Search results for: cost control

Authors: Mohammad Javad Kargar, Fatemeh Azimzadeh

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The vast amount of information on the World Wide Web is created and published by many different types of providers. Unlike books and journals, most of this information is not subject to editing or peer review by experts. This lack of quality control and the explosion of web sites make the task of finding quality information on the web especially critical. Meanwhile new facilities for producing web pages such as Blogs make this issue more significant because Blogs have simple content management tools enabling nonexperts to build easily updatable web diaries or online journals. On the other hand despite a decade of active research in information quality (IQ) there is no framework for measuring information quality on the Blogs yet. This paper presents a novel experimental framework for ranking quality of information on the Weblog. The results of data analysis revealed seven IQ dimensions for the Weblog. For each dimension, variables and related coefficients were calculated so that presented framework is able to assess IQ of Weblogs automatically.

Keywords: Information Quality, Weblog, Web Ranking, Web- Quality.

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Authors: Hilmi Kuscu, Ahmet Cihan, Kamil Kahveci, Ugur Akyol

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In this study, a software has been developed to predict the optimum conditions for drying of cotton based yarn bobbins in a hot air dryer. For this purpose, firstly, a suitable drying model has been specified using experimental drying behavior for different values of drying parameters. Drying parameters in the experiments were drying temperature, drying pressure, and volumetric flow rate of drying air. After obtaining a suitable drying model, additional curve fittings have been performed to obtain equations for drying time and energy consumption taking into account the effects of drying parameters. Then, a software has been developed using Visual Basic programming language to predict the optimum drying conditions for drying time and energy consumption.

Keywords: Drying, bobbin, cotton, PLC control, Visual Basic.

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Authors: B. Akturk, N. Yuzer, N. Kabay

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High temperature is one of the most detrimental effects that cause important changes in concrete’s mechanical, physical, and thermo-physical properties. As a result of these changes, especially high strength concrete (HSC), may exhibit damages such as cracks and spallings. To overcome this problem, incorporating polymer fibers such as polypropylene (PP) in concrete is a very well-known method. In this study, using RRH, as a sustainable material, instead of PP fiber in HSC to prevent spallings and improve physical and thermo-physical properties were investigated. Therefore, seven HSC mixtures with 0.25 water to binder ratio were prepared incorporating silica fume and blast furnace slag. PP and RRH were used at 0.2-0.5% and 0.5-3% by weight of cement, respectively. All specimens were subjected to high temperatures (20 (control), 300, 600 and 900˚C) with a heating rate of 2.5˚C/min and after cooling, residual physical and thermo-physical properties were determined.

Keywords: High temperature, high strength concrete, polypropylene fiber, raw rice husk, thermo-physical properties.

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Authors: Salem El-t. Ashoor, Ibtisam M. Ediab

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Zirconium diamine and triamine complexes can possess biological activities. These complexes were synthesised via the reaction of equimolar quantities of 1,10-phenanthroline {NC₃H₃(C₆H₂)NC₃H₃} (L1) or 4-4-amino phenazone {ONC₆H₅(NH)CH(NH₂} (L2) or diphenyl carbizon {HNNCO(NH)₂(C₆H₅)} (L3) with a Zirconium Salt {ZrOCl₂} in a 1:1 ratio to form complexes [{NC₃H₃(C₆H₂)NC₃H₃}ZrOCl₂}] [ZrOCl₂L₁], [{(O₂NC₆H₄(NH)(NH₂)}ZrOCl₂] [ZrOCl₂L₂] and [{HNNCO(NH)₂(C₆H₅)ZrOCl₂}] [ZrOCl₂L₃] respectively. They were characterised using Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) and UV-Visible spectroscopy. Also a variable temperature study of these complexes was completed, using UV-Visible spectroscopy to observe electronic transitions under temperature control. Also a DFT study was done on these complexes via the information from FT-IR and UV-Visible spectroscopy.

These complexes were found to show different inhibition to the growth of bacterial strains of Bacillus spp. & Klebsiella spp. & E. coli & Proteus spp. & Pseudomona spp. at different concentrations (0.001, 0.2 and 1M). For better understanding these complexes were examined by using a Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation.

Keywords: (1:10-phenanthroline) (L1), 4-4-amino phenazone (L2), diphenyl carbizon (L3), DFT study, antibacterial.

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Authors: Rully D. Purwati, Tantri D. A. Anggraeni, Bambang Heliyanto, M. Machfud, Joko Hartono

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Jatropha curcas L. is one of the crops producing non edible oil which is potential for bio-energy. Jatropha cultivation and development program in Indonesia is facing several problems especially low seed yield resulting in inefficient crop cultivation cost. To cope with the problem, development of high yielding varieties is necessary. Development of varieties to improve seed yield was conducted by hybridization and selection, and resulted in 14 potential genotypes. The yield potential of the 14 genotypes were evaluated and compared with two check varieties. The objective of the evaluation was to find Jatropha hybrids with some characters i.e. productivity higher than check varieties, oil content > 40% and harvesting age ≤ 110 days. Hybridization and individual plant selection were carried out from 2010 to 2014. Evaluation of high yield was conducted in Asembagus experimental station, Situbondo, East Java in three years (2015-2017). The experimental designed was Randomized Complete Block Design with three replication and plot size of 10 m x 8 m. The characters observed were number of capsules per plant, dry seed yield (kg/ha) and seed oil content (%). The results of this experiment indicated that all the hybrids evaluated have higher productivity than check variety IP-3A. There were two superior hybrids i.e. HS-49xSP-65/32 and HS-49xSP-19/28 with highest seed yield per hectare and number of capsules per plant during three years.

Keywords: Jatropha, biodiesel, hybrid, high seed yield.

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Authors: H. Mahboubi, B. Moshiri, A. Khaki Seddigh

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Recently, a great amount of interest has been shown in the field of modeling and controlling hybrid systems. One of the efficient and common methods in this area utilizes the mixed logicaldynamical (MLD) systems in the modeling. In this method, the system constraints are transformed into mixed-integer inequalities by defining some logic statements. In this paper, a system containing three tanks is modeled as a nonlinear switched system by using the MLD framework. Comparing the model size of the three-tank system with that of a two-tank system, it is deduced that the number of binary variables, the size of the system and its complexity tremendously increases with the number of tanks, which makes the control of the system more difficult. Therefore, methods should be found which result in fewer mixed-integer inequalities.

Keywords: Hybrid systems, mixed-integer inequalities, mixed logical dynamical systems, multi-tank system.

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Authors: M. N. Huda, S. Yamada, N. Sonehara

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Probability-based identity disclosure risk measurement may give the same overall risk for different anonymization strategy of the same dataset. Some entities in the anonymous dataset may have higher identification risks than the others. Individuals are more concerned about higher risks than the average and are more interested to know if they have a possibility of being under higher risk. A notation of overall risk in the above measurement method doesn-t indicate whether some of the involved entities have higher identity disclosure risk than the others. In this paper, we have introduced an identity disclosure risk measurement method that not only implies overall risk, but also indicates whether some of the members have higher risk than the others. The proposed method quantifies the overall risk based on the individual risk values, the percentage of the records that have a risk value higher than the average and how larger the higher risk values are compared to the average. We have analyzed the disclosure risks for different disclosure control techniques applied to original microdata and present the results.

Keywords: Anonymization, microdata, disclosure risk, privacy.

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Authors: Jonas Mayer, Kai-Frederic Seitz, Thorben Kuprat

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In today’s competitive environment production’s logistic objectives such as ‘delivery reliability’ and ‘delivery time’ and distribution’s logistic objectives such as ‘service level’ and ‘delivery delay’ are attributed great importance. Especially for small and mid-sized enterprises (SME) attaining these objectives pose a key challenge. Within this context, one of the difficulties is that interactions between departments within the enterprise and their specific objectives are insufficiently taken into account and aligned. Interdepartmental independencies along with contradicting targets set within the different departments result in enterprises having sub-optimal logistic performance capability. This paper presents a research project which will systematically describe the interactions between departments and convert them into a quantifiable form.

Keywords: Department-specific actuating and control variables, interdepartmental interactions, cybernetic model, logistic objectives.

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Authors: Mazyar Ahrari, Ramin Khajavi, Mehdi Kamali Dolatabadi, Tayebeh Toliyat, Abosaeed Rashidi

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Fabric as the first and most common layer that is in permanent contact with human skin is a very good interface to provide coverage, as well as heat and cold insulation. Phase change materials (PCMs) are organic and inorganic compounds which have the capability of absorbing and releasing noticeable amounts of latent heat during phase transitions between solid and liquid phases at a low temperature range. PCMs come across phase changes (liquid-solid and solid-liquid transitions) during absorbing and releasing thermal heat; so, in order to use them for a long time, they should have been encapsulated in polymeric shells, so-called microcapsules. Microencapsulation and nanoencapsulation methods have been developed in order to reduce the reactivity of a PCM with outside environment, promoting the ease of handling, decreasing the diffusion and evaporation rates. Methods of incorporation of PCMs in textiles such as electrospinning and determining thermal properties had been summarized. Paraffin waxes catch a lot of attention due to their high thermal storage density, repeatability of phase change, thermal stability, small volume change during phase transition, chemical stability, non-toxicity, non-flammability, non-corrosive and low cost and they seem to play a key role in confronting with climate change and global warming. In this article, we aimed to review the researches concentrating on the characteristics of PCMs and new materials and methods of microencapsulation.

Keywords: Thermoregulation, phase change materials, microencapsulation, thermal energy storage, nanoencapsulation.

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Authors: Jyh J. Chen, Fu H. Yang, Ming H. Liao

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This study describes a capillary-based device integrated with the heating and cooling modules for polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The device consists of the reaction polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) capillary, the aluminum blocks, and is equipped with two cartridge heaters, a thermoelectric (TE) cooler, a fan, and some thermocouples for temperature control. The cartridge heaters are placed into the heating blocks and maintained at two different temperatures to achieve the denaturation and the extension step. Some thermocouples inserted into the capillary are used to obtain the transient temperature profiles of the reaction sample during thermal cycles. A 483-bp DNA template is amplified successfully in the designed system and the traditional thermal cycler. This work should be interesting to persons involved in the high-temperature based reactions and genomics or cell analysis.

Keywords: Polymerase chain reaction, thermal cycles, capillary, TE cooler.

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Authors: A. Sayadi, A. Khodadadi D., S. Partani

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Today Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is known as one of the most important tools for decision makers in the construction of civil and industrial projects towards sustainable development. In the past, projects were evaluated based on cost and benefit analysis regardless of the physical and biological environmental effects and its socio-economical impacts. According to the Department of Environment (DOE) of Iran's regulations, the construction of hydroelectric dams is an activity that requires an EIA report. In this paper the environmental impact assessment of the Gotvand hydro-electrical dam has been evaluated in the three environment elements, biological, Physical-chemical and cultural units. This dam is one of the largest dams in Iran with a volume of 4500 MCM and is going to be the last dam on the Karoon River in the south of Iran. In this paper the ICOLD (International Commission on Large Dams) technique was employed for the environmental impact assessment of the dam. The research includes all socio economical and environmental effects of the dam during the construction and operation of the hydro electric dam and Environmental management, monitoring and mitigation of negative impacts were analyzed. In this project the results led to using some techniques to protect the destructive impacts on biological aspects beside the effective long time period impacts on the biological aspects. The impacts on physical aspects are temporary and negative commonly that could be restored and rehabilitated in natural process in the long time in operation period.

Keywords: "Gotvand Hydro Electric Dam", "EIA", "ICOLD and Leopold matrices"

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Authors: Seyedebrahim Afkhami, Meisam Abdi, Reza Baserinia

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Additive manufacturing is revolutionizing production in different industries, including pharmaceuticals. This case study explores the influence of surface area on the dissolution of additively manufactured polyvinyl alcohol parts as a polymer candidate. Specimens of different geometries and constant mass were fabricated using a Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printer. The dissolution behavior of these samples was compared with respect to their surface area. Improved and accelerated dissolution was observed for samples with a larger surface area. This study highlights the capabilities of additive manufacturing to produce samples of complex geometries that cannot be manufactured otherwise to control the dissolution behavior for pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical applications.

Keywords: Additive manufacturing, polymer dissolution, fused deposition modelling, geometry optimization.

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Authors: Carlos Ramirez, Carlos Concha, Benjamin Valdes

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Emotions are related with learning processes and physiological signals can be used to detect them for the personalization of learning resources and to control the pace of instruction. A model of relevant emotions has been developed, where specific combinations of emotions and cognition processes are connected and integrated with the concept of 'flow', in order to improve learning. The cardiac pulse is a reliable signal that carries useful information about the subject-s emotional condition; it is detected using a classroom chair adapted with non invasive EMFi sensor and an acquisition system that generates a ballistocardiogram (BCG), the signal is processed by an algorithm to obtain characteristics that match a specific emotional condition. The complete chair system is presented in this work, along with a framework for the personalization of learning resources.

Keywords: Ballistocardiogram, emotions in learning, noninvasive sensors, personalization of learning resources.

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Authors: Oluseye Adeniyi Adeleke, Mohd Fadzli Salleh

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Cooperative communication provides transmit diversity, even when, due to size constraints, mobile units cannot accommodate multiple antennas. A versatile cooperation method called coded cooperation has been developed, in which cooperation is implemented through channel coding with a view to controlling the errors inherent in wireless communication. In this work we evaluate the performance of coded cooperation in flat Rayleigh fading environment using a concept known as the pair wise error probability (PEP). We derive the PEP for a flat fading scenario in coded cooperation and then compare with the signal-to-noise ratio of the users in the network. Results show that an increase in the SNR leads to a decrease in the PEP. We also carried out simulations to validate the result.

Keywords: Channel state information, coded cooperation, cooperative systems, pairwise-error-probability, Reed-Solomon codes.

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Authors: Dileep Malkhede, Bhartendu Seth

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In this paper, the full state feedback controllers capable of regulating and tracking the speed trajectory are presented. A fourth order nonlinear mean value model of a 448 kW turbocharged diesel engine published earlier is used for the purpose. For designing controllers, the nonlinear model is linearized and represented in state-space form. Full state feedback controllers capable of meeting varying speed demands of drivers are presented. Main focus here is to investigate sensitivity of the controller to the perturbations in the parameters of the original nonlinear model. Suggested controller is shown to be highly insensitive to the parameter variations. This indicates that the controller is likely perform with same accuracy even after significant wear and tear of engine due to its use for years.

Keywords: Diesel engine model, Engine speed control, State feedback controller, Controller robustness.

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Authors: Guy Leshem, Ya'acov Ritov

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Traffic Management and Information Systems, which rely on a system of sensors, aim to describe in real-time traffic in urban areas using a set of parameters and estimating them. Though the state of the art focuses on data analysis, little is done in the sense of prediction. In this paper, we describe a machine learning system for traffic flow management and control for a prediction of traffic flow problem. This new algorithm is obtained by combining Random Forests algorithm into Adaboost algorithm as a weak learner. We show that our algorithm performs relatively well on real data, and enables, according to the Traffic Flow Evaluation model, to estimate and predict whether there is congestion or not at a given time on road intersections.

Keywords: Machine Learning, Boosting, Classification, TrafficCongestion, Data Collecting, Magnetic Loop Detectors, SignalizedIntersections, Traffic Signal Timing Optimization.

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Authors: Arash Esmaeili, Zhibang Liu, Yang Xiang, Jimmy Yun, Lei Shao

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High pressure carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption from a specific off-gas in a conventional column has been evaluated for the environmental concerns by the Aspen HYSYS simulator using a wide range of single absorbents and piperazine (PZ) blended solutions to estimate the outlet CO2 concentration, CO2 loading, reboiler power supply and regeneration heat duty to choose the most efficient solution in terms of CO2 removal and required heat duty. The property package, which is compatible with all applied solutions for the simulation in this study, estimates the properties based on electrolyte non-random two-liquid (E-NRTL) model for electrolyte thermodynamics and Peng-Robinson equation of state for vapor phase and liquid hydrocarbon phase properties. The results of the simulation indicate that PZ in addition to the mixture of PZ and monoethanolamine (MEA) demand the highest regeneration heat duty compared with other studied single and blended amine solutions respectively. The blended amine solutions with the lowest PZ concentrations (5wt% and 10wt%) were considered and compared to reduce the cost of process, among which the blended solution of 10wt%PZ+35wt%MDEA (methyldiethanolamine) was found as the most appropriate solution in terms of CO2 content in the outlet gas, rich-CO2 loading and regeneration heat duty.

Keywords: Absorption, amine solutions, Aspen HYSYS, CO2 loading, piperazine, regeneration heat duty.

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Authors: Marios Poulos, Eirini Maliagani, Minas Paschopoulos, George Bokos

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The purpose of my research proposal is to demonstrate that there is a relationship between EEG and endometrial cancer. The above relationship is based on an Aristotelian Syllogism; since it is known that the 14-3-3 protein is related to the electrical activity of the brain via control of the flow of Na+ and K+ ions and since it is also known that many types of cancer are associated with 14-3-3 protein, it is possible that there is a relationship between EEG and cancer. This research will be carried out by well-defined diagnostic indicators, obtained via the EEG, using signal processing procedures and pattern recognition tools such as neural networks in order to recognize the endometrial cancer type. The current research shall compare the findings from EEG and hysteroscopy performed on women of a wide age range. Moreover, this practice could be expanded to other types of cancer. The implementation of this methodology will be completed with the creation of an ontology. This ontology shall define the concepts existing in this research-s domain and the relationships between them. It will represent the types of relationships between hysteroscopy and EEG findings.

Keywords: Bioinformatics, Protein 14-3-3, EEG, Endometrial cancer, Ontology.

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Authors: Amir Alani, Mojtaba Mahmoodian, Anna Romanova, Asaad Faramarzi

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Pipelines are extensively used engineering structures which convey fluid from one place to another. Most of the time, pipelines are placed underground and are encumbered by soil weight and traffic loads. Corrosion of pipe material is the most common form of pipeline deterioration and should be considered in both the strength and serviceability analysis of pipes. The study in this research focuses on concrete pipes in sewage systems (concrete sewers). This research firstly investigates how to involve the effect of corrosion as a time dependent process of deterioration in the structural and failure analysis of this type of pipe. Then three probabilistic time dependent reliability analysis methods including the first passage probability theory, the gamma distributed degradation model and the Monte Carlo simulation technique are discussed and developed. Sensitivity analysis indexes which can be used to identify the most important parameters that affect pipe failure are also discussed. The reliability analysis methods developed in this paper contribute as rational tools for decision makers with regard to the strengthening and rehabilitation of existing pipelines. The results can be used to obtain a cost-effective strategy for the management of the sewer system.

Keywords: Reliability analysis, service life prediction, Monte Carlo simulation method, first passage probability theory, gamma distributed degradation model.

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Authors: Mardiana Ahamad Zabidi, Nurain Abdul Karim, Nur Shazrinna Sazali

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Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) pericarp is considered as agricultural waste and not fully utilized in food products. It is widely reported that mangosteen pericarp contains high antioxidant properties. The objective of this study is to develop novel yellow alkaline noodle (YAN) substituted with different levels of mangosteen pericarp powder (MPP). YAN formulation was substituted with different levels of MPP (0%, 5%, 10% and 15%). The effect on nutritional and antioxidant properties was evaluated. Higher substitution levels of MPP resulted in significant increase (p<0.05) of ash, fibre, specific mineral elements and antioxidant properties (total phenolic, total flavonoid, anthocyanin and DPPH) than control sample.

Keywords: Yellow alkaline noodle, mangosteen pericarp powder, proximate composition, antioxidant properties.

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Authors: Reihaneh Montazeri Shatouri, Rosmini Omar, Wan Khairuzzaman Wan Ismail

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This study aims at investigating factors in research and development (R&D) growth and exploring the role of R&D management in enhancing social innovation and productivity improvement in Iran-s industrial sector. It basically explores the common types of R&D activities and the industries which benefited the most from active R&D units in Iran. The researchers generated qualitative analyses obtained from primary and secondary data. The primary data have been retrieved through interviews with five key players (Managing Director, Internal Manager, General Manager, Executive Manager, and Project Manager) in the industrial sector. The secondary data acquired from an investigation on Mazandaran, a province of northern Iran. The findings highlight Iran-s focuses of R & D on cost reduction and upgrading productivity. Industries that have benefited the most from active R&D units are metallic, machinery and equipment design, and automotive. We rank order the primary effects of R&D on productivity improvement as follows, industry improvement, economic growth, using professional human resources, generating productivity and creativity culture, creating a competitive and innovative environment, and increasing people-s knowledge. Generally, low budget dedication and insufficient supply of highly skilled scientists and engineers are two important obstacles for R&D in Iran. Whereas, R&D has resulted in improvement in Iranian society, transfer of contemporary knowledge into the international market is still lacking.

Keywords: Productivity, R&D, Transfer of Knowledge

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Authors: Najmeh Shirvani Farsani, Abbas Ali Zamani, Saeed Abbasi, Katayoon Kheradmand

Abstract:

The toxicity of aqueous extracts of two plants, Nicotiana tobacum and Eucalyptus globulus were investigated against second instar larvae of Lycoriella auripila, one of the most important pests of button mushroom, using agar dilution technique. Seven concentrations of aqueous extracts of both plants were applied on second instar larvae and their mortality were evaluated after 24, 48 and 72 h. The obtained results revealed that aqueous extracts of N. tabacum and E. globulus caused 77.55 and 72.5% mortality of larvae of L. auripila at concentration of 4000 ppm after 72h, respectively. Toxicities of tobacco extract after 24, 48 and 72 h were 1.52, 1.85 and 1.70 times greather than eucalyptus, respectively. The estimated LC50 after 24, 48 and 72 h were 7316.5, 2468.5 and 2013.1 ppm for tobacco and 64870.0, 6839.5 and 3326.4 ppm for eucalyptus, respectively. These plants merit further study as potential insecticides for the control of L. auripila.

Keywords: LC50, Lycoriella auripila, plants extracts, Toxicity

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Authors: Arvind Bhardwaj, Ajay Gupta, Arun Kanda

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Theory of Constraints has been emerging as an important tool for optimization of manufacturing/service systems. Goldratt in his first book “ The Goal " gave the introduction on Theory of Constraints and its applications in a factory scenario. A large number of production managers around the globe read this book but only a few could implement it in their plants because the book did not explain the steps to implement TOC in the factory. To overcome these limitations, Goldratt wrote this book to explain TOC, DBR and the method to implement it. In this paper, an attempt has been made to summarize the salient features of TOC and DBR listed in the book and the correct approach to implement TOC in a factory setting. The simulator available along with the book was actually used by the authors and the claim of Goldratt regarding the use of DBR and Buffer management to ease the work of production managers was tested and was found to be correct.

Keywords: Drum Buffer Rope (DBR), Optimized ProductionTechnology (OPT), Capacity Constrained Resource (CCR)

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Authors: S. Habte, K. Ouazzane, P. Patel, S. Patel

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The dynamic and highly competitive nature of the consumer electronics retail industry means that businesses in this industry are experiencing different decision making challenges in relation to pricing, inventory control, consumer satisfaction and product offerings. To overcome the challenges facing retailers and create opportunities, we propose a generic data warehousing solution which can be applied to a wide range of consumer electronics retailers with a minimum configuration. The solution includes a dimensional data model, a template SQL script, a high level architectural descriptions, ETL tool developed using C#, a set of APIs, and data access tools. It has been successfully applied by ASK Outlets Ltd UK resulting in improved productivity and enhanced sales growth.

Keywords: Consumer electronics retail, dimensional data model, data analysis, generic data warehousing, reporting.

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Authors: S. M. Ali, N. R. Dhar

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Tool wear and surface roughness prediction plays a significant role in machining industry for proper planning and control of machining parameters and optimization of cutting conditions. This paper deals with developing an artificial neural network (ANN) model as a function of cutting parameters in turning steel under minimum quantity lubrication (MQL). A feed-forward backpropagation network with twenty five hidden neurons has been selected as the optimum network. The co-efficient of determination (R2) between model predictions and experimental values are 0.9915, 0.9906, 0.9761 and 0.9627 in terms of VB, VM, VS and Ra respectively. The results imply that the model can be used easily to forecast tool wear and surface roughness in response to cutting parameters.

Keywords: ANN, MQL, Surface Roughness, Tool Wear.

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Authors: Yu Chen, Weiwei Ren, Xiaojing Mu, Feng Zhang, Yi Xu

Abstract:

The superhydrophobic surface is widely used to reduce friction for the flow inside micro-channel and can be used to control/manipulate fluid, cells and even proteins in lab-on-chip. Fabricating micro grooves on hydrophobic surfaces is a common method to obtain such superhydrophobic surface. This study utilized the numerical method to investigate the effect of eccentric micro-grooves on the friction of flow inside micro-channel. A detailed parametric study was conducted to reveal how the eccentricity of micro-grooves affects the micro-channel flow under different grooves sizes, channel heights, Reynolds number. The results showed that the superhydrophobic surface with eccentric micro-grooves induces less friction than the counter part with aligning micro-grooves, which means requiring less power for pumps.

Keywords: Superhydrophobic, transverse grooves, heat transfer, slip length, microfluidics.

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Authors: S.F. Faisal, A.H.M.A. Rahim, J.M. Bakhashwain

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Design of a fixed parameter robust STATCOM controller for a multi-machine power system through an H-? based loop-shaping procedure is presented. The trial and error part of the graphical loop-shaping procedure has been eliminated by embedding a particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique in the design loop. Robust controllers were designed considering the detailed dynamics of the multi-machine system and results were compared with reduced order models. The robust strategy employing loop-shaping and PSO algorithms was observed to provide very good damping profile for a wide range of operation and for various disturbance conditions. 

Keywords: STATCOM, Robust control, Power system damping, Particle Swarm Optimization, Loop-shaping.

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Authors: EL-Sayed M. M. EL-Refaie, Mohamed R. Salem, Wael A. Ahmed

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Power systems and transformer are intrinsic apparatus, therefore its reliability and safe operation is important to determine their operation conditions, and the industry uses quality control tests in the insulation design of oil filled transformers. Hence the service period effect on AC dielectric strength is significant. The effect of aging on transformer oil physical, chemical and electrical properties was studied using the international testing methods for the evaluation of transformer oil quality. The study was carried out on six transformers operate in the field and for monitoring periods over twenty years. The properties which are strongly time dependent were specified and those which have a great impact on the transformer oil acidity, breakdown voltage and dissolved gas analysis were defined. Several tests on the transformers oil were studied to know the time of purifying or changing it, moreover prediction of the characteristics of it under different operation conditions.

Keywords: Dissolved Gas Analysis, Prediction, Purifying and Changing.

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Authors: Jung-Woon Lee, Jung-Taek Kim, Jae-Chang Park, In-Koo Hwang, Sung-Pil Lyu

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Computerized alarm systems have been applied increasingly to nuclear power plants. For existing plants, an add-on computer alarm system is often installed to the control rooms. Alarm avalanches during the plant transients are major problems with the alarm systems in nuclear power plants. Computerized alarm systems can process alarms to reduce the number of alarms during the plant transients. This paper describes various alarm processing methods, an alarm cause tracking function, and various alarm presentation schemes to show alarm information to the operators effectively which are considered during the development of several computerized alarm systems for Korean nuclear power plants and are found to be helpful to the operators.

Keywords: Alarm processing, Alarm presentation, Alarm causetracking, Alarm logic diagram computerization, Alarm patternrecognition.

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Authors: Heide Lukosch, Roy Van Bussel, Sebastiaan Meijer

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Serious games have proven to be a useful instrument to engage learners and increase motivation. Nevertheless, a broadly accepted, practical instructional design approach to serious games does not exist. In this paper, we introduce the use of an instructional design model that has not been applied to serious games yet, and has some advantages compared to other design approaches. We present the case of mechanics mechatronics education to illustrate the close match with timing and role of knowledge and information that the instructional design model prescribes and how this has been translated to a rigidly structured game design. The structured approach answers the learning needs of applicable knowledge within the target group. It combines advantages of simulations with strengths of entertainment games to foster learner-s motivation in the best possible way. A prototype of the game will be evaluated along a well-respected evaluation method within an advanced test setting including test and control group.

Keywords: Serious Gaming, Simulation, Complex Learning.

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