Search results for: research and development

Authors: Isaac Kwaku Adu, Jacob Doku Tetteh, John Joseph Puthenkalam, Kwabena Effah Antwi

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The continuous increase in population implies increase in food demand. There is, therefore, the need to increase agricultural production and other forest products to ensure food security and economic development. This paper employs the three-level intensity analysis to assess the total change of land-use in two-time intervals (1986-2002 and 2002-2017), the net change and swap as well as gross gains and losses in the two intervals. The results revealed that the overall change in the 31-year period was greater in the second period (2002-2017). Agriculture and forest categories lost in the first period while the other land class gained. However, in the second period agriculture and built-up increased greatly while forest, water bodies and thick bushes/shrubland experienced loss. An assessment revealed a reduction of forest in both periods but was greater in the second period and expansion of agricultural land was recorded as population increases. The pixels gaining built-up targeted agricultural land in both intervals, it also targeted thick bushes/shrubland and waterbody in the second period only. Built-up avoided forest in both intervals as well as waterbody and thick bushes/shrubland. To help in developing the best land-use strategies/policies, a further validation of the social factors is necessary.

Keywords: Agricultural land-use, forest, intensity analysis, land-cover change, sustainable land-use.

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Authors: Erika Martinez Ramirez, Rene V. Mayorga

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In our modern world, more physical transactions are being substituted by electronic transactions (i.e. banking, shopping, and payments), many businesses and companies are performing most of their operations through the internet. Instead of having a physical commerce, internet visitors are now adapting to electronic commerce (e-Commerce). The ability of web users to reach products worldwide can be greatly benefited by creating friendly and personalized online business portals. Internet visitors will return to a particular website when they can find the information they need or want easily. Dealing with this human conceptualization brings the incorporation of Artificial/Computational Intelligence techniques in the creation of customized portals. From these techniques, Fuzzy-Set technologies can make many useful contributions to the development of such a human-centered endeavor as e-Commerce. The main objective of this paper is the implementation of a Paradigm for the Intelligent Design and Operation of Human-Computer interfaces. In particular, the paradigm is quite appropriate for the intelligent design and operation of software modules that display information (such Web Pages, graphic user interfaces GUIs, Multimedia modules) on a computer screen. The human conceptualization of the user personal information is analyzed throughout a Cascaded Fuzzy Inference (decision-making) System to generate the User Ascribe Qualities, which identify the user and that can be used to customize portals with proper Web links.

Keywords: Fuzzy Logic, Internet, Electronic Commerce, Intelligent Portals, Electronic Shopping.

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Authors: N.Poolsawad, C.Kambhampati, J. G. F. Cleland

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In this paper, we investigated the characteristic of a clinical dataseton the feature selection and classification measurements which deal with missing values problem.And also posed the appropriated techniques to achieve the aim of the activity; in this research aims to find features that have high effect to mortality and mortality time frame. We quantify the complexity of a clinical dataset. According to the complexity of the dataset, we proposed the data mining processto cope their complexity; missing values, high dimensionality, and the prediction problem by using the methods of missing value replacement, feature selection, and classification.The experimental results will extend to develop the prediction model for cardiology.

Keywords: feature selection, missing values, classification, clinical dataset, heart failure.

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Authors: Alonggot Limcharoen Kaeochotchuangkul, Pathomporn Sawatchai

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This research aims to design and build a wet etching system, which is suitable for anisotropic wet etching, in order to reduce etching time, to reduce hillocks on the etched surface (to reduce roughness), and to create a 45-degree wall angle (micro-mirror). This study would start by designing a wet etching system. There are four main components in this system: an ultrasonic cleaning, a condenser, a motor and a substrate holder. After that, an ultrasonic machine was modified by applying a condenser to maintain the consistency of the solution concentration during the etching process and installing a motor for improving the roughness. This effect on the etch rate and the roughness showed that the etch rate increased and the roughness was reduced.

Keywords: Anisotropic wet etching, wet etching system, Hillocks, ultrasonic cleaning.

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Authors: G. Hernandez-Maskivker, G. Ryan, M. Blazey, M. Pàmies

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Waiting times and queues are a daily problem for theme parks. Fast lines or priority queues appear as a solution for a specific segment of customers, that is, tourists who are willing to pay to avoid waiting. This paper analyzes the fast line system and explores the factors that affect the decision to purchase a fast line pass. A greater understanding of these factors may help companies to design appropriate products and services. This conceptual paper was based on a literature review in marketing and consumer behavior. Additional research was identified in related disciplines such as leisure studies, psychology, and sociology. A conceptual framework of the factors influencing the decision to purchase a fast line pass is presented.

Keywords: Tourist behavior, fast lines, theme park, willing to pay.

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Authors: Stephanie Russo Fabris, Edmara Thays Neres Menezes, Ruirogeres dos Santos Cruz, Lucio Leonardo Siqueira Santos, Suzana Leitao Russo

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The statistical process control (SPC) is one of the most powerful tools developed to assist ineffective control of quality, involves collecting, organizing and interpreting data during production. This article aims to show how the use of CEP industries can control and continuously improve product quality through monitoring of production that can detect deviations of parameters representing the process by reducing the amount of off-specification products and thus the costs of production. This study aimed to conduct a technological forecasting in order to characterize the research being done related to the CEP. The survey was conducted in the databases Spacenet, WIPO and the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI). Among the largest are the United States depositors and deposits via PCT, the classification section that was presented in greater abundance to F.

Keywords: Statistical Process Control, Industries

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Authors: Hyeondal Jeong, Yoonjung Baek

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This research examines the effects of positive psychological capital (or PsyCap) on employee’s outcomes (satisfaction, commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, innovation behavior and individual creativity). This study conducted a meta-analysis of articles published in the Republic of Korea. As a result, positive psychological capital has a positive effect on the behavior of employees. Heterogeneity was identified among the studies included in the analysis and the context factors were analyzed; the study proposes contextual factors such as team tenure. The moderating effect of team tenure was not statistically significant. The implications were discussed based on the analysis results.

Keywords: Positive psychological capital, satisfaction, commitment, OCB, creativity, meta-analysis.

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Authors: R. Moradpour, S.B. Ahmadi, T. Parhizkar, M. Ghodsian, E. Taheri-Nassaj

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Superfine pigments that consist of natural and artificial pigments and are made of mineral soil with special characteristics are used in cementitious materials for various purposes. These pigments can decrease the amount of cement needed without loss of performance and strength and also change the monotonous and turbid colours of concrete into various attractive and light colours. In this study, the mechanical strength and resistance against chloride and halogen attacks of cement mortars containing ceramic nano-pigments in an affected environment are studied. This research suggests utilisation of ceramic nano-pigments between 50 and 1000 nm, obtaining full-depth coloured concrete, preventing chlorine penetration in the concrete up to a certain depth, and controlling corrosion in steel rebar with the Potentiostat (EG&G) apparatus.

Keywords: Nano-structures, Corrosion, Mechanical properties, Nano-pigments.

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Authors: Idil Kanter Otcu

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Nowadays, due to the growing problems of energy supply and the drastic reduction of natural non-renewable resources, the development of new applications in the energy sector and steps towards greater efficiency in energy consumption are required. Since buildings account for a large share of energy consumption, increasing the structural density of buildings causes an increase in energy consumption. This increase in energy consumption means that energy efficiency approaches to building design and the integration of new systems using emerging technologies become necessary in order to curb this consumption. As new systems for productive usage of generated energy are developed, buildings that require less energy to operate, with rational use of resources, need to be developed. One solution for reducing the energy requirements of buildings is through landscape planning, design and application. Requirements such as heating, cooling and lighting can be met with lower energy consumption through planting design, which can help to achieve more efficient and rational use of resources. Within this context, rather than a planting design which considers only the ecological and aesthetic features of plants, these considerations should also extend to spatial organization whereby the relationship between the site and open spaces in the context of climatic elements and planting designs are taken into account. In this way, the planting design can serve an additional purpose. In this study, a landscape design which takes into consideration location, local climate morphology and solar angle will be illustrated on a sample building project.

Keywords: Energy efficiency, landscape design, plant design, xeriscape landscape.

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Authors: Helena Dvořáčková, Jakub Elbl, Irina Mikajlo, Antonín Kintl, Jaroslav Hynšt, Olga Urbánková, Jaroslav Záhora

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Application of biochar to arable soils represents a new approach to restore soil health and quality. Many studies reported the positive effect of biochar application on soil fertility and development of soil microbial community. Moreover biochar may affect the soil water retention, but this effect has not been sufficiently described yet. Therefore this study deals with the influence of biochar application on: microbial activities in soil, availability of mineral nitrogen in soil for microorganisms, mineral nitrogen retention and plant production. To demonstrate the effect of biochar addition on the above parameters, the pot experiment was realized. As a model crop, Lactuca sativa L. was used and cultivated from December 10th 2014 till March 22th 2015 in climate chamber in thoroughly homogenized arable soil with and without addition of biochar. Five variants of experiment (V1 – V5) with different regime of irrigation were prepared. Variants V1 – V2 were fertilized by mineral nitrogen, V3 – V4 by biochar and V5 was a control. The significant differences were found only in plant production and mineral nitrogen retention. The highest content of mineral nitrogen in soil was detected in V1 and V2, about 250 % in comparison with the other variants. The positive effect of biochar application on soil fertility, mineral nitrogen availability was not found. On the other hand results of plant production indicate the possible positive effect of biochar application on soil water retention.

Keywords: Arable soil, biochar, drought, mineral Nitrogen.

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Authors: I. V. Kuzminov

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The alternative hypothesis of the physics of gravitation is put forward in this paper. The hypothesis is constructed on the laws of classical physics. The process of expansion of the Universe explains the physics of gravity. The expansion of the Universe induces the resistance of gyroscopic forces of electron’s rotation. The second component of gravity forces is the resistance arising from the second derivative of linear expansion. This hypothesis does not reject the existing foundation of settlement, particularly as it is empirically constructed. The forces of gravitation and inertia share a common nature, which has been recognized before. The presented hypothesis does not criticize existing theories of gravitation; rather, it explores a separate theme. It is important to acknowledge that the expansion of the Universe exhibits isotropic characteristics. The proposed hypothesis provides a fundamental direction for further research. It is worth noting that this article does not aim to encompass all possible aspects of future investigations.

Keywords: Gyroscopic forces, the unity of the micro- and macrocosm, the expansion of the universe, the second derivative of expansion.

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Authors: Lexuan Zhong, Chang-Seo Lee, Fariborz Haghighat, Stuart Batterman, John C. Little

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Ultraviolet photocatalytic oxidation (UV-PCO) technology has been recommended as a green approach to health indoor environment when it is integrated into mechanical ventilation systems for inorganic and organic compounds removal as well as energy saving due to less outdoor air intakes. Although much research has been devoted to UV-PCO, limited information is available on the UV-PCO behavior tested by the mixtures in literature. This project investigated UV-PCO performance and by-product generation using a single and a mixture of acetone and MEK at 100 ppb each in a single-pass duct system in an effort to obtain knowledge associated with competitive photochemical reactions involved in. The experiments were performed at 20 % RH, 22 °C, and a gas flow rate of 128 m3/h (75 cfm). Results show that acetone and MEK mutually reduced each other’s PCO removal efficiency, particularly negative removal efficiency for acetone. These findings were different from previous observation of facilitatory effects on the adsorption of acetone and MEK on photocatalyst surfaces.

Keywords: By-products, inhibitory effect, mixture, photocatalytic oxidation.

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Authors: Salah Gariani, Taher Dao, Khaled Jegandi

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Wiper inserts are widely used nowadays, particularly in turning and milling operations, due to their unique geometric characteristics that generate superb surface finish and improve productivity. Wiper inserts can produce double the feed rate while preserving comparable surface roughness compared to that produced by conventional cutting tools. This paper reports an experimental investigation of surface quality generated in the precision dry turning of 6060 Aluminium alloy using conventional and wiper inserts at different cutting conditions. The Taguchi L9 array, Analysis of Means (AOM) and variance (ANOVA) were employed in the development of the experimental design and to optimise the process parameter identified: average surface roughness (Ra). The experimental results show that the wiper inserts substantially improved the surface quality of the machined samples by a factor of two compared to those for the conventional insert under all cutting conditions. The ANOVA and AOM analysis showed that the type of insert is the most significant factor affecting surface roughness, with a Percentage Contribution Ratio (PCR) value of 67.41%. Feed rate also significantly affected surface roughness but contributed less to its variation. No significant difference was found between values of Ra using wiper inserts under dry and wet cooling modes when turning 6060 Aluminium alloy.

Keywords: 6060 Aluminium alloy, conventional and wiper carbide tools, dry turning, average surface roughness.

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Authors: M. J. Pourvaghar, M. E. Bahram

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Obesity and overweight is one of the most common metabolic disorders in industrialized countries and in developing countries. One consequence of pathological obesity is cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. Chemerin is an adipocyne that plays a role in the regulation of the adipocyte function and the metabolism of glucose in the liver and musculoskeletal system. Most likely, chemerin is involved in obesity-related disorders such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Aerobic exercises reduce the level of chemerin and cause macrophage penetration into fat cells and inflammatory factors. Several efforts have been made to clarify the cellular and molecular mechanisms of hypertrophy and muscular atrophy. Myostatin, a new member of the TGF-β family, is a transforming growth factor β that its expression negatively regulates the growth of the skeletal muscle; and the increase of this hormone has been observed in conditions of muscular atrophy. While in response to muscle overload, its levels decrease after the atrophy period, TGF-β is the most important cytokine in the development of skeletal muscle. Myostatin plays an important role in muscle control, and animal and human studies show a negative role of myostatin in the growth of skeletal muscle. Separation of myostatin from Golgi begins on the ninth day of the onset period and continues until birth at all times of muscle growth. Higher levels of myostatin are found in obese people. Resistance training for 10 weeks could reduce levels of plasma myostatin.

Keywords: Chemerin, myostatin, obesity, physical activity.

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Authors: S. M. Mirdamadi, S. Esmaeili, S. A. Tohidloo

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The main purpose of this research was to analyze Socio-Cultural obstacles of disseminating of nanotechnology in Iran's agricultural section. One hundred twenty eight out of a total of 190 researchers with different levels of expertise in and familiarity with nanotechnology were randomly selected and questionnaires completed by them. Face validity have been done by expert's suggestion and correction, reliability by using Cronbakh-Alpha formula. The results of a factor analysis showed variation for different factors. For cultural factors 19/475 percent, for management 13/139 percent, information factor 11/277 percent, production factor 9/703 percent, social factor 9/267 percent, and for attitude factor it became 8/947 percent. Also results indicated that socio-cultural factors were the most important obstacle for nanotechnology dissemination in agricultural section in Iran.

Keywords: Agriculture, Iran, nanotechnology, public perception, social-cultural obstacles.

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Authors: G. Rezai, P.K.Teng, Z. Mohamed, M.N Shamsudin

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Changing in consumers lifestyles and food consumption patterns provide a great opportunity in developing the functional food sector in Malaysia. There is only a little knowledge about whether Malaysian consumers are aware of functional food and if so what image consumers have of this product. The objective of this research is to determine the extent to which selected socioeconomic characteristics and attitudes influence consumers- awareness of functional food. A survey was conducted in the Klang Valley, Malaysia where 439 respondents were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The result shows that most respondents have a positive attitude towards functional food. For the binary logistic estimation, the results indicate that age, income and other factors such as concern about food safety, subscribing to cooking or health magazines, being a vegetarian and consumers who have been involved in a food production company significantly influence Malaysian consumers- awareness towards functional food.

Keywords: Binary logistic model, functional foods, knowledge and awareness, perception

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Authors: E. Mulliner, V. Maliene

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The concept of housing affordability is a contested issue, but a pressing and widespread problem for many countries. Simple ratio measures based on housing expenditure and income are habitually used to defined and assess housing affordability. However, conceptualising and measuring affordability in this manner focuses only on financial attributes and fails to deal with wider issues such as housing quality, location and access to services and facilities. The research is based on the notion that the housing affordability problem encompasses more than the financial costs of housing and a households ability to meet such costs and must address larger issues such as social and environmental sustainability and the welfare of households. Therefore, the need arises for a broad and more encompassing set of attributes by which housing affordability can be assessed. This paper presents a system of criteria by which the affordability of different housing locations could be assessed in a comprehensive and sustainable manner. Moreover, the paper explores the way in which such criteria could be measured.

Keywords: Affordable housing, attributes, housing affordability, sustainable communities

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Authors: Hazem M. El-Bakry, Ahmed Atwan

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Computer networks are essential part in computerbased information systems. The performance of these networks has a great influence on the whole information system. Measuring the usability criteria and customers satisfaction on small computer network is very important. In this article, an effective approach for measuring the usability of business network in an information system is introduced. The usability process for networking provides us with a flexible and a cost-effective way to assess the usability of a network and its products. In addition, the proposed approach can be used to certify network product usability late in the development cycle. Furthermore, it can be used to help in developing usable interfaces very early in the cycle and to give a way to measure, track, and improve usability. Moreover, a new approach for fast information processing over computer networks is presented. The entire data are collected together in a long vector and then tested as a one input pattern. Proposed fast time delay neural networks (FTDNNs) use cross correlation in the frequency domain between the tested data and the input weights of neural networks. It is proved mathematically and practically that the number of computation steps required for the presented time delay neural networks is less than that needed by conventional time delay neural networks (CTDNNs). Simulation results using MATLAB confirm the theoretical computations.

Keywords: Usability Criteria, Computer Networks, Fast Information Processing, Cross Correlation, Frequency Domain.

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Authors: Nesli Aydin

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Waste management decision making in developing countries has moved towards being more pragmatic, transparent, sustainable and comprehensive. Turkey is required to make its waste related legislation compatible with European Legislation as it is a candidate country of the European Union. Improper Turkish practices such as open burning and open dumping practices must be abandoned urgently, and robust waste management systems have to be structured. The determination of an optimum waste management system in any region requires a comprehensive analysis in which many criteria are taken into account by stakeholders. In conducting this sort of analysis, there are two main criteria which are evaluated by waste management analysts; economic viability and environmentally friendliness. From an analytical point of view, a central characteristic of sustainable development is an economic-ecological integration. It is predicted that building a robust waste management system will need significant effort and cooperation between the stakeholders in developing countries such as Turkey. In this regard, this study aims to provide data regarding the cost and environmental burdens of waste treatment technologies such as an incinerator, an autoclave (with different capacities), a hydroclave and a microwave coupled with updated information on calculation methods, and a framework for comparing any proposed scenario performances on a cost and environmental basis.

Keywords: Decision making, economic viability, environmentally friendliness, stakeholder, waste management systems.

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Authors: Jianwei Ma, Diriba Gemechu

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In seismic data processing, attenuation of random noise is the basic step to improve quality of data for further application of seismic data in exploration and development in different gas and oil industries. The signal-to-noise ratio of the data also highly determines quality of seismic data. This factor affects the reliability as well as the accuracy of seismic signal during interpretation for different purposes in different companies. To use seismic data for further application and interpretation, we need to improve the signal-to-noise ration while attenuating random noise effectively. To improve the signal-to-noise ration and attenuating seismic random noise by preserving important features and information about seismic signals, we introduce the concept of anisotropic total fractional order denoising algorithm. The anisotropic total fractional order variation model defined in fractional order bounded variation is proposed as a regularization in seismic denoising. The split Bregman algorithm is employed to solve the minimization problem of the anisotropic total fractional order variation model and the corresponding denoising algorithm for the proposed method is derived. We test the effectiveness of theproposed method for synthetic and real seismic data sets and the denoised result is compared with F-X deconvolution and non-local means denoising algorithm.

Keywords: Anisotropic total fractional order variation, fractional order bounded variation, seismic random noise attenuation, Split Bregman Algorithm.

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Authors: Rahim Ada

Abstract:

The research was conducted with three replications as “Randomized Block Design” in Konya-Turkey ecological conditions. In the study, 16 of promising safflower lines (A8, E1, F4, F6, G16, H14, I1), and 1 cultivar (Dinçer) were evaluated in 2008-09 growing season. Some of the yield components such as plant height (cm), first branch height (cm), number of branches per plant, 1000 seed weight (g), seed yield (kg ha-1), oil content (%), oil yield (kg ha-1) were determined. Winter sowing showed higher values than spring sowing. The highest values were taken from Dinçer for plant height (86.7 cm), E1 (37.5 cm) for first branch height, F6 for number of branch (11.6 per plant), I1 for number of head (24.9 per plant), A8 for 1000 seed weight (51.75 g), Dinçer for seed yield (2927.1 kg ha-1), oil content (28.79 %) and also for oil yield (87.44 kg ha-1) respectively.

Keywords: Oil yield, Safflower, Sowing time, Yield components

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Authors: I. Abuiziah, A. Oulhaj, K. Sebari, D. Ouazar

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This paper presents the problem of modeling and simulating of transient phenomena in conveying pipeline systems based on the rigid column and full elastic methods. Transient analysis is important and one of the more challenging and complicated flow problem in the design and the operation of water pipeline systems. Transient can produce large pressure forces and rapid fluid acceleration into a water pipeline system, these disturbances may result in device failures, system fatigue or pipe ruptures, and even the dirty water intrusion. Several methods have been introduced and used to analyze transient flow, an accurate analysis and suitable protection devices should be used to protect water pipeline systems. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta method has been used to solve the dynamic and continuity equations in the rigid column method, while the characteristics method used to solve these equations in the full elastic method. The results obtained provide that the model is an efficient tool for flow transient analysis and provide approximately identical results by using these two methods. Moreover; using the simple surge tank ”open surge tank” reduces the unfavorable effects of transients.

Keywords: Elastic method, Flow transient, Open surge tank, Pipeline, Protection devices, Numerical model, Rigid column method.

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Authors: C. Manjula, Lilly Florence

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Software technology is developing rapidly which leads to the growth of various industries. Now-a-days, software-based applications have been adopted widely for business purposes. For any software industry, development of reliable software is becoming a challenging task because a faulty software module may be harmful for the growth of industry and business. Hence there is a need to develop techniques which can be used for early prediction of software defects. Due to complexities in manual prediction, automated software defect prediction techniques have been introduced. These techniques are based on the pattern learning from the previous software versions and finding the defects in the current version. These techniques have attracted researchers due to their significant impact on industrial growth by identifying the bugs in software. Based on this, several researches have been carried out but achieving desirable defect prediction performance is still a challenging task. To address this issue, here we present a machine learning based hybrid technique for software defect prediction. First of all, Genetic Algorithm (GA) is presented where an improved fitness function is used for better optimization of features in data sets. Later, these features are processed through Decision Tree (DT) classification model. Finally, an experimental study is presented where results from the proposed GA-DT based hybrid approach is compared with those from the DT classification technique. The results show that the proposed hybrid approach achieves better classification accuracy.

Keywords: Decision tree, genetic algorithm, machine learning, software defect prediction.

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Authors: Dariush Semnani, Javad Yekrang, Hossein Ghayoor

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Concerning the measurement of friction properties of textiles and fabrics using Kawabata Evaluation System (KES), whose output is constrained to the surface friction factor of fabric, and no other data would be generated; this research has been conducted to gain information about surface roughness regarding its surface friction factor. To assess roughness properties of light nonwovens, a 3-dimensional model of a surface has been simulated with regular sinuous waves through it as an ideal surface. A new factor was defined, namely Surface Roughness Factor, through comparing roughness properties of simulated surface and real specimens. The relation between the proposed factor and friction factor of specimens has been analyzed by regression, and results showed a meaningful correlation between them. It can be inferred that the new presented factor can be used as an acceptable criterion for evaluating the roughness properties of light nonwoven fabrics.

Keywords: Surface roughness, Nonwoven, Machine vision, Image processing.

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Authors: D. Khodadadi Dehkordi

Abstract:

This research was planned in order to study the effect of drought stress and different levels of Superabsorbent and their effect on grain yield, biologic yield and harvest index. In this study, 3 different depths of irrigation were considered as the main treatment I1, I2, I3 as 100, 75 and 50 percent of water requirement of plants respectively and different levels of Superabsorbent were used as secondary treatment (S0, S1, S2 and S3, equal to 0 (control), 15, 30 and 45 gr/m2 respectively). According to the results, independent effects of irrigation and Superabsorbent treatments at 1% level on biologic and grain yield of corn were significant. In addition, independent effect of irrigation treatments at 5% level on harvest index was significant. But independent effect of Superabsorbent treatments on harvest index was not significant.

Keywords: Corn, Deficit irrigation, Superabsorbent, Yield.

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Authors: S. Rasti, M. A. Rajabzadeh

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Nickel-bearing laterites occur as two parallel belts along Sedimentary Zagros Orogenic (SZO) and Metamorphic Sanandaj-Sirjan (MSS) petrostructural zones, Fars Province, south Iran. An undisturbed vertical profile of these laterites includes protolith, saprolite, clay, and oxide horizons from base to top. Highly serpentinized harzburgite with relicts of olivine and orthopyroxene is regarded as the source rock. The laterites are unusual in lacking a significant saprolite zone with little development of Ni-silicates. Hematite, saponite, dolomite, smectite and clinochlore increase, while calcite, olivine, lizardite and chrysotile decrease from saprolite to oxide zones. Smectite and clinochlore with minor calcite are the major minerals in clay zone. Contacts of different horizons in laterite profiles are gradual and characterized by a decrease in Mg concentration ranging from 18.1 to 9.3 wt.% in oxide and saprolite, respectively. The maximum Ni concentration is 0.34 wt.% (NiO) in the base of the oxide zone, and goethite is the major Ni-bearing phase. From saprolite to oxide horizons, Al₂O₃, K₂O, TiO₂, and CaO decrease, while SiO₂, MnO, NiO, and Fe₂O₃ increase. Silica content reaches up to 45 wt.% in the upper part of the soil profile. There is a decrease in pH (8.44-8.17) and an increase in organic matter (0.28-0.59 wt.%) from base to top of the soils. The studied laterites are classified in the oxide clans which were derived from ophiolite ultramafic rocks under Mediterranean climate conditions.

Keywords: Iran, laterite, mineralogy, ophiolite.

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Authors: Nasser Ghassembaglou, Abdullah Bolek, Oktay Yilmaz, Ertan Oznergiz, Hikmet Kocabas, Safak Yilmaz

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Nanofibers are effective materials which have frequently been investigated to produce high quality air filters. As an environmental approach our aim is to achieve nanofibers by melting. In spun-bond systems extruder, spin-pump, nozzle package and attenuator are used. Molten polymer which flows from extruder is made steady by spin-pump. Regular melt passes through nozzle holes and forms fibers under high pressure. The fibers pulled from nozzle are shrunk to micron size by an attenuator; after solidification, they are collected on a conveyor. In this research different designs of attenuator system have been studied; and also CFD analysis has been done on these different designs. Afterwards, one of these designs tested and finally some optimizations have been done to reduce pressure loss and increase air velocity.

Keywords: Attenuator, nanofiber, spun-bond.

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Authors: Paiboon Jeamponk

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The Bangnanglee Sub-district Administrative Office, Thailand had initiated a policy to environmental protection with encouraging household waste management in order to promote civil responsibility for domestic hygienic. This research studied the household behaviors on solid waste and wastewater management. A sample population of 306 families answered a questionnaire. The study showed that, on average, domestic activities had produced 1.93 kilograms of waste per household per day. It has been found that 79% of the households made several attempts to reduce their own amount of waste. 80% of the households stationed their own garbage bins. 71% managed their waste by selling recyclable products. As for the rest of the waste, 51% burned them, while 29% disposed their waste in the nearby public trashcans and other 13% have them buried. As for wastewater, 60% of the households disposed it into the sewage, whereas 30% disposed them right from their elevated house.

Keywords: Environmental integrated management, environmental protection, household waste management.

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Authors: M. Heck, H. Vettiger

Abstract:

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are the backbone of central Europe’s economies and have a significant contribution to the gross domestic product. Production planning and scheduling (PPS) is still a crucial element in manufacturing industries of the 21^st century even though this area of research is more than a century old. The topic of PPS is well researched especially in the context of large enterprises in the manufacturing industry. However the implementation of PPS methodologies within SME is mostly unobserved. This work analyzes how PPS is implemented in SME with the geographical focus on Switzerland and its vicinity. Based on restricted resources compared to large enterprises, SME have to face different challenges. The real problem areas of selected enterprises in regards of PPS are identified and evaluated. For the identified real-life problem areas of SME clear and detailed recommendations are created, covering concepts and best practices and the efficient usage of PPS. Furthermore the economic and entrepreneurial value for companies is lined out and why the implementation of the introduced recommendations is advised.

Keywords: Central Europe, PPS, Production Planning, SME.

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Authors: Zviad Ghadua, Biswa Bhattacharya

Abstract:

The Flash Flood Guidance (FFG) provides the rainfall amount of a given duration necessary to cause flooding. The approach is based on the development of rainfall-runoff curves, which helps us to find out the rainfall amount that would cause flooding. An alternative approach, mostly experimented with Italian Alpine catchments, is based on determining threshold discharges from past events and on finding whether or not an oncoming flood has its magnitude more than some critical discharge thresholds found beforehand. Both approaches suffer from large uncertainties in forecasting flash floods as, due to the simplistic approach followed, the same rainfall amount may or may not cause flooding. This uncertainty leads to the question whether a probabilistic model is preferable over a deterministic one in forecasting flash floods. We propose the use of a Bayesian probabilistic approach in flash flood forecasting. A prior probability of flooding is derived based on historical data. Additional information, such as antecedent moisture condition (AMC) and rainfall amount over any rainfall thresholds are used in computing the likelihood of observing these conditions given a flash flood has occurred. Finally, the posterior probability of flooding is computed using the prior probability and the likelihood. The variation of the computed posterior probability with rainfall amount and AMC presents the suitability of the approach in decision making in an uncertain environment. The methodology has been applied to the Posina basin in Italy. From the promising results obtained, we can conclude that the Bayesian approach in flash flood forecasting provides more realistic forecasting over the FFG.

Keywords: Flash flood, Bayesian, flash flood guidance, FFG, forecasting, Posina.

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