Search results for: international production networks

Authors: Fardin Boustani

Abstract:

The Kowsar dam supply water for different usages such as drinking, industrial, agricultural and aquaculture farms usages and located next to the city of Dehdashat in Kohgiluye and Boyerahmad province in southern Iran. There are some towns and villages on the Kowsar dam watersheds, which Dehdasht and Choram are the most important and populated cities in this area. The study was undertaken to assess the status of water quality in the urban areas of the Kowsar dam. A total of 28 water samples were collected from 6 stations on surface water and 1 station from groundwater on the watershed of the Kowsar dam. All the samples were analyzed for Cd concentration using standard procedures. The results were compared with other national and international standards. Among the analyzed samples, as the maximum value of cadmium (1.131 μg/L) was observed on the station 2 at the winter 2009, all the samples analyzed were within the maximum admissible limits by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, EU, WHO, New Zealand , Australian, Iranian, and the Indian standards. In general results of the present study have shown that Cd mean values of stations No. 4, 1 and 2 with 0.5135, 0.0.4733 and 0.4573 μg/L respectively are higher than the other stations . Although Cd level of all samples and stations have had normal values but this is an indication of pollution potential and hazards because of human activity and waste water of towns in the areas, which can effect on human health implications in future. This research, therefore, recommends the government and other responsible authorities to take suitable improving measures in the Kowsar dam watershed-s.

Keywords: Kowsar dam, Drinking water quality, Cadmium, Maximum admissible limit, World health organization,

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Authors: Sangsuree Vasupongayya

Abstract:

Fair share is one of the scheduling objectives supported on many production systems. However, fair share has been shown to cause performance problems for some users, especially the users with difficult jobs. This work is focusing on extending goaloriented parallel computer job scheduling policies to cover the fair share objective. Goal-oriented parallel computer job scheduling policies have been shown to achieve good scheduling performances when conflicting objectives are required. Goal-oriented policies achieve such good performance by using anytime combinatorial search techniques to find a good compromised schedule within a time limit. The experimental results show that the proposed goal-oriented parallel computer job scheduling policy (namely Tradeofffs( Tw:avgX)) achieves good scheduling performances and also provides good fair share performance.

Keywords: goal-oriented parallel job scheduling policies, fairshare.

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Authors: I. Savitskaya, A. Kistaubayeva, A. Zhubanova, I. Blavachinskaiya, D. Ibrayeva, M. Abdulzhanova, A. Otarbay, A.Isabekova

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This study was conducted for the investigation of number of cellulolytic bacteria and their ability in decomposition. Seven samples surface soil were collected on cellulose Zailiskii Alatau slopes. Cellulolitic activity of new strains of Bacillus, isolated from soil is determined. Isolated cellulose degrading bacteria were screened for determination of the highest cellulose activity by quantitative assay using Congo red, gravimetric assay and colorimetric DNS method trough of the determination of the parameters of sugar reduction. Strains are assigned to: B.subtilis, B.licheniformis, B. cereus and, В. megaterium. Bacillus strains consisting of several different types of cellulases have broad substrate specificity of cellulase complexes formed by them. Cellulolitic bacteria were recorded to have highest cellulase activity and selected for optimization of cellulase enzyme production.

Keywords: Cellulose-degrading bacteria, cellulase complex, foothills soil, screening.

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Authors: Kati Skarp, Keijo Varis, Juha Kettunen

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The purpose of this paper is to examine and evaluate the top-down and bottom-up leadership development programs focused on human capital that improve the performance of a company. This study reports on the external top-down leadership development program supported by a consulting company and the internal participatory action research of the bottom-up program. The sickness rate and the lost time incident failure rate decreased and the ideas produced for cost savings improved, leading to increased earnings during the top-down program. The estimated cost savings potential of the bottom-up program was 3.8 million euro based on the cost savings of meeting habits, maintenance practices and the way of working in production. The results of this study are useful for those who plan and evaluate leadership development and human capital productivity consultation programs to improve the performance of a company.

Keywords: Leadership, development, human resources, company, indicators, evaluation.

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Authors: Satya P. Dubey, Hrushikesh A. Abhyankar, Veronica Marchante, James L. Brighton, Björn Bergmann

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PLA emerged as a promising polymer because of its property as a compostable, biodegradable thermoplastic made from renewable sources. PLA can be polymerized from monomers (Lactide or Lactic acid) obtained by fermentation processes from renewable sources such as corn starch or sugarcane. For PLA synthesis, ring opening polymerization (ROP) of Lactide monomer is one of the preferred methods. In the literature, the technique mainly developed for ROP of PLA is based on metal/bimetallic catalyst (Sn, Zn and Al) or other organic catalysts in suitable solvent. However, the PLA synthesized using such catalysts may contain trace elements of the catalyst which may cause toxicity. This work estimated the usefulness and drawbacks of using different catalysts as well as effect of alternative energies and future aspects for PLA production.

Keywords: Alternative energy, bio-degradable, metal catalyst, poly lactic acid (PLA), ring opening polymerization (ROP).

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Authors: Iman Atighi, Jalal Soleimannejad, Ahmad Akbarinasab, Saeid Moradpour

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In the past, we could increase profit by increasing product prices. But in the new decade, a competitive market does not let us to increase profit with increase prices. Therefore, the only way to increase profit will be reduce costs. A significant percentage of production costs are the maintenance costs, and analysis of these costs could achieve more profit. Most maintenance strategies such as RCM (Reliability-Center-Maintenance), TPM (Total Productivity Maintenance), PM (Preventive Maintenance) etc., are trying to reduce maintenance costs. In this paper, decreasing the maintenance costs of Concentration Plant of Golgohar Company (GEG) was examined by using of MTBF (Mean Time between Failures) and MTTR (Mean Time to Repair) analyses. These analyses showed that instead of buying new machines and increasing costs in order to promote capacity, the improving of MTBF and MTTR indexes would solve capacity problems in the best way and decrease costs.

Keywords: Golgohar Iron Ore Mining & Industrial Company, maintainability, maintenance costs, reliability-center-maintenance.

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Authors: M. Fakharian, M. I. Khodakarami

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In this paper, a new trend for improvement in semianalytical method based on scale boundaries in order to solve the 2D elastodynamic problems is provided. In this regard, only the boundaries of the problem domain discretization are by specific subparametric elements. Mapping functions are uses as a class of higherorder Lagrange polynomials, special shape functions, Gauss-Lobatto- Legendre numerical integration, and the integral form of the weighted residual method, the matrix is diagonal coefficients in the equations of elastodynamic issues. Differences between study conducted and prior research in this paper is in geometry production procedure of the interpolation function and integration of the different is selected. Validity and accuracy of the present method are fully demonstrated through two benchmark problems which are successfully modeled using a few numbers of DOFs. The numerical results agree very well with the analytical solutions and the results from other numerical methods.

Keywords: 2D Elastodynamic Problems, Lagrange Polynomials, G-L-Lquadrature, Decoupled SBFEM.

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Authors: Aljabryn Dalal Hamad

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The present explanatory study concerns with the relation between Diabetes Mellitus and Food Balance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during 2005-2010, using published data. Results illustrated that Saudi citizen daily protein consumption (DPC) during 2005-2007 (g/capita/day) is higher than the average global consumption level of protein with 15.27%, daily fat consumption (DFC) with 24.56% and daily energy consumption (DEC) with 16.93% and increases than recommended level by International Nutrition Organizations (INO) with 56% for protein, 60.49% for fat and 27.37% for energy. On the other hand, DPC per capita in Saudi Arabia decreased during the period 2008-2010 from 88.3 to 82.36 gram/ day. Moreover, DFC per capita in Saudi Arabia decreased during the period 2008-2010 from 3247.90 to 3176.43 Cal/capita/ day, and daily energy consumption (DEC) of Saudi citizen increases than world consumption with 16.93%, whereas increases with 27.37% than INO. Despite this, DPC, DFC and DEC per capita in Saudi Arabia still higher than world mean. On the other side, results illustrated that the number of diabetic patients in Saudi Arabia during the same period (2005-2010). The curve of diabetic patient’s number in Saudi Arabia during 2005-2010 is regular ascending with increasing level ranged between 7.10% in 2005 and 12.44% in 2010. It is essential to devise Saudi National programs to educate the public about the relation of food balances and diabetes so it could be avoided, and provide citizens with healthy dietary balances tables.

Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, Food Balance, Energy, Fat, Protein, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors: Devanjan Bhattacharya, Jitka Komarkova

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The research describes the implementation of a novel and stand-alone system for dynamic hazard warning. The system uses all existing infrastructure already in place like mobile networks, a laptop/PC and the small installation software. The geospatial dataset are the maps of a region which are again frugal. Hence there is no need to invest and it reaches everyone with a mobile. A novel architecture of hazard assessment and warning introduced where major technologies in ICT interfaced to give a unique WebGIS based dynamic real time geohazard warning communication system. A never before architecture introduced for integrating WebGIS with telecommunication technology. Existing technologies interfaced in a novel architectural design to address a neglected domain in a way never done before – through dynamically updatable WebGIS based warning communication. The work publishes new architecture and novelty in addressing hazard warning techniques in sustainable way and user friendly manner. Coupling of hazard zonation and hazard warning procedures into a single system has been shown. Generalized architecture for deciphering a range of geo-hazards has been developed. Hence the developmental work presented here can be summarized as the development of internet-SMS based automated geo-hazard warning communication system; integrating a warning communication system with a hazard evaluation system; interfacing different open-source technologies towards design and development of a warning system; modularization of different technologies towards development of a warning communication system; automated data creation, transformation and dissemination over different interfaces. The architecture of the developed warning system has been functionally automated as well as generalized enough that can be used for any hazard and setup requirement has been kept to a minimum.

Keywords: Geospatial, web-based GIS, geohazard, warning system.

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Authors: N. Ravi Kumar, R. Kamalakannan

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The advancement of hybrid energy resources such as solar and wind power leading to the emergence of customer owned grid. It provides an opportunity to regulars to obtain low energy costs as well as enabling the power supplier to regulate the utility grid. There is a need to develop smart systems that will automatically submit energy demand schedule and monitors energy price signals in real-time without the prompt of customers. In this paper, a demand side energy management for a grid connected household and also smart preparation of electrical appliance have been presented. It also reduces electricity bill for the consumers in the grid. In addition to this, when production is high, the surplus energy fashioned in the customer owned grid is given to main grid or neighboring micro grids. The simulation of the entire system is presented using LabVIEW software.

Keywords: Distributed renewable energy resource, power storage devices, scheduling, smart meters, smart micro grid, electric vehicle.

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Authors: Ehsan Gholami, Vincent Demers

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Low-pressure powder injection molding is an emerging technology for cost-effectively producing complex shape metallic parts with the proper dimensional tolerances, either in high or in low production volumes. In this study, the molding properties of cobalt-chrome-based feedstocks were evaluated for use in a low-pressure powder injection molding process. The rheological properties of feedstock formulations were obtained by mixing metallic powder with a proprietary wax-based binder system. Rheological parameters such as reference viscosity, shear rate sensitivity index, and activation energy for viscous flow, were extracted from the viscosity profiles and introduced into the Weir model to calculate the moldability index. Feedstocks were experimentally injected into a spiral mold cavity to validate the injection performance calculated with the model.

Keywords: Binder, feedstock, moldability, powder injection molding, viscosity.

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Authors: A. Beheshti, S. Salkhordeh, H. Amini

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Based on statistics released by Islamic Republic of Iran Police (IRIP), from among the total 9555 motorcycle accidents that happened in 2007, 857 riders died and 11219 one got injured. If we also consider the death toll and injuries of other vehicles' accidents resulted from traffic violation by motorcycle riders, then paying attention to the motorcycle accidents seems to be very necessary. Therefore, in this study we tried to investigate the traits and issues related to production, application, and training, along with causes of motorcycle accidents from 4 perspectives of road, human, environment and vehicle and also based on statistical and geographical analysis of accident-sheets prepared by Iran Road Patrol Department (IRPD). Unfamiliarity of riders with regulations and techniques of motorcycling, disuse of safety equipments, inefficiency of roads and design of junctions for safe trafficking of motorcycles and finally the lack of sufficient control of responsible organizations are among the major causes which lead to these accidents.

Keywords: Motorcycle, Motorcycle riders, Road accidents, Statistical analysis of accidents.

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Authors: Abeer Samy, Oliver C. Saavedra Valeriano, Abdelazim Negm

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The Blue Nile Basin is the most important tributary of the Nile River. Egypt and Sudan are almost dependent on water originated from the Blue Nile. This multi-dependency creates conflicts among the three countries Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia making the management of these conflicts as an international issue. Good assessment of the water resources of the Blue Nile is an important to help in managing such conflicts. Hydrological models are good tool for such assessment. This paper presents a critical review of the nature and variability of the climate and hydrology of the Blue Nile Basin as a first step of using hydrological modeling to assess the water resources of the Blue Nile. Many several attempts are done to develop basin-scale hydrological modeling on the Blue Nile. Lumped and semi distributed models used averages of meteorological inputs and watershed characteristics in hydrological simulation, to analyze runoff for flood control and water resource management. Distributed models include the temporal and spatial variability of catchment conditions and meteorological inputs to allow better representation of the hydrological process. The main challenge of all used models was to assess the water resources of the basin is the shortage of the data needed for models calibration and validation. It is recommended to use distributed model for their higher accuracy to cope with the great variability and complexity of the Blue Nile basin and to collect sufficient data to have more sophisticated and accurate hydrological modeling.

Keywords: Blue Nile Basin, Climate Change, Hydrological Modeling, Watershed.

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Authors: Siva Prasad Darla, C. D. Naiju, K. Annamalai, S. S. Rajiv Sushanth

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Supply chain consists of all stages involved, directly or indirectly, includes all functions involved in fulfilling a customer demand. In two stage transportation supply chain problem, transportation costs are of a significant proportion of final product costs. It is often crucial for successful decisions making approaches in two stage supply chain to explicit account for non-linear transportation costs. In this paper, deterministic demand and finite supply of products was considered. The optimized distribution level and the routing structure from the manufacturing plants to the distribution centres and to the end customers is determined using developed mathematical model and solved by proposed particle swarm optimization based genetic algorithm. Numerical analysis of the case study is carried out to validate the model.

Keywords: Genetic Algorithm, Particle Swarm Optimization, Production, Remanufacturing

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Authors: Zaini Mohd-Zain, Mohd-Saufee A.F. Mohd-Ismail, Norlida Buniyamin

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Staphylococcus aureus, one of the microflora in a human external auditory canal (EAC) is frequently exposed to highfrequency electromagnetic field (HF-EMF) generated by mobile phones. It is normally non-pathogenic but in certain circumstances, it can cause infections. This study investigates the changes in the physiology of S. aureus when exposed to HF-EMF of a mobile phone. Exponentially grown S. aureus were exposed to two conditions of EMF irradiation (standby-mode and on-call mode) at four durations; 15, 30, 45 and 60 min. Changes in the viability and biofilm production of the S. aureus were compared between the two conditions of exposure. EMF from the standby-mode has enhanced the growth of S. aureus but during on-call, the growth was suppressed. No significant difference in the amount of biofilm produced in both modes of exposure was observed. Thus, HF-EMF of mobile phone affects the viability of S. aureus but not its ability to produce biofilm.

Keywords: Electromagnetic field, mobile phone, biofilm, Staphylococcus aureus

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Authors: Rafenomananjara Tsinjo Nirina, Tomoo Sekito, Andrianaivoravelona Jaconnet Oliva

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Manufacturing a composite material from post-consumer bottles is an interesting outlet since Madagascar is still facing the challenges of managing plastic waste on the one hand and appropriate waste treatment facilities are not yet developed on the other hand. New waste management options are needed to divert End-Of-Life (EOL) soft plastic wastes from landfills and incineration. Waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles might be considered as a valuable resource and recovered into polymer concrete. The methodology is easy to implement and appropriate to the local context in Madagascar. This approach will contribute to the production of ecological building materials that might be profitable for the environment and the construction sector. This work aims to study the feasibility of using the post-consumer PET bottles as an alternative binding agent instead of the conventional Portland cement and water. Then, the mechanical and physical properties of the materials were evaluated.

Keywords: PET recycling, polymer concrete, ecological building materials, pollution mitigation.

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Authors: P. Panichnumsin, B. K. Ahring, A. Nopharatana, P. Chaipresert

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In this study, we illustrated the performance and microbial community of single- and two-phase systems anaerobically co-digesting cassava pulp and pig manure. The results showed that the volatile solid reduction and biogas productivity of two-phase CSTR were 66 ± 4% and 2000 ± 210 ml l-1 d-1, while those of singlephase CSTR were 59 ± 1% and 1670 ± 60 ml l-1 d-1, respectively. Codigestion in two-phase CSTR gave higher 12% solid degradation and 25% methane production than single-phase CSTR. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rDNA clone library revealed that the Bacteroidetes were the most abundant group, followed by the Clostridia in singlephase CSTR. In hydrolysis/acidification reactor of two-phase system, the bacteria within the phylum Firmicutes, especially Clostridium, Eubacteriaceae and Lactobacillus were the dominant phylogenetic groups. Among the Archaea, Methanosaeta sp. was the exclusive predominant in both digesters while the relative abundance of Methanosaeta sp. and Methanospirillum hungatei differed between the two systems.

Keywords: Anaerobic co-digestion, Cassava pulp, Microbialdiversity, Pig manure.

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Authors: A. S. Kipcak, P. Gurses, K. Kunt, E. Moroydor Derun, S. Piskin

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There are many kinds of metal borates found not only in nature but also synthesized in the laboratory such as magnesium borates. Due to its excellent properties, as remarkable ceramic materials, they have also application areas in anti-wear and friction reducing additives as well as electro-conductive treating agents. The synthesis of magnesium borate powders can be fulfilled simply with two different methods, hydrothermal and thermal synthesis. Microwave assisted method, also another way of producing magnesium borate, can be classified into thermal synthesis because of using the principles of solid state synthesis. It also contributes producing particles with small size and high purity in nano-size material synthesize. In this study the production of magnesium borates, are aimed using MgCl2.6H2O and H3BO3. The identification of both starting materials and products were made by the equipments of, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). After several synthesis steps magnesium borates were synthesized and characterized by XRD and FT-IR, as well.

Keywords: FT-IR, magnesium borates, microwave method, XRD.

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Authors: Hermann Kuehnle

Abstract:

Applications of the Hausdorff space and its mappings into tangent spaces are outlined, including their fractal dimensions and self-similarities. The paper details this theory set up and further describes virtualizations and atomization of manufacturing processes. It demonstrates novel concurrency principles that will guide manufacturing processes and resources configurations. Moreover, varying levels of details may be produced by up folding and breaking down of newly introduced generic models. This choice of layered generic models for units and systems aspects along specific aspects allows research work in parallel to other disciplines with the same focus on all levels of detail. More credit and easier access are granted to outside disciplines for enriching manufacturing grounds. Specific mappings and the layers give hints for chances for interdisciplinary outcomes and may highlight more details for interoperability standards, as already worked on the international level. The new rules are described, which require additional properties concerning all involved entities for defining distributed decision cycles, again on the base of self-similarity. All properties are further detailed and assigned to a maturity scale, eventually displaying the smartness maturity of a total shopfloor or a factory. The paper contributes to the intensive ongoing discussion in the field of intelligent distributed manufacturing and promotes solid concepts for implementations of Cyber Physical Systems and the Internet of Things into manufacturing industry, like industry 4.0, as discussed in German-speaking countries.

Keywords: Autonomous unit, Networkability, Smart manufacturing unit, Virtualization.

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Authors: Kazeem K. Adewole, Festus. A. Olutoge, Hamzat Habib

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In this paper, the effect of grades 32.4 and 42.5 Portland-limestone cements generally used for concrete production in Nigeria on concrete compressive strength is investigated. Investigation revealed that the compressive strength of concrete produced with Portland-limestone cement grade 42.5 is generally higher than that produced with cement grade 32.5. The percentage difference between the compressive strengths of the concrete cubes produced with Portland-limestone cement grades 42.5 and 32.5 is inversely proportional to the richness of the concrete with the highest and the least percentage difference associated with the 1:2:4 and 1:1:2 mix ratios respectively. It is recommended that cement grade 42.5 be preferred for construction in Nigeria as this will lead to the construction of stronger concrete structures, which will reduce the incidence of failure of building and other concrete structures at no additional cost since the cost of both cement grades are the same.

Keywords: Cement grades, Concrete, Compressive strength, Portland-limestone cement, Ordinary Portland cement.

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Authors: Zhibin Yu, Artur J. Jaworski, Abdulrahman S. Abduljalil

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A stack with a small critical temperature gradient is desirable for a standing wave thermoacoustic engine to obtain a low onset temperature difference (the minimum temperature difference to start engine-s self-oscillation). The viscous and heat relaxation loss in the stack determines the critical temperature gradient. In this work, a dimensionless critical temperature gradient factor is obtained based on the linear thermoacoustic theory. It is indicated that the impedance determines the proportion between the viscous loss, heat relaxation losses and the power production from the heat energy. It reveals the effects of the channel dimensions, geometrical configuration and the local acoustic impedance on the critical temperature gradient in stacks. The numerical analysis shows that there exists a possible optimum combination of these parameters which leads to the lowest critical temperature gradient. Furthermore, several different geometries have been tested and compared numerically.

Keywords: Critical temperature gradient, heat relaxation, stack, viscous effect.

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Authors: A. Tellaeche, R. Arana, I.Maurtua

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The exhaustive quality control is becoming more and more important when commercializing competitive products in the world's globalized market. Taken this affirmation as an undeniable truth, it becomes critical in certain sector markets that need to offer the highest restrictions in quality terms. One of these examples is the percussion cap mass production, a critical element assembled in firearm ammunition. These elements, built in great quantities at a very high speed, must achieve a minimum tolerance deviation in their fabrication, due to their vital importance in firing the piece of ammunition where they are built in. This paper outlines a machine vision development for the 100% inspection of percussion caps obtaining data from 2D and 3D simultaneous images. The acquisition speed and precision of these images from a metallic reflective piece as a percussion cap, the accuracy of the measures taken from these images and the multiple fabrication errors detected make the main findings of this work.

Keywords: critical tolerance, high speed decision makingsimultaneous 2D/3D machine vision.

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Authors: Kuniyasu Soda

Abstract:

Surgical trauma seems to facilitate metastatic spread, although the underlying mechanisms are not known. Increased concentrations of polyamines (spermine and spermidine) in the blood seem to have associated with the enhanced malignant potential of cancer cells and decrease in anti-tumor immunity of cancer patients. In addition to de novo synthesis in rapidly growing cells such as normal regenerating cells and cancer cells, cells can take up polyamines from extra-cellular sources. We have shown that increased polyamine concentration results in decreases in cytokine production and expression of adhesion molecules involved in anti-tumor immunity, such as CD11a. And, immune cells in an environment with increased polyamine levels lose anti-tumor immune functions, such as lymphokine activated killer cell (LAK) activities. Because blood polyamine levels are increased in post-surgical patients, polyamine seems to have roles on post-traumatic tumor spread.

Keywords: Immune function, LAK, Polyamine, Surgical trauma.

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Authors: Makhlouf Mourad, Medkour Mihoub, Bouchher Omar, Messabih Sidi Mohamed, Benrachedi Khaled

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This work is the modeling and simulation of fluid flow (liquid) through porous media. This type of flow occurs in many situations of interest in applied sciences and engineering, fluid (oil) consists of several individual substances in pure, single-phase flow is incompressible and isothermal. The porous medium is isotropic, homogeneous optionally, with the rectangular format and the flow is two-dimensional. Modeling of hydrodynamic phenomena incorporates Darcy's law and the equation of mass conservation. Correlations are used to model the density and viscosity of the fluid. A finite volume code is used in the discretization of differential equations. The nonlinearity is treated by Newton's method with relaxation coefficient. The results of the simulation of the pressure and the mobility of liquid flowing through porous media are presented, analyzed, and illustrated.

Keywords: Darcy equation, middle porous, continuity equation, Peng Robinson equation, mobility.

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Authors: R. Mafi Gholami, S. M. Borghei, S. M. Mousavi

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In this study, the ability of Aspergillus niger and Penicillium simplicissimum to extract heavy metals from a spent refinery catalyst was investigated. For the first step, a spent processing catalyst from one of the oil refineries in Iran was physically and chemically characterized. Aspergillus niger and Penicillium simplicissimum were used to mobilize Al/Co/Mo/Ni from hazardous spent catalysts. The fungi were adapted to the mixture of metals at 100-800 mg L-1 with increments in concentration of 100 mg L-1. Bioleaching experiments were carried out in batch cultures. To investigate the production of organic acids in sucrose medium, analyses of the culture medium by HPLC were performed at specific time intervals after inoculation. The results obtained from Inductive coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) showed that after the one-step bioleaching process using Aspergillus niger, maximum removal efficiencies of 27%, 66%, 62% and 38% were achieved for Al, Co, Mo and Ni, respectively. However, the highest removal efficiencies using Penicillium simplicissimum were of 32%, 67%, 65% and 38% for Al, Co, Mo and Ni, respectively

Keywords: Aspergillus niger, Bioleaching, Heavy metals, Penicillium simplicissimum, Spent catalyst

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Authors: Mohamed Essahafi, Mustapha Ait Lafkih

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In industrial environments, the heat exchanger is a necessary component to any strategy of energy conversion. Much of thermal energy used in industrial processes passes at least one times by a heat exchanger, and methods systems recovering thermal energy. This survey paper tries to presents in a systemic way an sample control of a heat exchanger by comparison between three controllers LQR (linear quadratic regulator), PID (proportional, integrator and derivate) and Pole Placement. All of these controllers are used mainly in industrial sectors (chemicals, petrochemicals, steel, food processing, energy production, etc…) of transportation (automotive, aeronautics), but also in the residential sector and tertiary (heating, air conditioning, etc...) The choice of a heat exchanger, for a given application depends on many parameters: field temperature and pressure of fluids, and physical properties of aggressive fluids, maintenance and space. It is clear that the fact of having an exchanger appropriate, well-sized, well made and well used allows gain efficiency and energy processes.

Keywords: LQR linear-quadratic regulator, PID control, Pole Placement, Heat exchanger.

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Authors: Alireza Mortezaei, Kimia Mortezaei

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Recordings from recent earthquakes have provided evidence that ground motions in the near field of a rupturing fault differ from ordinary ground motions, as they can contain a large energy, or “directivity" pulse. This pulse can cause considerable damage during an earthquake, especially to structures with natural periods close to those of the pulse. Failures of modern engineered structures observed within the near-fault region in recent earthquakes have revealed the vulnerability of existing RC buildings against pulse-type ground motions. This may be due to the fact that these modern structures had been designed primarily using the design spectra of available standards, which have been developed using stochastic processes with relatively long duration that characterizes more distant ground motions. Many recently designed and constructed buildings may therefore require strengthening in order to perform well when subjected to near-fault ground motions. Fiber Reinforced Polymers are considered to be a viable alternative, due to their relatively easy and quick installation, low life cycle costs and zero maintenance requirements. The objective of this paper is to investigate the adequacy of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to determine the three dimensional dynamic response of FRP strengthened RC buildings under the near-fault ground motions. For this purpose, one ANN model is proposed to estimate the base shear force, base bending moments and roof displacement of buildings in two directions. A training set of 168 and a validation set of 21 buildings are produced from FEA analysis results of the dynamic response of RC buildings under the near-fault earthquakes. It is demonstrated that the neural network based approach is highly successful in determining the response.

Keywords: Seismic evaluation, FRP, neural network, near-fault ground motion

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Authors: Xiaodong Gao, Pingchuan Dong, Qichao Gao

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This work attempts to predict the deposition rate of asphaltene particles in blockage tube through CFD simulation. The Euler-Lagrange equation has been applied during the flow of crude oil and asphaltene particles. The net gravitational force, virtual mass, pressure gradient, Saffman lift, and drag forces are incorporated in the simulations process. Validation of CFD simulation results is compared to the benchmark experiments from the previous literature. Furthermore, the effects of blockage location, blockage length, and blockage thickness on deposition rate are also analyzed. The simulation results indicate that the maximum deposition rate of asphaltene occurs in the blocked tube section, and the greater the deposition thickness, the greater the deposition rate. Moreover, the deposition amount and maximum deposition rate along the length of the tube have the same trend. Results of this study are in the ability to better understand the deposition of asphaltene particles in production and help achieve to deal with the asphaltene challenges.

Keywords: Asphaltene deposition rate, blockage length, blockage thickness, blockage diameter, transient condition.

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Authors: Sachin Kamble, Shradha Gawankar

Abstract:

This paper presents the findings of successful implementation of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) of cement dispatch activities in a cement manufacturing plant located in India. Simulation model was developed for the purpose of identifying and analyzing the areas for improvement. The company was facing a problem of low throughput rate and subsequent forced stoppages of the plant leading to a high production loss of 15000MT per month. It was found from the study that the present systems and procedures related to the in-plant logistics plant required significant changes. The major recommendations included process improvement at the entry gate, reducing the cycle time at the security gate and installation of an additional weigh bridge. This paper demonstrates how BPR can be implemented for improving the in-plant logistics process. Various recommendations helped the plant to increase its throughput by 14%.

Keywords: Business process reengineering, simulation modeling, in-plant logistics, distribution process, cement industry.

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Authors: P. Ahern, D. Collery

Abstract:

The implementation of lean thinking in the manufacturing industry revolutionized the traditional approach to large-scale production through the process of identifying the waste in each task and putting in place mitigation measures to eliminate the waste in all its forms. The Irish construction industry, however, has been much slower to adopt the principles of lean, opting instead to stick with the traditional approach to construction project delivery which is inherently wasteful. Lean thinking holds the potential to revolutionize the construction industry in a similar manner to the adoption of lean manufacturing. Lean principles present opportunities for reduced project duration, reduced project cost, improved quality, and elimination of re-works and non-value-added activities. This research has been designed to accumulate research data through available literature, electronic surveys, and interviews. The results show an industry reluctant to accept change and an undefined path to successful lean construction implementation.

Keywords: Barriers, lean construction, lean implementation, lean manufacturing, lean philosophy.

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