Search results for: professional performance

Authors: Ajab G. Majidi, Bilal Bingölbali, Adem Akpınar

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This study aims to investigate the amount of energy (economic wave energy potential) that can be obtained from the existing wave energy converters in the high wave energy potential region of the Black Sea in terms of wave energy potential and their performance at different depths in the region. The data needed for this purpose were obtained using the calibrated nested layered SWAN wave modeling program version 41.01AB, which was forced with Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) winds from 1979 to 2009. The wave dataset at a time interval of 2 hours was accumulated for a sub-grid domain for around Karaburun beach in Arnavutkoy, a district of Istanbul city. The annual sea state characteristic matrices for the five different depths along with a vertical line to the coastline were calculated for 31 years. According to the power matrices of different wave energy converter systems and characteristic matrices for each possible installation depth, the probability distribution tables of the specified mean wave period or wave energy period and significant wave height were calculated. Then, by using the relationship between these distribution tables, according to the present wave climate, the energy that the wave energy converter systems at each depth can produce was determined. Thus, the economically feasible potential of the relevant coastal zone was revealed, and the effect of different depths on energy converter systems is presented. The Oceantic at 50, 75 and 100 m depths and Oyster at 5 and 25 m depths presents the best performance. In the 31-year long period 1998 the most and 1989 is the least dynamic year.

Keywords: annual power production, Black Sea, efficiency, power production performance, wave energy converter

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Authors: Bernardo Cortez, Florian Peter, Thomas Lausenhammer, Paulo Oliveira

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Designing missiles’ autopilot controllers have been a complex task, given the extensive flight envelope and the nonlinear flight dynamics. A solution that can excel both in nominal performance and in robustness to uncertainties is still to be found. While Control Theory often debouches into parameters’ scheduling procedures, Reinforcement Learning has presented interesting results in ever more complex tasks, going from videogames to robotic tasks with continuous action domains. However, it still lacks clearer insights on how to find adequate reward functions and exploration strategies. To the best of our knowledge, this work is a pioneer in proposing Reinforcement Learning as a framework for flight control. In fact, it aims at training a model-free agent that can control the longitudinal non-linear flight dynamics of a missile, achieving the target performance and robustness to uncertainties. To that end, under TRPO’s methodology, the collected experience is augmented according to HER, stored in a replay buffer and sampled according to its significance. Not only does this work enhance the concept of prioritized experience replay into BPER, but it also reformulates HER, activating them both only when the training progress converges to suboptimal policies, in what is proposed as the SER methodology. The results show that it is possible both to achieve the target performance and to improve the agent’s robustness to uncertainties (with low damage on nominal performance) by further training it in non-nominal environments, therefore validating the proposed approach and encouraging future research in this field.

Keywords: Reinforcement Learning, flight control, HER, missile autopilot, TRPO

Procedia PDF Downloads 249

Authors: B. A. Parate, K. D. Deodhar, V. K. Dixit, V. V. Rao

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This article outlines the ballistics of main seat ejection cartridges for aircraft application. The ballistics of main seat ejection cartridges plays a vital role during the ejection of the pilot in an emergency. The ballistic parameters such as maximum pressure, time is taken to reach the maximum pressure, and time required to reach half the maximum pressure contributes to the spinal injury of the pilot. Therefore, the evaluations of these parameters are very critical during various stages of development. Elaborate testing was carried out for main seat ejection cartridges on seat ejection tower (SET) at different operating temperatures considering physiological limits. As these trials are cumbersome in nature, a vented vessel (VV) testing facility was devised to lay down the performance parameters at hot and cold temperature conditions. Single base (SB) propellant having hepta-tubular configuration is selected as the main filling. Gun powder plays the role of a booster based on ballistic requirements. The evaluation methodology of various performance parameters of main seat ejection cartridges is explained in this paper. Physiological parameters such as maximum seat ejection velocity, acceleration, and rate of rising of acceleration are also experimentally determined on seat ejection tower. All the parameters are observed well within physiological limits. This paper addresses the internal ballistic of main seat ejection cartridges, propellant selection, its calculation, and evaluation of various performance parameters for an aircraft application.

Keywords: ballistics of seat ejection, ejection seat, gas generator, gun propulsion, main seat ejection cartridges, maximum pressure, performance parameters, propellant, progressive burning and vented vessel

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Authors: Mahdi Hamzehei, Seyyed Amin Hakim, Nahid Taherian

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Fins play an important role in increasing the efficiency of compact shell and tube heat exchangers by increasing heat transfer. The objective of this paper is to determine the optimum fin wave angle, as one of the geometric parameters affecting the efficiency of the heat exchangers. To this end, finite volume method is used to model and simulate the flow in heat exchanger. In this study, computational fluid dynamics simulations of wave channel are done. The results show that the wave angle affects the temperature output of the heat exchanger.

Keywords: fin wave angle, tube, intercooler, optimum, performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 364

Authors: Longqing Li

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The paper addresses the inefficiency of the classical model in measuring the Value-at-Risk (VaR) using a normal distribution or a Student’s t distribution. Specifically, the paper focuses on the one day ahead Value-at-Risk (VaR) of major stock market’s daily returns in US, UK, China and Hong Kong in the most recent ten years under 95% confidence level. To improve the predictable power and search for the best performing model, the paper proposes using two leading alternatives, Extreme Value Theory (EVT) and a family of GARCH models, and compares the relative performance. The main contribution could be summarized in two aspects. First, the paper extends the GARCH family model by incorporating EGARCH and TGARCH to shed light on the difference between each in estimating one day ahead Value-at-Risk (VaR). Second, to account for the non-normality in the distribution of financial markets, the paper applies Generalized Error Distribution (GED), instead of the normal distribution, to govern the innovation term. A dynamic back-testing procedure is employed to assess the performance of each model, a family of GARCH and the conditional EVT. The conclusion is that Exponential GARCH yields the best estimate in out-of-sample one day ahead Value-at-Risk (VaR) forecasting. Moreover, the discrepancy of performance between the GARCH and the conditional EVT is indistinguishable.

Keywords: Value-at-Risk, Extreme Value Theory, conditional EVT, backtesting

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Authors: Dominic Winston Kaku

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The academic performance of students is an area of great concern in education to the various stakeholders of education. This is because the academic performance of students is widely used as a measure of the success of the educational process. There are several factors, such as school-related factors, teachers related factors, pupils or students’ factors, and many others determining their academic performance. It appears that the management role of head teachers as a determining factor of pupils’ academic achievement is not much investigated. The management role of head teachers is an essential element in the educational process that has a huge influence on students’ academic performance. The aim of the research was to examine the management role of head teachers in improving the academic performance of students. The study employed a descriptive survey and was conducted among Junior High Schools in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region of Ghana. The respondents for the study were mainly all the head teachers, teachers, and some selected basic school pupils (JHS) in four-selected public basic schools in the Ellembelle district in the Western part of Ghana. A questionnaire was used to collect primary data from a sampling size of 252 persons, including 226 JHS pupils, all JHS teachers, and head teachers of all four selected schools. Descriptive statistics, specifically frequencies, percentages, pie charts, bar charts, means, and standard deviation, were used to analyse the data, and that formed the basis of the presentation of findings. The study discovered that planning academic activities, fostering relationships between the school and the community, supervising lessons, staff motivation, and punishing students who go wrong are some of the activities the head teachers participate in to help improve students’ academic performance. The academic performance of students is an area of great concern in education to the various stakeholders of education. This is because the academic performance of students is widely used as a measure of the success of the educational process. There are several factors, such as school-related factors, teachers related factors, pupils or students’ factors, and many others determining their academic performance. It appears that the management role of head teachers as a determining factor of pupils’ academic achievement is not much investigated. The management role of head teachers is an essential element in the educational process that has a huge influence on students’ academic performance. The aim of the research was to examine the management role of head teachers in improving the academic performance of students. The study employed a descriptive survey and was conducted among Junior High Schools in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region of Ghana. The respondents for the study were mainly all the head teachers, teachers, and some selected basic school pupils (JHS) in four-selected public basic schools in the Ellembelle district in the Western part of Ghana. A questionnaire was used to collect primary data from a sampling size of 252 persons, including 226 JHS pupils, all JHS teachers, and head teachers of all four selected schools. Descriptive statistics, specifically frequencies, percentages, pie charts, bar charts, means, and standard deviation, were used to analyse the data, and that formed the basis of the presentation of findings. The study discovered that planning academic activities, fostering relationships between the school and the community, supervising lessons, staff motivation, and punishing students who go wrong are some of the activities the head teachers participate in to help improve students’ academic performance.

Keywords: supervision, head teacher, academic performance, planning, motivation, relationships

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Authors: Lauren A. Bailey, Amber R. Childs, Nicola C. James, Murray I. Duncan, Alexander Winkler, Warren M. Potts

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For the persistence of fished populations in the Anthropocene, it is critical to predict how fished populations will respond to the coupled threats of exploitation and climate change for adaptive management. The resilience of fished populations will depend on their capacity for physiological plasticity and acclimatization in response to environmental shifts. However, there is evidence for the selection of physiological traits by capture fisheries. Hence, fish populations may have a limited scope for the rapid expansion of their tolerance ranges or physiological adaptation under fishing pressures. To determine the physiological vulnerability of fished populations in the Anthropocene, the metabolic performance was compared between a fished and spatially protected Chrysoblephus laticeps population in response to thermal variability. Individual aerobic scope phenotypes were quantified using intermittent flow respirometry by comparing changes in energy expenditure of each individual at ecologically relevant temperatures, mimicking variability experienced as a result of upwelling and downwelling events. The proportion of high and low-performance individuals were compared between the fished and spatially protected population. The fished population had limited aerobic scope phenotype diversity and fewer high-performance phenotypes, resulting in a significantly lower aerobic scope curve across low (10 °C) and high (24 °C) thermal treatments. The performance of fished populations may be compromised with predicted future increases in cold upwelling events. This requires the conservation of the physiologically fittest individuals in spatially protected areas, which can recruit into nearby fished areas, as a climate resilience tool.

Keywords: climate change, fish physiology, metabolic shifts, over-fishing, respirometry

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Authors: A. Brahma

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The drying of hydraulics materials is unavoidable and conducted to important spontaneous deformations. In this study, we show that it is possible to describe the drying shrinkage of the high-performance concrete by a simple expression. A multiple regression model was developed for the prediction of the drying shrinkage of the high-performance concrete. The assessment of the proposed model has been done by a set of statistical tests. The model developed takes in consideration the main parameters of confection and conservation. There was a very good agreement between drying shrinkage predicted by the multiple regression model and experimental results. The developed model adjusts easily to all hydraulic concrete types.

Keywords: hydraulic concretes, drying, shrinkage, prediction, modeling

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Authors: Hyunbin Choi, Jihyeon Noh, Changwon Lim

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In this paper, we propose SiamMask++, an architecture that performs layer-wise aggregation and depth-wise cross-correlation and introduce multi-RPN module and multi-MASK module to improve EAO (Expected Average Overlap), a representative performance evaluation metric for Visual Object Tracking (VOT) challenge. The proposed architecture, SiamMask++, has two versions, namely, bi_SiamMask++, which satisfies the real time (56fps) on systems equipped with GPUs (Titan XP), and rf_SiamMask++, which combines mask refinement modules for EAO improvements. Tests are performed on VOT2016, VOT2018 and VOT2019, the representative datasets of Visual Object Tracking tasks labeled as rotated bounding boxes. SiamMask++ perform better than SiamMask on all the three datasets tested. SiamMask++ is achieved performance of 62.6% accuracy, 26.2% robustness and 39.8% EAO, especially on the VOT2018 dataset. Compared to SiamMask, this is an improvement of 4.18%, 37.17%, 23.99%, respectively. In addition, we do an experimental in-depth analysis of how much the introduction of features and multi modules extracted from the backbone affects the performance of our model in the VOT task.

Keywords: visual object tracking, video, deep learning, layer wise aggregation, Siamese network

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Authors: Olga Maksakova

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A work with unconscious patients after acute brain damages besides special knowledge and practical skills of all the participants requires a very specific organization. A lot of said about team approach in neurorehabilitation, usually as for outpatient mode. Rehabilitologists deal with fixed patient problems or deficits (motion, speech, cognitive or emotional disorder). Team-building means superficial paradigm of management psychology. Linear mode of teamwork fits casual relationships there. Cases with deep altered states of consciousness (vegetative states, coma, and confusion) require non-linear mode of teamwork: recovery of consciousness might not be the goal due to phenomenon uncertainty. Rehabilitation team as Semi-open Complex System includes the patient as a part. Patient's response pattern becomes formed not only with brain deficits but questions-stimuli, context, and inquiring person. Teamwork is sourcing of phenomenology knowledge of patient's processes as Third-person approach is replaced with Second- and after First-person approaches. Here is a chance for real-time change. Patient’s contacts with his own body and outward things create a basement for restoration of consciousness. The most important condition is systematic feedbacks to any minimal movement or vegetative signal of the patient. Up to now, recovery work with the most severe contingent is carried out in the mode of passive physical interventions, while an effective rehabilitation team should include specially trained psychologists and psychotherapists. It is they who are able to create a network of feedbacks with the patient and inter-professional ones building up the team. Characteristics of ‘Team-Patient’ system (TPS) are energy, entropy, and complexity. Impairment of consciousness as the absence of linear contact appears together with a loss of essential functions (low energy), vegetative-visceral fits (excessive energy and low order), motor agitation (excessive energy and excessive order), etc. Techniques of teamwork are different in these cases for resulting optimization of the system condition. Directed regulation of the system complexity is one of the recovery tools. Different signs of awareness appear as a result of system self-organization. Joint meetings are an important part of teamwork. Regular or event-related discussions form the language of inter-professional communication, as well as the patient's shared mental model. Analysis of complex communication process in TPS may be useful for creation of the general theory of consciousness.

Keywords: rehabilitation team, urgent rehabilitation, severe brain damage, consciousness disorders, complex system theory

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Authors: Genute Gedviliene, Vidmantas Tutlys

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The aim of this paper is to reveal the deployment and development of the social competence in the higher education programmes of adult education and in the continuing training and competence development of the andragogues. There will be compared how the issues of cooperation and communication in the learning and teaching processes are treated in the study programmes and in the courses of continuing training of andragogues. Theoretical and empirical research methods were combined for research analysis. For the analysis the following methods were applied: 1) Literature and document analysis helped to highlight the communication and cooperation as fundamental phenomena of the social competence, it’s important for the adult education in the context of digitalization and globalization. There were also analyzed the research studies on the development of social competence in the field of andragogy, as well as on the place and weight of the social competence in the overall competence profile of the andragogue. 2) The empirical study is based on questionnaire survey method. The population of survey consists of 240 students of bachelor and master degree studies of andragogy in Lithuania and of 320 representatives of the different bodies and institutions involved in the continuing training and professional development of the adult educators in Lithuania. The themes of survey questionnaire were defined on the basis of findings of the literature review and included the following: 1) opinions of the respondents on the role and place of a social competence in the work of andragogue; 2) opinions of the respondents on the role and place of the development of social competence in the curricula of higher education studies and continuing training courses; 3) judgements on the implications of the higher education studies and courses of continuing training for the development of social competence and it’s deployment in the work of andragogue. Data analysis disclosed a wide range of ways and modalities of the deployment and development of social competence in the preparation and continuing training of the adult educators. Social competence is important for the students and adult education providers not only as the auxiliary capability for the communication and transfer of information, but also as the outcome of collective learning leading to the development of new capabilities applied by the learners in the learning process, their professional field of adult education and their social life. Equally so, social competence is necessary for the effective adult education activities not only as an auxiliary capacity applied in the teaching process, but also as a potential for improvement, development and sustainability of the didactic competence and know-how in this field. The students of the higher education programmes in the field of adult education treat social competence as important generic capacity important for the work of adult educator, whereas adult education providers discern the concrete issues of application of social competence in the different processes of adult education, starting from curriculum design and ending with assessment of learning outcomes.

Keywords: adult education, andragogues, social competence, curriculum

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Authors: Sylvanus N. Wosu

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Research shows that factors, such as low motivation, preparation, resources, emotional and social integration, and fears of risk-taking, are the most common barriers to access, matriculation, and retention into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines for underrepresented (URM) students. These factors have been shown to impact students’ attraction and success in STEM fields. Standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT often used as predictor of success, are not always true predictors of success for African and Hispanic American students. Without an adequate academic support environment, even a high SAT score does not guarantee academic success in science and engineering. This paper proposes a model for Academic Coaching for building success and inclusive excellence in STEM education. Academic coaching is framed as a process of motivating students to be independent learners through relational mentorship, facilitating learning supports inside and outside of the classroom or school environment, and developing problem-solving skills and success attitudes that lead to higher performance in the specific subjects. The model is formulated based on best strategies and practices for enriching Academic Performance Impact skills and motivating students’ interests in STEM. A scaled model for measuring the Academic Performance Impact (API) index and STEM is discussed. The study correlates API with state standardized test and shows that the average impact of those skills can be predicted by the Academic Performance Impact (API) index or Academic Preparedness Index.

Keywords: diversity, equity, graduate education, inclusion, inclusive excellence, model

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Authors: Keunhong Chae, Seokho Yoon

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We propose a code acquisition scheme called improved multiple-shift (IMS) for optical code division multiple access systems, where the optical orthogonal code is used instead of the pseudo noise code. Although the IMS algorithm has a similar process to that of the conventional MS algorithm, it has a better code acquisition performance than the conventional MS algorithm. We analyze the code acquisition performance of the IMS algorithm and compare the code acquisition performances of the MS and the IMS algorithms in single-user and multi-user environments.

Keywords: code acquisition, optical CDMA, optical orthogonal code, serial algorithm

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Authors: Chiung-Hui Chen

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Diagram and drawing are important ways to communicate and the reproduce of architectural design, Due to the development of information and communication technology, the professional thinking of architecture and interior design are also change rapidly. In development process of design, diagram always play very important role. This study is based on diagram theories, observe and record interaction between man and objects, objects and space, and space and time in a modern nuclear family. Construct a method for diagram to systematically and visualized describe the space plan of a modern nuclear family toward a intelligent design, to assist designer to retrieve information and check/review event pattern of past and present.

Keywords: digital diagram, information model, context aware, data analysis

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Authors: Sibel Celik, Hüseyin Ergin

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The paper aims to find the best volatility forecasting model for stock markets in Turkey. For this purpose, we compare performance of different volatility models-both traditional GARCH model and high frequency based volatility models- and conclude that both in pre-crisis and crisis period, the performance of high frequency based volatility models are better than traditional GARCH model. The findings of paper are important for policy makers, financial institutions and investors.

Keywords: volatility, GARCH model, realized volatility, high frequency data

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Authors: Sebastianus Menggo

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The aim of communicative language teaching is to enable learners to communicate in the target language. Each learner is required to perform the micro and macro components in each utterance produced. Utterances produced must be in line with the understanding of competence and performance of each speaker. These are inter-depended. Competence and performance are obliged to be appeared proportionally in creating the utterances. The representative of competence and performance reflects the linguistics identity of a speaker in providing sentences in each certain language community. Each lexicon spoken may lead that interlocutor in comprehending the intentions utterances given. However proportional performance of both components in an utterance needed to be further elaborated. Finding appropriate gap between competence and performance components in a communicative competence must be supported positive response given by the learners.The learners’ inability to keep communicative competence proportionally is caused by inside and outside factors. The inside factors are certain lacks such as lack of self-confidence and lack of motivation which could make students feel ashamed to produce utterances, scared to make mistakes, and have no enough confidence. Knowing learner’s English learning motivation is an urgent variable to be considered in creating conducive atmosphere classroom which will raise the learners to do more toward the achievement of communicative competence. Meanwhile, the outside factor is related with the teacher. The teacher should be able to recognize the students’ problem in creating conducive atmosphere in the classroom that will raise the students’ ability to be an English speaker qualified. Moreover, the aim of this research is to know and describe the English learning motivation affecting students’ communicative competence of 48 students of XI grade of science program at catholic senior of Saint Ignasius Loyola Labuan Bajo, West Flores, Indonesia. Correlation design with purposive procedure applied in this research. Data were collected through questionnaire, interview, and students’ speaking achievement document. Result shows the description of motivation significantly affecting students’ communicative competence.

Keywords: communicative, competence, English, learning, motivation

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Authors: Jenny K. Ubaque, Edward P. Guillen, Juan S. Solórzano, Leonardo J. Ramírez

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The health care must be a right for people around the world, but in order to guarantee the access to all, it is necessary to overcome geographical barriers. Telemedicine take advantage of Information Communication Technologies to deploy health care services around the world. To achieve those goals, it is necessary to use existing last mile solution to create access for home users, which is why is necessary to establish the channel characteristics for those kinds of services. This paper presents an analysis of network performance of last mile solution for the use of IPTV broadcasting with the application of streaming for telemedicine apps.

Keywords: telemedicine, IPTV, GPON, ADSL2+, coaxial, jumbogram

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Authors: Shobha Ramalingam

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The majority of the infrastructure projects are affected by time overrun, resulting in project delays and subsequently cost overruns. Time overrun may vary from a few months to as high as five or more years, placing the project viability at risk. One of the probable reasons noted in the literature for this outcome in projects is due to poor productivity. Researchers contend that productivity in construction has only marginally increased over the years. While studies in the literature have extensively focused on time and cost parameters in projects, there are limited studies that integrate time and cost with productivity to assess project performance. To this end, a study was conducted to understand the project delay factors concerning cost, time and productivity. A case-study approach was adopted to collect rich data from a nuclear power plant project site for two months through observation, interviews and document review. The data were analyzed using three different approaches for a comprehensive understanding. Foremost, a root-cause analysis was performed on the data using Ishikawa’s fish-bone diagram technique to identify the various factors impacting the delay concerning time. Based on it, a questionnaire was designed and circulated to concerned executives, including project engineers and contractors to determine the frequency of occurrence of the delay, which was then compiled and presented to the management for a possible solution to mitigate. Second, a productivity analysis was performed on select activities, including rebar bending and concreting through a time-motion study to analyze product performance. Third, data on cost of construction for three years allowed analyzing the cost performance using earned value management technique. All three techniques allowed to systematically and comprehensively identify the key factors that deter project performance and productivity loss in the construction of the nuclear power plant project. The findings showed that improper planning and coordination between multiple trades, concurrent operations, improper workforce and material management, fatigue due to overtime were some of the key factors that led to delays and poor productivity. The findings are expected to act as a stepping stone for further research and have implications for practitioners.

Keywords: earned value analysis, time performance, project costs, project delays, construction productivity

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Authors: Abel Edeowede Abhulimen

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Due to supply irregularity and frequent outages, the need for reliability in power supply has grown unsatisfactorily over time in developing nations, impeding industrialization and fueling insecurity. This article attempts to break down the Nigerian power issue into its numerous sub-sectors in order to pinpoint the industry's ailment and suggest a viable fix. Monthly average performance data were obtained for the various sub-sectors across the industry for eight consecutive quarters. Whereas the amount of energy generated was found to be insufficient to engender industrialization in a nation like Nigeria, the transmission infrastructure was inadequate for the amount of power needed to be wheeled. Additionally, the distribution sub-sector was plagued with problems such as revenue collection inefficiency, severe enough to impede the growth of the entire industry. The country's goal of attaining energy sufficiency and industrialization would significantly be closer to reality with a conscious effort to increase the base of power generation through aggressive investment in Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGT), decentralization of the transmission infrastructure, and strict monitoring of the distribution sub-sector for improved accountability and system reliability.

Keywords: performance, power industry, industrialization, security, energy

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Authors: Sairi Satari

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Introduction: Six-sigma is a metric that quantifies the performance of processes as a rate of Defects-Per-Million Opportunities. Sigma methodology can be applied in chemical pathology laboratory for evaluating process performance with evidence for process improvement in quality assurance program. In the laboratory, these methods have been used to improve the timeliness of troubleshooting, reduce the cost and frequency of quality control and minimize pre and post-analytical errors. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the sigma values of the Cobas 8000 analyzer based on the minimum requirement of the specification. Methodology: Twenty-one analytes were chosen in this study. The analytes were alanine aminotransferase (ALT), albumin, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), Amylase, aspartate transaminase (AST), total bilirubin, calcium, chloride, cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, creatinine, creatinine kinase, glucose, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), magnesium, potassium, protein, sodium, triglyceride, uric acid and urea. Total error was obtained from Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). The Bias was calculated from end cycle report of Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) cycle from July to December 2016 and coefficient variation (CV) from six-month internal quality control (IQC). The sigma was calculated based on the formula :Sigma = (Total Error - Bias) / CV. The analytical performance was evaluated based on the sigma, sigma > 6 is world class, sigma > 5 is excellent, sigma > 4 is good and sigma < 4 is satisfactory and sigma < 3 is poor performance. Results: Based on the calculation, we found that, 96% are world class (ALT, albumin, ALP, amylase, AST, total bilirubin, cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, creatinine, creatinine kinase, glucose, LDH, magnesium, potassium, triglyceride and uric acid. 14% are excellent (calcium, protein and urea), and 10% ( chloride and sodium) require more frequent IQC performed per day. Conclusion: Based on this study, we found that IQC should be performed frequently for only Chloride and Sodium to ensure accurate and reliable analysis for patient management.

Keywords: sigma matrics, analytical performance, total error, bias

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Authors: Ensieh Hajeb, Hefzollah Mohammadiyan, Mohamad Baqer Heidari

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In this paper layout plans and determine the best place to install a heat recovery boilers , gas turbines , and simulation models built to evaluate the performance of the design and operating conditions, heat recovery boiler design using model built on the basis of operating conditions , the effect of various parameters on the performance of the designed heat recovery boiler , heat recovery boiler installation was designed to evaluate the technical and economic impact on performance would be Turbo generator. Given the importance of this issue, that is the main goal of economic efficiency and reduces costs; this project has been implemented similar plans in which the target is implementation specific patterns. The project will also help us in the process of gas refineries and the actual efficiency of the process after adding a system to analyze the turbine and predict potential problems and how to fix them and appropriate measures according to the results of simulation analysis and results of the process gain. The results of modeling and the effect of different parameters on this line, the software has been ThermoFlow.

Keywords: boiler, gas turbine, turbo generator, power flow

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Authors: Liu Yi Hui, Chun-Liang Lai, Jhang Yu Cih, He You Jing, Chiu Fan-Yun, Lin Yu Fang

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For universities offering long-term care education, the inclusion of adulting learning and practices in professional courses as appropriate based on holistic design and evaluation could improve talent empowerment by leveraging social capital. Moreover, it could make the courses and materials used in long-term care education responsive to real-life needs. A mixed research method was used in the research design. A quantitative study was also conducted using a questionnaire survey, and the data were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 Chinese version. The qualitative data included students’ learning files (learning reflection notes, course reports, and experience records).

Keywords: adult learning, community empowerment, social capital, mixed research

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Authors: Muhammad Faizan Chinannai, Jaeseung Lee, Mohamed Hassan Gundu, Hyunchul Ju

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Fuel cell is known to be an effective renewable energy resource which is commercializing in the present era. It is really important to know about the improvement in performance even when the system faces some defects. This study was carried out to analyze the performance of the Polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFCs) under different operating conditions such as current density, relative humidity and Pt loadings considering defects with load changes. The purpose of this study is to analyze the response of the fuel cell system with defects in Balance of Plants (BOPs) and catalyst layer (CL) degradation by maintaining the coolant flow rate as such to preserve the cell temperature at the required level. Multi-Scale Simulation of 3D two-phase PEFC model with coolant was carried out under different load conditions. For detailed analysis and performance comparison, extensive contours of temperature, current density, water content, and relative humidity are provided. The simulation results of the different cases are compared with the reference data. Hence the response of the fuel cell stack with defects in BOP and CL degradations can be analyzed by the temperature difference between the coolant outlet and membrane electrode assembly. The results showed that the Failure of the humidifier increases High-Frequency Resistance (HFR), air flow defects and CL degradation results in the non-uniformity of current density distribution and high cathode activation overpotential, respectively.

Keywords: PEM fuel cell, fuel cell modeling, performance analysis, BOP components, current density distribution, degradation

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Authors: Dávid Csercsik, Péter Kádár

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In the case of the proposed method, the problem is parallelized by considering multiple possible mode of operation profiles, which determine the range in which the generators operate in each period. For each of these profiles, the optimization is carried out independently, and the best resulting dispatch is chosen. For each such profile, the resulting problem is a quadratic programming (QP) problem with a potentially negative definite Q quadratic term, and constraints depending on the actual operation profile. In this paper we analyze the performance of available MATLAB optimization methods and solvers for the corresponding QP.

Keywords: optimization, MATLAB, quadratic programming, economic dispatch

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Authors: Chung-Yuan Huang, Yu-Hsiang Fu, Chuen-Tsai Sun

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Community detection represents an important data-mining tool for analyzing and understanding real-world complex network structures and functions. We believe that at least four criteria determine the appropriateness of a community detection algorithm: (a) it produces useable normalized mutual information (NMI) and modularity results for social networks, (b) it overcomes resolution limitation problems associated with synthetic networks, (c) it produces good NMI results and performance efficiency for Lancichinetti-Fortunato-Radicchi (LFR) benchmark networks, and (d) it produces good modularity and performance efficiency for large-scale real-world complex networks. To our knowledge, no existing community detection algorithm meets all four criteria. In this paper, we describe a simple hierarchical arc-merging (HAM) algorithm that uses network topologies and rule-based arc-merging strategies to identify community structures that satisfy the criteria. We used five well-studied social network datasets and eight sets of LFR benchmark networks to validate the ground-truth community correctness of HAM, eight large-scale real-world complex networks to measure its performance efficiency, and two synthetic networks to determine its susceptibility to resolution limitation problems. Our results indicate that the proposed HAM algorithm is capable of providing satisfactory performance efficiency and that HAM-identified communities were close to ground-truth communities in social and LFR benchmark networks while overcoming resolution limitation problems.

Keywords: complex network, social network, community detection, network hierarchy

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Authors: Doddy T. P. Enggarsyah, Soebowo Musa

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Covid-19 pandemic has changed business environments and has spread economic contagion rapidly, as the stringent lockdowns and social distancing, which were initially intended to cut off the spread, have instead cut off the flow of economies. With no existing experience or playbook to deal with such a crisis, the prolonged pandemic can lead to bankruptcies, despite the fact that there are cases of companies that are not only able to survive but also to increase sales and create more jobs amid the economic crisis. This quantitative research study clarifies conflicting findings on organizational inertia whether it is a better strategy to implement during a disruptive environment. 316 respondents who worked in diverse firms operating in various industry types in Indonesia have completed the survey with a response rate of 63.2%. Further, this study clarifies the roles and relationships between organizational inertia, organizational creativity, organizational agility, and organizational resilience that potentially have determinants factors on firm performance in a disruptive environment. The findings of the study confirm that the organizational inertia of the firm will set up strong protection on the organization's fundamental orientation, which eventually will confine organizations to build adequate creative and adaptability responses—such fundamental orientation built from path dependency along with past success and prolonged firm performance. Organizational inertia acts like a control mechanism to ensure the adequacy of the given responses. The term adequate is important, as being overly creative during a disruptive environment may have a contradictory result since it can burden the firm performance. During a disruptive environment, organizations will limit creativity by focusing more on creativity that supports the resilience and new technology adoption will be limited since the cost of learning and implementation are perceived as greater than the potential gains. The optimal path towards firm performance is gained through organizational resilience, as in a disruptive environment, the survival of the organization takes precedence over firm performance.

Keywords: disruptive environment, organizational agility, organizational creativity, organizational inertia, organizational resilience

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Authors: Kevser Dincer, Basma Waisi, M. Ozan Ozdemir, Ugur Pasaogullari, Jeffrey McCutcheon

Abstract:

Nanofibers are defined as fibers with diameters less than 100 nanometers. They can be produced by interfacial polymerization, electrospinning and electrostatic spinning. In this study, behaviours of activated carbon nano fiber (ACNF), carbon nano-fiber (CNF), Polyacrylonitrile/carbon nanotube (PAN/CNT), Polyvinyl alcohol/nano silver (PVA/Ag) in PEM fuel cells are investigated experimentally. This material was used as gas diffusion layer (GDL) in PEM fuel cells. When the performances of these cells are compared to each other at 5x5 cm2 cell, it is found that the PVA/Ag exhibits the best performance among all. In this work, nano fiber and nano fiber/nano particles electrical conductivities have been studied to understand their effects on PEM fuel cell performance. According to the experimental results, the maximum electrical conductivity performance of the fuel cell with nanofiber was found to be at PVA/Ag. The electrical conductivities of CNF, ACNF, PAN/CNT are lower for PEM. The resistance of cell with PVA/Ag is lower than the resistance of cell with PAN/CNT, ACNF, CNF.

Keywords: proton exchange membrane fuel cells, electrospinning, carbon nano fiber, activate carbon nano-fiber, PVA fiber, PAN fiber, carbon nanotube, nano particle nanocomposites

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Authors: Junaid Bin Aamir, Ma Fanhua

Abstract:

Methanol is one of the most suitable alternative fuels for replacing gasoline in present and future spark-ignited engines. However, for pure methanol engines, cold start problems and misfires are observed under certain operating conditions. Hydrogen provides a solution for such problems. This paper experimentally investigated the effect of hydrogen on the performance of a pure methanol SI-engine at city driving conditions (1500 rpm speed and 1.18 excess air ratio). Hydrogen was used as a part of methanol reformed syngas (67% hydrogen by volume). 4% by mass of the total methanol converted to hydrogen and other constituent gases, was used in each cycle. Port fuel injection was used to inject methanol and hydrogen-rich syngas into the 4-cylinder engine. The results indicated an increase in brake thermal efficiency up to 5% with the addition of hydrogen, a decrease in brake specific fuel consumption up to 200 g/kWh, and a decrease in exhaust gas temperature by 100°C for all mean effective pressures. Hydrogen addition also decreased harmful exhaust emissions significantly. There was a reduction in THC emissions up to 95% and CO emissions up to 50%. NOx emissions were slightly increased (up to 15%), but they can be reduced to zero by lean burn strategy.

Keywords: alternative fuels, hydrogen, methanol, performance, spark ignition engines

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Authors: B. Vikram, Y. Anu Leena, Y. Anu Neena, M. V. Krishna Rao, V. S. S. Kumar

Abstract:

The industry is often criticized for inefficiencies in outcomes such as time and cost overruns, low productivity, poor quality and inadequate customer satisfaction. To enhance the chances for construction projects to be successful, selecting an able contractor is one of the fundamental decisions to be made by clients. The selection of the most appropriate contractor is a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) process. In this paper, multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) is employed utilizing the multiplicative form of utility function for ranking the prequalified contractors. Performance assessment criteria covering contracting company attributes, experience record, past performance, performance potential, financial stability and project specific criteria are considered for contractor evaluation. A case study of multistoried building for which four contractors submitted bids is considered to illustrate the applicability of multiplicative approach of MAUT to rank the prequalified contractors. The proposed MAUT decision making methodology can also be employed to other decision making situations.

Keywords: multi-attribute utility theory, construction industry, prequalification, contractor

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Authors: Arpan Kumar Nayak, Debabrata Pradhan

Abstract:

A simple, single-step and one-pot hydrothermal method was employed to synthesize WO₃-SnO₂ mixed nanostructured metal oxides at 200°C in 12h. The SnO₂ nanoparticles were found to be uniformly decorated on the WO₃ nanoplates. Though it is widely known that noble metals such as Pt, Pd doping or decoration on metal oxides improve the sensing response and sensitivity, we varied the SnO₂ concentration in the WO₃-SnO₂ mixed oxide and demonstrated their performance in ammonia, ethanol and acetone sensing. The sensing performance of WO₃-(x)SnO₂ [x = 0.27, 0.54, 1.08] mixed nanostructured oxides was found to be not only superior to that of pristine oxides but also higher/better than that of reported noble metal-based sensors. The sensing properties (selectivity, limit of detection, response and recovery times) are measured as a function of operating temperature (150-350°C). In particular, the gas selectivity is found to be highly temperature-dependent with optimum performance obtained at 200°C, 300°C and 350°C for ammonia, ethanol, and acetone, respectively. The present results on cost effective WO₃-SnO₂ sensors can find potential application in human breath analysis by noninvasive detection.

Keywords: gas sensing, mixed oxides, nanoplates, ammonia, ethanol, acetone

Procedia PDF Downloads 228