Search results for: cleaning mechanisms

Authors: Kyung Hwa Hong, Eunmi Koh

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Wool and cotton fabrics are pretreated by a tannic acid aqueous solution to increase their dyeability and then dyed by Purple-Fleshed Sweet Potato (PSP) extract. The dyed fabrics are then investigated by various analysis techniques. The results revealed that wool and cotton fabrics can be dyed bluish red through the pretreatment and dyeing process. Both wool and cotton fabrics only pretreated with tannic acid display decreased L* value but no significant changes in a* and b* values as the concentration of tannic acid increases. And, as expected, the pretreated fabrics are even darker and show a richer purple color after the dyeing process with the PSP extract. With regard to the colorfastness of wool and cotton fabrics dyed by PSP extract in cleaning circumstances, such as dry-cleaning (for wool) and washing (for cotton), the wool and cotton fabrics had a 4.0 and 4.0 grade of colorfastness to dry-cleaning and washing, respectively. However, they both exhibited significantly inferior colorfastness to light (grade of 1.5). Thus, it was found that there is still a need for improvement with regard to color fastness, particularly against light. On the other hand, the wool and cotton fabrics also showed antibacterial and antioxidant characteristics. In addition, both the wool and cotton fabrics showed potential antibacterial ability (>99%) against Staphylococcus aureus; however, they showed somewhat insufficient antibacterial ability (60.8% for wool and 94.8% for cotton) against Klebsiella pneumoniae. Also, their antioxidant abilities increased up to ca. 90% with an increase in the tannic acid concentration (up to 0.5%). However, after the dyeing process, the antibacterial and antioxidant ability tended to decrease. This is assumed to have occurred because functional moieties such as phenolic acids were detached from the pretreated fabrics into the hot water (the dyeing solution) during the dyeing process. Therefore, further study would be necessary to derive the optimum treatment and dyeing conditions so as to maximize the coloring effect and functionalities of the fabrics.

Keywords: antibacterial activity, antioxidant activity, purple-fleshed sweet potato, fabrics

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Authors: Debarun Dhar Purkayastha, Talinungsang

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SnO₂-TiO₂ nanocomposite thin films were prepared by the sol-gel method on borosilicate glass substrate. The films were annealed at a temperature of 300ᵒC, 400ᵒC, and 500ᵒC respectively for 2h in the air. The films obtained were further modified with stearic acid in order to decrease the surface energy. The X-ray diffraction patterns for the SnO₂-TiO₂ thin films after annealing at different temperatures can be indexed to the mixture of TiO₂ (rutile and anatase) and SnO₂ (tetragonal) phases. The average crystallite size calculated from Scherrer’s formula is found to be 6 nm. The SnO₂-TiO₂ thin films were hydrophilic which on modification with stearic acid exhibit superhydrophobic behavior. The increase in hydrophobicity of SnO₂ film with stearic acid modification is attributed to the change in surface energy of the film. The films exhibit superhydrophilic behavior under UV irradiation for 1h. Thus, it is observed that stearic acid modified surfaces are superhydrophobic but convert into superhydrophilic on being subjected to UV irradiation. SnO₂-TiO₂ thin films have potential for self-cleaning applications because of photoinduced hydrophilicity under UV irradiation.

Keywords: nanocomposite, self-cleaning, superhydrophobic, surface energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 156

Authors: F. Marchini, A. Caputo, J. Balonan, F. Fedele, A. Napoli, V. Langher

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Aim: The present study aims to explore the specific role of defense mechanisms in persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus in treatment adherence. Materials and methods: A correlational study design was employed. Thirty-two persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus were enrolled and assessed with Defense Mechanism Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory-II, Toronto Alexithymia Scale and Self-Care Inventory-Revised. Bivariate correlation and two-step regression analyses were performed. Results: Treatment adherence negatively correlates with hetero-directed hostility (r= -.537; p < .01), whereas it is positively associated with principalization (r= .407; p < .05). These two defense mechanisms overall explain an incremental variance of 26.9% in treatment adherence (ΔF=4.189, df1=2, df2 =21, p < .05), over and above the control variables for depression and alexithymia. However, only higher hetero-directed hostility is found to be a solid predictor of a decreased treatment adherence (β=-.497, p < .05). Conclusions: Despite providing preliminary results, this pilot study highlights the original contribution of defense mechanisms in adherence to type 2 diabetes regimens. Specifically, hetero-directed hostility may relate to an unconscious process, according to which disease-related painful feelings are displaced onto care relationships with negative impacts on adherence.

Keywords: alexithymia, defense mechanisms, treatment adherence, type 2 diabetes mellitus

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Authors: K. Bourouni, M. Chacha, T. Jaber, A. Tchantchane

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In Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) desalination evaporators, the scale deposit outside the tubes presents a barrier to heat transfers reducing the global heat transfer coefficient and causing a decrease in water production; hence a loss of efficiency and an increase in operating and maintenance costs. Scale removal (by acid cleaning) is the main maintenance operation and constitutes the major reason for periodic plant shutdowns. A better understanding of scale deposition mechanisms will lead to an accurate determination of the variation of scale thickness around the tubes and an improved accuracy of the overall heat transfer coefficient calculation. In this paper, a coupled heat transfer-calcium carbonate scale deposition model on a horizontal tube bundle is presented. The developed tool is used to determine precisely the heat transfer area leading to a significant cost reduction for a given water production capacity. Simulations are carried to investigate the influence of different parameters such as water salinity, temperature, etc. on the heat transfer.

Keywords: multi-effect-evaporator, scale deposition, water desalination, heat transfer coefficient

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Authors: Ahmad N. Abu-Baker

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This study investigated the corrosion of a group of heritage silver-copper alloy coins and their conservation treatment by potentiostatic methods. The corrosion products of the coins were characterized by a combination of scanning electron microscopy/ energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses. Cathodic polarization curves, measured by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), also identified the corrosion products and the working conditions to treat the coins using a potentiostatic reduction method, which was monitored by chronoamperometry. The corrosion products showed that the decay mechanisms were dominated by selective attack on the copper-rich phases of the silver-copper alloys, which is consistent with an internal galvanic corrosion phenomenon, which leads to the deposition of copper corrosion products on the surface of the coins. Silver chloride was also detected on the coins, which reflects selective corrosion of the silver-rich phases under different chemical environments. The potentiostatic treatment showed excellent effectiveness in determining treatment parameters and monitoring the reduction process of the corrosion products on the coins, which helped to preserve surface details in the cleaning process and to prevent over-treatment.

Keywords: silver alloys, corrosion, conservation, heritage

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Authors: A. A. Hassani, M. Nasri Nasrabadi

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According to population growth and increasing water needs of industrial and agricultural sections and lack of existing water sources, also increases of wastewater and new wastewater treatment plant construction’s high costs, it is inevitable to reuse wastewater with the approach of increasing wastewater treatment capacity and output sewage quality. In this regard, the first sewage reuse plan in industrial uses was designed with the approach of qualitative and quantitative improvement due to the increased organic load of the output sewage of Qom Shokohieh city’s’ in wastewater treatment plant. This research investigated qualitative factors COD, BOD, TSS, TDS, and input and output heavy metal of MBR-RO system and ability of increase wastewater acceptance capacity by existing in wastewater treatment plant. For this purpose, experimental results of seven-month navigation system have been used from 07/01/2013 to 02/01/2014. Existing data analysis showed that MBR system is able to remove 93.2% COD, 94.4% BOD, 13.8% TDS, 98% heavy metals and RO system is able to remove 98.9% TDS. This study showed that MBR-RO integration system is able to increase the capacity of refinery by 30%.

Keywords: industrial wastewater, wastewater reuse, MBR, RO

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Authors: G. Farkas, K. Mathis, J. Pilch, P. Minarik

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Deformation mechanisms in an Mg-Al-Ca alloy reinforced with short alumina fibres were studied by acoustic emission and in-situ neutron diffraction method. The fibres plane orientation with respect to the loading axis was found to be a key parameter, which influences the acting deformation processes, such as twinning or dislocation slip. In-situ neutron diffraction tests were measured at different temperatures from room temperature (RT) to 200°C. The measurement shows the lattice strain changes in the matrix and also in the reinforcement phase depending on macroscopic compressive deformation and stress. In case of parallel fibre plane orientation, the increment of compressive lattice strain is lower in the matrix and higher in the fibres in comparison to perpendicular fibre orientation. Furthermore, acoustic emission results indicate a larger twinning activity and more frequent fibre cracking in sample with perpendicular fibre plane orientation. Both types of mechanisms are more dominant at elevated temperatures.

Keywords: neutron diffraction, acoustic emission, magnesium based composite, deformation mechanisms

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Authors: Emiel Caron

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Patent databases contain patent related data, organized in a relational data model, and are used to produce various patent statistics. These databases store raw data about scientific references cited by patents. For example, Patstat holds references to tens of millions of scientific journal publications and conference proceedings. These references might be used to connect patent databases with bibliographic databases, e.g. to study to the relation between science, technology, and innovation in various domains. Problematic in such studies is the low data quality of the references, i.e. they are often ambiguous, unstructured, and incomplete. Moreover, a complete bibliographic reference is stored in only one attribute. Therefore, a computerized cleaning and disambiguation method for large patent databases is developed in this work. The method uses rule-based scoring and clustering. The rules are based on bibliographic metadata, retrieved from the raw data by regular expressions, and are transparent and adaptable. The rules in combination with string similarity measures are used to detect pairs of records that are potential duplicates. Due to the scoring, different rules can be combined, to join scientific references, i.e. the rules reinforce each other. The scores are based on expert knowledge and initial method evaluation. After the scoring, pairs of scientific references that are above a certain threshold, are clustered by means of single-linkage clustering algorithm to form connected components. The method is designed to disambiguate all the scientific references in the Patstat database. The performance evaluation of the clustering method, on a large golden set with highly cited papers, shows on average a 99% precision and a 95% recall. The method is therefore accurate but careful, i.e. it weighs precision over recall. Consequently, separate clusters of high precision are sometimes formed, when there is not enough evidence for connecting scientific references, e.g. in the case of missing year and journal information for a reference. The clusters produced by the method can be used to directly link the Patstat database with bibliographic databases as the Web of Science or Scopus.

Keywords: clustering, data cleaning, data disambiguation, data mining, patent analysis, scientometrics

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Authors: Stanislav Perepechko

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Industrial companies - one of the major sources of harmful substances to the atmosphere. The main cause of pollution on the concrete plants are cement dust emissions. All the cement silos, pneumatic transport, and ventilation systems equipped with filters, to avoid this. Today, many Russian companies have to decide on replacement morally and physically outdated filters and guided back to the electrostatic filters as usual equipment. The offered way of a cleaning of waste-free filtering of air differs in the fact that a filtering medium of the filter is used in concrete manufacture. Basalt is widespread and pollution-free material. In the course of cleaning, one part of basalt fiber and cement immediately goes to the mixer through flow-control units of initial basalt fiber and cement. Another part of basalt fiber goes to filters for purification of the air used in systems of an air lift, and ventilating emissions passes through them, and with trapped particles also goes to the mixer through flow-control units of the basalt fiber fulfilled in filters. At the same time, regulators are adjusted in such a way that total supply of basalt fiber and cement into the mixer remains invariable and corresponds to a given technological mode.

Keywords: waste-free air filtration, concrete, basalt fiber, building automation

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Authors: Smriti Gour, Neelam Pandey

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The objective of this study was to describe and analyse the mutual relationship between the coping mechanisms used by the families of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and family dynamics and the effect sibling interactions have on the dynamics and coping mechanisms in an urban setup. In-depth interviews were conducted for 25 families, with 4 members each in the Delhi NCR area in India. The families who were interviewed had a younger child who had received a diagnosis of ASD between the ages of 5-12. The in-depth questionnaires contained open-ended questions and the interviews were conducted separately for the mother, father and the typically developing sibling. The key findings of the study suggested that lack of communication was a common factor in most families (n=19) leading to other difficulties like stress and relationship dysfunction. It also fostered a fallacious perception of the relationship dynamics in the family in most of the interviewed families and changed depending on the family member being interviewed. In families where the typically developing elder sibling had a good relationship with the autistic child, the family dynamics were found to be more stable, and the overall family well-being was better maintained. The coping mechanisms employed by the families were also more positive and tended to work better if the typically developing sibling maintained a positive and interactive relationship with the parents and the autistic child. The type of coping mechanisms had a major impact on the relationship between the parents and in dictating the dynamics of the family of the child with ASD. Spirituality, professional help, family support and household help emerged to be the most effective coping mechanisms for the families, with spirituality emerging to be the most positive and effective coping mechanism in the families interviewed.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, coping mechanism, family dynamics, parental relationships, siblings

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Authors: Z. Liu, K. Cao

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Strategic spatial planning, which is taken as an effective and competitive way for the governors of the city to improve the development and management level of a city, has been blooming in recent years all over the world. In the context of globalization and informatization, strategic spatial planning must transfer its focus on three different levels: global, regional and urban. Internal and external changes in environmental conditions lead to new advances in strategic planning both theoretically and practically. However, such advances or changes respond differently to cities on account of different dynamic mechanisms. This article aims at two cities of Tianjin in China and Melbourne in Australia, through a comparative study on strategic planning, to explore the differentiation of mechanisms in urban planning making. By comparison and exploration, the purpose of this article is to exhibit two different planning worlds between western and Chinese in a new way nowadays.

Keywords: differentiation, Tianjin China, Melbourne Australia, strategic planning

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Authors: Thales Maluf, Nazem Nascimento

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The development of society relies heavily on the total amount of energy obtained and its consumption. Over the years, there has been an advancement on energy attainment, which is directly related to some natural resources and developing systems. Some of these resources should be highlighted for its remarkable presence in world´s energy grid, such as water, petroleum, and gas, while others deserve attention for representing an alternative to diversify the energy grid, like geothermal sources. Therefore, because all these resources can be extracted from the underground, drilling wells is a mandatory activity in terms of exploration, and it involves a previous geological study and an adequate preparation. It also involves a cleaning process and an extraction process that can be executed by different procedures. For that reason, this research aims the enhancement of exploration processes through a comparative analysis of drilling costs and techniques used to produce them. The analysis itself is based on a bibliographical review based on books, scientific papers, schoolwork and mainly explore drilling methods and technologies, equipment used, well measurements, extraction methods, and production costs. Besides techniques and costs regarding the drilling processes, some properties and general characteristics of these sources are also compared. Preliminary studies show that there are some major differences regarding the exploration processes, mostly because these resources are naturally distinct. Water wells, for instance, have hundreds of meters of length because water is stored close to the surface, while oil, gas, and geothermal production wells can reach thousands of meters, which make them more expensive to be drilled. The drilling methods present some general similarities especially regarding the main mechanism of perforation, but since water is a resource stored closer to the surface than the other ones, there is a wider variety of methods. Water wells can be drilled by rotary mechanisms, percussion mechanisms, rotary-percussion mechanisms, and some other simpler methods. Oil and gas production wells, on the other hand, require rotary or rotary-percussion drilling with a proper structure called drill rig and resistant materials for the drill bits and the other components, mostly because they´re stored in sedimentary basins that can be located thousands of meters under the ground. Geothermal production wells also require rotary or rotary-percussion drilling and require the existence of an injection well and an extraction well. The exploration efficiency also depends on the permeability of the soil, and that is why it has been developed the Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Throughout this review study, it can be verified that the analysis of the extraction processes of energy resources is essential since these resources are responsible for society development. Furthermore, the comparative analysis of costs and well drilling techniques for water, geothermal energy, oil, and gas production, which is the main goal of this research, can enable the growth of energy generation field through the emergence of ideas that improve the efficiency of energy generation processes.

Keywords: drilling, water, oil, Gas, geothermal energy

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Authors: Sihao Lin

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Objectives: Infrared thermography (IRT) has been little documented in the objective measurement of ergonomic exposure. We aimed to examine the association between different ergonomic exposures and low back skin temperature measured by IRT. Methods: A total of 114 subjects among sedentary students, sports students and cleaning workers were selected as different ergonomic exposure levels. Low back skin temperature was measured by infrared thermography before and post ergonomic exposure. Ergonomic exposure was assessed by Quick Exposure Check (QEC) and quantitative scores were calculated on the low back. Multiple regressions were constructed to examine the possible associations between ergonomic risk exposures and the skin temperature over the low back. Results: Compared to the two student groups, clean workers had significantly higher ergonomic exposure scores on the low back. The low back temperature variations were different among the three groups. The temperature decreased significantly among students with ergonomic exposure (P < 0.01), while it increased among cleaning workers. With adjustment of confounding, the post-exposure temperature and the temperature changes after exposure showed a significantly negative association with ergonomic exposure scores. For maximum temperature, one increasing ergonomic score decreased -0.23◦C (95% CI -0.37, -0.10) of temperature after ergonomic exposure over the low back. Conclusion: There was a significant association between ergonomic exposures and infrared thermal temperature over low back. IRT could be used as an objective assessment of ergonomic exposure on the low back.

Keywords: ergonomic exposure, infrared thermography, musculoskeletal disorders, skin temperature, low back

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Authors: Bahram Soltani, Louai Ghazieh

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The responsibility has a big importance further to the financial crisis and the various pressures, which companies face their duties. The main objective of this study is to explain the variation of mechanisms of the responsibility of the manager in the company among the advanced capitalist economies. Then we study the impact of these mechanisms on the performance and the value creation in European companies. To reach our goal, we established a final sample composed on average of 284 French, British and German companies quoted in stock exchanges with 2272 annual reports examined during the period from 2005 to 2012. We examined at first the link of causalities between the determining-mechanisms bound to the company such as the characteristics of the board of directors, the composition of the shareholding and the ethics of the company on one side and the profitability of the company on the other side. The results show that the smooth running of the board of directors and its specialist committees are very important determinants of the responsibility of the managers who impact positively the performance and the value creation in the company. Furthermore, our results confirm that the presence of a solid ethical environment within the company will be effective to increase the probability that the managers realize ethical choices in the organizational decision-making. At the second time, we studied the impact of the determining mechanisms bound to the function and to the profile of manager to know its relational links, his remuneration, his training, his age and his experiences about the performance and the value creation in the company. Our results highlight the existence of a negative relation between the relational links of the manager, his very high remuneration and the general profitability of the company. This study is a contribution to the literature on the determining mechanisms of company director's responsibility (Accountability). It establishes an empirical and comparative analysis between three influential countries of Europe, to know France, the United Kingdom and Germany.

Keywords: leaders, company’s performance, accountability mechanisms, corporate governance, value creation of firm, financial crisis

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Authors: Abdulaziz F. Ettir, Ghait Bashir, Tarek S. Duzan

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A proper well planning is very vital to achieve any successful drilling program on the basis of preventing, overcome all drilling problems and minimize cost operations. Since the hydraulic system plays an active role during the drilling operations, that will lead to accelerate the drilling effort and lower the overall well cost. Likewise, an improperly designed hydraulic system can slow drill rate, fail to clean the hole of cuttings, and cause kicks. In most cases, common sense and commercially available computer programs are the only elements required to design the hydraulic system. Drilling optimization is the logical process of analyzing effects and interactions of drilling variables through applied drilling and hydraulic equations and mathematical modeling to achieve maximum drilling efficiency with minimize drilling cost. In this paper, practical software adopted in this paper to define drilling optimization models including four different optimum keys, namely Opti-flow, Opti-clean, Opti-slip and Opti-nozzle that can help to achieve high drilling efficiency with lower cost. The used data in this research from vertical and horizontal wells were recently drilled in Waha Oil Company fields. The input data are: Formation type, Geopressures, Hole Geometry, Bottom hole assembly and Mud reghology. Upon data analysis, all the results from wells show that the proposed program provides a high accuracy than that proposed from the company in terms of hole cleaning efficiency, and cost break down if we consider that the actual data as a reference base for all wells. Finally, it is recommended to use the established Optimization calculations software at drilling design to achieve correct drilling parameters that can provide high drilling efficiency, borehole cleaning and all other hydraulic parameters which assist to minimize hole problems and control drilling operation costs.

Keywords: optimum keys, namely opti-flow, opti-clean, opti-slip and opti-nozzle

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Authors: Mennatallah M. Fouad, Omar Hussein, Lamia A. Shihata

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The main problem in many rural areas is the absence of electricity and limited access to water. The novelty of this work lies in implementing a small-scale experimental setup for a solar-powered water pumping system with a battery back-up system. Cooling and cleaning of the PV panel are implemented to enhance its overall efficiency and output. Moreover, a simulation for a large scale solar-powered pumping system is performed using PVSyst software. Results of the experimental setup show that the PV system with a battery backup proved to be a feasible and viable system to operate the water pumping system. Excess water from the pumping system is used to cool and clean the PV panel and achieved an average percentage increase in the PV output by 21.8%. Simulation results have shown that the system provides adequate output to power the solar-powered system and saves 0.3 tons of CO₂ compared to conventional fossil fuels. It is recommended for hot countries to adopt this system, which would help in decreasing the dependence on the depleting fossil fuels, provide access to electricity to areas where there is no electricity supply and also provide a source of water for crop growth as well as decrease the carbon emissions.

Keywords: efficient solar pumping, PV cleaning, PV cooling, PV-operated water pump

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Authors: Vigen Arakelian

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The balancing of mechanisms is a well-known problem in the field of mechanical engineering because the variable dynamic loads cause vibrations, as well as noise, wear and fatigue of the machines. A mechanical system with unbalance shaking force and shaking moment transmits substantial vibration to the frame. Therefore, the objective of the balancing is to cancel or reduce the variable dynamic reactions transmitted to the frame. The resolution of this problem consists in the balancing of the shaking force and shaking moment. It can be fully or partially, by internal mass redistribution via adding counterweights or by modification of the mechanism's architecture via adding auxiliary structures. The balancing problems are of continue interest to researchers. Several laboratories around the world are very active in this area and new results are published regularly. However, despite its ancient history, mechanism balancing theory continues to be developed and new approaches and solutions are constantly being reported. Various surveys have been published that disclose particularities of balancing methods. The author believes that this is an appropriate moment to present a state of the art of the shaking force balancing studies completed by new research results. This paper presents an overview of methods devoted to the shaking force balancing of mechanisms, as well as the historical aspects of the origins and the evolution of the balancing theory of mechanisms.

Keywords: inertial forces, shaking forces, balancing, dynamics, mechanism design

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Authors: Emhemed Shaklawoon, Ibrahim Althomali

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We propose that we identify different defense mechanisms that were used before the introduction of the cloud and compare if their protection mechanisms are still valuable and to what degree. Note that in order to defend against vulnerability, we must know how this vulnerability is abused in an attack. Only then, we will be able to recognize if it is easier or harder to defend against cyber attacks.

Keywords: cloud computing, privacy, cyber attacks, defend the cloud

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Authors: Mahmoud Huleihil

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In this study, the performance of a thermodynamic gas cycle of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) power generation is considered and presented in terms of power efficiency curves. The dissipation mechanisms considered include: fluid friction modeled by means of the isentropic efficiency of the compressor, heat transfer leakage directly from the hot reservoir to the cold heat reservoir, and constant velocity of the MHD generator. The study demonstrates that power and efficiency vanish at the extremes of both slow and fast operating conditions. These points are demonstrated on power efficiency curves and the locus of efficiency at maximum power and the locus of maximum efficiency. Qualitatively, the considered loss mechanisms have a similar effect on the efficiency at maximum power operation and on maximum efficiency operation, thus these efficiencies are reduced, even for small values of the loss mechanisms.

Keywords: magnetohydrodynamic generator, electrical efficiency, maximum power, maximum efficiency, heat engine

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Authors: Peli̇n Yilmaz, Gi̇zemnur Yildiz Uysal, Emi̇ne Bi̇rci̇, Berk Özcan, Burak Koca, Ehsan Tuzcuoğlu, Fati̇h Kasap

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Development of Energy Efficient Programs (EEP) is one of the most significant trends in the wet appliance industry of the recent years. Thanks to the EEP, the energy consumption of a washing machine as one of the most energy-consuming home appliances can shrink considerably, while its washing performance and the textile hygiene should remain almost unchanged. Here in, the goal of the present study is to achieve an optimum EEP algorithm providing excellent textile hygiene results as well as cleaning performance in a domestic washing machine. In this regard, steam-pretreated cold wash approach with a combination of innovative algorithm solution in a relatively short washing cycle duration was implemented. For the parametric study, steam exposure time, washing load, total water consumption, main-washing time, and spinning rpm as the significant parameters affecting the textile hygiene and cleaning performance were investigated within a Design of Experiment study using Minitab 2021 statistical program. For the textile hygiene studies, specific loads containing the contaminated cotton carriers with Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria were washed. Then, the microbial removal performance of the designed programs was expressed as log reduction calculated as a difference of microbial count per ml of the liquids in which the cotton carriers before and after washing. For the cleaning performance studies, tests were carried out with various types of detergents and EMPA Standard Stain Strip. According to the results, the optimum EEP program provided an excellent hygiene performance of more than 2 log reduction of microorganism and a perfect Washing Efficiency Index (Iw) of 1.035, which is greater than the value specified by EU ecodesign regulation 2019/2023.

Keywords: washing machine, energy efficient programs, hygiene, washing efficiency index, microorganism, escherichia coli, staphylococcus aureus, pseudomonas aeruginosa, laundry

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Authors: Zhao Liu, Kang Cao

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Strategic spatial planning, which is taken as an effective and competitive way for the governors of the city to improve the development and management level of a city, has been blooming in recent years all over the world. In the context of globalization and informatization, strategic spatial planning must transfer its focus on three different levels: global, regional and urban. Internal and external changes in environmental conditions lead to new advances in strategic planning both theoretically and practically. However, such advances or changes respond differently to cities on account of different dynamic mechanisms. This article aims at two cities of Tianjin in China and Melbourne in Australia, through a comparative study on strategic planning, to explore the differentiation of mechanisms in urban planning. By comparison and exploration, the purpose of this article is to exhibit two different planning worlds, western and Chinese, in a new way. The article can be divided into four parts. The first part outlines strategic planning transformations in the new era on three levels, generally analysing the internal and external environmental factors of today. The second part indicates the concepts of strategic planning theoretically, demonstrating briefly its development background and process in western and China, respectively. The third part takes Tianjin and Melbourne urban strategic spatial planning as examples to mainly carry on the contrast research from the aspects of strategic planning mode, competitive mechanism, contents, strategy implementation and management. It is expected to summarize the differences and similarities of the two plans, meanwhile, to explore the inherent factors or mechanisms probably spatial, material, political and etc., which affect cities in the course of urban planning. The final part is a summary of general mechanisms of planning from the perspective of strategic spatial planning.

Keywords: differentiation, strategic planning, Melbourne, Australia, Tianjin, China

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Authors: Bruno Mazorra Roig

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In the realm of cost-sharing mechanisms, the vulnerability to Sybil strategies, where agents can create fake identities to manipulate outcomes, has not yet been studied. In this paper, we delve into the intricacies of different cost-sharing mechanisms proposed in the literature, highlighting its non-Sybil-resistance nature. Furthermore, we prove that under mild conditions, a Sybil-proof cost-sharing mechanism for public excludable goods is at least (n/2 + 1)−approximate. This finding reveals an exponential increase in the worst-case social cost in environments where agents are restricted from using Sybil strategies. We introduce the concept of Sybil Welfare Invariant mechanisms, where a mechanism maintains its worst-case welfare under Sybil strategies for every set of prior beliefs with full support even when the mechanism is not Sybil-proof. Finally, we prove that the Shapley value mechanism for public excludable goods holds this property and so deduce that the worst-case social cost of this mechanism is the nth harmonic number Hn under the equilibrium of the game with Sybil strategies, matching the worst-case social cost bound for cost-sharing mechanisms. This finding carries important implications for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), indicating that they are capable of funding public excludable goods efficiently, even when the total number of agents is unknown.

Keywords: game theory, mechanism design, cost sharing, false-name proofness

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Authors: C. Guven, M. Tufekci, E. Bayik, O. Gedik, M. Tas

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A sliding door system is used in commercial vehicles and passenger cars to allow a larger unobstructed access to the interior for loading and unloading. The movement of a sliding door on vehicle body is ensured by mechanisms and tracks having special cross-section which is manufactured by roll forming and stretch bending process. There are three tracks and three mechanisms which are called upper, central and lower on a sliding door system. There are static requirements as strength on different directions, rigidity for mechanisms, and door drop off, door sag; dynamic requirements as high energy slam opening-closing and durability requirement to validate these products. In addition, there is a kinematic requirement to find out force values from door handle during manual operating. In this study, finite element analysis and physical test results which are realized for sliding door systems will be shared comparatively.

Keywords: finite element analysis, sliding door, experimental, verification, vehicle tests

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Authors: Faisal Islam, J. Ramkumar

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The applications of composite materials in aerospace, sporting and automotive industries need high quality machined surfaces and dimensional accuracy. Some studies have been done to understand the fiber failure mechanisms encountered during milling machining of CFRP composites but none are capable of explaining the exact nature of the orientation-based fiber failure mechanisms encountered in the milling machining process. The objective of this work is to gain a better understanding of the orientation-based fiber failure mechanisms occurring on the slot edges during CFRP milling machining processes. The occurrence of damage is predicted by a schematic explanation based on the mechanisms of material removal which in turn depends upon fiber cutting angles. A geometric model based on fiber cutting angle and fiber orientation angle is proposed that defines the critical and safe zone during machining and predicts the occurrence of delamination. Milling machining experiments were performed on composite samples of varying fiber orientations to verify the proposed theory. Mean fiber pulled out length was measured from the microscopic images of the damaged area to quantify the amount of damage produced. By observing the damage occurring for different fiber orientation angles and fiber cutting angles for up-milling and down-milling edges and correlating it with the material removal mechanisms as described earlier, it can be concluded that the damage/delamination mainly depends on the portion of the fiber cutting angles that lies within the critical cutting angle zone.

Keywords: unidirectional composites, milling, machining damage, delamination, carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs)

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Authors: Hyvee Gean Cabuso, Arvin Taruc, Danielle Villanueva, Channela Anais Hipolito, Jia Bianca Alfonso

Abstract:

Introduction: Denture adhesive aids to provide additional retention, support and comfort for patients with loose dentures, as well as for patients who seek to achieve optimal denture adhesion. But due to its growing popularity, arising oral health issues should be considered, including its possible impact that may alter the microbiological condition of the denture. Changes as such may further resolve to denture-related oral diseases that can affect the day-to-day lives of patients. Purpose: The study aims to assess and compare the microbiological status of dentures without adhesives versus dentures when adhesives were applied. The study also intends to identify the presence of specific microorganisms, their colony concentration and their possible effects on the oral microflora. This study also aims to educate subjects by introducing an alternative denture cleaning method as well as denture and oral health care. Methodology: Edentulous subjects age 50-80 years old, both physically and medically fit, were selected to participate. Before obtaining samples for the study, the alternative cleaning method was introduced by demonstrating a step-by-step cleaning process. Samples were obtained by swabbing the intaglio surface of their upper and lower prosthesis. These swabs were placed in a thioglycollate broth, which served as a transport and enrichment medium. The swabs were then processed through bacterial culture. The colony-forming units (CFUs) were calculated on MacConkey Agar Plate (MAP) and Blood Agar Plate (BAP) in order to identify and assess the microbiological status, including species identification and microbial counting. Result: Upon evaluation and analysis of collected data, the microbiological assessment of the upper dentures with adhesives showed little to no difference compared to dentures without adhesives, but for the lower dentures, (P=0.005), which is less than α = 0.05; therefore, the researchers reject (Ho) and that there is a significant difference between the mean ranks of the lower denture without adhesive to those with, implying that there is a significant decrease in the bacterial count. Conclusion: These results findings may implicate the possibility that the addition of denture adhesives may contribute to the significant decrease of microbial colonization on the dentures.

Keywords: denture, denture adhesive, denture-related, microbiological assessment

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Authors: Gladie Lui

Abstract:

The global credit crisis of 2008 aroused renewed interest in the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanisms to safeguard investor interests. In this paper, we measure the effect of the crisis from 2008 to 2009 on the stock performance of 976 Hong Kong-listed companies and examine its link to corporate governance mechanisms. It is evident that the crisis and the economic downturn affected different industries. Empirical results show that firms with an independent board and a high concentration of ownership and management ownership had lower abnormal stock returns, but a lower price volatility during the global financial crisis. These results highlight that no single corporate governance mechanism is fit for all types of financial crises and time frames. To strengthen investors’ confidence in the ability of companies to deal with such swift financial catastrophes, companies should enhance the dynamism and responsiveness of their governance mechanisms in times of turbulence.

Keywords: board of directors, capital market, corporate governance, financial crisis

Procedia PDF Downloads 405

Authors: Rongbo Shen, Jianhua Yao, Kezhou Yan, Kuan Tian, Cheng Jiang, Ke Zhou

Abstract:

This study proposes a generative adversarial networks (GAN) framework to perform synthetic sampling in feature space, i.e., feature augmentation, to address the class imbalance problem in medical image analysis. A feature extraction network is first trained to convert images into feature space. Then the GAN framework incorporates adversarial learning to train a feature generator for the minority class through playing a minimax game with a discriminator. The feature generator then generates features for minority class from arbitrary latent distributions to balance the data between the majority class and the minority class. Additionally, a data cleaning technique, i.e., Tomek link, is employed to clean up undesirable conflicting features introduced from the feature augmentation and thus establish well-defined class clusters for the training. The experiment section evaluates the proposed method on two medical image analysis tasks, i.e., mass classification on mammogram and cancer metastasis classification on histopathological images. Experimental results suggest that the proposed method obtains superior or comparable performance over the state-of-the-art counterparts. Compared to all counterparts, our proposed method improves more than 1.5 percentage of accuracy.

Keywords: class imbalance, synthetic sampling, feature augmentation, generative adversarial networks, data cleaning

Procedia PDF Downloads 102

Authors: Roohollah Jamshidpour, Elaheh Ahmadi, Farhad Shah Veisi

Abstract:

Present research seeks to answer this question: Is there any relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and decision on corporate investments? Percentages of institutional, board of director’s, and stockholder’s ownership are among internal mechanisms of corporate governance relationship of which with investment-based decisions are studied by this research. Information on 103 companies during 1388 (2009)- 1393 (2014). Initially, research variables are identified; next, Rah Avard-e Novin software is used to gather Information. SPSS software is employed to test hypotheses with respect to descriptive and inferential statistics like correlation analysis. Research results show that percentage of institutional stockholders’ ownership has a significant direct relationship with investment decisions. For other cases, no significant relationship is observed between corporate governance mechanisms and investment decisions.

Keywords: corporate governance, company size, free floating stock, institutional investors, major shareholders

Procedia PDF Downloads 261

Authors: Lucie Cote, Isabelle Rodier

Abstract:

The main objective of the research was to identify demonstrated mechanisms promoting psychological well-being and psychological health in the workplace, and to take a critical look at the 'National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace - Prevention, Promotion and Guidance to Staged Implementation (Standard)' as a mechanism to promote the psychological well-being and psychological health in the workplace. A review of the scientific literature was conducted, and a case study was done using data from a Canadian federal department. The following six mechanisms with an efficiency supported by most of the studies reviewed were identified: improving psychological well-being in the workplace literacy; strengthening the resilience of employees; creating an environmentally friendly and healthy workplace; promoting a healthy lifestyle; taking into account psychological characteristics in the drafting of job descriptions and tasks during the hiring process; and offering psychological self-care tools. The Standard offers several mechanisms beyond those previously identified and their implementation can be demanding. Research based on objective data and addressing the magnitude of the effect would be required.

Keywords: critical review, national standard of Canada, psychological health, workplace

Procedia PDF Downloads 203

Authors: Emil Ghiocel Ioanid, Viorica Frunză, Dorina Rusu, Ana Maria Vlad, Catalin Tanase, Simona Dunca

Abstract:

The application of cold radio-frequency (RF) plasma in the conservation of cultural heritage became important in the last decades due to the positive results obtained in decontamination treatments. This paper presents an equipment especially designed for RF cold plasma application on paper documents, developed within a research project. The equipment allows the application of decontamination and cleaning treatments on any type of paper support, as well as the coating with a protective polymer. The equipment consists in a Pyrex vessel, inside which are placed two plane-parallel electrodes, capacitively coupled to a radio-frequency generator. The operating parameters of the equipment are: 1.2 MHz frequency, 50V/cm electric field intensity, current intensity in the discharge 100 mA, 40 W power in the discharge, the pressure varying from 5∙10-1 mbar to 5.5∙10-1 mbar, depending on the fragility of the material, operating in gaseous nitrogen. In order to optimize the equipment treatments in nitrogen plasma have been performed on samples infested with microorganisms, then the decontamination and the changes in surface properties (color, pH) were assessed. The analyses results presented in the table revealed only minor modifications of surface pH the colorimetric analysis showing a slight change to yellow. The equipment offers the possibility of performing decontamination, cleaning and protective coating of paper-based documents in successive stages, thus avoiding the recontamination with harmful biological agents.

Keywords: nitrogen plasma, cultural heritage, paper support, radio-frequency

Procedia PDF Downloads 500