation between analysis documents, identify the logic and the substance of data conversion. The repeated data which is documented are then transformed into design information for reuse and sharing. A professional interior designer may sort out the correlation among user’s preference, life pattern and design specification, thus deciding the critical design elements in the process of service design.

Keywords: information design, life model-based, aesthetic computing, communication

Procedia PDF Downloads 285
14282 "Gurza Incinerator" : Biomass Incinerator Powered by Empty Bunch of Palm Oil Fruits as Electrical Biomass Base Development

Authors: Andi Ismanto

Abstract:

Indonesia is the largest palm oil producer in the world. The increasing number of palm oil extensification in Indonesia started on 2000-2011. Based on preliminary figures from the Directorate General of Plantation, palm oil area in Indonesia until 2011 is about 8.91 million hectares.On 2011 production of palm oil CPO reaches 22.51 million tons. In the other hands, the increasing palm oil production has impact to environment. The Empty Bunch of Palm Oil (EBPO)waste was increased to 20 million tons in 2009. Utilization of waste EBPO currently only used as an organic fertilizer for plants. But, it was not a good solution, because TKKS that used as organic compost has high content of carbon and hydrogen compound. The EBPO waste has potential used as fuel by gasification because it has short time of decomposition. So, the process will be more efficient in time. Utilization of urban wastehas been created using an incinerator used as a source of electrical energy for household.Usually, waste burning process by incinerator is using diesel fuel and kerosene. It is certainly less effective and not environment friendly, considering the waste incineration process using Incinerator tools are continuously. Considering biomass is a renewable source of energy and the world's energy system must be switch from an energy based on fossil resources into the energy based on renewable resources, the "Gurza Incinerator": Design Build Powerful Biomass Incinerator Empty Bunch of Palm Oil (EBPO) as Elecrical Biomass Base Development, a renewable future technology. The tools is using EBPO waste as source of burning to burn garbage inside the Incinerator hopper. EBPO waste will be processed by means of gasification. Gasification isa process to produce gases that can be used as fuel for electrical power. Hopefully, this technology could be a renewable future energy and also as starting point of electrical biomass base development.

Keywords: incinerator, biomass, empty bunch palm oil, electrical energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 459
14281 Ultrasonic Micro Injection Molding: Manufacturing of Micro Plates of Biomaterials

Authors: Ariadna Manresa, Ines Ferrer

Abstract:

Introduction: Ultrasonic moulding process (USM) is a recent injection technology used to manufacture micro components. It is able to melt small amounts of material so the waste of material is certainly reduced comparing to microinjection molding. This is an important advantage when the materials are expensive like medical biopolymers. Micro-scaled components are involved in a variety of uses, such as biomedical applications. It is required replication fidelity so it is important to stabilize the process and minimize the variability of the responses. The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of the main process parameters on the filling behaviour, the dimensional accuracy and the cavity pressure when a micro-plate is manufactured by biomaterials such as PLA and PCL. Methodology or Experimental Procedure: The specimens are manufactured using a Sonorus 1G Ultrasound Micro Molding Machine. The used geometry is a rectangular micro-plate of 15x5mm and 1mm of thickness. The materials used for the investigation are PLA and PCL due to biocompatible and degradation properties. The experimentation is divided into two phases. Firstly, the influence of process parameters (vibration amplitude, sonotrodo velocity, ultrasound time and compaction force) on filling behavior is analysed, in Phase 1. Next, when filling cavity is assured, the influence of both cooling time and force compaction on the cavity pressure, part temperature and dimensional accuracy is instigated, which is done in Phase. Results and Discussion: Filling behavior depends on sonotrodo velocity and vibration amplitude. When the ultrasonic time is higher, more ultrasonic energy is applied and the polymer temperature increases. Depending on the cooling time, it is possible that when mold is opened, the micro-plate temperature is too warm. Consequently, the polymer relieve its stored internal energy (ultrasonic and thermal) expanding through the easier direction. This fact is reflected on dimensional accuracy, causing micro-plates thicker than the mold. It has also been observed the most important fact that affects cavity pressure is the compaction configuration during the manufacturing cycle. Conclusions: This research demonstrated the influence of process parameters on the final micro-plated manufactured. Future works will be focused in manufacturing other geometries and analysing the mechanical properties of the specimens.

Keywords: biomaterial, biopolymer, micro injection molding, ultrasound

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14280 Streamlining Cybersecurity Risk Assessment for Industrial Control and Automation Systems: Leveraging the National Institute of Standard and Technology’s Risk Management Framework (RMF) Using Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE)

Authors: Gampel Alexander, Mazzuchi Thomas, Sarkani Shahram

Abstract:

The cybersecurity landscape is constantly evolving, and organizations must adapt to the changing threat environment to protect their assets. The implementation of the NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF) has become critical in ensuring the security and safety of industrial control and automation systems. However, cybersecurity professionals are facing challenges in implementing RMF, leading to systems operating without authorization and being non-compliant with regulations. The current approach to RMF implementation based on business practices is limited and insufficient, leaving organizations vulnerable to cyberattacks resulting in the loss of personal consumer data and critical infrastructure details. To address these challenges, this research proposes a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach to implementing cybersecurity controls and assessing risk through the RMF process. The study emphasizes the need to shift to a modeling approach, which can streamline the RMF process and eliminate bloated structures that make it difficult to receive an Authorization-To-Operate (ATO). The study focuses on the practical application of MBSE in industrial control and automation systems to improve the security and safety of operations. It is concluded that MBSE can be used to solve the implementation challenges of the NIST RMF process and improve the security of industrial control and automation systems. The research suggests that MBSE provides a more effective and efficient method for implementing cybersecurity controls and assessing risk through the RMF process. The future work for this research involves exploring the broader applicability of MBSE in different industries and domains. The study suggests that the MBSE approach can be applied to other domains beyond industrial control and automation systems.

Keywords: authorization-to-operate (ATO), industrial control systems (ICS), model-based system’s engineering (MBSE), risk management framework (RMF)

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14279 Delineating Floodplain along the Nasia River in Northern Ghana Using HAND Contour

Authors: Benjamin K. Ghansah, Richard K. Appoh, Iliya Nababa, Eric K. Forkuo

Abstract:

The Nasia River is an important source of water for domestic and agricultural purposes to the inhabitants of its catchment. Major farming activities takes place within the floodplain of the river and its network of tributaries. The actual inundation extent of the river system is; however, unknown. Reasons for this lack of information include financial constraints and inadequate human resources as flood modelling is becoming increasingly complex by the day. Knowledge of the inundation extent will help in the assessment of risk posed by the annual flooding of the river, and help in the planning of flood recession agricultural activities. This study used a simple terrain based algorithm, Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND), to delineate the floodplain of the Nasia River and its tributaries. The HAND model is a drainage normalized digital elevation model, which has its height reference based on the local drainage systems rather than the average mean sea level (AMSL). The underlying principle guiding the development of the HAND model is that hillslope flow paths behave differently when the reference gradient is to the local drainage network as compared to the seaward gradient. The new terrain model of the catchment was created using the NASA’s SRTM Digital Elevation Model (DEM) 30m as the only data input. Contours (HAND Contour) were then generated from the normalized DEM. Based on field flood inundation survey, historical information of flooding of the area as well as satellite images, a HAND Contour of 2m was found to best correlates with the flood inundation extent of the river and its tributaries. A percentage accuracy of 75% was obtained when the surface area created by the 2m contour was compared with surface area of the floodplain computed from a satellite image captured during the peak flooding season in September 2016. It was estimated that the flooding of the Nasia River and its tributaries created a floodplain area of 1011 km².

Keywords: digital elevation model, floodplain, HAND contour, inundation extent, Nasia River

Procedia PDF Downloads 437
14278 Colour Characteristics of Dried Cocoa Using Shallow Box Fermentation Technique

Authors: Khairul Bariah Sulaiman, Tajul Aris Yang

Abstract:

Fermentation is well known as an essential process in cocoa beans. Besides to develop the precursor of cocoa flavour, it also induce the colour changes in the beans.The fermentation process is reported to be influenced by duration of pod storage and fermentation. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate colour of Malaysian cocoa beans and how the pods storage and fermentation duration using shallow box technique will effect on it characteristics. There are two factors being studied ie duration of cocoa pod storage (0, 2, 4, and 6 days) and duration of cocoa fermentation (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 days). The experiment is arranged in 4 x 6 factorial design with 24 treatments and arrangement is in a Completely Randomised Design (CRD). The produced beans is inspected for colour changes under artificial light during cut test and divided into four groups of colour namely fully brown, purple brown, fully purple and slaty. Cut tests indicated that cocoa beans which are directly dried without undergone fermentation has the highest slaty percentage. However, application of pods storage before fermentation process is found to decrease the slaty percentage. In contrast, the percentages of fully brown beans start to dominate after two days of fermentation, especially from four and six days of pods storage batch. Whereas, almost all batch have percentage of fully purple less than 20%. Interestingly, the percentage of purple brown beans are scattered in the entire beans batch regardless any specific trend. Meanwhile, statistical analysis using General Linear Model showed that the pods storage has a significant effect on the colour characteristic of the Malaysian dried beans compared to fermentation duration.

Keywords: cocoa beans, colour, fermentation, shallow box

Procedia PDF Downloads 470
14277 Artificial Neural Networks and Hidden Markov Model in Landslides Prediction

Authors: C. S. Subhashini, H. L. Premaratne

Abstract:

Landslides are the most recurrent and prominent disaster in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has been subjected to a number of extreme landslide disasters that resulted in a significant loss of life, material damage, and distress. It is required to explore a solution towards preparedness and mitigation to reduce recurrent losses associated with landslides. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Hidden Markov Model (HMMs) are now widely used in many computer applications spanning multiple domains. This research examines the effectiveness of using Artificial Neural Networks and Hidden Markov Model in landslides predictions and the possibility of applying the modern technology to predict landslides in a prominent geographical area in Sri Lanka. A thorough survey was conducted with the participation of resource persons from several national universities in Sri Lanka to identify and rank the influencing factors for landslides. A landslide database was created using existing topographic; soil, drainage, land cover maps and historical data. The landslide related factors which include external factors (Rainfall and Number of Previous Occurrences) and internal factors (Soil Material, Geology, Land Use, Curvature, Soil Texture, Slope, Aspect, Soil Drainage, and Soil Effective Thickness) are extracted from the landslide database. These factors are used to recognize the possibility to occur landslides by using an ANN and HMM. The model acquires the relationship between the factors of landslide and its hazard index during the training session. These models with landslide related factors as the inputs will be trained to predict three classes namely, ‘landslide occurs’, ‘landslide does not occur’ and ‘landslide likely to occur’. Once trained, the models will be able to predict the most likely class for the prevailing data. Finally compared two models with regards to prediction accuracy, False Acceptance Rates and False Rejection rates and This research indicates that the Artificial Neural Network could be used as a strong decision support system to predict landslides efficiently and effectively than Hidden Markov Model.

Keywords: landslides, influencing factors, neural network model, hidden markov model

Procedia PDF Downloads 368
14276 Identifying Patterns of Seeking and Providing Help Online among Adolescents in Israel

Authors: Gali Pesin, Yuliya Lipshits-Braziler, Sima Amram-Vaknin, Moshe Tatar

Abstract:

The present study introduces four different patterns of seeking and providing help online among adolescents: (I) ‘Transceivers’ - adolescents who both seek as well as provide help online; (II) ‘Receivers’ - adolescents who seek help online, yet don’t provide it; (III) ‘Transmitters’ - adolescents who provide help online, yet don’t seek it; and (IV) ‘Idles’ - adolescents who refrain from seeking and providing help online. The study examined differences in seeking and providing help online between possible combinations of the four patterns, as well as gender differences within each pattern. Data was collected from 528 adolescents in Israel (59% were girls). Findings revealed that Transceivers are the largest group (45%) in this study, with higher representation of girls (65%). These adolescents seek help mainly around social difficulties, and they turn to peers who are both known and unknown to them. In addition, their preferred way to seek and provide help is through social network sites. Moreover, they often accept and give others emotional support. Receivers are the smallest group (5%) in this study. They turn to both known and unknown professionals more often than to friends and family. In addition, they seek help mostly around health and nutrition issues, and they usually receive instrumental support. For Receivers, the most important factor for seeking help online is anonymity, and the least important factor is familiarity with the help giver. Transmitters represent 16% of the adolescents in this study, with a greater representation of boys (52%). Their main reason to refrain from seeking help online is self-reliance. Nevertheless, these adolescents provide help to others online, mainly to those known to them through posting or responding to posts on social network sites. Idles represent 34% of the adolescents in this study. They refrain from seeking help online mainly due to their preference to seek help face to face, and due to their lack of trust in the internet or those using it. Idles and Transmitters are willing to seek help online mostly from friends and family. In addition, they are willing seek help online mainly regarding questions concerning military or civil service. They consider the most important facilitators for seeking help online as confidentiality and reliability. The present study’s main contribution is exploring the role of providing online help in understanding the adolescent behavior of seeking help online. In addition, the results of the present study have practical implications for the work of mental health providers, such as counseling psychologists and online mental health support.

Keywords: adolescents, counseling, online help-seeking, online help-providing

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14275 Nationalization of the Social Life in Argentina: Accumulation of Capital, State Intervention, Labor Market, and System of Rights in the Last Decades

Authors: Mauro Cristeche

Abstract:

This work begins with a very simple question: How does the State spend? Argentina is witnessing a process of growing nationalization of social life, so it is necessary to find out the explanations of the phenomenon on the specific dynamic of the capitalist mode of production in Argentina and its transformations in the last decades. Then the new question is: what happened in Argentina that could explain this phenomenon? Since the seventies, the capital growth in Argentina faces deep competitive problems. Until that moment the agrarian wealth had worked as a compensation mechanism, but it began to find its limits. In the meantime, some important demographical and structural changes had happened. The strategy of the capitalist class had to become to seek in the cheapness of the labor force the main source of compensation of its weakness. As a result, a tendency to worsen the living conditions and fragmentation of the working class started to develop, manifested by unemployment, underemployment, and the fall of the purchasing power of the salary as a highlighted fact. As a consequence, it is suggested that the role of the State became stronger and public expenditure increased, as a historical trend, because it has to intervene to face the contradictions and constant growth problems posed by the development of capitalism in Argentina. On the one hand, the State has to guarantee the process of buying the cheapened workforce and at the same time the process of reproduction of the working class. On the other hand, it has to help to reproduce the individual capitals but needs to ‘attack’ them in different ways. This is why the role of the State is said to be the general political representative to the national portion of the total social capital. What will be studied is the dynamic of the intervention of the Argentine State in the context of the particular national process of capital growth, and its dynamics in the last decades. What this paper wants to show are the main general causes that could explain the phenomenon of nationalization of the social life and how it has impacted the life conditions of the working class and the system of rights.

Keywords: Argentina, nationalization, public policies, rights, state

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14274 Simulation Model of Induction Heating in COMSOL Multiphysics

Authors: K. Djellabi, M. E. H. Latreche

Abstract:

The induction heating phenomenon depends on various factors, making the problem highly nonlinear. The mathematical analysis of this problem in most cases is very difficult and it is reduced to simple cases. Another knowledge of induction heating systems is generated in production environments, but these trial-error procedures are long and expensive. The numerical models of induction heating problem are another approach to reduce abovementioned drawbacks. This paper deals with the simulation model of induction heating problem. The simulation model of induction heating system in COMSOL Multiphysics is created. In this work we present results of numerical simulations of induction heating process in pieces of cylindrical shapes, in an inductor with four coils. The modeling of the inducting heating process was made with the software COMSOL Multiphysics Version 4.2a, for the study we present the temperature charts.

Keywords: induction heating, electromagnetic field, inductor, numerical simulation, finite element

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14273 Hamiltonian Paths and Cycles Passing through Prescribed Edges in the Balanced Hypercubes

Authors: Dongqin Cheng

Abstract:

The n-dimensional balanced hypercube BHn (n ≥ 1) has been proved to be a bipartite graph. Let P be a set of edges whose induced subgraph consists of pairwise vertex-disjoint paths. For any two vertices u, v from different partite sets of V (BHn). In this paper, we prove that if |P| ≤ 2n − 2 and the subgraph induced by P has neither u nor v as internal vertices, or both of u and v as end-vertices, then BHn contains a Hamiltonian path joining u and v passing through P. As a corollary, if |P| ≤ 2n−1, then the BHn contains a Hamiltonian cycle passing through P.

Keywords: interconnection network, balanced hypercube, Hamiltonian cycle, prescribed edges

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14272 Performance Analysis of 180 nm Low Voltage Low Power CMOS OTA for High Frequency Application

Authors: D. J. Dahigaonkar, D. G. Wakde

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The performance analysis of low voltage low power CMOS OTA is presented in this paper. The differential input single output OTA is simulated in 180nm CMOS process technology. The simulation results indicate high bandwidth of the order of 7.04GHz with 0.766mW power consumption and transconductance of -71.20dB. The total harmonic distortion for 100mV input at a frequency of 1MHz is found to be 2.3603%. In addition to this, to establish comparative analysis of designed OTA and analyze effect of technology scaling, the differential input single output OTA is further simulated using 350nm CMOS process technology and the comparative analysis is presented in this paper.

Keywords: Operational Transconductance Amplifier, Total Harmonic Distortions, low voltage/low power, power dissipation

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14271 A Combined Activated Sludge-Filtration-Ozonation Process for Abattoir Wastewater Treatment

Authors: Pello Alfonso-Muniozguren, Madeleine Bussemaker, Ralph Chadeesingh, Caryn Jones, David Oakley, Judy Lee, Devendra Saroj

Abstract:

Current industrialized livestock agriculture is growing every year leading to an increase in the generation of wastewater that varies considerably in terms of organic content and microbial population. Therefore, suitable wastewater treatment methods are required to ensure the wastewater quality meet regulations before discharge. In the present study, a combined lab scale activated sludge-filtration-ozonation system was used to treat a pre-treated abattoir wastewater. A hydraulic retention time of 24 hours and a solid retention time of 13 days were used for the activated sludge process, followed by a filtration step (4-7 µm) and using ozone as tertiary treatment. An average reduction of 93% and 98% was achieved for Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), respectively, obtaining final values of 128 mg/L COD and 12 mg/L BOD. For the Total Suspended Solids (TSS), the average reduction increased to 99% in the same system, reducing the final value down to 3 mg/L. Additionally, 98% reduction in Phosphorus (P) and a complete inactivation of Total Coliforms (TC) was obtained after 17 min ozonation time. For Total Viable Counts (TVC), a drastic reduction was observed with 30 min ozonation time (6 log inactivation) at an ozone dose of 71 mg O3/L. Overall, the combined process was sufficient to meet discharge requirements without further treatment for the measured parameters (COD, BOD, TSS, P, TC, and TVC).

Keywords: abattoir waste water, activated sludge, ozone, waste water treatment

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14270 PaSA: A Dataset for Patent Sentiment Analysis to Highlight Patent Paragraphs

Authors: Renukswamy Chikkamath, Vishvapalsinhji Ramsinh Parmar, Christoph Hewel, Markus Endres

Abstract:

Given a patent document, identifying distinct semantic annotations is an interesting research aspect. Text annotation helps the patent practitioners such as examiners and patent attorneys to quickly identify the key arguments of any invention, successively providing a timely marking of a patent text. In the process of manual patent analysis, to attain better readability, recognising the semantic information by marking paragraphs is in practice. This semantic annotation process is laborious and time-consuming. To alleviate such a problem, we proposed a dataset to train machine learning algorithms to automate the highlighting process. The contributions of this work are: i) we developed a multi-class dataset of size 150k samples by traversing USPTO patents over a decade, ii) articulated statistics and distributions of data using imperative exploratory data analysis, iii) baseline Machine Learning models are developed to utilize the dataset to address patent paragraph highlighting task, and iv) future path to extend this work using Deep Learning and domain-specific pre-trained language models to develop a tool to highlight is provided. This work assists patent practitioners in highlighting semantic information automatically and aids in creating a sustainable and efficient patent analysis using the aptitude of machine learning.

Keywords: machine learning, patents, patent sentiment analysis, patent information retrieval

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14269 Origin of Salinity Problems during Tsunami and Remedial Measures in Coastal Areas

Authors: N. K. Gupta, R. C. Bhattacharjee

Abstract:

In the aftermath of the tsunami in 2004 and terrible humanitarian disaster affecting thousands of kilometers of coastal south, the immediate priority is to begin the process of reconstruction of livelihoods including basic services. It is likely that many coastal wetlands would have been affected by the large inflow of salt-water and littoral sediments during the tsunami, with longer-term effects including changes in their hydrogeology caused by changes to coastlines and damage to sea-defenses. The reconstruction process is likely to provide opportunities to better integrate environmental protection and management with economic development in the region, including the opportunity to conserve and restore coastal habitats. Presented herein is a study pertaining to salinity problems encountered in coastal south during tsunami in 2004 and the consequent loss of fertility of agricultural land including remedial measures to revitalize economic growth in the region.

Keywords: tsunami, salinity, costal area, reconstruction

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14268 Characterization of Leakage Current on the Surface of Porcelain Insulator under Contaminated Conditions

Authors: Hocine Terrab , Abdelhafid Bayadi, Adel Kara, Ayman El-Hag

Abstract:

Insulator flashover under polluted conditions has been a serious threat on the reliability of power systems. It is known that the flashover process is mainly affected by the environmental conditions such as; the pollution level and humidity. Those are the essential parameters influencing the wetting process. This paper presents an investigation of the characteristics of leakage current (LC) developed on the surface of porcelain insulator at contaminated conditions under AC voltage. The study is done in an artificial fog chamber and the LC is characterized for different stages; dry, wetted and presence of discharge activities. Time-frequency and spectral analysis are adopted to calculate the evolution of LC characteristics with various stages prior to flashover occurrence. The preliminary results could be used in analysing the LC to develop more effective diagnosis of early signs of dry band arcing as an indication for insulation washing.

Keywords: flashover, harmonic components, leakage current, phase angle, statistical analysis

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14267 Investigation of the Effect of Plasticization Temperature on Polymer Thin Film Stability through Spin Coating Process

Authors: Bilge Bozdogan, Selda T. Sendogdular, Levent Sendogdular

Abstract:

We report a technique to control chain conformation during the plasticization process to achieve homogeneous and stable thin films, which allows to reduce post-process annealing times along with enhanced properties like controlled irreversible adsorbed layer (Guiselin brushes) formation. In this study, spin coating temperature was considered as a parameter; hence, all equipment, including the spin coater, substrate, vials, and the solution, was kept inside the same heated fume hood where solution was spin-coated after the temperature was stabilized at a desired value. AFM and SEM results revealed severe difference for solid and air interface between ambient and temperature-controlled samples, which suggest that enthalpic contribution dynamically helps to control film stability in a way where chain entanglements and conformational restrictions are avoided before film growing and allowing to control grafting density through spin coating temperature. The adsorbed layer was also characterized with SEM and Raman-spectroscopy technique right after seeding the adsorbed layer with gold nanoparticles. Stabilized gold nanoparticles and their surface distribution manifest the existence of a controllable polymer brush structure. Acknowledgments: This study was funded by Erciyes University Scientific Research Projects (BAP) Funding(Project ID:10058)

Keywords: chain stability, Guiselin brushes, polymer thin film, spin coating temperature

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14266 Naphtha Catalytic Reform: Modeling and Simulation of Unity

Authors: Leal Leonardo, Pires Carlos Augusto de Moraes, Casiraghi Magela

Abstract:

In this work were realized the modeling and simulation of the catalytic reformer process, of ample form, considering all the equipment that influence the operation performance. Considered it a semi-regenerative reformer, with four reactors in series intercalated with four furnaces, two heat exchanges, one product separator and one recycle compressor. A simplified reactional system was considered, involving only ten chemical compounds related through five reactions. The considered process was the applied to aromatics production (benzene, toluene, and xylene). The models developed to diverse equipment were interconnecting in a simulator that consists of a computer program elaborate in FORTRAN 77. The simulation of the global model representative of reformer unity achieved results that are compatibles with the literature ones. It was then possible to study the effects of operational variables in the products concentration and in the performance of the unity equipment.

Keywords: catalytic reforming, modeling, simulation, petrochemical engineering

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14265 Reconceptualizing “Best Practices” in Public Sector

Authors: Eftychia Kessopoulou, Styliani Xanthopoulou, Ypatia Theodorakioglou, George Tsiotras, Katerina Gotzamani

Abstract:

Public sector managers frequently herald that implementing best practices as a set of standards, may lead to superior organizational performance. However, recent research questions the objectification of best practices, highlighting: a) the inability of public sector organizations to develop innovative administrative practices, as well as b) the adoption of stereotypical renowned practices inculcated in the public sector by international governance bodies. The process through which organizations construe what a best practice is, still remains a black box that is yet to be investigated, given the trend of continuous changes in public sector performance, as well as the burgeoning interest of sharing popular administrative practices put forward by international bodies. This study aims to describe and understand how organizational best practices are constructed by public sector performance management teams, like benchmarkers, during the benchmarking-mediated performance improvement process and what mechanisms enable this construction. A critical realist action research methodology is employed, starting from a description of various approaches on best practice nature when a benchmarking-mediated performance improvement initiative, such as the Common Assessment Framework, is applied. Firstly, we observed the benchmarker’s management process of best practices in a public organization, so as to map their theories-in-use. As a second step we contextualized best administrative practices by reflecting the different perspectives emerged from the previous stage on the design and implementation of an interview protocol. We used this protocol to conduct 30 semi-structured interviews with “best practice” process owners, in order to examine their experiences and performance needs. Previous research on best practices has shown that needs and intentions of benchmarkers cannot be detached from the causal mechanisms of the various contexts in which they work. Such causal mechanisms can be found in: a) process owner capabilities, b) the structural context of the organization, and c) state regulations. Therefore, we developed an interview protocol theoretically informed in the first part to spot causal mechanisms suggested by previous research studies and supplemented it with questions regarding the provision of best practice support from the government. Findings of this work include: a) a causal account of the nature of best administrative practices in the Greek public sector that shed light on explaining their management, b) a description of the various contexts affecting best practice conceptualization, and c) a description of how their interplay changed the organization’s best practice management.

Keywords: benchmarking, action research, critical realism, best practices, public sector

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14264 Long-Term Subcentimeter-Accuracy Landslide Monitoring Using a Cost-Effective Global Navigation Satellite System Rover Network: Case Study

Authors: Vincent Schlageter, Maroua Mestiri, Florian Denzinger, Hugo Raetzo, Michel Demierre

Abstract:

Precise landslide monitoring with differential global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is well known, but technical or economic reasons limit its application by geotechnical companies. This study demonstrates the reliability and the usefulness of Geomon (Infrasurvey Sàrl, Switzerland), a stand-alone and cost-effective rover network. The system permits deploying up to 15 rovers, plus one reference station for differential GNSS. A dedicated radio communication links all the modules to a base station, where an embedded computer automatically provides all the relative positions (L1 phase, open-source RTKLib software) and populates an Internet server. Each measure also contains information from an internal inclinometer, battery level, and position quality indices. Contrary to standard GNSS survey systems, which suffer from a limited number of beacons that must be placed in areas with good GSM signal, Geomon offers greater flexibility and permits a real overview of the whole landslide with good spatial resolution. Each module is powered with solar panels, ensuring autonomous long-term recordings. In this study, we have tested the system on several sites in the Swiss mountains, setting up to 7 rovers per site, for an 18 month-long survey. The aim was to assess the robustness and the accuracy of the system in different environmental conditions. In one case, we ran forced blind tests (vertical movements of a given amplitude) and compared various session parameters (duration from 10 to 90 minutes). Then the other cases were a survey of real landslides sites using fixed optimized parameters. Sub centimetric-accuracy with few outliers was obtained using the best parameters (session duration of 60 minutes, baseline 1 km or less), with the noise level on the horizontal component half that of the vertical one. The performance (percent of aborting solutions, outliers) was reduced with sessions shorter than 30 minutes. The environment also had a strong influence on the percent of aborting solutions (ambiguity search problem), due to multiple reflections or satellites obstructed by trees and mountains. The length of the baseline (distance reference-rover, single baseline processing) reduced the accuracy above 1 km but had no significant effect below this limit. In critical weather conditions, the system’s robustness was limited: snow, avalanche, and frost-covered some rovers, including the antenna and vertically oriented solar panels, leading to data interruption; and strong wind damaged a reference station. The possibility of changing the sessions’ parameters remotely was very useful. In conclusion, the rover network tested provided the foreseen sub-centimetric-accuracy while providing a dense spatial resolution landslide survey. The ease of implementation and the fully automatic long-term survey were timesaving. Performance strongly depends on surrounding conditions, but short pre-measures should allow moving a rover to a better final placement. The system offers a promising hazard mitigation technique. Improvements could include data post-processing for alerts and automatic modification of the duration and numbers of sessions based on battery level and rover displacement velocity.

Keywords: GNSS, GSM, landslide, long-term, network, solar, spatial resolution, sub-centimeter.

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14263 Detecting the Palaeochannels Based on Optical Data and High-Resolution Radar Data for Periyarriver Basin

Authors: S. Jayalakshmi, Gayathri S., Subiksa V., Nithyasri P., Agasthiya

Abstract:

Paleochannels are the buried part of an active river system which was separated from the active river channel by the process of cutoff or abandonment during the dynamic evolution of the active river. Over time, they are filled by young unconsolidated or semi-consolidated sediments. Additionally, it is impacted by geo morphological influences, lineament alterations, and other factors. The primary goal of this study is to identify the paleochannels in Periyar river basin for the year 2023. Those channels has a high probability in the presence of natural resources, including gold, platinum,tin,an duranium. Numerous techniques are used to map the paleochannel. Using the optical data, Satellite images were collected from various sources, which comprises multispectral satellite images from which indices such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI),Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Soil Adjusted Vegetative Index (SAVI) and thematic layers such as Lithology, Stream Network, Lineament were prepared. Weights are assigned to each layer based on its importance, and overlay analysis has done, which concluded that the northwest region of the area has shown some paleochannel patterns. The results were cross-verified using the results obtained using microwave data. Using Sentinel data, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Image was extracted from European Space Agency (ESA) portal, pre-processed it using SNAP 6.0. In addition to that, Polarimetric decomposition technique has incorporated to detect the paleochannels based on its scattering property. Further, Principal component analysis has done for enhanced output imagery. Results obtained from optical and microwave radar data were compared and the location of paleochannels were detected. It resulted six paleochannels in the study area out of which three paleochannels were validated with the existing data published by Department of Geology and Environmental Science, Kerala. The other three paleochannels were newly detected with the help of SAR image.

Keywords: paleochannels, optical data, SAR image, SNAP

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14262 Improvement of Mechanical Properties and Corrosion Resistance of AA7056 Aluminum Alloys by the Non-isothermal Aging Process

Authors: Tse-An Pan, Sheng-Long Lee

Abstract:

The effect of non-isothermal aging on the mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of Al-9Zn-2.3Mg-1.9Cu (AA7056) alloys was investigated. The results revealed that thick materials were limited to retrogression and re-aging treatment (RRA). It could not reach the retrogression temperature in the RRA treatment. Compared with the RRA treatment, the non-isothermal aging (NIA) treatment produced discontinuous precipitates at grain boundaries, while the intragranular precipitates were fine and dense. The strength was similar to that of the RRA treatment; the corrosion resistance of the alloy was significantly improved by NIA aging. NIA treatment was less affected by the thickness of the alloy. The difference between the actual temperature and the setting temperature of the alloy is minimal during the aging process. The combination of properties could overcome the fact that RRA treatment cannot handle thick materials.

Keywords: Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy, corrosion, retrogression, re-aging, non-isothermal aging

Procedia PDF Downloads 168