Search results for: performance and emission testing

Authors: Ikram Hussain, Fuzail Ahmad, Tawseef Ahmad Bhat

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Tennis serve is characterized as one of the most prominent techniques pertaining to the success of winning a point. The study was aimed to explore the contributions of the upper body kinematics on the tennis performance during Davis Cup (Oceania Group). Four Indian International tennis players who participated in the Davis Cup held at Indore, India were inducted as the subjects for this study, with mean age 27 ± 4.79 Years, mean weight 186 ± 6.03 cm, mean weight 81.25 ± 7.41kg, respectively. The tennis serve was bifurcated into three phases viz, preparatory phase, force generation phase and follow through phase. The kinematic data for the study was recorded through the high speed canon camcorder having a shuttle speed of 1/2000, at a frame rate of 50 Hz. The data was analysed with the motion analysis software. The descriptive statistics and F-test was employed through SPSS version 17.0 for the determination of the undertaken kinematic parameters of the study, and was computed at a 0.05 level of significance with 46 degrees of freedom. Mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficient also employed to find out the relationship among the upper body kinematic parameter and performance. In the preparatory phase, the analysis revealed that no significant difference exists among the kinematic parameters of the players on the performance. However, in force generation phase, wrist velocity (r= 0.47), torso velocity (r= -0.53), racket velocity r= 0.60), and in follow through phase, torso acceleration r= 0.43), elbow angle (r= -0.48) play a significant role on the performance of the tennis serve. Therefore, players should ponder upon the velocities of the above segments at the time of preparation for the competitions.

Keywords: Davis Cup, kinematics, motion analysis, tennis serve

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Authors: Kathleen Moyer, Nora Ait Boucherbil, Murtaza Zohair, Janna Eaves-Rathert, Cary Pint

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This study demonstrates the significance of interface engineering in the field of structural energy by being the first case where the performance of the system with the structural battery is greater than the performance of the same system with a battery separate from the system. The benefits of improving the interface in the structural battery were tested by creating carbon fiber composite batteries (and independent graphite electrodes and lithium iron phosphate electrodes) with and without an improved interface. Mechanical data on the structural batteries were collected using tensile tests and electrochemical data was collected using scanning electron microscopy equipment. The full-cell lithium-ion structural batteries had capacity retention of over 80% exceeding 100 cycles with an average energy density of 52 W h kg−1 and a maximum energy density of 58 W h kg−1. Most scientific developments in the field of structural energy have been done with supercapacitors. Most scientific developments with structural batteries have been done where batteries are simply incorporated into the structural element. That method has limited advantages and can create mechanical disadvantages. This study aims to show that a large improvement in structure energy research can be made by improving the interface between the structural device and the battery.

Keywords: composite materials, electrochemical performance, mechanical properties, polymer interface, structural batteries

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Authors: Fouad. Inel, Lakhdar. Khochemane

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This article presents a comparative response specification performance between two controllers of three and four cable based robots for various applications. The main objective of this work is: The first is to use the direct and inverse geometric model to study and simulate the end effector position of the robot with three and four cables. A graphical user interface has been implemented in order to visualizing the position of the robot. Secondly, we present the determination of static and dynamic tensions and lengths of cables required to flow different trajectories. At the end, we study the response of our systems in closed loop with a Proportional-Integrated Derivative (PID) and Proportional-Integrated (PD) controllers then this last are compared the results of the same examples using MATLAB/Simulink; we found that the PID method gives the better performance, such as rapidly speed response, settling time, compared to PD controller.

Keywords: parallel cable-based robots, geometric modeling, dynamic modeling, graphical user interface, open loop, PID/PD controllers

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Authors: Victoria Siriaki Jorry, I. S. Mbalawata, Hayong Shin

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The main objective in a change detection problem is to develop algorithms for efficient detection of gradual and/or abrupt changes in the parameter distribution of a process or time series data. In this paper, we present a modified cumulative (MCUSUM) algorithm to detect the start and end of a time-varying linear drift in mean value of a time series data based on likelihood ratio test procedure. The design, implementation and performance of the proposed algorithm for a linear drift detection is evaluated and compared to the existing CUSUM algorithm using different performance measures. An approach to accurately approximate the threshold of the MCUSUM is also provided. Performance of the MCUSUM for gradual change-point detection is compared to that of standard cumulative sum (CUSUM) control chart designed for abrupt shift detection using Monte Carlo Simulations. In terms of the expected time for detection, the MCUSUM procedure is found to have a better performance than a standard CUSUM chart for detection of the gradual change in mean. The algorithm is then applied and tested to a randomly generated time series data with a gradual linear trend in mean to demonstrate its usefulness.

Keywords: average run length, CUSUM control chart, gradual change detection, likelihood ratio test

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Authors: S. Alrekabi, A. Cundy, A. Lampropoulos, I. Savina

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Due to their remarkable mechanical properties, multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are considered by many researchers to be a highly promising filler and reinforcement agent for enhanced performance cementitious materials. Currently, however, achieving an effective dispersion of MWCNTs remains a major challenge in developing high performance nano-cementitious composites, since carbon nanotubes tend to form large agglomerates and bundles as a consequence of Van der Waals forces. In this study, effective dispersion of low concentrations of MWCNTs at 0.01%, 0.025%, and 0.05% by weight of cement in the composite was achieved by applying different sonication conditions in combination with the use of polycarboxylate ether as a surfactant. UV-Visible spectroscopy and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to assess the dispersion of MWCNTs in water, while the dispersion states of MWCNTs within the cement composites and their surface interactions were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A high sonication intensity applied over a short time period significantly enhanced the dispersion of MWCNTs at initial mixing stages, and 0.025% of MWCNTs wt. of cement, caused 86% and 27% improvement in tensile strength and compressive strength respectively, compared with a plain cement mortar.

Keywords: dispersion, mechanical performance, multi wall carbon nanotubes, sonication conditions

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Authors: Jameson McFarlane, Thorne J. McFarlane, Leon Bernard

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Social network sites (SNS) is an emerging phenomenon that is here to stay. The popularity and the ubiquity of the SNS technology are undeniable. Because most SNS are free and easy to use people from all walks of life and from almost any age are attracted to that technology. College age students are by far the largest segment of the population using SNS. Since most SNS have been adapted for mobile devices, not only do you find students using this technology in their study, while working on labs or on projects, a substantial number of students have been found to use SNS even while listening to lectures. This study found that SNS use has a significant negative impact on the grade point average of college students particularly in the first semester. However, this negative impact is greatly diminished by the end of the third semester partly because the students have adjusted satisfactorily to the challenges of college or because they have learned how to adequately manage their time. It was established that the kinds of activities the students are engaged in during the SNS use are the leading factor affecting academic performance. Of those activities, using SNS during a lecture or while studying is the foremost contributing factor to lower academic performance. This is due to “cognitive” or “information” bottleneck, a condition in which the students find it very difficult to multitask or to switch between resources leading to inefficiency in information retention and thus, educational performance.

Keywords: social network sites, social network analysis, regression coefficient, psychological engagement

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Authors: Oladipo Jimoh Ayanda, Fashagba Mathew Olasehinde

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Pension is a post retirement benefit paid to employees after retirement to cushion the effects of severance from monthly emoluments. It serves the dual purpose of providing financial succour to retired employees as well as motivating employees currently in service to greater performance on duty. However, the scheme, as operated in Nigeria, is prone to some pitfalls such as delayed and irregular payments, inadequate budgetary provisions, employee sufferings and deaths arising from the rigors of verification exercises, among others. This necessitated the replacement of the old scheme with the contributory pension scheme through an enabling law in 2004. The implementation of the new scheme has its own challenges especially in connection with administration. These challenges pose a fundamental problem of establishing a nexus between pension benefits and work performance which represent the focus of the study. The study objectives were to: determine the effect of contributory pension scheme on employees’ performance. The study population consisted of National Universities Commission recognized public and private universities in the South West Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling method involving stratified sampling and systematic sampling was used in selecting 359 respondents while data were collected through questionnaire administration. The procedure for analyzing the data included descriptive statistic, normal distribution test and cross-tabulation (gamma coefficient). The findings of the study showed that the existence of the scheme positively enhances employees’ performance as indicated by normal distribution test with Z-score (10.169) which is greater than the table value (1.96) at 0.05 level. The study concluded that the scope for enhancing employee current job performance can be quite elastic if future retirement benefits are guaranteed through proper and efficient administration and management of the contributory pension scheme. The study recommended that certain factors such as employers’ commitment which account for different levels of confidence between public and private universities should be looked into in order to improve confidence across board while the provisions of the scheme as they affect the PFAs should be properly monitored to ensure compliance.

Keywords: pension, retirement, performance, employees, benefit

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Authors: Mohamadreza Hatefi, Malihe Hadadnezhad

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It is well established that jump-landing-related biomechanical deficiencies, such as dynamic knee valgus (DKV), can be improved by using various forms of feedback; However, the effectiveness of these interventions synchronously on athletes' jumping performance remains unknown. Twenty-one recreational athletes with DKV performed countermovement jump (CMJ) and drop vertical jump (DVJ) tasks before and after feedback intervention while the kinematic, force plate and electromyography data of the lower extremity were synchronously captured. The athletes’ jumping performance was calculated by using the reactive strength index-modified (RSIₘₒ𝒹). The athletes at the post-intervention exhibited significantly less hip adduction and more tibial internal rotation during both CMJ and DVJ tasks and maximum knee flexion just during DVJ task. Moreover, athletes exhibited increased time to take-off and consequently decreased RSIₘₒ𝒹 during DVJ task, but no difference was observed in CMJ task. Feedback immediately improved DKV without disturbing the athletes’ jumping height during both tasks, But athletes exhibited increased time to take-off and consequently decreased RSIₘₒ𝒹 only during DVJ task, which suggests that the results may differ according to the nature of jumping task. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of landing-related biomechanical deficiencies improvement on athletes' jumping performance must be investigated in the long-term as a new movement pattern.

Keywords: reactive strength index, feedback, biomechanics, dynamic knee valgus

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Authors: V. Suganya, V. Balasuriya

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The functioning of Micro and Small Scale (MSS) businesses in the northern part of Sri Lanka was vulnerable due to three decades of internal conflict and the subsequent post-war economic openings has resulted new market prospects for MSS businesses. MSS businesses survive and operate with limited resources and struggle to access finance, raw material, markets, and technology. This study attempts to identify the manner in which entrepreneurial orientation puts into practice by the business operators to overcome these business challenges. Business operators in the traditional food processing sector are taken for this study as this sub-sector of the food industry is developing at a rapid pace. A review of the literature was done to recognize the concepts of entrepreneurial orientation, defining MMS businesses and the manner in which business performance is measured. Direct interview method supported by a structured questionnaire is used to collect data from 80 respondents; based on a fixed interval random sampling technique. This study reveals that more than half of the business operators have opted to commence their business ventures as a result of identifying a market opportunity. 41 per cent of the business operators are highly entrepreneurial oriented in a scale of 1 to 5. Entrepreneurial orientation shows significant relationship and strongly correlated with business performance. Pro-activeness, innovativeness and competitive aggressiveness shows a significant relationship with business performance while risk taking is negative and autonomy is not significantly related to business performance. It is evident that entrepreneurial oriented business practices contribute to better business performance even though 70 per cent prefer the ideas/views of the support agencies than the stakeholders when making business decisions. It is recommended that appropriate training should be introduced to develop entrepreneurial skills focusing to improve business networks so that new business opportunities and innovative business practices are identified.

Keywords: Micro and Small Scale (MMS) businesses, entrepreneurial orientation (EO), food processing, business operators

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Authors: El Ghazi Safae, Cherkaoui Mounia

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Within companies, emotions have been forgotten as key elements of successful management systems. Seen as factors which disturb judgment, make reckless acts or affect negatively decision-making. Since management systems were influenced by the Taylorist worker image, that made the work regular and plain, and considered employees as executing machines. However, recently, in globalized economy characterized by a variety of uncertainties, emotions are proved as useful elements, even necessary, to attend high-level management. The work of Elton Mayo and Kurt Lewin reveals the importance of emotions. Since then emotions start to attract considerable attention. These studies have shown that emotions influence, directly or indirectly, many organization processes. For example, the quality of interpersonal relationships, job satisfaction, absenteeism, stress, leadership, performance and team commitment. Emotions became fundamental and indispensable to individual yield and so on to management efficiency. The idea that a person potential is associated to Intellectual Intelligence, measured by the IQ as the main factor of social, professional and even sentimental success, was the main problematic that need to be questioned. The literature on emotional intelligence has made clear that success at work does not only depend on intellectual intelligence but also other factors. Several researches investigating emotional intelligence impact on performance showed that emotionally intelligent managers perform more, attain remarkable results, able to achieve organizational objectives, impact the mood of their subordinates and create a friendly work environment. An improvement in the emotional intelligence of managers is therefore linked to the professional development of the organization and not only to the personal development of the manager. In this context, it would be interesting to question the importance of emotional intelligence. Does it impact organizational performance? What is the importance of emotional intelligence and how it impacts organizational performance? The literature highlighted that measurement and conceptualization of emotional intelligence are difficult to define. Efforts to measure emotional intelligence have identified three models that are more prominent: the mixed model, the ability model, and the trait model. The first is considered as cognitive skill, the second relates to the mixing of emotional skills with personality-related aspects and the latter is intertwined with personality traits. But, despite strong claims about the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace, few studies have empirically examined the impact of emotional intelligence on organizational performance, because even though the concept of performance is at the heart of all evaluation processes of companies and organizations, we observe that performance remains a multidimensional concept and many authors insist about the vagueness that surrounds the concept. Given the above, this article provides an overview of the researches related to emotional intelligence, particularly focusing on studies that investigated the impact of emotional intelligence on organizational performance to contribute to the emotional intelligence literature and highlight its importance and show how it impacts companies’ performance.

Keywords: emotions, performance, intelligence, firms

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Authors: R. Yuan, S. Sivasankaran, N. Dutta, K. Ebrahimi

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This paper investigates the software capability and computer-aided engineering (CAE) method of modelling transient heat transfer process occurred in the vehicle underhood region during vehicle thermal soak phase. The heat retention from the soak period will be beneficial to the cold start with reduced friction loss for the second 14°C worldwide harmonized light-duty vehicle test procedure (WLTP) cycle, therefore provides benefits on both CO₂ emission reduction and fuel economy. When vehicle undergoes soak stage, the airflow and the associated convective heat transfer around and inside the engine bay is driven by the buoyancy effect. This effect along with thermal radiation and conduction are the key factors to the thermal simulation of the engine bay to obtain the accurate fluids and metal temperature cool-down trajectories and to predict the temperatures at the end of the soak period. Method development has been investigated in this study on a light-duty passenger vehicle using coupled aerodynamic-heat transfer thermal transient modelling method for the full vehicle under 9 hours of thermal soak. The 3D underhood flow dynamics were solved inherently transient by the Lattice-Boltzmann Method (LBM) method using the PowerFlow software. This was further coupled with heat transfer modelling using the PowerTHERM software provided by Exa Corporation. The particle-based LBM method was capable of accurately handling extremely complicated transient flow behavior on complex surface geometries. The detailed thermal modelling, including heat conduction, radiation, and buoyancy-driven heat convection, were integrated solved by PowerTHERM. The 9 hours cool-down period was simulated and compared with the vehicle testing data of the key fluid (coolant, oil) and metal temperatures. The developed CAE method was able to predict the cool-down behaviour of the key fluids and components in agreement with the experimental data and also visualised the air leakage paths and thermal retention around the engine bay. The cool-down trajectories of the key components obtained for the 9 hours thermal soak period provide vital information and a basis for the further development of reduced-order modelling studies in future work. This allows a fast-running model to be developed and be further imbedded with the holistic study of vehicle energy modelling and thermal management. It is also found that the buoyancy effect plays an important part at the first stage of the 9 hours soak and the flow development during this stage is vital to accurately predict the heat transfer coefficients for the heat retention modelling. The developed method has demonstrated the software integration for simulating buoyancy-driven heat transfer in a vehicle underhood region during thermal soak with satisfying accuracy and efficient computing time. The CAE method developed will allow integration of the design of engine encapsulations for improving fuel consumption and reducing CO₂ emissions in a timely and robust manner, aiding the development of low-carbon transport technologies.

Keywords: ATCT/WLTC driving cycle, buoyancy-driven heat transfer, CAE method, heat retention, underhood modeling, vehicle thermal soak

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Authors: Assaad Ghazouani, Ati Abdessatar

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In the world, agriculture maintains a social and economic importance in the national economy. Its importance is distinguished by its ripple effects not only downstream but also upstream vis-à-vis the non-agricultural sector. However, the situation is relatively fragile because of weather conditions. In this work, we propose a model to highlight the impacts of climate change (CC) on economic growth in the world where agriculture is considered as a strategic sector. The CC is supposed to directly and indirectly affect economic growth by reducing the performance of the agricultural sector. The model is tested for Tunisia. The results validate the hypothesis that the potential economic damage of the CC is important. Indeed, an increase in CO2 concentration (temperatures and disruption of rainfall patterns) will have an impact on global economic growth particularly by reducing the performance of the agricultural sector. Analysis from a vector error correction model also highlights the magnitude of climate impact on the performance of the agricultural sector and its repercussions on economic growth

Keywords: Climate Change, Agriculture, Economic Growth, World, VECM, Cointegration.

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Authors: Boris Blostotsky, Elia Efraim

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Testing of columns in sway mode is performed in order to determine the maximal allowable load limited by plastic deformations or their end connections and a critical load limited by columns stability. Motivation to determine accurate value of critical force is caused by its using as follow: - critical load is maximal allowable load for given column configuration and can be used as criterion of perfection; - it is used in calculation prescribed by standards for design of structural elements under combined action of compression and bending; - it is used for verification of theoretical analysis of stability at various end conditions of columns. In the present work a new non-destructive method for determination of columns critical buckling load in sway mode is proposed. The method allows performing measurements during the tests under loads that exceeds the columns critical load without losing its stability. The possibility of such loading is achieved by structure of the loading system. The system is performed as frame with rigid girder, one of the columns is the tested column and the other is additional two-hinged strut. Loading of the frame is carried out by the flexible traction element attached to the girder. The load applied on the tested column can achieve a values that exceed the critical load by choice of parameters of the traction element and the additional strut. The system lateral stiffness and the column critical load are obtained by the dynamic method. The experiment planning and the comparison between the experimental and theoretical values were performed based on the developed dependency of lateral stiffness of the system on vertical load, taking into account a semi-rigid connections of the column's ends. The agreement between the obtained results was established. The method can be used for testing of real full-size columns in industrial conditions.

Keywords: buckling, columns, dynamic method, semi-rigid connections, sway mode

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Authors: Qian Mao, Xiaozan Wang, Jiarong Zhong, Xiaolin Zou

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Introduction: As a result of the decline of students' physical health level and the increase of study pressure, students’ academic performance is not so good. Objective: This study aims to verify whether the Brain-Break intervention in the fourth-grade classroom of primary school can improve students' physical health and academic performance. Methods: According to the principle of no difference in pre-test data, students from two classes of grade four in Fuhai Road Primary School, Fushan district, Yantai city, Shandong province, were selected as experimental subjects, including 50 students in the experimental class (25 males and 25 females) and 50 students in the control class (24 males and 26 females). The content of the experiment was that the students were asked to perform a 4-minute Brain-Berak program designed by the researcher in the second class in the morning and the afternoon, and the intervention lasted for 12 weeks. In addition, the lung capacity, 50-meter run, sitting body forward bend, one-minute jumping rope and one-minute sit-ups stipulated in the national standards for physical fitness of students (revised in 2014) were selected as the indicators of physical health. The scores of Chinese, Mathematics, and English in the unified academic test of the municipal education bureau were selected as the indicators of academic performance. The independent-sample t-test was used to compare and analyze the data of each index between the two classes. The paired-sample t-test was used to compare and analyze the data of each index in the two classes. This paper presents only results with significant differences. Results: in terms of physical health, lung capacity (P=0.002, T= -2.254), one-minute rope skipping (P=0.000, T=3.043), and one-minute sit-ups (P=0.045, T=6.153) were significantly different between the experimental class and the control class. In terms of academic performance, there is a significant difference between the Chinese performance of the experimental class and the control class (P=0.009, T=4.833). Conclusion: Adding Brain-Berak intervention in the classroom can effectively improve the cardiorespiratory endurance (lung capacity), coordination (jumping rope), and abdominal strength (sit-ups) of fourth-grade students. At the same time, it can also effectively improve their Chinese performance. Therefore, it is suggested to promote micro-sports in the classroom of primary schools throughout the country so as to help students improve their physical health and academic performance.

Keywords: academic performance, brain break, fourth grade, physical health

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Authors: F. Demir, A. S. Kipcak, O. Dere Ozdemir, E. M. Derun, S. Piskin

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Fruit juices play important roles in human health as being a key part of nutrition.Juice and nectar are two categories of drinks with so many variations for consumers, regardless of age, lifestyle and taste preferences, which they can find their favorites. Juices contain 100% pulp when pulp content of ‘nectar’ changes between 25%-50%. In this study, potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), and phosphorus (P) contents in orange juice and nectar is determined for conscious consumption. For this purpose inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) is used to find out potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), and phosphorus (P) contents in orange juices and nectar. Furthermore, the daily intake of elements from orange juice and nectar that affects human health is also investigated. From the results of experiments K, Mg and P contents are found in orange juice as 1351; 73,25; 89,27 ppm and in orange nectar as 986; 33,76; 51,30 respectively.

Keywords: element, health, ICP-OES, orange juice

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Authors: Patricia Chinyere Oranefo

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This study examined the effect of sustainability accounting disclosure on financial performance of listed Brewery firms in Nigeria. The dearth of empirical evidence and literature on “governance disclosure” as one of the explanatory variables of sustainability accounting reporting were the major motivation for this study. The main objective was to ascertain the effect of sustainability accounting disclosure on financial performance of listed Brewery firms in Nigeria. An ex–post facto research design approach was adopted for the study. The population of this study comprises of five (5) Brewery firms quoted on the floor of the Nigeria exchange group (NSX) and the sample size of four (4) listed firms was drawn using purposive sampling method. Secondary data were carefully sourced from the financial statement/annual reports and sustainability reports from 2012 to 2021 of the Brewery firms quoted on the Nigeria exchange group (NSX). Panel regression analysis by aid of E-views 10.0 software was used to test for statistical significance of the effect of sustainability accounting disclosure on financial performance of listed Brewery firms in Nigeria. The results showed that economic sustainability disclosure indexes do not significantly affect return on asset of listed Brewery firms in Nigeria. The findings further revealed that environmental sustainability disclosure indexes do not significantly affect return on equity of listed Brewery firms in Nigeria. More so, results showed that Social Sustainability disclosure indexes significantly affect Net Profit Margin of listed Brewery firms in Nigeria. Finally, the result established also that governance sustainability disclosure indexes do not significantly affect Earnings per share of listed Brewery firms in Nigeria. Consequent upon the findings, this study recommended among others; that managers of Brewers in Nigeria should improve and sustain full disclosure practices on economic, environmental, social and governance disclosures following the guidelines of the Global Reporting Index (GRI) as they are capable of exerting significant effect on financial performance of firms in Nigeria.

Keywords: sustainability, accounting, disclosure, financial performance

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Authors: Nhi Ngoc Thien

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Franchising is a popular trend in Vietnam retail industry, especially in fast food industry. Several famous foreign fast food brands such as KFC, Lotteria, Jollibee or Pizza Hut invested on this potential market since the 1990s. Following this trend, in 2011, Burger King - the second largest fast food hamburger chain all over the world - entered Vietnam with its first store located in Tan Son Nhat International Airport, with the expectation to become the leading brand in the country. However, the business performance of Burger King was not going well in the first few years making it questioned about its strategy. The given assumption was that its business performance was affected negatively by its store location selection strategy. This research aims to investigate the current performance of Burger King Vietnam in terms of the controllable variables like store location as well as to explore the key factors influencing customer decision to choose Burger King. Therefore, a case study research method was conducted to approach deeply on the opinions and evaluations of 10 Burger King’s customers, Burger King's staffs and other fast food experts on Burger King’s performance through in-depth interview, direct observation and documentary analysis. Findings show that there are 8 determinants affecting the decision-making of Burger King’s customers, which are store location, quality of food, service quality, store atmosphere, price, promotion, menu and brand reputation. Moreover, findings present that Burger King’s staffs and fast food experts also mentioned the main problems of Burger King, which are about store location and food quality. As a result, there are some recommendations for Burger King Vietnam to improve its performance in the market and attract more Vietnamese target customers by giving suitable promotional activities among its customers and being differentiated itself from other fast food brands.

Keywords: overall retail strategy, controllable variables, store location, quality of food

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Authors: S. M. Ahuja

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There are about 12000 stone crusher units in India and are located in clusters around urban areas to the stone quarries. These crushers create lot of fugitive dust emissions and noise pollution which is a major health hazard for the people working in the crushers and also living in its vicinity. Ambient air monitoring was carried out near various stone crushers and it has been observed that fugitive emission varied from 300 to 8000 mg/Nm3. A number of stone crushers were thoroughly studied and their existing pollution control devices were examined. Limitations in the existing technology were also studied. A technology consisting of minimal effective spray nozzles to reduce the emissions at source followed by a containment cum control system having modular cyclones as air pollution control device has been conceived. Besides preliminary energy audit has also been carried out in some of the stone crushers which indicates substantial potential for energy saving.

Keywords: stone crushers, spray nozzles, energy audit

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Authors: Mathodzi Nditsheni, Olawole Emmanuel Aina, Joshua Oluwole Olowoyo

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The ever-increasing world population is putting extreme pressure on the already limited agricultural resources for food production. Different soil enhancers were introduced by famers to meet the need of the ever-increasing population demand for food. One of the soil enhancers is the municipal waste sludge. This research investigated the differences in the concentrations of trace metals and levels of phytochemicals in four different tomato varieties cultivated on soil treated with municipal waste sludge in Pretoria, South Africa. Fruits were harvested at maturity and analyzed for trace metals and phytochemicals contents using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) and a High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) respectively. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the differences in the concentrations of trace metals and phytochemical from different tomato varieties were significant. From the study, Rodade tomato bioaccumulated the highest concentrations of Mn, Cr, Cu and Ni, Roma bioaccumulated the highest concentrations of, Cd, Fe and Pb while Heinz bioaccumulated the highest concentrations of As and Zn. Cherry tomato on the other hand, recorded the lowest concentrations for most metals, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn. The results of the study further showed that phenolic and flavonoids content were higher in the Solanum lycopersicum fruit grown in soils treated with municipal waste sludge. The study also showed that there was an inverse relationship between the levels of trace metals and phytochemicals. The calculated contamination factor values of trace metals like Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn were above the safe value of 1 which indicated that the tomato fruits may be unsafe for human consumption. However, the contamination factor values for the remaining trace metals were well below the safe value of 1. From the results obtained either for the control group or the treatment, the tomato varieties used in the study, bioaccumulated the toxic trace metals in their fruits and some of the values obtained were higher than the acceptable limit, which may then imply that the varieties of tomato used in this study bio accumulated the toxic trace metals from the soil, hence care should be taken when these tomato varieties are either cultivated or harvested from polluted areas

Keywords: trace metals, flavonoids, phenolics, waste sludge, tomato, contamination factors

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Authors: Jai Prakash Prasad, Suresh Chandra Mohan

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Modern wireless sensor networks (WSN) consist of small size, low cost devices which are networked through tight wireless communications. WSN fundamentally offers cooperation, coordination among sensor networks. Potential applications of wireless sensor networks are in healthcare, natural disaster prediction, data security, environmental monitoring, home appliances, entertainment etc. The design, development and deployment of WSN based on application requirements. The WSN design performance is optimized to improve network lifetime. The sensor node resources constrain such as energy and bandwidth imposes the limitation on efficient resource utilization and sensor node management. The proposed N-Tier GRID routing protocol focuses on the design of energy efficient large scale wireless sensor network for improved performance than the existing protocol.

Keywords: energy efficient, network lifetime, sensor networks, wireless communication

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Authors: A. Khosrozadeh, M. A. Darabi, M. Xing, Q. Wang

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Fabrication of a high-performance supercapacitor (SC) using a flexible cellulose-based composite film of polyaniline (PANI), reduced graphene oxide (RGO), and silver nanowires (AgNWs) is reported. The flexibility, high capacitive behaviour, and cyclic stability of the entire device make it a good candidate for wearable SCs. The results show that a capacitance as high as 73.4 F/g (1.6 F/cm2) at a discharge rate of 1.1 A/g is achieved by the device. In addition, the SC demonstrates a power density up to 468.8 W/kg and an energy density up to 5.1 wh/kg. The flexibility of the composite film is attributed to the binding effect of cellulose fibers as well as reinforcing effect of AgNWs. The excellent electrochemical performance of the device is found to be owing to the synergistic effect between PANI/RGO/AgNWs ternary in a cushiony cellulose matrix and porous structure of the composite.

Keywords: cellulose, polyaniline, reduced graphene oxide, silver, super capacitor

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Authors: K. Kouzi

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In order to have stable and high performance of direct torque and flux control (DTFC) of double star induction motor drive (DSIM), proper on-line adaptation of the stator resistance is very important. This is inevitably due to the variation of the stator resistance during operating conditions, which introduces error in estimated flux position and the magnitude of the stator flux. Error in the estimated stator flux deteriorates the performance of the DTFC drive. Also, the effect of error in estimation is very important especially at low speed. Due to this, our aim is to overcome the sensitivity of the DTFC to the stator resistance variation by proposing on-line fuzzy estimation stator resistance. The fuzzy estimation method is based on an on-line stator resistance correction through the variations of the stator current estimation error and its variations. The fuzzy logic controller gives the future stator resistance increment at the output. The main advantage of the suggested algorithm control is to avoid the drive instability that may occur in certain situations and ensure the tracking of the actual stator resistance. The validity of the technique and the improvement of the whole system performance are proved by the results.

Keywords: direct torque control, dual stator induction motor, Fuzzy Logic estimation, stator resistance adaptation

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Authors: Mustapha El Mataouy, Abellatif Aaliti, Mouhamed Khaddor

Abstract:

Erbium actived silica-hafnia planar waveguides have been prepared by sol-gel route. The films were deposited on vitreous silica substrates using dip-coating technique. The parameters of preparation have been chosen to optimize the waveguides for operation in the near infrared (NIR) region, and to increase the luminescence efficiency of the metastable 4I13/2 state of Erbium ions. The waveguides properties were determined by m-lines spectroscopy, loss measurements. Waveguide Raman and luminescence spectroscopy were used to obtain information about the structure of the prepared films and about the dynamical process related to the emission in the C telecom band (1530nm-1565nm) of the Erbium ions. The results are discussed with the aim of comparing the structural and optical properties of Erbium activated silica-hafnia planar waveguides with different molar ratio of Si / Hf.

Keywords: erbium, optical amplifiers, silica-hafnia, sol-gel, waveguide

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Authors: Robert J. Thomas, Colton Bedke, Andrew Sorensen

Abstract:

The exemplary mechanical performance and durability of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) has led to its rapid emergence as an advanced cementitious material. The uncharacteristically high mechanical strength and ductility of UHPC makes it a promising potential material for defense structures which may be subject to highly dynamic loads like impact or blast. However, the mechanical response of UHPC under dynamic loading has not been fully characterized. In particular, there is a need to characterize the energy absorption of UHPC under high-frequency shear loading. This paper presents preliminary results from a parametric study of the dynamic shear energy absorption of UHPC using the Charpy impact test. UHPC mixtures with compressive strengths in the range of 100-150 MPa exhibited dynamic shear energy absorption in the range of 0.9-1.5 kJ/m. Energy absorption is shown to be sensitive to the water/cement ratio, silica fume content, and aggregate gradation. Energy absorption was weakly correlated to compressive strength. Results are highly sensitive to specimen preparation methods, and there is a demonstrated need for a standardized test method for high frequency shear in cementitious composites.

Keywords: Charpy impact test, dynamic shear, impact loading, ultra-high performance concrete

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Authors: Qiuyi Lyu, Bin Gong

Abstract:

Breadth-First Search(BFS) is a core graph algorithm that is widely used for graph analysis. As it is frequently used in many graph applications, improve the BFS performance is essential. In this paper, we present a graph ordering method that could reorder the graph nodes to achieve better data locality, thus, improving the BFS performance. Our method is based on an observation that the sibling relationships will dominate the cache access pattern during the BFS traversal. Therefore, we propose a frequency-based model to construct the graph order. First, we optimize the graph order according to the nodes’ visit frequency. Nodes with high visit frequency will be processed in priority. Second, we try to maximize the child nodes overlap layer by layer. As it is proved to be NP-hard, we propose a heuristic method that could greatly reduce the preprocessing overheads. We conduct extensive experiments on 16 real-world datasets. The result shows that our method could achieve comparable performance with the state-of-the-art methods while the graph ordering overheads are only about 1/15.

Keywords: breadth-first search, BFS, graph ordering, graph algorithm

Procedia PDF Downloads 137

Authors: Kuei-Yu Chien, Hsiu-Yu Chiu, Chia-Nan Chen, Shu-Chen Chen

Abstract:

Background: Frailty is associated with decreased physical performances that affect mobility of the elderly. Time up and go test (TUG) was the common method to evaluate mobility in the community. The purpose of this study was to compare the parameters in different stages of Time up and go test (TUG) and physical performance between pre-frail elderly (PFE) and non-frail elderly (NFE). We also investigated the relationship between TUG parameters and physical performance. Methods: Ninety-two community-dwelling older adults were as participants in this study. Based on Canadian Study of Health and Aging Clinical Frailty Scale, 22 older adults were classified as PFE (71.77 ± 6.05 yrs.) and 70 were classified as NFE (71.2 ± 5.02 yrs.). We performed body composition and physical performance, including balance, muscular strength/endurance, mobility, cardiorespiratory endurance, and flexibility. Results: Pre-frail elderly took significantly longer time than NFE in TUG test (p=.004). Pre-frail elderly had lower turning average angular velocity (p = .017), turning peak angular velocity (p = .041) and turning-stand to sit peak angular velocity (p = .037) than NFE. The turning related parameters related to open-eye stand on right foot, 30-second chair stand test, back scratch, and 2-min step tests. Conclusions: Turning average angular velocity, turning peak angular velocity and turning-stand to sit peak angular velocity mainly affected the TUG performance. We suggested that static/dynamic balance, agility, flexibility, and muscle strengthening of lower limbs exercise were important to PFE.

Keywords: mobility, aglity, active ageing, functional fitness

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Authors: Sarah Jorjani, Afshin Ghelichi, Mazyar Kamali

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to estimate the effect of addition of ginger and red pepper and their mixture in diet on growth performance, survival rate and body composition of Astronotus ocellatus (Oscar fish). This study had been carried out for 8 weeks. For this reason 132 oscar fishes with intial weight of 2.44±0.26 (gr) were divided into 4 treatments with three replicate as compeletly randomize design test and fed by 100% Biomar diet (T1), Biomar + red pepper (55 mg/kg) (T2), Biomar + ginger (1%) (T3) and Biomar + mixture of red pepper and ginger (T4).The fish were fed in 5% of their body weight. The results showed T2 have significant differences in most of growth parameters in compare with other treatments, such as PBWI, SGR, PER and SR (P < 0.05), but there were no significant differences between treatments in FCR and FE (P > 0.05).

Keywords: red pepper, ginger, oscar fish, growth performance, body composition

Procedia PDF Downloads 419

Authors: W. Ait Ahmed, M. Aggour, M. Naciri

Abstract:

Extracting energy from biomass is an important alternative to produce different types of energy (heat, electricity, or both) assuring low pollution and better efficiency. It is a new yet reliable approach to reduce green gas emission by extracting methane from industry effluents and use it to power machinery. We focused in our project on using paper and mill effluents, treated in a UASB reactor. The methane produced is used in the factory’s power supply. The aim of this work is to develop an electronic system using Arduino platform connected to a gas sensor, to measure and display the curve of daily methane production on processing. The sensor will send the gas values in ppm to the Arduino board so that the later sends the RS232 hardware protocol. The code developed with processing will transform the values into a curve and display it on the computer screen.

Keywords: biogas, Arduino, processing, code, methane, gas sensor, program

Procedia PDF Downloads 319

Authors: Tabti Lahouaria, Kahlouche Salem, Benadda Belkacem, Beldjilali Bilal

Abstract:

The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) provides an augmentation signal to GPS (Global Positioning System) single point positioning. Presently EGNOS provides data correction and integrity information using the GPS L1 (1575.42 MHz) frequency band. The main objective of this system is to provide a better real-time positioning precision than using GPS only. They are expected to be used with single-frequency code observations. EGNOS offers navigation performance for an open service (OS), in terms of precision and availability this performance gradually degrades as moving away from the service area. For accurate system performance, the service will become less and less available as the user moves away from the EGNOS service. The improvement in position solution is investigated using the two collocated dual frequency GPS, where no EGNOS Ranging and Integrity Monitoring Station (RIMS) exists. One of the pseudo-range was kept as GPS stand-alone and the other was corrected by EGNOS to estimate the planimetric and altimetric precision for different dates. It is found that precision in position improved significantly in the second due to EGNOS correction. The performance of EGNOS system in the north of Algeria is also investigated in terms of integrity. The results show that the horizontal protection level (HPL) value is below 18.25 meters (95%) and the vertical protection level (VPL) is below 42.22 meters (95 %). These results represent good integrity information transmitted by EGNOS for APV I service. This service is thus compliant with the aviation requirements for Approaches with Vertical Guidance (APV-I), which is characterised by 40 m HAL (horizontal alarm limit) and 50 m VAL (vertical alarm limit).

Keywords: EGNOS, GPS, positioning, integrity, protection level

Procedia PDF Downloads 222

Authors: Helena M. Wilhelm, Paulo O. Fernandes, Laís P. Dill, Kethlyn G. Moscon

Abstract:

The use of vegetable oil (or natural ester) as an insulating fluid in electrical transformers is a trend that aims to contribute to environmental preservation since it is biodegradable and non-toxic. Besides, vegetable oil has high flash and combustion points, being considered a fire safety fluid. However, vegetable oil is usually less stable towards oxidation than mineral oil. Both insulating fluids, mineral and vegetable oils, need to be tested periodically according to specific standards. Oxidation stability can be determined by the induction period measured by conductivity method (Rancimat) by monitoring the effectivity of oil’s antioxidant additives, a methodology already developed for food application and biodiesel but still not standardized for insulating fluids. Besides adequate oxidation stability, fluids must be compatible with transformer's construction materials under normal operating conditions to ensure that damage to the oil and parts of the transformer does not occur. ASTM standard and Brazilian normative differ in parameters evaluated, which reveals the need to regulate tests for each oil type. The aim of this study was to assess oxidation stability and compatibility of vegetable oils to suggest the best way to assure a viable performance of vegetable oil as transformer insulating fluid. The determination of the induction period for several vegetable insulating oils from the local market by using Rancimat was carried out according to BS EN 14112 standard, at different temperatures (110, 120, and 130 °C). Also, the compatibility of vegetable oil was assessed according to ASTM and ABNT NBR standards. The main results showed that the best temperature for use in the Rancimat test is 130 °C, which allows a better observation of conductivity change. The compatibility test results presented differences between vegetable and mineral oil standards that should be taken into account in oil testing since materials compatibility and oxidation stability are essential for equipment reliability.

Keywords: compatibility, Rancimat, natural ester, vegetable oil

Procedia PDF Downloads 208