Search results for: loss processes

Authors: Seval Kula-Kartal

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Developing students’ reading comprehension skills is an aim that is difficult to accomplish and requires to follow long-term and systematic teaching and assessment processes. In these processes, teachers need tools to provide guidance to them on what reading comprehension is and which comprehension skills they should develop. Due to a lack of clear and evidence-based frameworks defining reading comprehension skills, especially in Turkiye, teachers and students mostly follow various processes in the classrooms without having an idea about what their comprehension goals are and what those goals mean. Since teachers and students do not have a clear view of comprehension targets, strengths, and weaknesses in students’ comprehension skills, the formative feedback processes cannot be managed in an effective way. It is believed that detecting and defining influential comprehension skills may provide guidance both to teachers and students during the feedback process. Therefore, in the current study, some of the reading comprehension frameworks that define comprehension skills operationally were examined. The aim of the study is to develop a simple and clear framework that can be used by teachers and students during their teaching, learning, assessment, and feedback processes. The current study is qualitative research in which documents related to reading comprehension skills were analyzed. Therefore, the study group consisted of recourses and frameworks which made big contributions to theoretical and operational definitions of reading comprehension. A content analysis was conducted on the resources included in the study group. To determine the validity of the themes and sub-categories revealed as the result of content analysis, three educational assessment experts were asked to examine the content analysis results. The Fleiss’ Cappa coefficient revealed that there is consistency among themes and categories defined by three different experts. The content analysis of the reading comprehension frameworks revealed that comprehension skills could be examined under four different themes. The first and second themes focus on understanding information given explicitly or implicitly within a text. The third theme includes skills used by the readers to make connections between their personal knowledge and the information given in the text. Lastly, the fourth theme focus on skills used by readers to examine the text with a critical view. The results suggested that fundamental reading comprehension skills can be examined under four themes. Teachers are recommended to use these themes in their reading comprehension teaching and assessment processes. Acknowledgment: This research is supported by Pamukkale University Scientific Research Unit within the project, whose title is Developing A Reading Comprehension Rubric.

Keywords: reading comprehension, assessing reading comprehension, comprehension taxonomies, educational assessment

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Authors: Han-Mei Chen, Rongxin Zhou, Taige Wang

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Glass is widely used in everyday life, from glass bottles for beverages to architectural glass for various forms of glazing. Although the mainstream of used glass is recycled in the UK, the single-use and then recycling procedure results in a lot of waste as it incorporates intact glass with smashing, re-melting, and remanufacturing. These processes bring massive energy consumption with a huge loss of high embodied energy and economic value, compared to re-use, which’s towards a ‘zero carbon’ target. As a tourism city, Liverpool has more glass bottle consumption than most less leisure-focused cities. It’s therefore vital for Liverpool to find an upgrading approach for the single-use glass bottles with low carbon output. This project aims to assess the feasibility of industrial symbiosis and upgrading the framework of glass and to investigate the ways of achieving them. It is significant to Liverpool’s future industrial strategy since it provides an opportunity to target economic recovery for post-COVID by industry symbiosis and up-grading waste management in Liverpool to respond to the climate emergency. In addition, it will influence the local government policy for glass bottle reuse and recycling in North West England and as a good practice to be further recommended to other areas of the UK. First, a critical literature review of glass waste strategies has been conducted in the UK and worldwide industrial symbiosis practices. Second, mapping, data collection, and analysis have shown the current life cycle chain and the strong links of glass reuse and upgrading potentials via site visits to 16 local waste recycling centres. The results of this research have demonstrated the understanding of the influence of key factors on the development of a circular industrial symbiosis business model for beverage glass bottles. The current waste management procedures of the glass bottle industry, its business model, supply chain, and material flow have been reviewed. The various potential opportunities for glass bottle up-valuing have been investigated towards an industrial symbiosis in Liverpool. Finally, an up-valuing business model has been developed for an industrial symbiosis framework of glass in Liverpool. For glass bottles, there are two possibilities 1) focus on upgrading processes towards re-use rather than single-use and recycling and 2) focus on ‘smart’ re-use and recycling, leading to optimised values in other sectors to create a wider industry symbiosis for a multi-level and circular economy.

Keywords: glass bottles, industry symbiosis, smart re-use, waste upgrading

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Authors: R. K. Patel

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The experiment entitled “Bionomics of Cryptophlebia ombrodelta Lower (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), a Major Pest of Tamarind, Tamarindus indica in Bastar tribal belt of Chhattisgarh” was conducted at S. G. College of Agriculture and Research Station, Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh) during 2014-15. The moth, Cryptophlebia ombrodelta (Lower) is very destructive pest to tamarind, Tamarindus indica. The mature larva is pinkish in colour whereas, the moth is generally grayish in colour and it lays pale yellowish - white, flat and round eggs near the peduncle joint of pod (fruit) or on the pod surface. The newly hatched larva enters into the fruit by making hole packed with excreta. It completes three to four generation in a year and can cause fourty two per cent loss to tamarind fruits. The morphological details of this pest were studied.

Keywords: bionomics, Cryptophlebia ombrodelta, loss, pest, Tamarind, Tamarindus indica

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Authors: J. J. Vargas, N. Prieto, L. A. Toro

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Control charts are commonly used to monitor processes involving either variable or attribute of quality characteristics and determining the control limits as a critical task for quality engineers to improve the processes. Nonetheless, in some applications it is necessary to include an estimation of efficiency. In this paper, the ability to define the efficiency of an industrial process was added to a control chart by means of incorporating a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. In depth, a Bayesian estimation was performed to calculate the posterior probability distribution of parameters as means and variance and covariance matrix. This technique allows to analyse the data set without the need of using the hypothetical large sample implied in the problem and to be treated as an approximation to the finite sample distribution. A rejection simulation method was carried out to generate random variables from the parameter functions. Each resulting vector was used by stochastic DEA model during several cycles for establishing the distribution of each efficiency measures for each DMU (decision making units). A control limit was calculated with model obtained and if a condition of a low level efficiency of DMU is presented, system efficiency is out of control. In the efficiency calculated a global optimum was reached, which ensures model reliability.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis, DEA, Multivariate control chart, rejection simulation method

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Authors: Jeffrey Cacho, Sherwin Reyes

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The research targeted enhancing energy utilization and reducing waste in roasting processes, particularly in Camarines Norte, where Bounty Agro Ventures Incorporated dominates through brands such as Chooks-to-Go, Uling Roaster, and Reyal. Competitors like Andok’s and Baliwag Lechon Manok also share the market. A staggering 90% of these businesses use traditional glass-type roasting furnaces fueled by wood charcoal, leading to significant energy loss and inefficiency due to suboptimal heat conservation. Only a mere 10% employ electric ovens. Many available furnaces, typically constructed from industrial materials through welding and other metal joining techniques, are not energy-efficient. Cost-prohibitive commercial options compel some micro-enterprises to fabricate their furnaces. The study proposed developing an eco-friendly, cost-effective roasting furnace with excellent heat retention. The distinct design aimed to reduce cooks' heat exposure and overall fuel consumption. The furnace features an angle bar frame, a combustion chute for fuel burning, a heat-retaining clay-walled chamber, and a top cover, all contributing to improved energy savings and user safety.

Keywords: biomass roasting furnace, heat storage, combustion chute, start-up roasting business

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Authors: Yu T. Tsai, Jin H. Huang

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In this paper, the specific sound transmission loss (TL) of the laminated composite plate (LCP) with different material properties in each layer is investigated. The numerical method to obtain the TL of the LCP is proposed by using elastic plate theory. The transfer matrix approach is novelty presented for computational efficiency in solving the numerous layers of dynamic stiffness matrix (D-matrix) of the LCP. Besides the numerical simulations for calculating the TL of the LCP, the material properties inverse method is presented for the design of a laminated composite plate analogous to a metallic plate with a specified TL. As a result, it demonstrates that the proposed computational algorithm exhibits high efficiency with a small number of iterations for achieving the goal. This method can be effectively employed to design and develop tailor-made materials for various applications.

Keywords: sound transmission loss, laminated composite plate, transfer matrix approach, inverse problem, elastic plate theory, material properties

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Authors: Ljubica Milanović Glavan, Vesna Bosilj Vukšić, Dalia Suša

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In order to gain a competitive advantage, many companies are focusing on reorganization of their business processes and implementing process-based management. In this context, assessing process performance is essential because it enables individuals and groups to assess where they stand in comparison to their competitors. In this paper, it is argued that process performance measurement is a necessity for a modern process-oriented company and it should be supported by a holistic process performance measurement system. It seems very unlikely that a universal set of performance indicators can be applied successfully to all business processes. Thus, performance indicators must be process-specific and have to be derived from both the strategic enterprise-wide goals and the process goals. Based on the extensive literature review and interviews conducted in Croatian company a conceptual framework for process performance measurement system was developed. The main objective of such system is to help process managers by providing comprehensive and timely information on the performance of business processes. This information can be used to communicate goals and current performance of a business process directly to the process team, to improve resource allocation and process output regarding quantity and quality, to give early warning signals, to make a diagnosis of the weaknesses of a business process, to decide whether corrective actions are needed and to assess the impact of actions taken.

Keywords: Croatia, key performance indicators, performance measurement, process performance

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Authors: Loïc Warscotte, Jehan Boreux

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The scientific literature of changepoint detection is vast. Today, a lot of methods are available to detect abrupt changes or slight drift in a signal, based on CUSUM or EWMA charts, for example. However, these methods rely on strong assumptions, such as the stationarity of the stochastic underlying process, or even the independence and Gaussian distributed noise at each time. Recently, the breakthrough research on locally stationary processes widens the class of studied stochastic processes with almost no assumptions on the signals and the nature of the changepoint. Despite the accurate description of the mathematical aspects, this methodology quickly suffers from impractical time and space complexity concerning the signals with high-rate data collection, if the characteristics of the process are completely unknown. In this paper, we then addressed the problem of making this theory usable to our purpose, which is monitoring a high-speed weigh-in-motion system (HS-WIM) towards direct enforcement without supervision. To this end, we first compute bounded approximations of the initial detection theory. Secondly, these approximating bounds are empirically validated by generating many independent long-run stochastic processes. The abrupt changes and the drift are both tested. Finally, this relaxed methodology is tested on real signals coming from a HS-WIM device in Belgium, collected over several months.

Keywords: changepoint, weigh-in-motion, process, non-parametric

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Authors: Muluken Z. Getie, Francois Lanzetta, Sylvie Begot, Bimrew T. Admassu

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This study is aimed at the numerical analysis of the effects of phase angle and losses (shuttle heat loss and gas leakage to the crankcase) that could have an impact on the pressure and temperature of working fluid for a β-type Stirling cycle refrigerating machine. First, the developed numerical model incorporates into the ideal adiabatic analysis, the shuttle heat transfer (heat loss from compression space to expansion space), and gas leakage from the working space to the buffer space into the crankcase. The other losses that may not have a direct effect on the temperature and pressure of working fluid are simply incorporated in a simple analysis. The model is then validated by reversing the model to the engine model and compared with other literature results using (GPU-3) engine. After validating the model with other engine model and experiment results, analysis of the effect of phase angle, shuttle heat lose and gas leakage on temperature, pressure, and performance (power requirement, cooling capacity and coefficient of performance) of refrigerating machine considering the FEMTO 60 Stirling engine as a case study have been conducted. Shuttle heat loss has a greater effect on the temperature of working gas; gas leakage to the crankcase has more effect on the pressure of working spaces and hence both have a considerable impact on the performance of the Stirling cycle refrigerating machine. The optimum coefficient of performance exists between phase angles of 900-950, and optimum cooling capacity could be found between phase angles of 950-980.

Keywords: beta configuration, engine model, moderate cooling, stirling refrigerator, and validation

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Authors: Shrinivas P. Mahajan, Aarti C. Kshirsagar

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Wireless communication technology is rapidly changing with recent developments in portable devices and communication protocols. This has generated demand for more advanced and compact antenna structures and therefore, proposed work focuses on Meander Line Antenna (MLA) design. Here, Pentaband MLA is designed on a FR4 substrate (85 mm x 40 mm) with dielectric constant (ϵr) 4.4, loss tangent (tan ) 0.018 and height 1.6 mm with coplanar feed and open stub structure. It can be operated in LTE (0.670 GHz-0.696 GHz) GPS (1.564 GHz-1.579 GHz), WCDMA (1.920 GHz-2.135 GHz), LTE UL frequency band 23 (2-2.020 GHz) and 5G (3.10 GHz-3.550 GHz) application bands. Also, it gives good performance in terms of Return Loss (RL) which is < -10 dB, impedance bandwidth with maximum Bandwidth (BW) up to 0.21 GHz and realized gains with maximum gain up to 3.28 dBi. Antenna is simulated with open stub and without open stub structures to see the effect on impedance BW coverage. In addition to this, it is checked with human hand and head phantoms to assure that it falls within specified Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) limits.

Keywords: coplanar feed, L shaped ground, Meander Line Antenna, MLA, Phantom, Specific Absorption Rate, SAR

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Authors: Khlaid Albishi

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This paper participates in giving new vision and explains the learning and acquisition processes of English language by analyzing a certain context. Five important factors in English language acquisition and learning are discussed and suitable solutions are provided. The factors are compared with the learners' linguistic background at Bisha College of Technology BCT attempting to link the issues faced by students and the research done on similar situations. These factors are phonology, age of acquisition, motivation, psychology and courses of English. These factors are very important; because they interfere and affect specific learning processes at BCT context and general English learning situations.

Keywords: language acquisition, language learning, factors, Bisha college

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Authors: Maier Dorin, Maier Andreea

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Today, any organization - regardless of the specific activity - must be prepared to face continuous radical changes, innovation thus becoming a condition of survival in a globalized market. Not all managers have an overall view on the real size of necessary innovation potential. Unfortunately there is still no common (and correct) understanding of the term of innovation among managers. Moreover, not all managers are aware of the need for innovation. This article highlights and analyzes a series of models of innovation processes and their evolution. The models analyzed encompass both the strategic level and the operational one within an organization, indicating performance innovation on each landing. As the literature review shows, there are no easy answers to the innovation process as there are no shortcuts to great results. Successful companies do not have a silver innovative bullet - they do not get results by making one or few things better than others, they make everything better.

Keywords: innovation, innovation process, business success, models of innovation

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Authors: Chia-Ling Li

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The scope of this article includes the production of 10,000 metric tons of non-phthalate per annum. The production process will include hydrogenation, separation, purification, and recycling of unprocessed feedstock. Based on experimental data, conversion and selectivity were chosen as reaction model parameters. The synthesis and separation processes of non-phthalate and phthalate were established by using Aspen Plus software. The article will be divided into six parts: estimation of physical properties, integration of production processes, purification case study, utility consumption, economic feasibility study and identification of bottlenecks. The purities of products was higher than 99.9 wt. %. Process parameters have important guiding significance to the commercialization of hydrogenation of phthalate.

Keywords: economic analysis, hydrogenation, non-phthalate, process simulation

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Authors: Sarah Ekuwo Okende, Armand Lokolo

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Gradually, the recognition of wild bees in processes affecting ecosystems and as major components of biodiversity has led to their protection as well as their areas in Kinshasa. And despite their decisive role in the well-being of men, the general public and decision-makers know nothing of the consequences of the loss of these, which are nevertheless of considerable magnitude. On this, they provide the pollination of sexual plants, and they also provide us with a number of goods that have a direct economic value, such as food, medicines, etc. And yet today, more than half of these wild bee species are threatened in Kinshasa. The causes of this phenomenon are largely unknown to the general public in the Kinshasa region. The objective of this study is to find the causes leading to the disappearance of wild bee species in Kinshasa. Also, this research contributes to current knowledge of the biodiversity of wild bees in the Kinshasa region and helps the authorities to develop a good policy for the conservation or safeguarding of this biodiversity, which plays a key role in maintaining the integrity of our ecosystems. We carried out field surveys using interview sheets in the forest areas of Kinshasa where wild bees populated them. To achieve this, an interview sheet was made, and it included questions on the causes of the disappearance of wild bees and the destruction of forest areas. The interviews were carried out with the natives of these forest areas. The results of this study show us that the destruction of habitats or natural areas and the use of pesticides are the causes of the disappearance of these wild bees.

Keywords: wild bees, pollinisation, forest, biodiversity, habitats, ecosystem, destruction, pesticide

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Authors: Abosede Mosunmola Odeseye

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The sustainability of nations’ economies today have proven to be unrealistic in a constantly changing world without appropriate accordance to entrepreneurship role and its processes. This role has therefore proven to be a product of the available and discoverable opportunities by an individual/organisation in any pattern – innovation, discovery, diffusion, imitation amidst possible challenges. In light of these, this paper examined the relationship between opportunity development and entrepreneurial processes as well as the factors determining individual’s opportunity development and the success of entrepreneurial processes. Systematic review method was adopted for selecting relevant academic materials. The theoretical base of this paper was anchored on Schumpeter’s entrepreneurial innovation model and Drucker and Stevenson’s opportunity-based entrepreneurship theory. Based on the reviewed literature, it was discovered that rough business idea “opportunity” in any form – techniques/product encounter various obstacles to achieve its development, acceptability and sustainability. In essence, the findings revealed that the birth of every opportunity is as a result of the individual/organisation and environmental factors to be able to scale through the whole process successfully. Due to the outcome of this paper, it was recommended that the organisations/government should endeavour to create an enabling environment for a rough business idea to come to life amidst the hurdles of the entrepreneurial process.

Keywords: entrepreneurial process, entrepreneurship, opportunity, opportunity development, organisation, sustainability

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Authors: Emi Govorčin Bajsića, Vesna Ocelić Bulatović, Miroslav Slouf, Ana Šitum

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Composites based on a biodegradable polycaprolactone (PCL) containing 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 wt % of titanium dioxide (TiO2) micro and nanoparticles were prepared by melt mixing and the effect of filler type and contents on the thermal properties, dynamic-mechanical behaviour and morphology were investigated. Measurements of storage modulus and loss modulus by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) showed better results for microfilled PCL/TiO2 composites than nanofilled composites, with the same filler content. DSC analysis showed that the Tg and Tc of micro and nanocomposites were slightly lower than those of neat PCL. The crystallinity of the PCL increased with the addition of TiO2 micro and nanoparticles; however, the c for the PCL was unchanged with micro TiO2 content. The thermal stability of PCL/TiO2 composites were characterized using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The initial weight loss (5 wt %) occurs at slightly higher temperature with micro and nano TiO2 addition and with increasing TiO2 content.

Keywords: polycaprolactone, titanium dioxide, thermal properties, morphology

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Authors: Yufeng Li, Yinan Ma, Jing Wu, Chengnian Long

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Infrared object detection aims at separating small and dim target from clutter background and its capabilities extend beyond the limits of visible light, making it invaluable in a wide range of applications such as improving safety, security, efficiency, and functionality. However, existing methods are usually sensitive to the noise of the input infrared image, leading to a decrease in target detection accuracy and an increase in the false alarm rate in high-noise environments. To address this issue, an infrared small target detection algorithm called YOLO-IR is proposed in this paper to improve the robustness to high infrared noise. To address the problem that high noise significantly reduces the clarity and reliability of target features in infrared images, we design a soft-threshold coordinate attention mechanism to improve the model’s ability to extract target features and its robustness to noise. Since the noise may overwhelm the local details of the target, resulting in the loss of small target features during depth down-sampling, we propose a deep and shallow feature fusion neck to improve the detection accuracy. In addition, because the generalized Intersection over Union (IoU)-based loss functions may be sensitive to noise and lead to unstable training in high-noise environments, we introduce a Wasserstein-distance based loss function to improve the training of the model. The experimental results show that YOLO-IR achieves a 5.0% improvement in recall and a 6.6% improvement in F1-score over existing state-of-art model.

Keywords: infrared small target detection, high noise, robustness, soft-threshold coordinate attention, feature fusion

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Authors: Mujtaba Roshan, John A. Schormans

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Quality of Experience (QoE) drives churn in the broadband networks industry, and good QoE plays a large part in the retention of customers. QoE is known to be affected by the Quality of Service (QoS) factors packet loss probability (PLP), delay and delay jitter caused by the network. Earlier results have shown that the relationship between these QoS factors and QoE is non-linear, and may vary from application to application. We use the network emulator Netem as the basis for experimentation, and evaluate how QoE varies as we change the emulated QoS metrics. Focusing on Video-on-Demand, we discovered that the reported QoE may differ widely for users of different age groups, and that the most demanding age group (the youngest) can require an order of magnitude lower PLP to achieve the same QoE than is required by the most widely studied age group of users. We then used a bottleneck TCP model to evaluate the capacity cost of achieving an order of magnitude decrease in PLP, and found it be (almost always) a 3-fold increase in link capacity that was required.

Keywords: network capacity, packet loss probability, quality of experience, quality of service

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Authors: Daria N. Podvigina, Tatiana V. Chernigovskaya

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We have studied the temporal characteristics of bistable perception of the stimuli of two types: one involves alterations in a perceived depth and another one has an ambiguous content. We used the Necker lattice and lines of shadowed circles ambiguously perceived either as spheres or holes as stimuli of the first type. The Winson figure (the Eskimo/Indian picture) was a stimulus of the second type. We have analyzed how often the reversals occurred (reversal rate) and for how long each of the two interpretations, or percepts, was observed during one presentation (stability durations). For all three ambiguous images the reversal rate and the stability durations had similar values, which provide another evidence for a significant role of top-down processes in multistable perception.

Keywords: multistable perception, perceived depth, reversal rate, top-down processes

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Authors: Kasirga Yildirak, Ismail Gur

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We propose a model to measure hail risk of an Agricultural Insurance portfolio. Hail is one of the major catastrophic event that causes big amount of loss to an insurer. Moreover, it is very hard to predict due to its strange atmospheric characteristics. We make use of parcel based claims data on apricot damage collected by the Turkish Agricultural Insurance Pool (TARSIM). As our ultimate aim is to compute the loadings assigned to specific parcels, we build a portfolio risk model that makes use of PD and the severity of the exposures. PD is computed by Spherical-Linear and Circular –Linear regression models as the data carries coordinate information and seasonality. Severity is mapped into integer brackets so that Probability Generation Function could be employed. Individual regressions are run on each clusters estimated on different criteria. Loss distribution is constructed by Panjer Recursion technique. We also show that one risk-one crop model can easily be extended to the multi risk–multi crop model by assuming conditional independency.

Keywords: hail insurance, spherical regression, circular regression, spherical clustering

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Authors: Amir T. Payandeh Najafabadi

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This article considers the problem of evaluating infinite-time (or finite-time) ruin probability under a given compound Poisson surplus process by approximating the claim size distribution by a finite mixture exponential, say Hyperexponential, distribution. It restates the infinite-time (or finite-time) ruin probability as a solvable ordinary differential equation (or a partial differential equation). Application of our findings has been given through a simulation study.

Keywords: ruin probability, compound poisson processes, mixture exponential (hyperexponential) distribution, heavy-tailed distributions

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Authors: Marcello De Falco, Gianluca Natrella, Mauro Capocelli

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CO₂ capture and utilization (CCU) is a promising approach to reduce GHG(greenhouse gas) emissions. Many technologies in this field are recently attracting attention. However, since CO₂ is a very stable compound, its utilization as a reagent is energetic intensive. As a consequence, it is unclear whether CCU processes allow for a net reduction of environmental impacts from a life cycle perspective and whether these solutions are sustainable. Among the tools to apply for the quantification of the real environmental benefits of CCU technologies, exergy analysis is the most rigorous from a scientific point of view. The exergy of a system is the maximum obtainable work during a process that brings the system into equilibrium with its reference environment through a series of reversible processes in which the system can only interact with such an environment. In other words, exergy is an “opportunity for doing work” and, in real processes, it is destroyed by entropy generation. The exergy-based analysis is useful to evaluate the thermodynamic inefficiencies of processes, to understand and locate the main consumption of fuels or primary energy, to provide an instrument for comparison among different process configurations and to detect solutions to reduce the energy penalties of a process. In this work, the exergy analysis of a process for the production of Dimethyl Ether (DME) from green hydrogen generated through an electrolysis unit and pure CO₂ captured from flue gas is performed. The model simulates the behavior of all units composing the plant (electrolyzer, carbon capture section, DME synthesis reactor, purification step), with the scope to quantify the performance indices based on the II Law of Thermodynamics and to identify the entropy generation points. Then, a plant optimization strategy is proposed to maximize the exergy efficiency.

Keywords: green DME production, exergy analysis, energy penalties, exergy efficiency

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Authors: Jiheon Park, Taekwang Kim, Kwang Ryel Ryu

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Electric automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are becoming popular in many automated container terminals nowadays because they are pollution-free and environmentally friendly vehicles for transporting the containers within the terminal. Since efficient operation of AGVs is critical for the productivity of the container terminal, the replacement of batteries of the AGVs must be conducted in a strategic way to minimize undesirable transportation interruptions. While a too frequent replacement may lead to a loss of terminal productivity by delaying container deliveries, missing the right timing of battery replacement can result in a dead AGV that causes a severer productivity loss due to the extra efforts required to finish post treatment. In this paper, we propose a strategy for battery replacement based on a scoring function of multiple criteria taking into account the current battery level, the distances to different battery stations, and the progress of the terminal job operations. The strategy is optimized using a genetic algorithm with the objectives of minimizing the total time spent for battery replacement as well as maximizing the terminal productivity.

Keywords: AGV operation, automated container terminal, battery replacement, electric AGV, strategy optimization

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Authors: Kanti Sapkota, Do Hyun Lee, Sung Soo Han

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Nanocomposites have been widely used in various fields such as electronics, catalysis, and in chemical, biological, biomedical and optical fields. They display broad biomedical properties like antidiabetic, anticancer, antioxidant, antimicrobial and antibacterial activities. Moreover, nanomaterials have been used for wastewater treatment. Particularly, bimetallic hybrid nanocomposites exhibit unique features as compared to their monometallic components. Hybrid nanomaterials not only afford the multifunctionality endowed by their constituents but can also show synergistic properties. In addition, these hybrid nanomaterials have noteworthy catalytic and optical properties. Notably, Au−Ag based nanoparticles can be employed in sensor and catalysis due to their characteristic composition-tunable plasmonic properties. Due to their importance and usefulness, various efforts were developed for their preparation. Generally, chemical methods have been described to synthesize such bimetallic nanocomposites. In such chemical synthesis, harmful and hazardous chemicals cause environmental contamination and increase toxicity levels. Therefore, ecologically benevolent processes for the synthesis of nanomaterials are highly desirable to diminish such environmental and safety concerns. In this regard, here we disclose a simple, cost-effective, external additive free and eco-friendly method for the synthesis of Au-Ag@AgCl nanocomposites using Nephrolepis cordifolia root extract. Au-Ag@AgCl NCs were obtained by the simultaneous reduction of cationic Ag and Au into AgCl in the presence of plant extract. The particle size of 10 to 50 nm was observed with the average diameter of 30 nm. The synthesized nanocomposite was characterized by various modern characterization techniques. For example, UV−visible spectroscopy was used to determine the optical activity of the synthesized NCs, and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy was employed to investigate the functional groups present in the biomolecules that were responsible for both reducing and capping agents during the formation of nanocomposites. Similarly, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy were used to determine crystallinity, size, oxidation states, thermal stability and weight loss of the synthesized nanocomposites. As a synthetic application, the synthesized nanocomposite exhibited excellent catalytic activity for the multicomponent synthesis of biologically interesting quinoline molecules via domino annulation-aromatization reaction of aniline, arylaldehyde, and phenyl acetylene derivatives. Interestingly, the nanocatalyst was efficiently recycled for five times without substantial loss of catalytic properties.

Keywords: nanoparticles, catalysis, multicomponent, quinoline

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Authors: Sandra C. L. Dorea, Joann K. Whalen, Yixin Shao, Oumarou Savadogo

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The major challenge for industries that rely on fossil fuels in manufacturing processes or to provide goods and services is to lower their CO2 emissions, as the case for the manufacture of Portland cement. Feasible materials for this purpose can include agro-industrial or agricultural wastes, which are termed 'biosilica' since the silica was contained in a biological matrix (biomass). Corn cob (CC) has some characteristics that make it a good candidate as biosilica source: 1) it is an abundant grain crop produced around the world; 2) more production means more available residues is left in the field to be used. This work aims to evaluate the CC collected from different farms in Canada during the corn harvest in order to see if they can be used together as a biosilica source. The characterization of the raw CC was made in the physical, chemical, and thermal way. The moisture content, the granulometry, and the morphology were also analyzed. The ash content measured was 2,1%. The Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and its Derivative (DTG) evaluated of CC as a function of weight loss with temperature variation ranging between 30°C and 800°C in an atmosphere of N2. The chemical composition and the presence of silica revealed that the different sources of the CC do not interfere in its basic chemical composition, which means that this kind of waste can be used together as a source of biosilica no matter where they come from. Then, this biosilica can partially replace the cement Portland making sustainable cementitious mixtures and contributing to reduce the CO2 emissions.

Keywords: biosilica, characterization, corn cob, sustainable cementitious materials

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Authors: B. Lee, B. H. Choi

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The loss of safety for reservoirs brought about by climate change and facility aging leads to reservoir failures, which results in the loss of lives and property damage in downstream areas. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a reservoir failure alert system for downstream residents to detect the early signs of failure (with sensors) in real-time and perform safety management to prevent and minimize possible damage. 10 case studies were carried out to verify the water level management criteria of four levels (attention, caution, alert, serious). Peak changes in water level data were analysed. The results showed that ‘Caution’ and ‘Alert’ were closed to 33% and 66% of difference in level between flood water level and full water level. Therefore, it is adequate to use initial water level management criteria of reservoir failure alert system for the first year. Acknowledgment: This research was supported by a grant (2017-MPSS31-002) from 'Supporting Technology Development Program for Disaster Management' funded by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety(MOIS)

Keywords: alert system, management criteria, reservoir failure, sensor

Procedia PDF Downloads 186

Authors: Divya Raghunandanan, Bhavesh D. Gajbhiye, C. S. Sona, Channamallikarjun S. Mathpati

Abstract:

Molten fluoride salts are considered as potential coolants for next generation nuclear plants where the heat can be utilized for production of hydrogen and electricity. Among molten fluoride salts, FLiNaK (LiF-NaF-KF: 46.5-11.5-42 mol %) is a potential candidate for the coolant due to its superior thermophysical properties such as high temperature stability, boiling point, volumetric heat capacity and thermal conductivity. Major technical challenge in implementation is the selection of structural material which can withstand corrosive nature of FLiNaK. Corrosion study of alloys SS 316L, Hastelloy B, Ni-201 was performed in molten FLiNaK at 650°C. Nickel was found to be more resistant to corrosive attack in molten fluoride medium. Corrosion experiments were performed to study the effect of nickel coating on corrosion of alloys SS 316L and Hastelloy B. Weight loss of the alloys due to corrosion was measured and corrosion rate was estimated. The surface morphology of the alloys was analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy.

Keywords: corrosion, FLiNaK, hastelloy, weight loss

Procedia PDF Downloads 425

Authors: Jenny Lee

Abstract:

Fat Studies is emerging as an interdisciplinary area of study, intersecting with Gender Studies, Sociology, Human Development and the Creative Arts. A focus on weight loss, and, therefore, fat hatred, has resulted in a form of discriminatory institutional practice that impacts women in the Western world. This focus is sanctioned by a large dieting industry, medical associations, the media, and at times, government initiatives. This paper will discuss the emergence of the so-called ‘Obesity Epidemic’ in Australia and the Western world and the stereotypes that thin equals healthy and fat equals unhealthy. This paper will argue that, for those with a health focus, ‘Health at every size’ is a more effective principle, which involves striving for healthy living, without a focus on weight loss. This discussion will contextualise an autoethnographic exploration of how fat acceptance and Health at Every Size can be encouraged through fat activism and fat political art. As part of this paper, a selection of the recent performance, writing and art in Australia will be presented, including Aquaporko, the fat femme synchronised swim team and VaVaBoomBah, the Melbourne fat burlesque performances.

Keywords: activism, fat, health, obesity, performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 166

Authors: Sidharth Talan, Sanjay Kumar Sharma, Eoin Joseph Wallace, Nikita Agrawal

Abstract:

Underground mining is at the core of rapidly evolving metals and minerals sector due to the increasing mineral consumption globally. Even though the surface mines are still more abundant on earth, the scales of industry are slowly tipping towards underground mining due to rising depth and complexities of orebodies. Thus, the efficient and productive functioning of underground operations depends significantly on the synchronized performance of key elements such as operating site, mining equipment, manpower and mine services. Production drilling is the process of conducting long hole drilling for the purpose of charging and blasting these holes for the production of ore in underground metal mines. Thus, production drilling is the crucial segment in the underground metal mining value chain. This paper presents the process mapping tool to evaluate the production drilling process in the underground metal mining operation by dividing the given process into three segments namely Input, Process and Output. The three segments are further segregated into factors and sub-factors. As per the study, the major input factors crucial for the efficient functioning of production drilling process are power, drilling water, geotechnical support of the drilling site, skilled drilling operators, services installation crew, oils and drill accessories for drilling machine, survey markings at drill site, proper housekeeping, regular maintenance of drill machine, suitable transportation for reaching the drilling site and finally proper ventilation. The major outputs for the production drilling process are ore, waste as a result of dilution, timely reporting and investigation of unsafe practices, optimized process time and finally well fragmented blasted material within specifications set by the mining company. The paper also exhibits the drilling loss matrix, which is utilized to appraise the loss in planned production meters per day in a mine on account of availability loss in the machine due to breakdowns, underutilization of the machine and productivity loss in the machine measured in drilling meters per unit of percussion hour with respect to its planned productivity for the day. The given three losses would be essential to detect the bottlenecks in the process map of production drilling operation so as to instigate the action plan to suppress or prevent the causes leading to the operational performance deficiency. The given tool is beneficial to mine management to focus on the critical factors negatively impacting the production drilling operation and design necessary operational and maintenance strategies to mitigate them. 

Keywords: process map, drilling loss matrix, SIPOC, productivity, percussion rate

Procedia PDF Downloads 196

Authors: Ahmad Hamidi Mohamed, Jamaluddin Othman, Mashitah Suid, Mohd Zaim Mohd Shukri

Abstract:

Floods are considered an annual natural disaster in Kelantan. However, the record-setting flood of 2014 was a 'tsunami-like disaster'. A study has been conducted with the objectives to assess the economic impact of the flood to the resident of Dabong area in Kelantan Darul Naim, Malaysia. This area was selected due to the severity during the flood. The impacts of flood on local people were done by conducting structured interviews with the use of questionnaires. The questionnaire was intended to acquire information on losses faced by Dabong residence. Questionnaires covered various areas of inconveniences suffered with respect to health effects, including illnesses suffered, their intensities, duration and their associated costs. Loss of productivity and quality of life was also assessed. Inquiries were made to Government agencies to obtain relevant statistical data regarding the loss due to the flood tragedy. The data collected by giving formal request to the governmental agencies and formal meetings were done. From the study a staggering amount of losses were calculated. This figure comes from losses of property, Farmers/Agriculture, Traders/Business, Health, Insurance and Governmental losses. Flood brings hardship to the people of Dabong and these losses of home will cause inconveniences to the society. The huge amount of economic loss extracted from this study shows that federal and state government of Kelantan need to find out the cause of the major flood in 2014. Fast and effective measures have to be planned and implemented in flood prone area to prevent same tragedy happens in the future.

Keywords: economic impact, flood tragedy, Malaysia, property losses

Procedia PDF Downloads 250