Search results for: gripper optimization
447 Revolutionizing Project Management: A Comprehensive Review of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Applications for Smarter Project Execution
Authors: Wenzheng Fu, Yue Fu, Zhijiang Dong, Yujian Fu
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The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into project management is transforming how engineering projects are executed, monitored, and controlled. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of AI and ML applications in project management, systematically categorizing their use in key areas such as project data analytics, monitoring, tracking, scheduling, and reporting. As project management becomes increasingly data-driven, AI and ML offer powerful tools for improving decision-making, optimizing resource allocation, and predicting risks, leading to enhanced project outcomes. The review highlights recent research that demonstrates the ability of AI and ML to automate routine tasks, provide predictive insights, and support dynamic decision-making, which in turn increases project efficiency and reduces the likelihood of costly delays. This paper also examines the emerging trends and future opportunities in AI-driven project management, such as the growing emphasis on transparency, ethical governance, and data privacy concerns. The research suggests that AI and ML will continue to shape the future of project management by driving further automation and offering intelligent solutions for real-time project control. Additionally, the review underscores the need for ongoing innovation and the development of governance frameworks to ensure responsible AI deployment in project management. The significance of this review lies in its comprehensive analysis of AI and ML’s current contributions to project management, providing valuable insights for both researchers and practitioners. By offering a structured overview of AI applications across various project phases, this paper serves as a guide for the adoption of intelligent systems, helping organizations achieve greater efficiency, adaptability, and resilience in an increasingly complex project management landscape.Keywords: artificial intelligence, decision support systems, machine learning, project management, resource optimization, risk prediction
Procedia PDF Downloads 21446 Optimization of an Electro-Submersible Pump for Crude Oil Extraction Processes
Authors: Deisy Becerra, Nicolas Rios, Miguel Asuaje
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The Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) is one of the most artificial lifting methods used in the last years, which consists of a serial arrangement of centrifugal pumps. One of the main concerns when handling crude oil is the formation of O/W or W/O (oil/water or water/oil) emulsions inside the pump, due to the shear rate imparted and the presence of high molecular weight substances that act as natural surfactants. Therefore, it is important to perform an analysis of the flow patterns inside the pump to increase the percentage of oil recovered using the centrifugal force and the difference in density between the oil and the water to generate the separation of liquid phases. For this study, a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model was developed on STAR-CCM+ software based on 3D geometry of a Franklin Electric 4400 4' four-stage ESP. In this case, the modification of the last stage was carried out to improve the centrifugal effect inside the pump, and a perforated double tube was designed with three different holes configurations disposed at the outlet section, through which the cut water flows. The arrangement of holes used has different geometrical configurations such as circles, rectangles, and irregular shapes determined as grating around the tube. The two-phase flow was modeled using an Eulerian approach with the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method, which predicts the distribution and movement of larger interfaces in immiscible phases. Different water-oil compositions were evaluated, such as 70-30% v/v, 80-20% v/v and 90-10% v/v, respectively. Finally, greater recovery of oil was obtained. For the several compositions evaluated, the volumetric oil fraction was greater than 0.55 at the pump outlet. Similarly, it is possible to show an inversely proportional relationship between the Water/Oil rate (WOR) and the volumetric flow. The volumetric fractions evaluated, the oil flow increased approximately between 41%-10% for circular perforations and 49%-19% for rectangular shaped perforations, regarding the inlet flow. Besides, the elimination of the pump diffuser in the last stage of the pump reduced the head by approximately 20%.Keywords: computational fluid dynamic, CFD, electrical submersible pump, ESP, two phase flow, volume of fluid, VOF, water/oil rate, WOR
Procedia PDF Downloads 158445 Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Breast MRI Examinations: Clinical Use and Technical Challenges
Authors: Janet Wing-Chong Wai, Alex Chiu-Wing Lee, Hailey Hoi-Ching Tsang, Jeffrey Chiu, Kwok-Wing Tang
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Background: Mammography has limited sensitivity and specificity though it is the primary imaging technique for detection of early breast cancer. Ultrasound imaging and contrast-enhanced MRI are useful adjunct tools to mammography. The advantage of breast MRI is high sensitivity for invasive breast cancer. Therefore, indications for and use of breast magnetic resonance imaging have increased over the past decade. Objectives: 1. Cases demonstration on different indications for breast MR imaging. 2. To review of the common artifacts and pitfalls in breast MR imaging. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study including all patients underwent dynamic contrast-enhanced breast MRI examination in our centre, performed from Jan 2011 to Dec 2017. The clinical data and radiological images were retrieved from the EPR (electronic patient record), RIS (Radiology Information System) and PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System). Results and Discussion: Cases including (1) Screening of the contralateral breast in patient with a new breast malignancy (2) Breast augmentation with free injection of unknown foreign materials (3) Finding of axillary adenopathy with an unknown site of primary malignancy (4) Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy: before, during, and after chemotherapy to evaluate treatment response and extent of residual disease prior to operation. Relevant images will be included and illustrated in the presentation. As with other types of MR imaging, there are different artifacts and pitfalls that can potentially limit interpretation of the images. Because of the coils and software specific to breast MR imaging, there are some other technical considerations that are unique to MR imaging of breast regions. Case demonstration images will be available in presentation. Conclusion: Breast MR imaging is a highly sensitive and reasonably specific method for the detection of breast cancer. Adherent to appropriate clinical indications and technical optimization are crucial for achieving satisfactory images for interpretation.Keywords: MRI, breast, clinical, cancer
Procedia PDF Downloads 241444 Radar Track-based Classification of Birds and UAVs
Authors: Altilio Rosa, Chirico Francesco, Foglia Goffredo
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In recent years, the number of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has significantly increased. The rapid development of commercial and recreational drones makes them an important part of our society. Despite the growing list of their applications, these vehicles pose a huge threat to civil and military installations: detection, classification and neutralization of such flying objects become an urgent need. Radar is an effective remote sensing tool for detecting and tracking flying objects, but scenarios characterized by the presence of a high number of tracks related to flying birds make especially challenging the drone detection task: operator PPI is cluttered with a huge number of potential threats and his reaction time can be severely affected. Flying birds compared to UAVs show similar velocity, RADAR cross-section and, in general, similar characteristics. Building from the absence of a single feature that is able to distinguish UAVs and birds, this paper uses a multiple features approach where an original feature selection technique is developed to feed binary classifiers trained to distinguish birds and UAVs. RADAR tracks acquired on the field and related to different UAVs and birds performing various trajectories were used to extract specifically designed target movement-related features based on velocity, trajectory and signal strength. An optimization strategy based on a genetic algorithm is also introduced to select the optimal subset of features and to estimate the performance of several classification algorithms (Neural network, SVM, Logistic regression…) both in terms of the number of selected features and misclassification error. Results show that the proposed methods are able to reduce the dimension of the data space and to remove almost all non-drone false targets with a suitable classification accuracy (higher than 95%).Keywords: birds, classification, machine learning, UAVs
Procedia PDF Downloads 222443 Mathematical Modelling of Drying Kinetics of Cantaloupe in a Solar Assisted Dryer
Authors: Melike Sultan Karasu Asnaz, Ayse Ozdogan Dolcek
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Crop drying, which aims to reduce the moisture content to a certain level, is a method used to extend the shelf life and prevent it from spoiling. One of the oldest food preservation techniques is open sunor shade drying. Even though this technique is the most affordable of all drying methods, there are some drawbacks such as contamination by insects, environmental pollution, windborne dust, and direct expose to weather conditions such as wind, rain, hail. However, solar dryers that provide a hygienic and controllable environment to preserve food and extend its shelf life have been developed and used to dry agricultural products. Thus, foods can be dried quickly without being affected by weather variables, and quality products can be obtained. This research is mainly devoted to investigating the modelling of drying kinetics of cantaloupe in a forced convection solar dryer. Mathematical models for the drying process should be defined to simulate the drying behavior of the foodstuff, which will greatly contribute to the development of solar dryer designs. Thus, drying experiments were conducted and replicated five times, and various data such as temperature, relative humidity, solar irradiation, drying air speed, and weight were instantly monitored and recorded. Moisture content of sliced and pretreated cantaloupe were converted into moisture ratio and then fitted against drying time for constructing drying curves. Then, 10 quasi-theoretical and empirical drying models were applied to find the best drying curve equation according to the Levenberg-Marquardt nonlinear optimization method. The best fitted mathematical drying model was selected according to the highest coefficient of determination (R²), and the mean square of the deviations (χ^²) and root mean square error (RMSE) criterial. The best fitted model was utilized to simulate a thin layer solar drying of cantaloupe, and the simulation results were compared with the experimental data for validation purposes.Keywords: solar dryer, mathematical modelling, drying kinetics, cantaloupe drying
Procedia PDF Downloads 127442 Coupling Static Multiple Light Scattering Technique With the Hansen Approach to Optimize Dispersibility and Stability of Particle Dispersions
Authors: Guillaume Lemahieu, Matthias Sentis, Giovanni Brambilla, Gérard Meunier
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Static Multiple Light Scattering (SMLS) has been shown to be a straightforward technique for the characterization of colloidal dispersions without dilution, as multiply scattered light in backscattered and transmitted mode is directly related to the concentration and size of scatterers present in the sample. In this view, the use of SMLS for stability measurement of various dispersion types has already been widely described in the literature. Indeed, starting from a homogeneous dispersion, the variation of backscattered or transmitted light can be attributed to destabilization phenomena, such as migration (sedimentation, creaming) or particle size variation (flocculation, aggregation). In a view to investigating more on the dispersibility of colloidal suspensions, an experimental set-up for “at the line” SMLS experiment has been developed to understand the impact of the formulation parameters on particle size and dispersibility. The SMLS experiment is performed with a high acquisition rate (up to 10 measurements per second), without dilution, and under direct agitation. Using such experimental device, SMLS detection can be combined with the Hansen approach to optimize the dispersing and stabilizing properties of TiO₂ particles. It appears that the dispersibility and the stability spheres generated are clearly separated, arguing that lower stability is not necessarily a consequence of poor dispersibility. Beyond this clarification, this combined SMLS-Hansen approach is a major step toward the optimization of dispersibility and stability of colloidal formulations by finding solvents having the best compromise between dispersing and stabilizing properties. Such study can be intended to find better dispersion media, greener and cheaper solvents to optimize particles suspensions, reduce the content of costly stabilizing additives or satisfy product regulatory requirements evolution in various industrial fields using suspensions (paints & inks, coatings, cosmetics, energy).Keywords: dispersibility, stability, Hansen parameters, particles, solvents
Procedia PDF Downloads 110441 Reliability and Maintainability Optimization for Aircraft’s Repairable Components Based on Cost Modeling Approach
Authors: Adel A. Ghobbar
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The airline industry is continuously challenging how to safely increase the service life of the aircraft with limited maintenance budgets. Operators are looking for the most qualified maintenance providers of aircraft components, offering the finest customer service. Component owner and maintenance provider is offering an Abacus agreement (Aircraft Component Leasing) to increase the efficiency and productivity of the customer service. To increase the customer service, the current focus on No Fault Found (NFF) units must change into the focus on Early Failure (EF) units. Since the effect of EF units has a significant impact on customer satisfaction, this needs to increase the reliability of EF units at minimal cost, which leads to the goal of this paper. By identifying the reliability of early failure (EF) units with regards to No Fault Found (NFF) units, in particular, the root cause analysis with an integrated cost analysis of EF units with the use of a failure mode analysis tool and a cost model, there will be a set of EF maintenance improvements. The data used for the investigation of the EF units will be obtained from the Pentagon system, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system used by Fokker Services. The Pentagon system monitors components, which needs to be repaired from Fokker aircraft owners, Abacus exchange pool, and commercial customers. The data will be selected on several criteria’s: time span, failure rate, and cost driver. When the selected data has been acquired, the failure mode and root cause analysis of EF units are initiated. The failure analysis approach tool was implemented, resulting in the proposed failure solution of EF. This will lead to specific EF maintenance improvements, which can be set-up to decrease the EF units and, as a result of this, increasing the reliability. The investigated EFs, between the time period over ten years, showed to have a significant reliability impact of 32% on the total of 23339 unscheduled failures. Since the EFs encloses almost one-third of the entire population.Keywords: supportability, no fault found, FMEA, early failure, availability, operational reliability, predictive model
Procedia PDF Downloads 127440 Parametric Evaluation for the Optimization of Gastric Emptying Protocols Used in Health Care Institutions
Authors: Yakubu Adamu
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The aim of this research was to assess the factors contributing to the need for optimisation of the gastric emptying protocols in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging (SNMMI) procedures. The objective is to suggest whether optimisation is possible and provide supporting evidence for the current imaging protocols of gastric emptying examination used in nuclear medicine. The research involved the use of some selected patients with 30 dynamic series for the image processing using ImageJ, and by so doing, the calculated half-time, retention fraction to the 60 x1 minute, 5 minute and 10-minute protocol, and other sampling intervals were obtained. Results from the study IDs for the gastric emptying clearance half-time were classified into normal, abnormal fast, and abnormal slow categories. In the normal category, which represents 50% of the total gastric emptying image IDs processed, their clearance half-time was within the range of 49.5 to 86.6 minutes of the mean counts. Also, under the abnormal fast category, their clearance half-time fell between 21 to 43.3 minutes of the mean counts, representing 30% of the total gastric emptying image IDs processed, and the abnormal slow category had clearance half-time within the range of 138.6 to 138.6 minutes of the mean counts, representing 20%. The results indicated that the calculated retention fraction values from the 1, 5, and 10-minute sampling curves and the measured values of gastric emptying retention fraction from sampling curves of the study IDs had a normal retention fraction of <60% and decreased exponentially with an increase in time and it was evident with low percentages of retention fraction ratios of < 10% after the 4 hours. Thus, this study does not change categories suggesting that these values could feasibly be used instead of having to acquire actual images. Findings from the study suggest that the current gastric emptying protocol can be optimized by acquiring fewer images. The study recommended that the gastric emptying studies should be performed with imaging at a minimum of 0, 1, 2, and 4 hours after meal ingestion.Keywords: gastric emptying, retention fraction, clearance halftime, optimisation, protocol
Procedia PDF Downloads 4439 GBKMeans: A Genetic Based K-Means Applied to the Capacitated Planning of Reading Units
Authors: Anderson S. Fonseca, Italo F. S. Da Silva, Robert D. A. Santos, Mayara G. Da Silva, Pedro H. C. Vieira, Antonio M. S. Sobrinho, Victor H. B. Lemos, Petterson S. Diniz, Anselmo C. Paiva, Eliana M. G. Monteiro
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In Brazil, the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL) establishes that electrical energy companies are responsible for measuring and billing their customers. Among these regulations, it’s defined that a company must bill your customers within 27-33 days. If a relocation or a change of period is required, the consumer must be notified in writing, in advance of a billing period. To make it easier to organize a workday’s measurements, these companies create a reading plan. These plans consist of grouping customers into reading groups, which are visited by an employee responsible for measuring consumption and billing. The creation process of a plan efficiently and optimally is a capacitated clustering problem with constraints related to homogeneity and compactness, that is, the employee’s working load and the geographical position of the consuming unit. This process is a work done manually by several experts who have experience in the geographic formation of the region, which takes a large number of days to complete the final planning, and because it’s human activity, there is no guarantee of finding the best optimization for planning. In this paper, the GBKMeans method presents a technique based on K-Means and genetic algorithms for creating a capacitated cluster that respects the constraints established in an efficient and balanced manner, that minimizes the cost of relocating consumer units and the time required for final planning creation. The results obtained by the presented method are compared with the current planning of a real city, showing an improvement of 54.71% in the standard deviation of working load and 11.97% in the compactness of the groups.Keywords: capacitated clustering, k-means, genetic algorithm, districting problems
Procedia PDF Downloads 198438 Planning a Haemodialysis Process by Minimum Time Control of Hybrid Systems with Sliding Motion
Authors: Radoslaw Pytlak, Damian Suski
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The aim of the paper is to provide a computational tool for planning a haemodialysis process. It is shown that optimization methods can be used to obtain the most effective treatment focused on removing both urea and phosphorus during the process. In order to achieve that, the IV–compartment model of phosphorus kinetics is applied. This kinetics model takes into account a rebound phenomenon that can occur during haemodialysis and results in a hybrid model of the process. Furthermore, vector fields associated with the model equations are such that it is very likely that using the most intuitive objective functions in the planning problem could lead to solutions which include sliding motions. Therefore, building computational tools for solving the problem of planning a haemodialysis process has required constructing numerical algorithms for solving optimal control problems with hybrid systems. The paper concentrates on minimum time control of hybrid systems since this control objective is the most suitable for the haemodialysis process considered in the paper. The presented approach to optimal control problems with hybrid systems is different from the others in several aspects. First of all, it is assumed that a hybrid system can exhibit sliding modes. Secondly, the system’s motion on the switching surface is described by index 2 differential–algebraic equations, and that guarantees accurate tracking of the sliding motion surface. Thirdly, the gradients of the problem’s functionals are evaluated with the help of adjoint equations. The adjoint equations presented in the paper take into account sliding motion and exhibit jump conditions at transition times. The optimality conditions in the form of the weak maximum principle for optimal control problems with hybrid systems exhibiting sliding modes and with piecewise constant controls are stated. The presented sensitivity analysis can be used to construct globally convergent algorithms for solving considered problems. The paper presents numerical results of solving the haemodialysis planning problem.Keywords: haemodialysis planning process, hybrid systems, optimal control, sliding motion
Procedia PDF Downloads 195437 Assessing Carbon Stock and Sequestration of Reforestation Species on Old Mining Sites in Morocco Using the DNDC Model
Authors: Nabil Elkhatri, Mohamed Louay Metougui, Ngonidzashe Chirinda
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Mining activities have left a legacy of degraded landscapes, prompting urgent efforts for ecological restoration. Reforestation holds promise as a potent tool to rehabilitate these old mining sites, with the potential to sequester carbon and contribute to climate change mitigation. This study focuses on evaluating the carbon stock and sequestration potential of reforestation species in the context of Morocco's mining areas, employing the DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) model. The research is grounded in recognizing the need to connect theoretical models with practical implementation, ensuring that reforestation efforts are informed by accurate and context-specific data. Field data collection encompasses growth patterns, biomass accumulation, and carbon sequestration rates, establishing an empirical foundation for the study's analyses. By integrating the collected data with the DNDC model, the study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of carbon dynamics within reforested ecosystems on old mining sites. The major findings reveal varying sequestration rates among different reforestation species, indicating the potential for species-specific optimization of reforestation strategies to enhance carbon capture. This research's significance lies in its potential to contribute to sustainable land management practices and climate change mitigation strategies. By quantifying the carbon stock and sequestration potential of reforestation species, the study serves as a valuable resource for policymakers, land managers, and practitioners involved in ecological restoration and carbon management. Ultimately, the study aligns with global objectives to rejuvenate degraded landscapes while addressing pressing climate challenges.Keywords: carbon stock, carbon sequestration, DNDC model, ecological restoration, mining sites, Morocco, reforestation, sustainable land management.
Procedia PDF Downloads 76436 Optimization of Water Desalination System Powered by High Concentrated Photovoltaic Panels in Kuwait Climate Conditions
Authors: Adel A. Ghoneim
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Desalination using solar energy is an interesting option specifically at regions with abundant solar radiation since such areas normally have scarcity of clean water resources. Desalination is the procedure of eliminating dissolved minerals from seawater or brackish water to generate fresh water. In this work, a simulation program is developed to determine the performance of reverse osmosis (RO) water desalination plant powered by high concentrated photovoltaic (HCPV) panels in Kuwait climate conditions. The objective of such a photovoltaic thermal system is to accomplish a double output, i.e., co-generation of both electricity and fresh water that is applicable for rural regions with high solar irradiation. The suggested plan enables to design an RO plant that does not depend on costly batteries or additional land and significantly reduce the government costs to subsidize the water generation cost. Typical weather conditions for Kuwait is employed as input to the simulation program. The simulation program is utilized to optimize the system efficiency as well as the distillate water production. The areas and slopes of HCPV modules are varied to attain maximum yearly power production. Maximum yearly distillate production and HCPV energy generation are found to correspond to HCPV facing south with tilt of 27° (Kuwait latitude-3°). The power needed to produce 1 l of clean drinking water ranged from 2 to 8 kW h/m³, based on the salinity of the feed water and the system operating conditions. Moreover, adapting HCPV systems achieve an avoided greenhouse gases emission by about 1128 ton CO₂ annually. Present outcomes certainly illustrate environmental advantages of water desalination system powered by high concentrated photovoltaic systems in Kuwait climate conditions.Keywords: desalination, high concentrated photovoltaic systems, reverse osmosis, solar radiation
Procedia PDF Downloads 142435 Multi-Stage Optimization of Local Environmental Quality by Comprehensive Computer Simulated Person as Sensor for Air Conditioning Control
Authors: Sung-Jun Yoo, Kazuhide Ito
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In this study, a comprehensive computer simulated person (CSP) that integrates computational human model (virtual manikin) and respiratory tract model (virtual airway), was applied for estimation of indoor environmental quality. Moreover, an inclusive prediction method was established by integrating computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis with advanced CSP which is combined with physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model, unsteady thermoregulation model for analysis targeting micro-climate around human body and respiratory area with high accuracy. This comprehensive method can estimate not only the contaminant inhalation but also constant interaction in the contaminant transfer between indoor spaces, i.e., a target area for indoor air quality (IAQ) assessment, and respiratory zone for health risk assessment. This study focused on the usage of the CSP as an air/thermal quality sensor in indoors, which means the application of comprehensive model for assessment of IAQ and thermal environmental quality. Demonstrative analysis was performed in order to examine the applicability of the comprehensive model to the heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) control scheme. CSP was located at the center of the simple model room which has dimension of 3m×3m×3m. Formaldehyde which is generated from floor material was assumed as a target contaminant, and flow field, sensible/latent heat and contaminant transfer analysis in indoor space were conducted by using CFD simulation coupled with CSP. In this analysis, thermal comfort was evaluated by thermoregulatory analysis, and respiratory exposure risks represented by adsorption flux/concentration at airway wall surface were estimated by PBPK-CFD hybrid analysis. These Analysis results concerning IAQ and thermal comfort will be fed back to the HVAC control and could be used to find a suitable ventilation rate and energy requirement for air conditioning system.Keywords: CFD simulation, computer simulated person, HVAC control, indoor environmental quality
Procedia PDF Downloads 361434 A Multi-Family Offline SPE LC-MS/MS Analytical Method for Anionic, Cationic and Non-ionic Surfactants in Surface Water
Authors: Laure Wiest, Barbara Giroud, Azziz Assoumani, Francois Lestremau, Emmanuelle Vulliet
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Due to their production at high tonnages and their extensive use, surfactants are contaminants among those determined at the highest concentrations in wastewater. However, analytical methods and data regarding their occurrence in river water are scarce and concern only a few families, mainly anionic surfactants. The objective of this study was to develop an analytical method to extract and analyze a wide variety of surfactants in a minimum of steps, with a sensitivity compatible with the detection of ultra-traces in surface waters. 27 substances, from 12 families of surfactants, anionic, cationic and non-ionic were selected for method optimization. Different retention mechanisms for the extraction by solid phase extraction (SPE) were tested and compared in order to improve their detection by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The best results were finally obtained with a C18 grafted silica LC column and a polymer cartridge with hydrophilic lipophilic balance (HLB), and the method developed allows the extraction of the three types of surfactants with satisfactory recoveries. The final analytical method comprised only one extraction and two LC injections. It was validated and applied for the quantification of surfactants in 36 river samples. The method's limits of quantification (LQ), intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy were evaluated, and good performances were obtained for the 27 substances. As these compounds have many areas of application, contaminations of instrument and method blanks were observed and considered for the determination of LQ. Nevertheless, with LQ between 15 and 485 ng/L, and accuracy of over 80%, this method was suitable for monitoring surfactants in surface waters. Application on French river samples revealed the presence of anionic, cationic and non-ionic surfactants with median concentrations ranging from 24 ng/L for octylphenol ethoxylates (OPEO) to 4.6 µg/L for linear alkylbenzenesulfonates (LAS). The analytical method developed in this work will therefore be useful for future monitoring of surfactants in waters. Moreover, this method, which shows good performances for anionic, non-ionic and cationic surfactants, may be easily adapted to other surfactants.Keywords: anionic surfactant, cationic surfactant, LC-MS/MS, non-ionic surfactant, SPE, surface water
Procedia PDF Downloads 145433 Motion Planning and Simulation Design of a Redundant Robot for Sheet Metal Bending Processes
Authors: Chih-Jer Lin, Jian-Hong Hou
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Industry 4.0 is a vision of integrated industry implemented by artificial intelligent computing, software, and Internet technologies. The main goal of industry 4.0 is to deal with the difficulty owing to competitive pressures in the marketplace. For today’s manufacturing factories, the type of production is changed from mass production (high quantity production with low product variety) to medium quantity-high variety production. To offer flexibility, better quality control, and improved productivity, robot manipulators are used to combine material processing, material handling, and part positioning systems into an integrated manufacturing system. To implement the automated system for sheet metal bending operations, motion planning of a 7-degrees of freedom (DOF) robot is studied in this paper. A virtual reality (VR) environment of a bending cell, which consists of the robot and a bending machine, is established using the virtual robot experimentation platform (V-REP) simulator. For sheet metal bending operations, the robot only needs six DOFs for the pick-and-place or tracking tasks. Therefore, this 7 DOF robot has more DOFs than the required to execute a specified task; it can be called a redundant robot. Therefore, this robot has kinematic redundancies to deal with the task-priority problems. For redundant robots, Pseudo-inverse of the Jacobian is the most popular motion planning method, but the pseudo-inverse methods usually lead to a kind of chaotic motion with unpredictable arm configurations as the Jacobian matrix lose ranks. To overcome the above problem, we proposed a method to formulate the motion planning problems as optimization problem. Moreover, a genetic algorithm (GA) based method is proposed to deal with motion planning of the redundant robot. Simulation results validate the proposed method feasible for motion planning of the redundant robot in an automated sheet-metal bending operations.Keywords: redundant robot, motion planning, genetic algorithm, obstacle avoidance
Procedia PDF Downloads 146432 Sliding Mode Power System Stabilizer for Synchronous Generator Stability Improvement
Authors: J. Ritonja, R. Brezovnik, M. Petrun, B. Polajžer
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Many modern synchronous generators in power systems are extremely weakly damped. The reasons are cost optimization of the machine building and introduction of the additional control equipment into power systems. Oscillations of the synchronous generators and related stability problems of the power systems are harmful and can lead to failures in operation and to damages. The only useful solution to increase damping of the unwanted oscillations represents the implementation of the power system stabilizers. Power system stabilizers generate the additional control signal which changes synchronous generator field excitation voltage. Modern power system stabilizers are integrated into static excitation systems of the synchronous generators. Available commercial power system stabilizers are based on linear control theory. Due to the nonlinear dynamics of the synchronous generator, current stabilizers do not assure optimal damping of the synchronous generator’s oscillations in the entire operating range. For that reason the use of the robust power system stabilizers which are convenient for the entire operating range is reasonable. There are numerous robust techniques applicable for the power system stabilizers. In this paper the use of sliding mode control for synchronous generator stability improvement is studied. On the basis of the sliding mode theory, the robust power system stabilizer was developed. The main advantages of the sliding mode controller are simple realization of the control algorithm, robustness to parameter variations and elimination of disturbances. The advantage of the proposed sliding mode controller against conventional linear controller was tested for damping of the synchronous generator oscillations in the entire operating range. Obtained results show the improved damping in the entire operating range of the synchronous generator and the increase of the power system stability. The proposed study contributes to the progress in the development of the advanced stabilizer, which will replace conventional linear stabilizers and improve damping of the synchronous generators.Keywords: control theory, power system stabilizer, robust control, sliding mode control, stability, synchronous generator
Procedia PDF Downloads 225431 Optimization of Headspace Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME) Technique Coupled with GC MS for Identification of Volatile Organic Compounds Released by Trogoderma Variabile
Authors: Thamer Alshuwaili, Yonglin Ren, Bob Du, Manjree Agarwal
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The warehouse beetle, Trogoderma variabile Ballion (Coleoptera: Dermestidae), is a major pest of packaged and processed stored products. Warehouse beetle is the common name which was given by Okumura (1972). This pest has been reported to infest 119 different commodities, and it is distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical parts of the world. Also, it is difficult to control because of the insect's ability to stay without food for long times, and it can survive for years under dry conditions and low-moisture food, and it has also developed resistance to many insecticides. The young larvae of these insects can cause damage to seeds, but older larvae prefer to feed on whole grains. The percentage of damage caused by these insects range between 30-70% in the storage. T. variabile is the species most responsible for causing significant damage in grain stores worldwide. Trogoderma spp. is a huge problem for cereal grains, and there are many countries, such as the USA, Australia, China, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania who have specific quarantine regulations against possible importation. Also, grain stocks can be almost completely destroyed because of the massive populations the insect may develop. However, the purpose of the current research was to optimize conditions to collect volatile organic compound from Trogoderma variabile at different life stages by using headspace solid phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and flame ionization detection (FID). Using SPME technique to extract volatile from insects is an efficient, straightforward and nondestructive method. Result of the study shows that 15 insects were optimal number for larvae and adults. Selection of the number of insects depend on the height of the peak area and the number of peaks. Sixteen hours were optimized as the best extraction time for larvae and 8 hours was the optimal number of adults.Keywords: Trogoderma variabile, warehouse beetle , GC-MS, Solid phase microextraction
Procedia PDF Downloads 129430 Effect of Temperature and Deformation Mode on Texture Evolution of AA6061
Authors: M. Ghosh, A. Miroux, L. A. I. Kestens
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At molecular or micrometre scale, practically all materials are neither homogeneous nor isotropic. The concept of texture is used to identify the structural features that cause the properties of a material to be anisotropic. For metallic materials, the anisotropy of the mechanical behaviour originates from the crystallographic nature of plastic deformation, and is therefore controlled by the crystallographic texture. Anisotropy in mechanical properties often constitutes a disadvantage in the application of materials, as it is often illustrated by the earing phenomena during drawing. However, advantages may also be attained when considering other properties (e.g. optimization of magnetic behaviour to a specific direction) by controlling texture through thermo-mechanical processing). Nevertheless, in order to have better control over the final properties it is essential to relate texture with materials processing route and subsequently optimise their performance. However, up to date, few studies have been reported about the evolution of texture in 6061 aluminium alloy during warm processing (from room temperature to 250ºC). In present investigation, recrystallized 6061 aluminium alloy samples were subjected to tensile and plane strain compression (PSC) at room and warm temperatures. The gradual change of texture following both deformation modes were measured and discussed. Tensile tests demonstrate the mechanism at low strain while PSC does the same at high strain and eventually simulate the condition of rolling. Cube dominated texture of the initial rolled and recrystallized AA6061 sheets were replaced by domination of S and R components after PSC at room temperature, warm temperature (250ºC) though did not reflect any noticeable deviation from room temperature observation. It was also noticed that temperature has no significant effect on the evolution of grain morphology during PSC. The band contrast map revealed that after 30% deformation the substructure inside the grain is mainly made of series of parallel bands. A tendency for decrease of Cube and increase of Goss was noticed after tensile deformation compared to as-received material. Like PSC, texture does not change after deformation at warm temperature though. n-fibre was noticed for all the three textures from Goss to Cube.Keywords: AA 6061, deformation, temperature, tensile, PSC, texture
Procedia PDF Downloads 484429 Personalization of Context Information Retrieval Model via User Search Behaviours for Ranking Document Relevance
Authors: Kehinde Agbele, Longe Olumide, Daniel Ekong, Dele Seluwa, Akintoye Onamade
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One major problem of most existing information retrieval systems (IRS) is that they provide even access and retrieval results to individual users specially based on the query terms user issued to the system. When using IRS, users often present search queries made of ad-hoc keywords. It is then up to IRS to obtain a precise representation of user’s information need, and the context of the information. In effect, the volume and range of the Internet documents is growing exponentially and consequently causes difficulties for a user to obtain information that precisely matches the user interest. Diverse combination techniques are used to achieve the specific goal. This is due, firstly, to the fact that users often do not present queries to IRS that optimally represent the information they want, and secondly, the measure of a document's relevance is highly subjective between diverse users. In this paper, we address the problem by investigating the optimization of IRS to individual information needs in order of relevance. The paper addressed the development of algorithms that optimize the ranking of documents retrieved from IRS. This paper addresses this problem with a two-fold approach in order to retrieve domain-specific documents. Firstly, the design of context of information. The context of a query determines retrieved information relevance using personalization and context-awareness. Thus, executing the same query in diverse contexts often leads to diverse result rankings based on the user preferences. Secondly, the relevant context aspects should be incorporated in a way that supports the knowledge domain representing users’ interests. In this paper, the use of evolutionary algorithms is incorporated to improve the effectiveness of IRS. A context-based information retrieval system that learns individual needs from user-provided relevance feedback is developed whose retrieval effectiveness is evaluated using precision and recall metrics. The results demonstrate how to use attributes from user interaction behavior to improve the IR effectiveness.Keywords: context, document relevance, information retrieval, personalization, user search behaviors
Procedia PDF Downloads 463428 Building a Parametric Link between Mapping and Planning: A Sunlight-Adaptive Urban Green System Plan Formation Process
Authors: Chenhao Zhu
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Quantitative mapping is playing a growing role in guiding urban planning, such as using a heat map created by CFX, CFD2000, or Envi-met, to adjust the master plan. However, there is no effective quantitative link between the mappings and planning formation. So, in many cases, the decision-making is still based on the planner's subjective interpretation and understanding of these mappings, which limits the improvement of scientific and accuracy brought by the quantitative mapping. Therefore, in this paper, an effort has been made to give a methodology of building a parametric link between the mapping and planning formation. A parametric planning process based on radiant mapping has been proposed for creating an urban green system. In the first step, a script is written in Grasshopper to build a road network and form the block, while the Ladybug Plug-in is used to conduct a radiant analysis in the form of mapping. Then, the research creatively transforms the radiant mapping from a polygon into a data point matrix, because polygon is hard to engage in the design formation. Next, another script is created to select the main green spaces from the road network based on the criteria of radiant intensity and connect the green spaces' central points to generate a green corridor. After that, a control parameter is introduced to adjust the corridor's form based on the radiant intensity. Finally, a green system containing greenspace and green corridor is generated under the quantitative control of the data matrix. The designer only needs to modify the control parameter according to the relevant research results and actual conditions to realize the optimization of the green system. This method can also be applied to much other mapping-based analysis, such as wind environment analysis, thermal environment analysis, and even environmental sensitivity analysis. The parameterized link between the mapping and planning will bring about a more accurate, objective, and scientific planning.Keywords: parametric link, mapping, urban green system, radiant intensity, planning strategy, grasshopper
Procedia PDF Downloads 142427 Inhalable Lipid-Coated-Chitosan Nano-Embedded Microdroplets of an Antifungal Drug for Deep Lung Delivery
Authors: Ranjot Kaur, Om P. Katare, Anupama Sharma, Sarah R. Dennison, Kamalinder K. Singh, Bhupinder Singh
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Respiratory microbial infections being among the top leading cause of death worldwide are difficult to treat as the microbes reside deep inside the airways, where only a small fraction of drug can access after traditional oral or parenteral routes. As a result, high doses of drugs are required to maintain drug levels above minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) at the infection site, unfortunately leading to severe systemic side-effects. Therefore, delivering antimicrobials directly to the respiratory tract provides an attractive way out in such situations. In this context, current study embarks on the systematic development of lung lia pid-modified chitosan nanoparticles for inhalation of voriconazole. Following the principles of quality by design, the chitosan nanoparticles were prepared by ionic gelation method and further coated with major lung lipid by precipitation method. The factor screening studies were performed by fractional factorial design, followed by optimization of the nanoparticles by Box-Behnken Design. The optimized formulation has a particle size range of 170-180nm, PDI 0.3-0.4, zeta potential 14-17, entrapment efficiency 45-50% and drug loading of 3-5%. The presence of a lipid coating was confirmed by FESEM, FTIR, and X-RD. Furthermore, the nanoparticles were found to be safe upto 40µg/ml on A549 and Calu-3 cell lines. The quantitative and qualitative uptake studies also revealed the uptake of nanoparticles in lung epithelial cells. Moreover, the data from Spraytec and next-generation impactor studies confirmed the deposition of nanoparticles in lower airways. Also, the interaction of nanoparticles with DPPC monolayers signifies its biocompatibility with lungs. Overall, the study describes the methodology and potential of lipid-coated chitosan nanoparticles in futuristic inhalation nanomedicine for the management of pulmonary aspergillosis.Keywords: dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine, nebulization, DPPC monolayers, quality-by-design
Procedia PDF Downloads 143426 Degradation of Emerging Pharmaceuticals by Gamma Irradiation Process
Authors: W. Jahouach-Rabai, J. Aribi, Z. Azzouz-Berriche, R. Lahsni, F. Hosni
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Gamma irradiation applied in removing pharmaceutical contaminants from wastewater is an effective advanced oxidation process (AOP), considered as an alternative to conventional water treatment technologies. In this purpose, the degradation efficiency of several detected contaminants under gamma irradiation was evaluated. In fact, radiolysis of organic pollutants in aqueous solutions produces powerful reactive species, essentially hydroxyl radical ( ·OH), able to destroy recalcitrant pollutants in water. Pharmaceuticals considered in this study are aqueous solutions of paracetamol, ibuprofen, and diclofenac at different concentrations 0.1-1 mmol/L, which were treated with irradiation doses from 3 to 15 kGy. The catalytic oxidation of these compounds by gamma irradiation was investigated using hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) as a convenient oxidant. Optimization of the main parameters influencing irradiation process, namely irradiation doses, initial concentration and oxidant volume (H₂O₂) were investigated, in the aim to release high degradation efficiency of considered pharmaceuticals. Significant modifications attributed to these parameters appeared in the variation of degradation efficiency, chemical oxygen demand removal (COD) and concentration of radio-induced radicals, confirming them synergistic effect to attempt total mineralization. Pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics could be used to depict the degradation process of these compounds. A sophisticated analytical study was released to quantify the detected radio-induced radicals (electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)). All results showed that this process is effective for the degradation of many pharmaceutical products in aqueous solutions due to strong oxidative properties of generated radicals mainly hydroxyl radical. Furthermore, the addition of an optimal amount of H₂O₂ was efficient to improve the oxidative degradation and contribute to the high performance of this process at very low doses (0.5 and 1 kGy).Keywords: AOP, COD, hydroxyl radical, EPR, gamma irradiation, HPLC, pharmaceuticals
Procedia PDF Downloads 170425 Simulation of a Control System for an Adaptive Suspension System for Passenger Vehicles
Authors: S. Gokul Prassad, S. Aakash, K. Malar Mohan
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In the process to cope with the challenges faced by the automobile industry in providing ride comfort, the electronics and control systems play a vital role. The control systems in an automobile monitor various parameters, controls the performances of the systems, thereby providing better handling characteristics. The automobile suspension system is one of the main systems that ensure the safety, stability and comfort of the passengers. The system is solely responsible for the isolation of the entire automobile from harmful road vibrations. Thus, integration of the control systems in the automobile suspension system would enhance its performance. The diverse road conditions of India demand the need of an efficient suspension system which can provide optimum ride comfort in all road conditions. For any passenger vehicle, the design of the suspension system plays a very important role in assuring the ride comfort and handling characteristics. In recent years, the air suspension system is preferred over the conventional suspension systems to ensure ride comfort. In this article, the ride comfort of the adaptive suspension system is compared with that of the passive suspension system. The schema is created in MATLAB/Simulink environment. The system is controlled by a proportional integral differential controller. Tuning of the controller was done with the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, since it suited the problem best. Ziegler-Nichols and Modified Ziegler-Nichols tuning methods were also tried and compared. Both the static responses and dynamic responses of the systems were calculated. Various random road profiles as per ISO 8608 standard are modelled in the MATLAB environment and their responses plotted. Open-loop and closed loop responses of the random roads, various bumps and pot holes are also plotted. The simulation results of the proposed design are compared with the available passive suspension system. The obtained results show that the proposed adaptive suspension system is efficient in controlling the maximum over shoot and the settling time of the system is reduced enormously.Keywords: automobile suspension, MATLAB, control system, PID, PSO
Procedia PDF Downloads 294424 Process Optimization and Microbial Quality of Provitamin A-Biofortified Amahewu, a Non-Alcoholic Maize Based Beverage
Authors: Temitope D. Awobusuyi, Eric O. Amonsou, Muthulisi Siwela, Oluwatosin A. Ijabadeniyi
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Provitamin A-biofortified maize has been developed to alleviate Vitamin A deficiency; a major public health problem in developing countries. Amahewu, a non-alcoholic fermented maize based beverage is produced using white maize, which is deficient in Vitamin A. In this study, the suitable processing conditions for the production of amahewu using provitamin A-biofortified maize and the microbial quality of the processed products were evaluated. Provitamin A-biofortified amahewu was produced with reference to traditional processing method. Processing variables were Inoculum types (Malted provitamin A maize, Wheat bran, and lactobacillus mixed starter culture with either malted provitamin A or wheat bran) and concentration (0.5 %, 1 % and 2 %). A total of four provitamin A-biofortified amahewu products after fermentation were subjected to different storage conditions: 4ᴼC, 25ᴼC and 37ᴼC. pH and TTA were monitored throughout the storage period. Sample of provitamin A-biofortified amahewu were plated and observed every day for 5 days to assess the presence of Aerobic and Anaerobic spore formers, E.coli, Lactobacillus and Mould. The addition of starter culture substantially reduced the fermentation time (6 hour, pH 3.3) compared to those with no addition of starter culture (24 hour pH 3.5). It was observed that Lactobacillus were present from day 0 for all the storage temperatures. The presence of aerobic spore former and mould were observed on day 3. E.coli and Anaerobic spore formers were not present throughout the storage period. These microbial growth were minimal at 4ᴼC while 25ᴼC had higher counts of growth with 37ᴼC having the highest colony count. Throughout the storage period, pH of provitamin A-biofortified amahewu was stable. Provitamin A-biofortified amahewu stored under refrigerated condition (4ᴼC) had better storability compared to 25ᴼC and 37ᴼC. The production and microbial quality of provitamin A-biofortified amahewu might be important in combating Vitamin A Deficiency.Keywords: biofortification, fermentation, maize, vitamin A deficiency
Procedia PDF Downloads 432423 Towards a Reinvented Cash Management Function: Mobilising Innovative Advances for Enhanced Performance and Optimised Cost Management: Insights from Large Moroccan Companies in the Casablanca-Settat Region
Authors: Badrane Nohayla, Bamousse Zineb
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Financial crises, exchange rate volatility, fluctuations in commodity prices, increased competitive pressures, and environmental issues are all threats that businesses face. In light of these diverse challenges, proactive, agile, and innovative cash management becomes an indispensable financial shield, allowing companies to thrive despite the adverse conditions of the global environment. In the same spirit, uncertainty, turbulence, volatility, and competitiveness continue to disrupt economic environments, compelling companies to swiftly master innovative breakthroughs that provide added value. In such a context, innovation emerges as a catalytic vector for performance, aiming to reduce costs, strengthen growth, and ultimately ensure the sustainability of Moroccan companies in the national arena. Moreover, innovation in treasury management promises to be one of the key pillars of financial stability, enabling companies to navigate the tumultuous waters of a globalized environment. Therefore, the objective of this study is to better understand the impact of innovative treasury management on cost optimization and, by extension, performance improvement. To elucidate this relationship, we conducted an exploratory qualitative study with 20 large Moroccan companies operating in the Casablanca-Settat region. The results highlight that innovation at the heart of treasury management is a guarantee of sustainability against the risks of failure and stands as a true pivot of the performance of Moroccan companies, an important parameter of their financial balance and a catalytic vector of their growth in the national economic landscape. In this regard, the present study aims to explore the extent to which innovation at the core of the treasury function serves as an indispensable tool for boosting performance while optimising costs in large Moroccan companies.Keywords: innovative cash management, artificial intelligence, financial performance, risk management, cost savings
Procedia PDF Downloads 29422 Applications of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing: A Commercial Perspective
Authors: Tuba Zahra, Aakash Parekh
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Hyperspectral remote sensing refers to imaging of objects or materials in narrow conspicuous spectral bands. Hyperspectral images (HSI) enable the extraction of spectral signatures for objects or materials observed. These images contain information about the reflectance of each pixel across the electromagnetic spectrum. It enables the acquisition of data simultaneously in hundreds of spectral bands with narrow bandwidths and can provide detailed contiguous spectral curves that traditional multispectral sensors cannot offer. The contiguous, narrow bandwidth of hyperspectral data facilitates the detailed surveying of Earth's surface features. This would otherwise not be possible with the relatively coarse bandwidths acquired by other types of imaging sensors. Hyperspectral imaging provides significantly higher spectral and spatial resolution. There are several use cases that represent the commercial applications of hyperspectral remote sensing. Each use case represents just one of the ways that hyperspectral satellite imagery can support operational efficiency in the respective vertical. There are some use cases that are specific to VNIR bands, while others are specific to SWIR bands. This paper discusses the different commercially viable use cases that are significant for HSI application areas, such as agriculture, mining, oil and gas, defense, environment, and climate, to name a few. Theoretically, there is n number of use cases for each of the application areas, but an attempt has been made to streamline the use cases depending upon economic feasibility and commercial viability and present a review of literature from this perspective. Some of the specific use cases with respect to agriculture are crop species (sub variety) detection, soil health mapping, pre-symptomatic crop disease detection, invasive species detection, crop condition optimization, yield estimation, and supply chain monitoring at scale. Similarly, each of the industry verticals has a specific commercially viable use case that is discussed in the paper in detail.Keywords: agriculture, mining, oil and gas, defense, environment and climate, hyperspectral, VNIR, SWIR
Procedia PDF Downloads 79421 Advances in Mathematical Sciences: Unveiling the Power of Data Analytics
Authors: Zahid Ullah, Atlas Khan
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The rapid advancements in data collection, storage, and processing capabilities have led to an explosion of data in various domains. In this era of big data, mathematical sciences play a crucial role in uncovering valuable insights and driving informed decision-making through data analytics. The purpose of this abstract is to present the latest advances in mathematical sciences and their application in harnessing the power of data analytics. This abstract highlights the interdisciplinary nature of data analytics, showcasing how mathematics intersects with statistics, computer science, and other related fields to develop cutting-edge methodologies. It explores key mathematical techniques such as optimization, mathematical modeling, network analysis, and computational algorithms that underpin effective data analysis and interpretation. The abstract emphasizes the role of mathematical sciences in addressing real-world challenges across different sectors, including finance, healthcare, engineering, social sciences, and beyond. It showcases how mathematical models and statistical methods extract meaningful insights from complex datasets, facilitating evidence-based decision-making and driving innovation. Furthermore, the abstract emphasizes the importance of collaboration and knowledge exchange among researchers, practitioners, and industry professionals. It recognizes the value of interdisciplinary collaborations and the need to bridge the gap between academia and industry to ensure the practical application of mathematical advancements in data analytics. The abstract highlights the significance of ongoing research in mathematical sciences and its impact on data analytics. It emphasizes the need for continued exploration and innovation in mathematical methodologies to tackle emerging challenges in the era of big data and digital transformation. In summary, this abstract sheds light on the advances in mathematical sciences and their pivotal role in unveiling the power of data analytics. It calls for interdisciplinary collaboration, knowledge exchange, and ongoing research to further unlock the potential of mathematical methodologies in addressing complex problems and driving data-driven decision-making in various domains.Keywords: mathematical sciences, data analytics, advances, unveiling
Procedia PDF Downloads 93420 Determination of Rare Earth Element Patterns in Uranium Matrix for Nuclear Forensics Application: Method Development for Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) Measurements
Authors: Bernadett Henn, Katalin Tálos, Éva Kováss Széles
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During the last 50 years, the worldwide permeation of the nuclear techniques induces several new problems in the environmental and in the human life. Nowadays, due to the increasing of the risk of terrorism worldwide, the potential occurrence of terrorist attacks using also weapon of mass destruction containing radioactive or nuclear materials as e.g. dirty bombs, is a real threat. For instance, the uranium pellets are one of the potential nuclear materials which are suitable for making special weapons. The nuclear forensics mainly focuses on the determination of the origin of the confiscated or found nuclear and other radioactive materials, which could be used for making any radioactive dispersive device. One of the most important signatures in nuclear forensics to find the origin of the material is the determination of the rare earth element patterns (REE) in the seized or found radioactive or nuclear samples. The concentration and the normalized pattern of the REE can be used as an evidence of uranium origin. The REE are the fourteen Lanthanides in addition scandium and yttrium what are mostly found together and really low concentration in uranium pellets. The problems of the REE determination using ICP-MS technique are the uranium matrix (high concentration of uranium) and the interferences among Lanthanides. In this work, our aim was to develop an effective chemical sample preparation process using extraction chromatography for separation the uranium matrix and the rare earth elements from each other following some publications can be found in the literature and modified them. Secondly, our purpose was the optimization of the ICP-MS measuring process for REE concentration. During method development, in the first step, a REE model solution was used in two different types of extraction chromatographic resins (LN® and TRU®) and different acidic media for environmental testing the Lanthanides separation. Uranium matrix was added to the model solution and was proved in the same conditions. Methods were tested and validated using REE UOC (uranium ore concentrate) reference materials. Samples were analyzed by sector field mass spectrometer (ICP-SFMS).Keywords: extraction chromatography, nuclear forensics, rare earth elements, uranium
Procedia PDF Downloads 308419 Proportional and Integral Controller-Based Direct Current Servo Motor Speed Characterization
Authors: Adel Salem Bahakeem, Ahmad Jamal, Mir Md. Maruf Morshed, Elwaleed Awad Khidir
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Direct Current (DC) servo motors, or simply DC motors, play an important role in many industrial applications such as manufacturing of plastics, precise positioning of the equipment, and operating computer-controlled systems where speed of feed control, maintaining the position, and ensuring to have a constantly desired output is very critical. These parameters can be controlled with the help of control systems such as the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller. The aim of the current work is to investigate the effects of Proportional (P) and Integral (I) controllers on the steady state and transient response of the DC motor. The controller gains are varied to observe their effects on the error, damping, and stability of the steady and transient motor response. The current investigation is conducted experimentally on a servo trainer CE 110 using analog PI controller CE 120 and theoretically using Simulink in MATLAB. Both experimental and theoretical work involves varying integral controller gain to obtain the response to a steady-state input, varying, individually, the proportional and integral controller gains to obtain the response to a step input function at a certain frequency, and theoretically obtaining the proportional and integral controller gains for desired values of damping ratio and response frequency. Results reveal that a proportional controller helps reduce the steady-state and transient error between the input signal and output response and makes the system more stable. In addition, it also speeds up the response of the system. On the other hand, the integral controller eliminates the error but tends to make the system unstable with induced oscillations and slow response to eliminate the error. From the current work, it is desired to achieve a stable response of the servo motor in terms of its angular velocity subjected to steady-state and transient input signals by utilizing the strengths of both P and I controllers.Keywords: DC servo motor, proportional controller, integral controller, controller gain optimization, Simulink
Procedia PDF Downloads 110418 Aerodynamic Optimization of Oblique Biplane by Using Supercritical Airfoil
Authors: Asma Abdullah, Awais Khan, Reem Al-Ghumlasi, Pritam Kumari, Yasir Nawaz
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Introduction: This study verified the potential applications of two Oblique Wing configurations that were initiated by the Germans Aerodynamicists during the WWII. Due to the end of the war, this project was not completed and in this research is targeting the revival of German Oblique biplane configuration. The research draws upon the use of two Oblique wings mounted on the top and bottom of the fuselage through a single pivot. The wings are capable of sweeping at different angles ranging from 0° at takeoff to 60° at cruising Altitude. The top wing, right half, behaves like a forward swept wing and the left half, behaves like a backward swept wing. Vice Versa applies to the lower wing. This opposite deflection of the top and lower wing cancel out the rotary moment created by each wing and the aircraft remains stable. Problem to better understand or solve: The purpose of this research is to investigate the potential of achieving improved aerodynamic performance and efficiency of flight at a wide range of sweep angles. This will help examine the most accurate value for the sweep angle at which the aircraft will possess both stability and better aerodynamics. Explaining the methods used: The Aircraft configuration is designed using Solidworks after which a series of Aerodynamic prediction are conducted, both in the subsonic and the supersonic flow regime. Computations are carried on Ansys Fluent. The results are then compared to theoretical and flight data of different Supersonic fighter aircraft of the same category (AD-1) and with the Wind tunnel testing model at subsonic speed. Results: At zero sweep angle, the aircraft has an excellent lift coefficient value with almost double that found for fighter jets. In acquiring of supersonic speed the sweep angle is increased to maximum 60 degrees depending on the mission profile. General findings: Oblique biplane can be the future fighter jet aircraft because of its high value performance in terms of aerodynamics, cost, structural design and weight.Keywords: biplane, oblique wing, sweep angle, supercritical airfoil
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