Search results for: software process improvement

Authors: Mai Ali

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Background: Preparing Hypo-screen-bags in advance streamlines the time-consuming process of administering glucose systemic correction. Additionally, Hypo-Screen Grab Bags are widely adopted in UK hospitals. Aim: The aim of the study is to improve hypoglycemia screening efficiency and equipment accessibility by streamlining item access to grab bag restocking staff. Methodology: The study centered on neonatal wards at LGI & St. James Neonatal Unit and related units. A web-based survey was conducted to evaluate local practices, gathering 21 responses from relevant general staff. The survey outcomes: (1) The demand for accessible grab bags is evident for smoother processes. (2) The potential to enhance efficiency through improved preparation of hypo-screen grab bags. Intervention: A Hypo-Screen Grab Bag was designed, including checklists for stocked items and required samples. Medical staff oversee restocking after use. Conclusion: The study successfully improved hypoglycemia screening efficiency and aided junior staff with accessible supplies and a user-friendly checklist.

Keywords: neonatal hypoglycemia, grab bag, hypo-screening, junior staff

Procedia PDF Downloads 43

Authors: Rene Hellmuth, Jorg Frohnmayer

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The requirements of the factory planning and the building concerned have changed in the last years. Factory planning has the task of designing products, plants, processes, organization, areas, and the building of a factory. Regular restructuring gains more importance in order to maintain the competitiveness of a factory. Even today, the methods and process models used in factory planning are predominantly based on the classical planning principles of Schmigalla, Aggteleky and Kettner, which, however, are not specifically designed for reorganization. In addition, they are designed for a largely static environmental situation and a manageable planning complexity as well as for medium to long-term planning cycles with a low variability of the factory. Existing approaches already regard factory planning as a continuous process that makes it possible to react quickly to adaptation requirements. However, digital factory models are not yet used as a source of information for building data. Approaches which consider building information modeling (BIM) or digital factory models in general either do not refer to factory conversions or do not yet go beyond a concept. This deficit can be further substantiated. A method for factory conversion planning using a current digital building model is lacking. A corresponding approach must take into account both the existing approaches to factory planning and the use of digital factory models in practice. A literature review will be conducted first. In it, approaches to classic factory planning and approaches to conversion planning are examined. In addition, it will be investigated which approaches already contain digital factory models. In the second step, an approach is presented how digital factory models based on building information modeling can be used as a basis for augmented reality tablet applications. This application is suitable for construction sites and provides information on the costs and time required for conversion variants. Thus a fast decision making is supported. In summary, the paper provides an overview of existing factory planning approaches and critically examines the use of digital tools. Based on this preliminary work, an approach is presented, which suggests the sensible use of digital factory models for decision support in the case of conversion variants of the factory building. The augmented reality application is designed to summarize the most important information for decision-makers during a reconstruction process.

Keywords: augmented reality, digital factory model, factory planning, restructuring

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: Xinyuan Chen, Mohd Nizam Husen, Zhongmei Zhou, Gongde Guo, Wei Gao

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Temporal Knowledge Graph Completion (TKGC) has attracted increasing attention for its enormous value; however, existing models lack capabilities to capture both local interactions and global dependencies simultaneously with evolutionary dynamics, while the latest achievements in convolutions and Transformers haven't been employed in this area. What’s more, periodic patterns in TKGs haven’t been fully explored either. To this end, a multi-stage hybrid architecture with convolution-backed Transformers is introduced in TKGC tasks for the first time combining the Hawkes process to model evolving event sequences in a continuous-time domain. In addition, the seasonal-trend decomposition is adopted to identify periodic patterns. Experiments on six public datasets are conducted to verify model effectiveness against state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods. An extensive ablation study is carried out accordingly to evaluate architecture variants as well as the contributions of independent components in addition, paving the way for further potential exploitation. Besides complexity analysis, input sensitivity and safety challenges are also thoroughly discussed for comprehensiveness with novel methods.

Keywords: temporal knowledge graph completion, convolution, transformer, Hawkes process, periodicity

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Authors: Priyanka Lokhande, Ram P. Sawant, Ganesh Kakad, Avinash Kolhatkar

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In order to evaluate the influence of chemical processing on low-stress mechanical properties and fabric hand of worsted cloth, eight worsted suiting fabric samples of balance plain and twill weave were studied. The Kawabata KES-FB system has been used for the measurement of low-stress mechanical properties of before and after chemically processed worsted suiting fabrics. Primary hand values and Total Hand Values (THV) of before and after chemically processed worsted suiting fabrics were calculated using the KES-FB test data. Upon statistical analysis, it is observed that chemical processing has considerable influence on the low-stress mechanical properties and thereby on handle properties of worsted suiting fabrics. Improvement in the Total Hand Values (THV) after chemical processing is experienced in most of fabric samples.

Keywords: low stress mechanical properties, plain and twill weave, total hand value (THV), worsted suiting fabric

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Authors: Liying Li, Han Guo

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Considering the environmental issues generated by the building sector for its energy consumption, solid waste generation, water use, land use, and global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, this review pointed out to LCA as a decision-support tool to substantially improve the sustainability in the building and construction industry. The comprehensiveness and simplicity of LCA make it one of the most promising decision support tools for the sustainable design and construction of future buildings. This paper contains a comprehensive review of existing studies related to LCAs with a focus on their advantages and limitations when applied in the building sector. The aim of this paper is to enhance the understanding of a building life-cycle analysis, thus promoting its application for effective, sustainable building design and construction in the future. Comparisons and discussions are carried out between four categories of LCA methods: building material and component combinations (BMCC) vs. the whole process of construction (WPC) LCA，attributional vs. consequential LCA, process-based LCA vs. input-output (I-O) LCA, traditional vs. hybrid LCA. Classical case studies are presented, which illustrate the effectiveness of LCA as a tool to support the decisions of practitioners in the design and construction of sustainable buildings. (i) BMCC and WPC categories of LCA researches tend to overlap with each other, as majority WPC LCAs are actually developed based on a bottom-up approach BMCC LCAs use. (ii) When considering the influence of social and economic factors outside the proposed system by research, a consequential LCA could provide a more reliable result than an attributional LCA. (iii) I-O LCA is complementary to process-based LCA in order to address the social and economic problems generated by building projects. (iv) Hybrid LCA provides a more superior dynamic perspective than a traditional LCA that is criticized for its static view of the changing processes within the building’s life cycle. LCAs are still being developed to overcome their limitations and data shortage (especially data on the developing world), and the unification of LCA methods and data can make the results of building LCA more comparable and consistent across different studies or even countries.

Keywords: decision support tool, life-cycle analysis, LCA tools and data, sustainable building design

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Authors: Shahin A. Abdel-Naby, James P. Colgan, Michael S. Pindzola

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A time-dependent close-coupling method is developed to calculate a total, double and triple autoionization rates for hollow atomic ions of four-electron systems. This work was motivated by recent observations of the four-electron Auger process in near K-edge photoionization of C+ ions. The time-dependent close-coupled equations are solved using lattice techniques to obtain a discrete representation of radial wave functions and all operators on a four-dimensional grid with uniform spacing. Initial excited states are obtained by relaxation of the Schrodinger equation in imaginary time using a Schmidt orthogonalization method involving interior subshells. The radial wave function grids are partitioned over the cores on a massively parallel computer, which is essential due to the large memory requirements needed to store the coupled-wave functions and the long run times needed to reach the convergence of the ionization process. Total, double, and triple autoionization rates are obtained by the propagation of the time-dependent close-coupled equations in real-time using integration over bound and continuum single-particle states. These states are generated by matrix diagonalization of one-electron Hamiltonians. The total autoionization rates for each L excited state is found to be slightly above the single autoionization rate for the excited configuration using configuration-average distorted-wave theory. As expected, we find the double and triple autoionization rates to be much smaller than the total autoionization rates. Future work can be extended to study electron-impact triple ionization of atoms or ions. The work was supported in part by grants from the American University of Sharjah and the US Department of Energy. Computational work was carried out at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) in Berkeley, California, USA.

Keywords: hollow atoms, autoionization, auger rates, time-dependent close-coupling method

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Authors: A. Chateauneuf, M. Mostoufi, D. Vyncke

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Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is a technique that provides approximate solutions to a broad range of mathematical problems. A drawback of the method is its high computational cost, especially in a high-dimensional setting, such as estimating the Tail Value-at-Risk for large portfolios or pricing basket options and Asian options. For these types of problems, one can construct an upper bound in the convex order by replacing the copula by the comonotonic copula. This comonotonic upper bound can be computed very quickly, but it gives only a rough approximation. In this paper we introduce the Comonotonic Monte Carlo (CoMC) simulation, by using the comonotonic approximation as a control variate. The CoMC is of broad applicability and numerical results show a remarkable speed improvement. We illustrate the method for estimating Tail Value-at-Risk and pricing basket options and Asian options when the logreturns follow a Black-Scholes model or a variance gamma model.

Keywords: control variate Monte Carlo, comonotonicity, option pricing, scientific computing

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Authors: Niloofar Alipoormazandarani

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The rift environmental, efficiency and being environmental-friendly of these innovative food packaging in edible films made them as an alternative to synthetic packages. This issue has been widely studied in this experiment. Some of the greatest advances in food packaging industry is associated with nanotechnology. Recently, a polysaccharide extracted from the cell wall of soybean cotyledons: A soluble soybean polysaccharide (SSPS), a pectin-like structure. In this study, the addition (0%, 1%, 3%, and 5%) of nano silica dioxide (SiO2) film is examined SSPS in different features. The research aims to investigate the effect of nano-SiO2 on the physicochemical and electromagnetic properties of the SSPS films were sonicated and then heated to the melting point, besides the addition of plasticizer. After that, it has been cooled into the room temperature and were dried with Casting method. In final examinations,improvement in Moisture Content and Water Absorption was observed with a significant decrease.Also, in Color measurements there were some obvious differences. These reports indicate that the incorporation of nano-SiO2 and SSPS has the power to be extensively used in pharmaceutical and food packaging industry as well.

Keywords: SSPS, NanoSiO2, food packaging, renewable films

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Authors: Cécile Dufloux, Klaus Böttcher, Heike Oppermann, Jürgen Wollweber

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Hexagonal aluminum nitride (AlN) is a promising candidate for several wide band gap semiconductor compound applications such as deep UV light emitting diodes (UVC LED) and fast power transistors (HEMTs). To date, bulk AlN single crystals are still commonly grown from the physical vapor transport (PVT). Single crystalline AlN wafers obtained from this process could offer suitable substrates for a defect-free growth of ultimately active AlGaN layers, however, these wafers still lack from small sizes, limited delivery quantities and high prices so far.Although there is already an increasing interest in the commercial availability of AlN wafers, comparatively cheap Si, SiC or sapphire are still predominantly used as substrate material for the deposition of active AlGaN layers. Nevertheless, due to a lattice mismatch up to 20%, the obtained material shows high defect densities and is, therefore, less suitable for high power devices as described above. Therefore, the use of AlN with specially adapted properties for optical and sensor applications could be promising for mass market products which seem to fulfill fewer requirements. To respond to the demand of suitable AlN target material for the growth of AlGaN layers, we have designed an innovative technology based on reactive plasma spraying. The goal is to produce coarse grained AlN boules with N-terminated columnar structure and high purity. In this process, aluminum is injected into a microwave stimulated nitrogen plasma. AlN, as the product of the reaction between aluminum powder and the plasma activated N2, is deposited onto the target. We used an aluminum filament as the initial material to minimize oxygen contamination during the process. The material was guided through the nitrogen plasma so that the mass turnover was 10g/h. To avoid any impurity contamination by an erosion of the electrodes, an electrode-less discharge was used for the plasma ignition. The pressure was maintained at 600-700 mbar, so the plasma reached a temperature high enough to vaporize the aluminum which subsequently was reacting with the surrounding plasma. The obtained products consist of thick polycrystalline AlN layers with a diameter of 2-3 cm. The crystallinity was determined by X-ray crystallography. The grain structure was systematically investigated by optical and scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, we performed a Raman spectroscopy to provide evidence of stress in the layers. This paper will discuss the effects of process parameters such as microwave power and deposition geometry (specimen holder, radiation shields, ...) on the topography, crystallinity, and stress distribution of AlN.

Keywords: aluminum nitride, polycrystal, reactive plasma spraying, semiconductor

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Authors: Marium. K.Makhdoom, Talat Hussain, Syed H. Bukhari

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The motivation behind this paper is to focus the need of Zakat as a monetary framework with a specific end goal and as a social equity instrument and minimization of the level of poverty in society to assess the socioeconomic development. The procedure of the study includes investigating the applied system of Islamic economics to propose an option display so as to contribute fundamentally to the Ummah and serving the countries. This paper closes to be viewed Zakat as one of the best possible strategies to quantify the socioeconomic development, which implies when individuals pay Zakat the socioeconomic development level will be higher and vice versa. The duties of Muslims to pay Zakat to accomplish practical improvement as far as wealth redistribution in the middle of Muslims and in addition overcoming any and all hardships between the rich and the poor in the general public. The paper adds to consider Zakat as an index to gauge economic development, moreover, the part of Zakat as an instrument of social equity and neediness destruction in the public eye. By and large, this includes the installment every year of more than two percent of one's capital after the needs of the family have been met.

Keywords: Zakat, Waqf, economic development, Pakistan, Islamic economics, macroeconomics, microeconomics

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Authors: Muhammad Yaqub Olatunde

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Arabic linguistic science is redirecting its focus towards the analysis and description of social, regional, and temporal varieties of social, regional, and temporal varieties in order to show how they vary in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. This is not to say that the traditional Arabic linguists did not mention scores of dialectical variations but such works focused on the geographical boundaries of the Arabic speaking countries. There is need for a comprehensive survey of various Arabic dialects within the boundary of Arabic speaking countries and outside showing both the similarities and differences of linguistic and extra linguistic elements. This study therefore examines the syllable structure and process in noun and verb in the shuwa Arabic dialect speaking in North East Nigeria [mainly in Borno state]. The work seeks to establish the facts about this phenomenon, using auto- segmental analysis. These facts are compared, where necessary; using possible alternative analysis, with what operate in other related dialects within and outside Arabic speaking countries. The interaction between epenthesis and germination in the language also generate an interesting issue. The paper then conclude that syllable structure and process in the language need to recognize the existence of complex onset and a complex rhyme producing a consonant cluster in the former and a closed syllable in the letter. This emerges as result of resyllabification, which is motivated by these processes.

Keywords: Arabic, dialect, linguistics, processes, resyllabification

Procedia PDF Downloads 408

Authors: Shaik Jilani Basha, Inavolu Avinash, Alla Venu Sai Reddy, Bitragunta Taraka Ramu

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We can use the neural style transfer technique to build a picture with the same "content" as the beginning image but the "style" of the picture we've chosen. Neural style transfer is a technique for merging the style of one image into another while retaining its original information. The only change is how the image is formatted to give it an additional artistic sense. The content image depicts the plan or drawing, as well as the colors of the drawing or paintings used to portray the style. It is a computer vision programme that learns and processes images through deep convolutional neural networks. To implement software, we used to train deep learning models with the train data, and whenever a user takes an image and a styled image, the output will be as the style gets transferred to the original image, and it will be shown as the output.

Keywords: neural networks, computer vision, deep learning, convolutional neural networks

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Authors: Chayonnat Thanamun, Kreangkrai Maneeintr

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For petroleum industry, polymer flooding is the one of the main methods in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) that is used water-soluble polymer such as partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) to increase oil production. It is added to the flooding water to improve the mobility ratio in the flooding process. During the polymer flooding process, water is produced as a by-product along with oil and gas production. This produced water is a mixture of inorganic and organic compound. Moreover, produced water is more difficult to treat than that from water flooding. In this work, the effect of HPAM residue on the wastewater treatment from polymer flooding is studied. Polyaluminium chloride (PAC) is selected to use as a flocculant. Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of polymer residues in produced water on the wastewater treatment by using PAC. The operating parameters of this study are flocculant dosage ranging from 300,400 and 500 mg/L temperature from 30-50 Celsius degree and HPAM concentrations from 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/L. Furthermore, the turbidity, as well as total suspended solids (TSS), are also studied. The results indicated that with an increase in HPAM concentration, the TSS and turbidity increase gradually with the increasing of coagulant dosage under the same temperature. Also, the coagulation-flocculation performance is improved with the increasing temperature. This can be applied to use in the wastewater treatment from oil production before this water can be injected back to the reservoir.

Keywords: wastewater treatment, petroleum production, polyaluminium chloride, polyacrylamide

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: S. Ben Brahim, T. H. Vuong, J. David, R. Bouallegue, M. Pietrzak-David

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Electrical machine monitoring is important to protect motor from unexpected problems. Today, using wireless communication for electrical machines is interesting for both real time monitoring and diagnostic purposes. In this paper, we propose a system based on wireless communication IEEE 802.11 to control electrical machine. IEEE 802.11 standard is recommended for this type of applications because it provides a faster connection, better range from the base station, and better security. Therefore, our contribution is to study a new technique to control and monitor the rotating electrical machines (motors, generators) using wireless communication. The reliability of radio channel inside rotating electrical machine is also discussed. Then, the communication protocol, software and hardware design used for the proposed system are presented in detail and the experimental results of our system are illustrated.

Keywords: control, DFIM machine, electromagnetic field, EMC, IEEE 802.11, monitoring, rotating electrical machines, wireless communication

Procedia PDF Downloads 681

Authors: Ali Khwaldeh, Nimer Adwan

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In this paper, a method for constructing a controlled balanced Boolean function satisfying the criterion of a Strictly Avalanche Criteria (SAC) effect is proposed. The proposed method is based on the use of three orthogonal nonlinear components which is unlike the high-order SAC functions. So, the generator synthesized by the proposed method has separate sets of control and information inputs. The proposed method proves its simplicity and the implementation ability. The proposed method allows synthesizing a SAC function generator with fixed control and information inputs. This ensures greater efficiency of the built-in oscillator compared to high-order SAC functions that can be used as a generator. Accordingly, the method is completely formalized and implemented as a software product.

Keywords: boolean function, controlled balanced boolean function, strictly avalanche criteria, orthogonal nonlinear

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: Arwa Khannoussi, Alexandru-Liviu Olteanu, Pritesh Narayan, Catherine Dezan, Jean-Philippe Diguet, Patrick Meyer, Jacques Petit-Frere

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Due to the nature of autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) missions, it is important that the decisions of a UAV stay consistent with the priorities of an operator, while at the same time allowing them to be easily audited and explained. We propose a multi-layer decision engine that integrates the operator (human) preferences by using the Multi-Criteria Decision Aiding (MCDA) methods. A software implementation of a UAV simulator and of the decision engine is presented to highlight the advantage of using such techniques on high-level decisions. We demonstrate that, with such a preference-based decision engine, the decisions of the UAV are compatible with the priorities of the operator, which in turn increases her/his confidence in its autonomous behavior.

Keywords: autonomous UAV, multi-criteria decision aiding, multi-layers decision engine, operator's preferences, traceable decisions, UAV simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 236

Authors: Abdolreza Heidari Noosh Abad, Amir Abedi, Davood Mirahmadi khaki

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The high strength and flexibility of TRIP steels are the major reasons for them being widely used in the automobile industry. Deep drawing is regarded as a common metal sheet manufacturing process is used extensively in the modern industry, particularly automobile industry. To investigate the potential of deep drawing characteristic of materials, steel sheet anisotropy is studied and expressed as R-Value. The TRIP steels have a multi-phase microstructure consisting typically of ferrite, bainite and retained austenite. The retained austenite appears to be the most effective phase in the microstructure of the TRIP steels. In the present research, Taguchi method has been employed to study investigates the effect of austempering temperature parameters on the anisotropy property of the TRIP steel. To achieve this purpose, a steel with chemical composition of 0.196C -1.42Si-1.41Mn, has been used and annealed at 810oC, and then austempered at 340-460oC for 3, 6, and 9 minutes. The results shows that the austempering temperature has a direct relationship with R-value, respectively. With increasing austempering temperature, residual austenite grain size increases as well as increased solubility, which increases the amount of R-value. According to the results of the Taguchi method, austempering temperature’s p-value less than 0.05 is due to effective on R-value.

Keywords: Taguchi method, hot rolling, thermomechanical process, anisotropy, R-value

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Authors: Wonkyung Na, Namhun Kim, Heeyeop Chae

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Quantum dots (QDs) are getting attentions due to their excellent optical properties in display, solar cell, biomolecule detection and lighting applications. Energy band gap can be easilty controlled by controlling their size and QDs are proper to apply in light-emitting-diode(LED) and lighting application, especially. Typically cadmium (Cd) containing QDs show a narrow photoluminescence (PL) spectrum and high quantum yield. However, Cd is classified as a hazardous materials and the use of Cd is being tightly regulated under 100ppm level in many countries.InP and CuInS2 (CIS) are being investigated as Cd-free QD materials and it is recently demonstrated that the performance of those Cd-free QDs is comparable to their Cd-based rivals.Due to a broad emission spectrum, CuInS2 QDs are also proper to be applied to white LED.4 For the lighting applications, the QD should be made in forms of color conversion films. Various film processes are reported with QDs in polymer matrixes. In this work, we synthesized the CuInS2 (CIS) QDs and QD embedded polystyrene color conversion films were fabricated for white color emission with electro-spinning process. As a result, blue light from blue LED is converted to white light with high color rendering index (CRI) of 72 by the color conversion films.

Keywords: CuInS2/ZnS, electro-spinning, color conversion films, white light emitting diodes

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Authors: Waleerak Sittisom

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The objectives of this research were to analyze transportation route management, to identify potential cost reductions in logistic operation. In-depth interview techniques and small group discussions were utilized with 25 participants from various backgrounds in the areas of logistics. The findings of this research revealed that there were four areas that companies are able to effectively manage a logistic cost reduction: managing the space within the transportation vehicles, managing transportation personnel, managing transportation cost, and managing control of transportation. On the other hand, there were four areas that companies were unable to effectively manage a logistic cost reduction: the working process of transportation, the route planning of transportation, the service point management, and technology management. There are five areas that cost reduction is feasible: personnel management, process of working, map planning, service point planning, and technology implementation. To be able to reduce costs, the transportation companies should suggest that customers use a file system to save truck space. Also, the transportation companies need to adopt new technology to manage their information system so that packages can be reached easy, safe, and fast. Staff needs to be trained regularly to increase knowledge and skills. Teamwork is required to effectively reduce the costs.

Keywords: cost reduction, management, logistics, transportation

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Authors: Ursachi Andrei

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The Smart Grid Simulator is a computer software based on advanced algorithms which has as the main purpose to lower the energy bill in the most optimized price efficient way as possible for private households, companies or energy providers. It combines the energy provided by a number of solar modules and wind turbines with the consumption of one household or a cluster of nearby households and information regarding weather conditions and energy prices in order to predict the amount of energy that can be produced by renewable energy sources and the amount of energy that will be bought from the distributor for the following day. The user of the system will not only be able to minimize his expenditures on energy fractures, but also he will be informed about his hourly consumption, electricity prices fluctuation and money spent for energy bought as well as how much money he saved each day and since he installed the system. The paper outlines the algorithm that supports the Smart Grid Simulator idea and presents preliminary test results that support the discussion and implementation of the system.

Keywords: smart grid, sustainable energy, applied science, renewable energy sources

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Authors: L. Abdou, O. Taibaoui, A. Moumen, A. Talib Ahmed

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This paper proposes an application of the simulated annealing to optimize the detection threshold in an ordered statistics constant false alarm rate (OS-CFAR) system. Using conventional optimization methods, such as the conjugate gradient, can lead to a local optimum and lose the global optimum. Also for a system with a number of sensors that is greater than or equal to three, it is difficult or impossible to find this optimum; Hence, the need to use other methods, such as meta-heuristics. From a variety of meta-heuristic techniques, we can find the simulated annealing (SA) method, inspired from a process used in metallurgy. This technique is based on the selection of an initial solution and the generation of a near solution randomly, in order to improve the criterion to optimize. In this work, two parameters will be subject to such optimisation and which are the statistical order (k) and the scaling factor (T). Two fusion rules; “AND” and “OR” were considered in the case where the signals are independent from sensor to sensor. The results showed that the application of the proposed method to the problem of optimisation in a distributed system is efficiency to resolve such problems. The advantage of this method is that it allows to browse the entire solutions space and to avoid theoretically the stagnation of the optimization process in an area of local minimum.

Keywords: distributed system, OS-CFAR system, independent sensors, simulating annealing

Procedia PDF Downloads 487

Authors: José Maria, Vânia Laranjo, Luís Abrunhosa, António Inês

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The occurrence of mycotoxigenic moulds such as Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium in food and feed has an important impact on public health, by the appearance of acute and chronic mycotoxicoses in humans and animals, which is more severe in the developing countries due to lack of food security, poverty and malnutrition. This mould contamination also constitutes a major economic problem due the lost of crop production. A great variety of filamentous fungi is able to produce highly toxic secondary metabolites known as mycotoxins. Most of the mycotoxins are carcinogenic, mutagenic, neurotoxic and immunosuppressive, being ochratoxin A (OTA) one of the most important. OTA is toxic to animals and humans, mainly due to its nephrotoxic properties. Several approaches have been developed for decontamination of mycotoxins in foods, such as, prevention of contamination, biodegradation of mycotoxins-containing food and feed with microorganisms or enzymes and inhibition or absorption of mycotoxin content of consumed food into the digestive tract. Some group of Gram-positive bacteria named lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are able to release some molecules that can influence the mould growth, improving the shelf life of many fermented products and reducing health risks due to exposure to mycotoxins. Some LAB are capable of mycotoxin detoxification. Recently our group was the first to describe the ability of LAB strains to biodegrade OTA, more specifically, Pediococcus parvulus strains isolated from Douro wines. The pathway of this biodegradation was identified previously in other microorganisms. OTA can be degraded through the hydrolysis of the amide bond that links the L-β-phenylalanine molecule to the ochratoxin alpha (OTα) a non toxic compound. It is known that some peptidases from different origins can mediate the hydrolysis reaction like, carboxypeptidase A an enzyme from the bovine pancreas, a commercial lipase and several commercial proteases. So, we wanted to have a better understanding of this OTA degradation process when LAB are involved and identify which molecules where present in this process. For achieving our aim we used some bioinformatics tools (BLAST, CLUSTALX2, CLC Sequence Viewer 7, Finch TV). We also designed specific primers and realized gene specific PCR. The template DNA used came from LAB strains samples of our previous work, and other DNA LAB strains isolated from elderberry fruit, silage, milk and sausages. Through the employment of bioinformatics tools it was possible to identify several proteins belonging to the carboxypeptidase family that participate in the process of OTA degradation, such as serine type D-Ala-D-Ala carboxypeptidase and membrane carboxypeptidase. In conclusions, this work has identified carboxypeptidase proteins being one of the molecules present in the OTA degradation process when LAB are involved.

Keywords: carboxypeptidase, lactic acid bacteria, mycotoxins, ochratoxin a.

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Authors: Smko Zangana, Ergun Ercelebi

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The alternating current is the main power in all industries and other aspects especially for the short and mid distances, but as far as long a distance which exceeds 500 KMs, using the alternating current technically will face many difficulties and more costs because it's difficult to control the current and also other restrictions. Therefore, recently those reasons led to building transmission lines HVDC to transmit power for long distances. This document presents technical comparison and assessments for power transmission system among distances either ways and studying the stability of the system regarding the proportion of losses in the actual power sent and received between both sides in different systems and also categorizing filters used in the HVDC system and its impact and effect on reducing Harmonic in the power transmission. MATLAB /Simulink simulation software is used to simulate both HVAC & HVDC power transmission system topologies.

Keywords: HVAC power system, HVDC power system, power system simulation (MATLAB), the alternating current, voltage stability

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Authors: Elisa Esposito, Johannes C. Jansen, Loredana Dellamuzia, Ugo Moretti, Lidietta Giorno

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The reduction of CO₂ emission into the atmosphere as a result of human activity is one of the most important environmental challenges to face in the next decennia. Emission of CO₂, related to the use of fossil fuels, is believed to be one of the main causes of global warming and climate change. In this scenario, the production of biomethane from organic waste, as a renewable energy source, is one of the most promising strategies to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emission. Unfortunately, biogas upgrading still produces the greenhouse gas CO₂ as a waste product. Therefore, this work presents a case study on biogas upgrading, aimed at the simultaneous purification of methane and CO₂ via different steps, including CO₂/methane separation by polymeric membranes. The original objective of the project was the biogas upgrading to distribution grid quality methane, but the innovative aspect of this case study is the further purification of the captured CO₂, transforming it from a useless by-product to a pure gas with food-grade quality, suitable for commercial application in the food and beverage industry. The study was performed on a pilot plant constructed by Tecno Project Industriale Srl (TPI) Italy. This is a model of one of the largest biogas production and purification plants. The full-scale anaerobic digestion plant (Montello Spa, North Italy), has a digestive capacity of 400.000 ton of biomass/year and can treat 6.250 m3/hour of biogas from FORSU (organic fraction of solid urban waste). The entire upgrading process consists of a number of purifications steps: 1. Dehydration of the raw biogas by condensation. 2. Removal of trace impurities such as H₂S via absorption. 3.Separation of CO₂ and methane via a membrane separation process. 4. Removal of trace impurities from CO₂. The gas separation with polymeric membranes guarantees complete simultaneous removal of microorganisms. The chemical purity of the different process streams was analysed by a certified laboratory and was compared with the guidelines of the European Industrial Gases Association and the International Society of Beverage Technologists (EIGA/ISBT) for CO₂ used in the food industry. The microbiological purity was compared with the limit values defined in the European Collaborative Action. With a purity of 96-99 vol%, the purified methane respects the legal requirements for the household network. At the same time, the CO₂ reaches a purity of > 98.1% before, and 99.9% after the final distillation process. According to the EIGA/ISBT guidelines, the CO₂ proves to be chemically and microbiologically sufficiently pure to be suitable for food-grade applications.

Keywords: biogas, CO₂ separation, CO2 utilization, CO₂ food grade

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Authors: F. Javier Benitez, Juan L. Acero, Francisco J. Real, Elena Rodriguez

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Five selected pollutants which are frequently present in waters and wastewaters have been degraded by the advanced oxidation process constituted by UV radiation activated with the additional presence of persulfate (UV/PS). These pollutants were 1H-benzotriazole (BZ), N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide or DEET (DT), chlorophene (CP), 3-methylindole (ML), and nortriptyline hydrochloride (NH).While UV radiation alone almost not degraded these substances, the addition of PS generated the very reactive and oxidizing sulfate radical SO₄⁻. The kinetic study provided the second order rate constants for the reaction between this radical and each pollutant. An increasing dose of PS led to an increase in the degradation rate, being the highest results obtained at near neutral pH. Several water matrices were tested, and the presence of bicarbonate showed different effects: a decrease in the elimination of DT, BZ, and NH; and an increase in the oxidation of CP and ML. The additional presence of humic acids (AH) decreased this degradation, because of several effects: light screening and radical scavenging. The presence of several natural substances in waters (both types, inorganic and organic matter) usually diminishes the oxidation rates of organic pollutants, but this combination UV/PS process seems to be an efficient solution for the removal of the selected contaminants when are present in contaminated waters.

Keywords: water purification, UV activated persulfate, kinetic study, sulfate radicals

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Authors: Urvah-Til-Vusqa, Unsa Noreen, Ayesha Hussain, Abdul Hafeez, Rafia Asghar, Sidrat Nasir

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Natural dyes offer an alternative better application in textiles than synthetic ones. The present study will be aimed to employ natural dye extracted from Cordyline terminalis plant and its application into viscose under the influence of gamma radiations. The colorant extraction will be done by boiling dracaena leaves powder in aqueous, alkaline and ethyl acetate mediums. Both dye powder and fabric will be treated with different doses (5-20 kGy) of gamma radiations. The antioxidant, antimicrobial and hemolytic activities of the extracts will also be determined. Different tests of fabric characterization (before and after radiations treatment) will be employed. Dyeing variables just as time, temperature and M: L will be applied for optimization. Standard methods for ISO to evaluate color fastness to light, washing and rubbing will be employed for improvement of color strength 1.5-15.5% of Al, Fe, Cr, and Cu as mordants will be employed through pre, post and meta mordanting. Color depth % & L*, a*, b* and L*, C*, h values will be recorded using spectra flash SF650.

Keywords: natural dyes, gamma radiations, Cordyline terminalis, ecofriendly dyes

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Authors: Dana Zelicha

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A 6-week mindfulness programme was launched to improve the well being and performance of 20 managers (including the supervisor) of an international corporation in London. A unique assessment methodology was customised to the organisation’s needs, measuring four parameters: prioritising skills, listening skills, mindfulness levels and happiness levels. All parameters showed significant improvements (p < 0.01) post intervention, with a remarkable increase in listening skills and mindfulness levels. Although corporate mindfulness programmes have proven to be effective, the challenge remains the low engagement levels at home and the implementation of these tools beyond the scope of the intervention. This study has offered an innovative approach to enforce home engagement levels, which yielded promising results. The programme launched with a 2-day introduction intervention, which was followed by a 6-week training course (1 day a week; 2 hours each). Participants learned all basic principles of mindfulness such as mindfulness meditations, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) techniques and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) practices to incorporate into their professional and personal lives. The programme contained experiential mindfulness meditations and innovative mindfulness tools (OWBA-MT) created by OWBA - The Well Being Agency. Exercises included Mindful Meetings, Unitasking and Mindful Feedback. All sessions concluded with guided discussions and group reflections. One fundamental element of this programme was engagement level outside of the workshop. In the office, participants connected with a mindfulness buddy - a team member in the group with whom they could find support throughout the programme. At home, participants completed online daily mindfulness forms that varied according to weekly themes. These customised forms gave participants the opportunity to reflect on whether they made time for daily mindfulness practice, and to facilitate a sense of continuity and responsibility. At the end of the programme, the most engaged team member was crowned the ‘mindful maven’ and received a special gift. The four parameters were measured using online self-reported questionnaires, including the Listening Skills Inventory (LSI), Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Time Management Behaviour Scale (TMBS) and a modified version of the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ). Pre-intervention questionnaires were collected at the start of the programme, and post-intervention data was collected 4-weeks following completion. Quantitative analysis using paired T-tests of means showed significant improvements, with a 23% increase in listening skills, a 22% improvement in mindfulness levels, a 12% increase in prioritising skills, and an 11% improvement in happiness levels. Participant testimonials exhibited high levels of satisfaction and the overall results indicate that the mindfulness programme substantially impacted the team. These results suggest that 6-week mindfulness programmes can improve employees’ capacities to listen and work well with others, to effectively manage time and to experience enhanced satisfaction both at work and in life. Limitations noteworthy to consider include the afterglow effect and lack of generalisability, as this study was conducted on a small and fairly homogenous sample.

Keywords: corporate mindfulness, listening skills, organisational well being, prioritising skills, mindful leadership

Procedia PDF Downloads 260

Authors: Asmaa Abazaid, Maram Al-Ostah, Nadeen Abu-Zahra, Ruba Bawab, Refaat Abdel-Razek

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Innovation audit is defined as a tool that can be used to reflect on how the innovation is managed in an organization. The aim of this study is to audit innovation in the second top Engineering Firms in the world, and one of the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) companies that are working in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The obtained results are then compared with four international companies from China and Brazil. The Diamond model has been used for auditing innovation in the two companies in UAE to evaluate their innovation management and to identify each company’s strengths and weaknesses from an innovation perspective. The results of the comparison between the two companies (Jacobs and Hyper General Contracting) revealed that Jacobs has support for innovation, its innovation processes are well managed, the company is committed to the development of its employees worldwide and the innovation system is flexible. Jacobs was doing best in all innovation management dimensions: strategy, process, organization, linkages and learning, while Hyper General Contracting did not score as Jacobs in any of the innovation dimensions. Furthermore, the audit results of both companies were compared with international companies to examine how well the two construction companies in UAE manage innovation relative to SABIC (Saudi company), Poly Easy and Arnious (Brazilian companies), Huagong tools and Guizohou Yibai (Chinese companies). The results revealed that Jacobs is doing best in learning and organization dimensions, while PolyEasy and Jacobs are equal in the linkage dimension. Huagong Tools scored the highest score in process dimension among all the compared companies. However, the highest score of strategy dimension was given to PolyEasy. On the other hand, Hyper General Contracting scored the lowest in all of the innovation management dimensions. It needs to improve its management of all the innovation management dimensions with special attention to be given to strategy, process, and linkage as they got scores below 4 out of 7 comparing with other dimensions. Jacobs scored the highest in three innovation management dimensions related to the six companies. However, the strategy dimension is considered low, and special attention is needed in this dimension.

Keywords: Brazil, China, innovation audit, innovation evaluation, innovation management, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates

Procedia PDF Downloads 271

Authors: A. Edwards

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The civil service was created to reform the hiring process for public officials, changing the patronage system to a merit-based system. Though exam reforms continued throughout the 20th century, there have been few during the 21st century, particularly in New York state. In the case of police departments, the civil service exam has acted as a hindrance to its ‘21st Century Policing’ goals and new exam reform efforts have left out officers voices and concerns. Through in-depth interviews of current and retired police officers and local and state civil service administrators in Albany County in New York, this study seeks to understand police influence and insight regarding the civil service exam, placing some of the voice and input for civil service reform on police departments, instead of local and state bureaucrats. The study also looks at the relationship between civil service administrators and police departments. Using practice theory, the study seeks to understand the ways in which the civil service exam was defined in the 20th century and how it is out of step with current thinking while examining possible changes to the civil service exam that would lead to a more equitable hiring process and successful police departments.

Keywords: civil service, hiring, merit, policing

Procedia PDF Downloads 190

Authors: Abdul Manan

Abstract:

Dielectric Resonators (DRs) have revolutionized the microwave wireless communication industry globally. There are three directions for research in ceramics for application in telecommunication industry Three key properties of ceramic dielectrics that determine their functionality at microwave and millimetrewave frequencies include relative permittivity (εr), unloaded quality factor Qu- the inverse of the dielectric loss (tanδ) and temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τf). Each direction requires specific properties. These dielectric properties are affected by a number of factors. These includes tolerance factor, onset of structural phase transitions, dark core formation, processing conditions, raw materials and impurities, order/disorder behavior, compositional ordering, porosity, humidity, grain size, orientation of the crystallites, and grain boundaries. The data related to these factors is scattered. The main purpose of this review is to bring these together and present the effects of these factors on the microwave dielectric properties. Control of these factors is important for improvement in the microwave properties. This review would be very helpful to the novice researchers and technologists in the field.

Keywords: order disorder, sintering, defect, porosity, grain boundaries

Procedia PDF Downloads 373