Search results for: optimal reaction network

Authors: Pavak Vyas, Hiral Vyas

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Spin-offs commonly known as demergers in India, represents dismantling of conglomerates which is a common phenomenon in financial markets across the world. Demergers are carried out with different motives. A demerger generally refers to a corporate restructuring where, a large company divests its stake in in its subsidiary and distributes the shares of the subsidiary - demerged entity to the existing shareholders without any consideration. Demergers in Indian companies are over a decade old phenomena, with many companies opting for the same. This study examines the demerger regulations in Indian capital markets and the announcement period price reaction of demergers during year 2010-2015. We study total 97 demerger announcements by companies listed in India and try to establish that demergers results into abnormal returns for the shareholders of the parent company. Using event study methodology we have analyzed the security price performance of the announcement day effect 10 days prior to announcement to 10 days post demerger announcement. We find significant out-performance of the security over the benchmark index post demerger announcements. The cumulative average abnormal returns range from 3.71% on the day of announcement of a private demerger to 2.08% following 10 days surrounding the announcement, and cumulative average abnormal returns range from 5.67% on the day of announcement of a public demerger to 4.15% following10 days surrounding the announcement.

Keywords: demergers, event study, spin offs, stock returns

Procedia PDF Downloads 294

Authors: Hesheng Wang, Haoyu Wang, Chungang Zhuang

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Estimating the 6D pose of objects is a core step for robot bin-picking tasks. The problem is that various objects are usually randomly stacked with heavy occlusion in real applications. In this work, we propose a method to regress 6D poses by predicting three points for each object in the 3D point cloud through deep learning. To solve the ambiguity of symmetric pose, we propose a labeling method to help the network converge better. Based on the predicted pose, an iterative method is employed for pose optimization. In real-world experiments, our method outperforms the classical approach in both precision and recall.

Keywords: pose estimation, deep learning, point cloud, bin-picking, 3D computer vision

Procedia PDF Downloads 157

Authors: Jafar Akbari, Masoud Rismanchian, Samira Ramezani

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Purpose: The photocatalytic degradation of pollutants is a novel technology with various advantages such as high efficiency and energy saving. In this research, the effects of operational variables on the photocatalytic efficiency of TiO₂ coated on nickel foam in the removal of toluene from the simulated indoor air have been investigated. Methods: TiO₂ film were prepared via the sol-gel method and coated on nickel foam. The characteristics and morphology were found using XRD, SEM, and BET technique. Then, the effects of relative humidity, UV-A intensity, the initial toluene concentration, TiO₂ loading, and the air circulation velocity on the photocatalytic degradation rate have been evaluated. Results: The optimal degradation of toluene has been achieved with loading 4.35 g TiO2 on the foam, 30% RH, 5.4 µW.cm−2 UV-A intensity, and 20 ppm initial concentration in the air circulation velocity of 0.15 fpm. Conclusion: The changes of toluene photocatalytic degradation rate have been studied at various times. Also, the kinetic behavior of toluene photocatalytic degradation has been investigated using Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) model.

Keywords: photocatalytic degradation, operational variables, tio₂, nickel foam, gaseous toluene, nanotechnology

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Authors: Ke Qiu, Minzi Mao, Jianjun Ren, Yu Zhao

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Although much has been done to investigate the influence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on cognitive function, little attention has been paid to the role which gender differences play in this association. In the present study, we aim to explore the gender-specific association between OSA and cognitive impairment. Participants from UK biobank who have completed at least one of the five baseline cognitive tests (visuospatial memory, prospective memory, fluid intelligence, short numeric memory and reaction time) were included and were further categorized into three groups: (1) OSA, (2) self-reported snoring but without OSA, and (3) healthy controls (without OSA or snoring). Multivariable regression analysis was performed to examine the associations among snoring, OSA and performance of each of the five cognitive domains. A total of 267,889 participants (47% male, mean age: 57 years old) were included in our study. In the multivariable regression analysis, female participants in the OSA group had a higher risk of having poor prospective memory (OR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.02～1.50, p = 0.03). Meanwhile, among female participants, OSA were inversely associated with the performances of fluid intelligence (β: -0.29, 95% CI: -0.46～-0.13, p < 0.001) and short-numeric memory (β: -0.14, 95% CI: -0.35～0.08, p = 0.02). In contrast, among male participants, no significant association was observed between OSA and impairment of the five cognitive domains. Overall, OSA was significantly associated with cognitive impairment in female participants rather than in male participants, indicating that more special attention and timely interventions should be given to female OSA patients to prevent further cognitive impairment.

Keywords: obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), cognitive impairment, gender-specific association, UK biobank

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Authors: Masood Roohi, Amir Taghavipour

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This paper describes a strategy to develop an energy management system (EMS) for a charge-sustaining power-split hybrid electric vehicle. This kind of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) benefit from the advantages of both parallel and series architecture. However, it gets relatively more complicated to manage power flow between the battery and the engine optimally. The applied strategy in this paper is based on nonlinear model predictive control approach. First of all, an appropriate control-oriented model which was accurate enough and simple was derived. Towards utilization of this controller in real-time, the problem was solved off-line for a vast area of reference signals and initial conditions and stored the computed manipulated variables inside look-up tables. Look-up tables take a little amount of memory. Also, the computational load dramatically decreased, because to find required manipulated variables the controller just needed a simple interpolation between tables.

Keywords: hybrid electric vehicles, energy management system, nonlinear model predictive control, real-time

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Authors: Xiaobao Han, Huacong Li, Jia Li

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For dynamic decoupling of linear parameter varying system, a robust dominance pre-compensator design method is given. The parameterized pre-compensator design problem is converted into optimal problem constrained with parameterized linear matrix inequalities (PLMI); To solve this problem, firstly, this optimization problem is equivalently transformed into a new form with elimination of coupling relationship between parameterized Lyapunov function (PLF) and pre-compensator. Then the problem was reduced to a normal convex optimization problem with normal linear matrix inequalities (LMI) constraints on a newly constructed convex polyhedron. Moreover, a parameter scheduling pre-compensator was achieved, which satisfies robust performance and decoupling performances. Finally, the feasibility and validity of the robust diagonal dominance pre-compensator design method are verified by the numerical simulation of a turbofan engine PLPV model.

Keywords: linear parameter varying (LPV), parameterized Lyapunov function (PLF), linear matrix inequalities (LMI), diagonal dominance pre-compensator

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Authors: Hany Mohamed Abdu, Mohamed Hassan Gadallah, El-Giushi Mokhtar, Yehia Mahmoud Ismail

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Laser beam cutting is one nontraditional machining process. This paper optimizes the parameters of Laser beam cutting machining parameters of Stainless steel (316L) by considering the effect of input parameters viz. power, oxygen pressure, frequency and cutting speed. Statistical design of experiments are carried in three different levels and process responses such as 'Average kerf taper (Ta)' and 'Surface Roughness (Ra)' are measured accordingly. A quadratic mathematical model (RSM) for each of the responses is developed as a function of the process parameters. Responses predicted by the models (as per Taguchi’s L27 OA) are employed to search for an optimal parametric combination to achieve desired yield of the process. RSM models are developed for mean responses, S/N ratio, and standard deviation of responses. Optimization models are formulated as single objective problem subject to process constraints. Models are formulated based on Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) using MATLAB environment. Optimum solutions are compared with Taguchi Methodology results.

Keywords: optimization, laser cutting, robust design, kerf width, Taguchi method, RSM and DOE

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Authors: Hamed Homaei, Iraj Mahdavi, Ali Tajdin

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One of the main concerns of miners is to increase the quality level of their products because the mining metals price depends on their quality level; however, increasing the quality level of these products has different costs at different levels of the supply chain. These costs usually increase after extractor level. This paper studies the coordination issue of a decentralized three-level supply chain with one supplier (extractor), one mineral processor and one manufacturer in which the increasing product quality level cost at the processor level is higher than the supplier and at the level of the manufacturer is more than the processor. We identify the optimal product quality level for each supply chain member by designing a revenue sharing contract. Finally, numerical examples show that the designed contract not only increases the final product quality level but also provides a win-win condition for all supply chain members and increases the whole supply chain profit.

Keywords: three-stage supply chain, product quality improvement, channel coordination, revenue sharing

Procedia PDF Downloads 177

Authors: Rameshaiah Gowdara Narayanappa, Manikonda Prithvi, Manoj Kumar, Suraj Bhavani, Vikram Singh

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Long ago heating of food was only related to fire or electricity. Heating and storage of consumer foods were satisfied by the use of vacuum thermo flaks, electric heating cans and DC powered heating cans. But many of which did not sustain the heat for a long period of time and were impractical for remote areas. The use of chemical energy for heating foods directed us to think about the applications of exothermic reactions as a source of heat. Initial studies of calcium oxide showed desirability but not feasible because the reaction was uncontrollable and irreversible. In this research work we viewed at crystallization of super saturated sodium acetate trihydrate solution. Supersaturated sodium acetate trihydrate has a freezing point of 540 C (1300 F), but it observed to be stable as a liquid at much lower temperatures. Mechanical work is performed to create an active chemical energy zone within the working fluid, when crystallization process is initiated. Due to this the temperature rises to its freezing point which in turn heats the contents in the storage container. Present work endeavor to design a self-heating storage container is suitable for consumer dedications.

Keywords: crystallization, exothermic reactions, self-heating container, super saturation, vacuum thermo flask

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Authors: Kaouther Selmi, Alaeddine Sridi, Mohamed Bouallegue, Kais Bouallegue

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Neurons are the fundamental units of the brain and the nervous system. The variable structure model of neurons consists of a system of differential equations with various parameters. By optimizing these parameters, we can create a unique model that describes the dynamic behavior of a single neuron. We introduce a neural network based on neurons with multiple dendrites employing an activation function with a variable structure. In this paper, we present a model for heart behavior. Finally, we showcase our successful simulation of the heart's ECG diagram using our Variable Structure Neuron Model (VSMN). This result could provide valuable insights into cardiology.

Keywords: neural networks, neuron, dendrites, heart behavior, ECG

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Authors: Raed Alnajjar, Mohd Zakree, Ahmad Nazri

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In this study, we apply Discrete Group Search Optimizer (DGSO) for solving Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). The DGSO is a nature inspired optimization algorithm that imitates the animal behavior, especially animal searching behavior. The proposed DGSO uses a vector representation and some discrete operators, such as destruction, construction, differential evolution, swap and insert. The TSP is a well-known hard combinatorial optimization problem, which seeks to find the shortest path among numbers of cities. The performance of the proposed DGSO is evaluated and tested on benchmark instances which listed in LIBTSP dataset. The experimental results show that the performance of the proposed DGSO is comparable with the other methods in the state of the art for some instances. The results show that DGSO outperform Ant Colony System (ACS) in some instances whilst outperform other metaheuristic in most instances. In addition to that, the new results obtained a number of optimal solutions and some best known results. DGSO was able to obtain feasible and good quality solution across all dataset.

Keywords: discrete group search optimizer (DGSO); Travelling salesman problem (TSP); Variable neighborhood search(VNS)

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Authors: M. Abd elfattah, M. Ossman, Nahla A. Taha

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The present work explored the use of Egyptian rice straw, an agricultural waste that leads to global warming problem through brown cloud, as a potential feedstock for the preparation of activated carbon by physical and chemical activation. The results of this study showed that it is feasible to prepare activated carbons with relatively high surface areas and pore volumes from the Egyptian rice straw by direct chemical and physical activation. The produced activated carbon from the two methods (AC1 and AC2) could be used as potential adsorbent for the removal of Fe(III) from aqueous solution contains heavy metals and polluted water. The adsorption of Fe(III) was depended on the pH of the solution. The optimal Fe(III) removal efficiency occurs at pH 5. Based on the results, the optimum contact time is 60 minutes and adsorbent dosage is 3 g/L. The adsorption breakthrough curves obtained at different bed depths indicated increase of breakthrough time with increase in bed depths. A rise in inlet Fe(III) concentration reduces the throughput volume before the packed bed gets saturated. AC1 showed higher affinity for Fe(III) as compared to Raw rice husk.

Keywords: rice straw, activated carbon, Fe(III), fixed bed column, pyrolysis

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Authors: Er-Yuan Chuang

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Bio-mimetic matters have biological functionalities. This might be valuable in the development of versatile biomaterials. At biological fields, protein-based materials might be components to form a 3D network of extracellular biomolecules, containing growth factors. Also, the protein-based biomaterial provides biochemical and structural assistance of adjacent cells. In this study, we try to prepare protein based biomaterial, which was harvested from living animal. We analyzed it’s chemical, physical and biological property in vitro. Besides, in vivo bio-interaction of the prepared biomimetic matrix was tested in an animal model. The protein-based biomaterial has degradability and biocompatibility. This development could be used for tissue regenerations and be served as platform technologies.

Keywords: protein based, in vitro study, in vivo study, biomaterials

Procedia PDF Downloads 182

Authors: Rui Chen, Shu-min Zhou, Xiong-jie Zhang, Ren-bo Wang, Fan Huang, Bin Tang

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During the temperature changes in reactor core, the nuclide cross section in reactor can vary with temperature, which eventually causes the changes of reactivity. To simulate the interaction between incident neutron and various materials at different temperatures on the nose, it is necessary to generate all the relevant reaction temperature-dependent cross section. Traditionally, the real time cross section generation method is used to avoid storing huge data but contains severe problems of low efficiency and adaptability for narrow energy region. Focused on the research on multi-temperature cross sections generation in real time during in neutron transport, this paper investigated the on-the-fly cross section generation method for resolved resonance region, thermal region and unresolved resonance region, and proposed the real time multi-temperature cross sections generation method based on double-exponential formula for resolved resonance region, as well as the Neville interpolation for thermal and unresolved resonance region. To prove the correctness and validity of multi-temperature cross sections generation based on wide energy region of incident neutron, the proposed method was applied in critical safety benchmark tests, which showed the capability for application in reactor multi-physical coupling simulation.

Keywords: cross section, neutron transport, numerical simulation, on-the-fly

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Authors: Harish Kumar Ponnappan, Joseph C. Chen

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The main objective of this research is to optimize the surface roughness of a milling operation on AISI 1018 steel using live tooling on a HAAS ST-20 lathe. In this study, Taguchi analysis is used to optimize the milling process by investigating the effect of different machining parameters on surface roughness. The L₉ orthogonal array is designed with four controllable factors with three different levels each and an uncontrollable factor, resulting in 18 experimental runs. The optimal parameters determined from Taguchi analysis were feed rate – 76.2 mm/min, spindle speed 1150 rpm, depth of cut – 0.762 mm and 2-flute TiN coated high-speed steel as tool material. The process capability Cp and process capability index Cpk values were improved from 0.62 and -0.44 to 1.39 and 1.24 respectively. The average surface roughness values from the confirmation runs were 1.30 µ, decreasing the defect rate from 87.72% to 0.01%. The purpose of this study is to efficiently utilize the Taguchi design to optimize the surface roughness in a milling operation using live tooling.

Keywords: live tooling, surface roughness, taguchi analysis, CNC milling operation, CNC turning operation

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Authors: Payam Hayati, Fateme Firoozbakht, Gholamhassan Azimi, Shahram Tangestaninejad

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The synthesis of a photocatalytic adsorbent involved the integration of carbon dots (CD) into a metal-organic framework (MOF) of MIL-88B(Fe) using the solvothermal technique. Characterization of the resulting CD@MIL-88B(Fe) was conducted using various analytical methods, including X-ray-based microscopic and spectroscopic techniques, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, UV–Vis, FT-IR, DRS, TGA, and photoluminescence (PL) analysis. The adsorbent demonstrated significant photocatalytic activity, achieving up to 92% and 90% removal of amphotericin B (AmB) and naproxen (Nap) from aqueous solutions under visible light, with an RSD value of around 5%. The study explored the factors influencing the degradation of pharmaceuticals and determined the optimal conditions for the process, including pH values of 3 and 4 for AmB and Nap, a photocatalyst concentration of 0.2 g L-1, and an H2O2 concentration ranging from 40 to 50 mM. Reactive oxidative species such as ⋅OH and ⋅O2 were identified through the examination of different scavengers. Additionally, the adsorption isotherm and kinetic studies revealed that the synthesized photocatalyst functions as an effective adsorbent, with maximum adsorption capacities of 42.5 and 121.5 mg g-1 for AmB and Nap, while also serving as a photocatalytic agent for removal purposes.

Keywords: fenton-like degradation, metal-organic frameworks, heterogenous photocatalysts, naproxen

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Authors: Woosik Jang, Seung H. Han

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The optimal partner selection is one of the most important factors to pursue the project’s success. However, in practice, there is a gaps in perception of success depending on the role of the enterprises for the projects. This frequently makes a relations between the partner evaluation results and the project’s final performances, insufficiently. To meet this challenges, this study proposes a strategic partner evaluation model considering the perception gaps between enterprises. A total 3 times of survey was performed; factor selection, perception gap analysis, and case application. After then total 8 factors are extracted from independent sample t-test and Borich model to set-up the evaluation model. Finally, through the case applications, only 16 enterprises are re-evaluated to “Good” grade among the 22 “Good” grade from existing model. On the contrary, 12 enterprises are re-evaluated to “Good” grade among the 19 “Bad” grade from existing model. Consequently, the perception gaps based evaluation model is expected to improve the decision making quality and also enhance the probability of project’s success.

Keywords: partner evaluation model, project based enterprise, decision making, perception gap, project performance

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Authors: Mohammad Hemmati, Mohammad Taban, Ali Yasini

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One of the factors that can play an important role in increasing productivity is the optimal use of information technology, which in this area today has a significant role to play in computer systems of office automation in organizations and companies. Therefore, this research has been conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of the relationship between computerized systems of office automation and the productivity of employees in the municipality of Ilam city. The statistical population of this study was 110 people. Using Cochran formula, the minimum sample size is 78 people. The present research is a descriptive-looking research in terms of the type of objective view. A questionnaire was used to collect data. To assess the reliability of variables, Cornbrash’s alpha coefficient was used, which was equal to 0.85; SPSS19 and Pearson test were used to analyze the data and test the hypothesis of the research. In this research, three hypotheses of the relationship between office automation with efficiency, performance, and effectiveness were investigated. The results showed a direct and positive relationship between the office automation system and the increase in the efficiency, effectiveness, and efficiency of employees, and there was no reason to reject these hypotheses.

Keywords: efficiency, performance, effectiveness, automation

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Authors: Ashutosh Mishra, Nikhil Goyal

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A 3D facial emotion recognition model based on deep learning is proposed in this paper. Two convolution layers and a pooling layer are employed in the deep learning architecture. After the convolution process, the pooling is finished. The probabilities for various classes of human faces are calculated using the sigmoid activation function. To verify the efficiency of deep learning-based systems, a set of faces. The Kaggle dataset is used to verify the accuracy of a deep learning-based face recognition model. The model's accuracy is about 65 percent, which is lower than that of other facial expression recognition techniques. Despite significant gains in representation precision due to the nonlinearity of profound image representations.

Keywords: facial recognition, computational intelligence, convolutional neural network, depth map

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Authors: Asif Jan

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Sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) is a common cleaning agent for ultrafiltration (UF) membranes. While its detrimental effects on polymeric membranes are well-documented, its impact on ceramic membranes remains less explored. This study investigates the chemical stability of silicon carbide (SiC) UF membranes prepared using low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LP-CVD) during prolonged NaClO exposure. SiC UF membranes were fabricated via LP-CVD at two different temperature and pressure conditions. LP-CVD offers the advantage of SiC membrane fabrication at significantly lower temperatures (700-900°C) compared to conventional methods. The membranes were subjected to 200 hours of NaClO aging to assess their resilience. Before and after aging, we evaluated the properties and performance of the SiC UF membranes to identify optimal LP-CVD conditions. Our findings show that SiC UF membranes produced at 860°C via LP-CVD exhibit exceptional resistance to NaClO aging, whereas those prepared at 750°C experience significant deterioration. This highlights the crucial role of precise LP-CVD parameters in ensuring the robustness and long-term performance of SiC membranes in harsh chemical cleaning environments.

Keywords: ceramic membranes, ultrafiltration membranes, wastewater treatment, chemical vapor deposition

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Authors: R. Chakib, A. Essadki, M. Cherkaoui

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This paper proposes the study of a robust control of the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) used in a wind energy production. The proposed control is based on the linear active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) and it is applied to the control currents rotor of the DFIG, the DC bus voltage and active and reactive power exchanged between the DFIG and the network. The system under study and the proposed control are simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK.

Keywords: doubly fed induction generator (DFIG), active disturbance rejection control (ADRC), vector control, MPPT, extended state observer, back-to-back converter, wind turbine

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Authors: Sabri Serkan Gulluoglu

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The study is aimed at examining the effects of internet marketing with IPTV on human beings. Internet marketing with IPTV is emerging as an integral part of business strategies in today’s technologically advanced world and the business activities all over the world are influences with the emergence of this modern marketing tool. As the population of the Internet and on-line users’ increases, new research issues have arisen concerning the demographics and psychographics of the on-line user and the opportunities for a product or service. In recent years, we have seen a tendency of various services converging to the ubiquitous Internet Protocol based networks. Besides traditional Internet applications such as web browsing, email, file transferring, and so forth, new applications have been developed to replace old communication networks. IPTV is one of the solutions. In the future, we expect a single network, the IP network, to provide services that have been carried by different networks today. For finding some important effects of a video based technology market web site on internet, we determine to apply a questionnaire on university students. Recently some researches shows that in Turkey the age of people 20 to 24 use internet when they buy some electronic devices such as cell phones, computers, etc. In questionnaire there are ten categorized questions to evaluate the effects of IPTV when shopping. There were selected 30 students who are filling the question form after watching an IPTV channel video for 10 minutes. This sample IPTV channel is “buy.com”, it look like an e-commerce site with an integrated IPTV channel on. The questionnaire for the survey is constructed by using the Likert scale that is a bipolar scaling method used to measure either positive or negative response to a statement (Likert, R) it is a common system that is used is the surveys. By following the Likert Scale “the respondents are asked to indicate their degree of agreement with the statement or any kind of subjective or objective evaluation of the statement. Traditionally a five-point scale is used under this methodology”. For this study also the five point scale system is used and the respondents were asked to express their opinions about the given statement by picking the answer from the given 5 options: “Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neither agree Nor disagree, Agree and Strongly agree”. These points were also rates from 1-5 (Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neither disagree Nor agree, Agree, Strongly agree). On the basis of the data gathered from the questionnaire some results are drawn in order to get the figures and graphical representation of the study results that can demonstrate the outcomes of the research clearly.

Keywords: IPTV, internet marketing, online, e-commerce, video based technology

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Authors: Vaikunthan Rajaratnam

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Maintaining continuous professional development among clinicians has been a challenge. Hand surgery is a unique speciality with the coming together of orthopaedics, plastics and trauma surgeons. The requirements for a team-based approach to care with the inclusion of other experts such as occupational, physiotherapist and orthotic and prosthetist provide the impetus for the creation of communities of practice. This study analysed the community of practice in hand surgery that was created through a social networking website for professionals. The main objectives were to discover the usefulness of this community of practice created in the platform of the group function of LinkedIn. The second objective was to determine the usability of this platform for the purposes of continuing professional development among members of this community of practice. The methodology used was one of mixed methods which included a quantitative analysis on the usefulness of the social network website as a community of practice, using the analytics provided by the LinkedIn platform. Further qualitative analysis was performed on the various postings that were generated by the community of practice within the social network website. This was augmented by a respondent driven survey conducted online to assess the usefulness of the platform for continuous professional development. A total of 31 respondents were involved in this study. This study has shown that it is possible to create an engaging and interactive community of practice among hand surgeons using the group function of this professional social networking website LinkedIn. Over three years the group has grown significantly with members from multiple regions and has produced engaging and interactive conversations online. From the results of the respondents’ survey, it can be concluded that there was satisfaction of the functionality and that it was an excellent platform for discussions and collaboration in the community of practice with a 69 % of satisfaction. Case-based discussions were the most useful functions of the community of practice. This platform usability was graded as excellent using the validated usability tool. This study has shown that the social networking site LinkedIn’s group function can be easily used as a community of practice effectively and provides convenience to professionals and has made an impact on their practice and better care for patients. It has also shown that this platform was easy to use and has a high level of usability for the average healthcare professional. This platform provided the improved connectivity among professionals involved in hand surgery care which allowed for the community to grow and with proper support and contribution of relevant material by members allowed for a safe environment for the exchange of knowledge and sharing of experience that is the foundation of a community practice.

Keywords: community of practice, online community, hand surgery, lifelong learning, LinkedIn, social media, continuing professional development

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Authors: B. F. Dada, B. S. Ewulo, M. A. Awodun, S. O. Ajayi

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Aggregate soil carbon distribution and stock in the soil in the form of a carbon pool is important for soil fertility and sequestration. The amount of carbon pool and other nutrients statues of the soil are to benefit plants, animal and the environment in the long run. This study was carried out at Akure North and South Local Government; the study area is one of the 18 Local Government Areas of Ondo State in the Southwest geo-political zone of Nigeria. The sites were divided into Map Grids and geo-referenced with Global Positioning System (GPS). Horizons were designated and morphological description carried out on the field. Pedons were characterized and classified according to USDA soil taxonomy. The local government area shares boundaries with; Ikere Local Government (LG) in the North, Ise Orun LG in the northwest, Ifedore LG in the northeast Akure South LG in the East, Ose LG in the South East, and Owo LG in the South. SOC-pool at Federal College of Agriculture topsoil horizon A2 is significantly higher than all horizons, 67.83 th⁻¹. The chemical properties of the pedons have shown that the soil is very strongly acidic to neutral reaction (4.68 – 6.73). The nutrients status of the soil topsoil A1 and A2 generally indicates that the soils have a low potential for retaining plant nutrients, and therefore call for adequate soil management.

Keywords: soil organic carbon (SOC), horizon, pedon, Akure

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Authors: Marine Segui, Simon Bezin, Ruxandra Mihaela Botez

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As part of a ‘Morphing-Wing’ idea, this study consists of measuring how a winglet, which is able to change its shape during the flight, is efficient. Conventionally, winglets are fixed-vertical platforms at the wingtips, optimized for a cruise condition that the airplane should use most of the time. However, during a cruise, an airplane flies through a lot of cruise conditions corresponding to altitudes variations from 30,000 to 45,000 ft. The fixed winglets are not optimized for these variations, and consequently, they are supposed to generate some drag, and thus to deteriorate aircraft fuel consumption. This research assumes that it exists a winglet position that reduces the fuel consumption for each cruise condition. In this way, the methodology aims to find these optimal winglet positions, and to further simulate, and thus estimate the fuel consumption of an aircraft wearing this type of adaptive winglet during several cruise conditions. The adaptive winglet is assumed to have degrees of freedom given by the various changes of following surfaces: the tip chord, the sweep and the dihedral angles. Finally, results obtained during cruise simulations are presented in this paper. These results show that an adaptive winglet can reduce, thus improve up to 2.12% the fuel consumption of an aircraft during a cruise.

Keywords: aerodynamic, Cessna, Citation X, optimization, winglet

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Authors: Xin Chen, Xinyong Li, Qidong Zhao, Dong Wang

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A new coupling system was constructed by combining photo-electrochemical cell with electro-fenton cell (PEC-EF). The electrode material in this system was derived from MnyFe₁₋yCo Prussian-Blue-Analog (PBA). Mn₀.₄Fe₀.₆Co₀.₆₇-N@C spin-coated on carbon paper behaved as the gas diffusion cathode and Mn₀.₄Fe₀.₆Co₀.₆₇O₂.₂ spin-coated on fluorine-tin oxide glass (FTO) as anode. The two separated cells could degrade Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) simultaneously and some coupling mechanisms by PEC and EF enhancing the degradation efficiency were investigated. The continuous on-site generation of H₂O₂ at cathode through an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) was realized over rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE). The electron transfer number (n) of the ORR with Mn₀.₄Fe₀.₆Co₀.₆₇-N@C was 2.5 in the selected potential and pH range. The photo-electrochemical properties of Mn₀.₄Fe₀.₆Co₀.₆₇O₂.₂ were systematically studied, which displayed good response towards visible light. The photoinduced electrons at anode can transfer to cathode for further use. Efficient photo-electro-catalytic performance was observed in degrading SMX. Almost 100% SMX removal was achieved in 120 min. This work not only provided a highly effective technique for antibiotic treatment but also revealed the synergic effect between PEC and EF.

Keywords: electro-fenton, photo-electrochemical, synergic effect, sulfamethoxazole

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Authors: Kumar Manoj, Ramesh Kumar, Kumari Arti, Kumar Prashant

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Routing protocols have a central role in any mobile ad hoc network (MANET). There are many routing protocols that exhibit different performance levels in different scenarios. In this paper we compare AODV, DSDV, DSR and ZRP routing protocol in mobile ad hoc networks to determine the best operational conditions for each protocol. We analyses these routing protocols by extensive simulations in OPNET simulator and show that how pause time and the number of nodes affect their performance. In this study, performance is measured in terms of control traffic received, control traffic sent, data traffic received, data traffic sent, throughput, retransmission attempts.

Keywords: MANET, AODV, DSDV, DSR, ZRP

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Authors: R. Malathy

Abstract:

High performance concrete is not only characterized by its high strength, workability, and durability but also by its smartness in performance without human care since the first day. If the concrete can cure on its own without external curing without compromising its strength and durability, then it is said to be high performance self-curing concrete. In this paper, an attempt is made on the performance study of internally cured concrete using biomaterials, namely Spinacea pleracea and Calatropis gigantea as self-curing agents, and it is compared with the performance of concrete with existing self-cure chemical, namely polyethylene glycol. The present paper focuses on workability, strength, and durability study on M20, M30, and M40 grade concretes replacing 30% of fly ash for cement. The optimum dosage of Spinacea pleracea, Calatropis gigantea, and polyethylene glycol was taken as 0.6%, 0.24%, and 0.3% by weight of cement from the earlier research studies. From the slump tests performed, it was found that there is a minimum variation between conventional concrete and self-cured concrete. The strength activity index is determined by keeping compressive strength of conventionally cured concrete for 28 days as unity and observed that, for self-cured concrete, it is more than 1 after 28 days and more than 1.15 after 56 days because of secondary reaction of fly ash. The performance study of concretes in aggressive environment like acid attack, sea water attack, and chloride attack was made, and the results are positive and encouraging in bio-self-cured concretes which are ecofriendly, cost effective, and high performance materials.

Keywords: bio materials, Calatropis gigantea, self curing concrete, Spinacea oleracea

Procedia PDF Downloads 343

Authors: Nermine A. Harraz, Aliaa Abouali

Abstract:

The retail stores put up for sale multiple items while the spaces in the backroom and display areas constitute a scarce resource. Availability, volume, and location of the product displayed in the showroom influence the customer’s demand. Managing these operations individually will result in sub-optimal overall retail store’s profit; therefore, a non-linear integer programming model (NLIP) is developed to determine the inventory replenishment and shelf space allocation decisions that together maximize the retailer’s profit under shelf space and backroom storage constraints taking into consideration that the demand rate is positively dependent on the amount and location of items displayed in the showroom. The developed model is solved using LINGO® software. The NLIP model is implemented in a real world case study in a large retail outlet providing a large variety of products. The proposed model is validated and shows logical results when using the experimental data collected from the market.

Keywords: retailing management, inventory replenishment, shelf space allocation, showroom, backroom

Procedia PDF Downloads 349

Authors: Kang-Mo Jung

Abstract:

The use of regularization for statistical methods has become popular. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) framework has become the standard tool for sparse regression. However, it is well known that the LASSO is sensitive to outliers or leverage points. We consider a new robust estimation which is composed of the weighted loss function of the pairwise difference of residuals and the adaptive penalty function regulating the tuning parameter for each variable. Rank regression is resistant to regression outliers, but not to leverage points. By adopting a weighted loss function, the proposed method is robust to leverage points of the predictor variable. Furthermore, the adaptive penalty function gives us good statistical properties in variable selection such as oracle property and consistency. We develop an efficient algorithm to compute the proposed estimator using basic functions in program R. We used an optimal tuning parameter based on the Bayesian information criterion (BIC). Numerical simulation shows that the proposed estimator is effective for analyzing real data set and contaminated data.

Keywords: adaptive penalty function, robust penalized regression, variable selection, weighted rank regression

Procedia PDF Downloads 461