Search results for: Organizational efficiency.

Authors: Erik Pontiskoski, Kazuhiro Asakawa

Abstract:

This is a conceptual paper on the application of open innovation in three case examples of Apple, Nintendo, and Nokia. Utilizing key concepts from research into managerial and organizational cognition, we describe how each company overcame barriers to utilizing open innovation strategy in R&D and commercialization projects. We identify three levels of barriers: cognitive, behavioral, and institutional, and describe the companies balanced between internal and external resources to launch products that were instrumental in companies reinventing themselves in mature markets.

Keywords: managerial cognition, open innovation.

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Authors: Barenten Suciu

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In this paper, effectiveness of a machine design process is evaluated on the basis of the specific output calculus. Concretely, a screw-worm gear mechanical transmission is designed by using the classical and the 3D-CAD methods. Strength analysis and drawing of the designed parts is substantially aided by employing the SolidWorks software. Quality of the design process is assessed by manufacturing (printing) the parts, and by computing the efficiency, specific load, as well as the specific output (work) of the mechanical transmission. Influence of the stroke, travelling velocity and load on the mechanical output, is emphasized. Optimal design of the mechanical transmission becomes possible by the appropriate usage of the acquired results.

Keywords: Mechanical transmission, design, screw, worm-gear, efficiency, specific output, 3D-printing.

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Authors: Aizzat Mohd. Nasurdin, Noor Hazlina Ahmad, Cheng Ling Tan

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This study aims to examine the role of career advancement and job security as predictors of employee commitment to their organization. Data was collected from 580 frontline employees attached to two departments of 29 luxury hotels in Peninsular Malaysia. Statistical results using Partial Least Squares technique provided support for the proposed hypotheses. In view of the findings, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords: Organizational commitment, career advancement, job security, frontline employees, luxury hotels, Malaysia.

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Authors: Ilya Kavalchuk, Mehdi Seyedmahmoudian, Ben Horan, Aman Than Oo, Alex Stojcevski

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The power electronic components within Electric Vehicles (EV) need to operate in several important modes. Some modes directly influence safety, while others influence vehicle performance. Given the variety of functions and operational modes required of the power electronics, it needs to meet efficiency requirements to minimize power losses. Another challenge in the control and construction of such systems is the ability to support bidirectional power flow. This paper considers the construction, operation, and feasibility of available converters for electric vehicles with feasible configurations of electrical buses and loads. This paper describes logic and control signals for the converters for different operations conditions based on the efficiency and energy usage bases.

Keywords: Electric Vehicles, Electrical Machines Control, Power Electronics, Powerflow Regulations.

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Authors: Hamzah Jusoh, Azmizam Abdul Rashid

Abstract:

Malaysia has successfully applied economic planning to guide the development of the country from an economy of agriculture and mining to a largely industrialised one. Now, with its sights set on attaining the economic level of a fully developed nation by 2020, the planning system must be made even more efficient and focused. It must ensure that every investment made in the country, contribute towards creating the desirable objective of a strong, modern, internationally competitive, technologically advanced, post-industrial economy. Cities in Malaysia must also be fully aware of the enormous competition it faces in a region with rapidly expanding and modernising economies, all contending for the same pool of potential international investments. Efficiency of urban governance is also fundamental issue in development characterized by sustainability, subsidiarity, equity, transparency and accountability, civic engagement and citizenship, and security. As described above, city competitiveness is harnessed through 'city marketing and city management'. High technology and high skilled industries, together with finance, transportation, tourism, business, information and professional services shopping and other commercial activities, are the principal components of the nation-s economy, which must be developed to a level well beyond where it is now. In this respect, Kuala Lumpur being the premier city must play the leading role.

Keywords: Economic planning, sustainability, efficiency, urban governance and city competitiveness.

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Authors: Samson Davoyan, Tatevik Sahakyan

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The purpose of this report is to suggest a new methodology for the assessment of the comparative efficiency of the reforms made in different countries by an integral index. We have highlighted the reforms made in post-crisis period in 21 former socialist countries. The integral index describes the social-economic development level. The integral index contains of six indexes: The Global Competitiveness Index, Doing Business, The Corruption Perception, The Index of Economic Freedom, The Human Development, and The Democracy Index, which are reported by different international organizations. With the help of our methodology we first summarized the above-mentioned 6 indexes and attained 1 general index, besides, our new method enables us to assess the comparative efficiency of the reforms made in different countries by analyzing them. The purpose is to reveal the opportunities and threats of socialeconomic reforms in different directions.

Keywords: Assessment, comparative, effectiveness, reforms

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Authors: Oliver Haala, Bernhard Wagner, Maximilian Hofmann, Martin Marz

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The excellent suitability of the externally excited synchronous machine (EESM) in automotive traction drive applications is justified by its high efficiency over the whole operation range and the high availability of materials. Usually, maximum efficiency is obtained by modelling each single loss and minimizing the sum of all losses. As a result, the quality of the optimization highly depends on the precision of the model. Moreover, it requires accurate knowledge of the saturation dependent machine inductances. Therefore, the present contribution proposes a method to minimize the overall losses of a salient pole EESM and its inverter in steady state operation based on measurement data only. Since this method does not require any manufacturer data, it is well suited for an automated measurement data evaluation and inverter parametrization. The field oriented control (FOC) of an EESM provides three current components resp. three degrees of freedom (DOF). An analytic minimization of the copper losses in the stator and the rotor (assuming constant inductances) is performed and serves as a first approximation of how to choose the optimal current reference values. After a numeric offline minimization of the overall losses based on measurement data the results are compared to a control strategy that satisfies cos (ϕ) = 1.

Keywords: Current control, efficiency, externally excited synchronous machine, optimization.

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Authors: Perminderjit Singh, Randeep Singh

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The performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a single cylinder four stroke variable compression ratio multi fuel engine when fueled with different blends of rice bran oil methyl ester and ethanol are investigated and compared with the results of standard diesel. Bio diesel produced from Rice bran oil by transesterification process has been used in this study. Experiment has been conducted at a fixed engine speed of 1500 rpm, 50% load and at compression ratios of 16.5:1, 17:1, 17.5:1 and 18:1. The impact of compression ratio on fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency and exhaust gas emissions has been investigated and presented. Optimum compression ratio which gives best performance has been identified. The results indicate longer ignition delay, maximum rate of pressure rise, lower heat release rate and higher mass fraction burnt at higher compression ratio for waste cooking oil methyl ester when compared to that of diesel. The brake thermal efficiency at 50% load for Rice bran oil methyl ester blends and diesel has been calculated and the blend B40 is found to give maximum thermal efficiency. The blends when used as fuel results in reduction of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and increase in nitrogen oxides emissions.

Keywords: Biodiesel, Rice bran oil, Transesterification, Ethanol, Compression Ratio.

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Authors: S. Aziz, M. Ali, S. Asghar, S. Ahmed

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Comparing other methods of waste water treatment, constructed wetlands are one of the most fascinating practices because being a natural process they are eco-friendly have low construction and maintenance cost and have considerable capability of wastewater treatment. The current research was focused mainly on comparison of Ranunculus muricatus and Typha latifolia as wetland plants for domestic wastewater treatment by designing and constructing efficient pilot scale horizontal subsurface flow mesocosms. Parameters like chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, phosphates, sulphates, nitrites, nitrates, and pathogenic indicator microbes were studied continuously with successive treatments. Treatment efficiency of the system increases with passage of time and with increase in temperature. Efficiency of T. latifolia planted setups in open environment was fairly good for parameters like COD and BOD5 which was showing reduction up to 82.5% for COD and 82.6% for BOD5 while DO was increased up to 125%. Efficiency of R. muricatus vegetated setup was also good but lowers than that of T. latifolia planted showing 80.95% removal of COD and BOD5. Ranunculus muricatus was found effective in reducing bacterial count in wastewater. Both macrophytes were found promising in wastewater treatment.

Keywords: Biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, horizontal subsurface flow, Total suspended solids, Wetland.

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Authors: Irina Pyrlina

Abstract:

Author presents the results of a study conducted to identify criteria of efficient information system (IS) with serviceoriented architecture (SOA) realization and proposes a ranking method to evaluate SOA information systems using a set of architecture quality criteria before the systems are implemented. The method is used to compare 7 SOA projects and ranking result for SOA efficiency of the projects is provided. The choice of SOA realization project depends on following criteria categories: IS internal work and organization, SOA policies, guidelines and change management, processes and business services readiness, risk management and mitigation. The last criteria category was analyzed on the basis of projects statistics.

Keywords: multiple criteria threshold algorithm, serviceoriented architecture, SOA operational risks, efficiency criteria for IS architecture, projects ranking.

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Authors: Hind Bouami, Patrick Millot

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Medication dispensing system is a life-critical system whose failure may result in preventable adverse events leading to longer patient stays in hospitals or patient death. Automation has led to great improvements in life-critical systems as it increased safety, efficiency, and comfort. However, critical risks related to medical organization complexity and automated solutions integration can threaten drug dispensing security and performance. Knowledge about the system’s complexity aspects and human machine parameters to control for automated equipment’s security and performance will help operators to secure their automation process and to optimize their system’s reliability. In this context, this study aims to document the operator’s situation awareness about automation risks and parameters involved in automation security and performance. Our risk management approach has been deployed in the North Luxembourg hospital center’s pharmacy, which is equipped with automated drug dispensing systems since 2009. With more than 4 million euros of gains generated, North Luxembourg hospital center’s success story was enabled by the management commitment, pharmacy’s involvement in the implementation and improvement of the automation project, and the close collaboration between the pharmacy and Sinteco’s firm to implement the necessary innovation and organizational actions for automated solutions integration security and performance. An analysis of the actions implemented by the hospital and the parameters involved in automated equipment’s integration security and performance has been made. The parameters to control for automated equipment’s integration security and performance are human aspects (6.25%), technical aspects (50%), and human-machine interaction (43.75%). The implementation of an anthropocentric analysis system before automation would have prevented and optimized the control of risks related to automation.

Keywords: Automated drug delivery systems, hospitals, human-centered automated system, risk management.

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Authors: Rasool Razmi, Mohammad Hossein Sedaghat, Reza Janamiri, Amir Hatampou

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This work concerns on experimentally investigation of surfactant flooding in fractured porous media. In this study a series of water and surfactant injection processes were performed on micromodels initially saturated with a heavy crude oil. Eight fractured glass micromodels were used to illustrate effects of surfactant types and concentrations on oil recovery efficiency in presence of fractures with different properties i.e. fracture orientation, length and number of fractures. Two different surfactants with different concentrations were tested. The results showed that surfactant flooding would be more efficient by using SDS surfactant aqueous solution and also by locating injection well in a proper position respect to fracture properties. This study demonstrates different physical and chemical conditions that affect the efficiency of this method of enhanced oil recovery.

Keywords: Displacement, Fractured five-spot systems, Heavy oil, Surfactant flooding.

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Authors: C. C. Lv, Y. L. Sun, D. W. Zuo

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Cemented carbide balls are usually implemented in industry under the environment of high speed, high temperature, corrosiveness and strong collisions. However, its application is limited due to high fabrication cost, processing efficiency and quality. A novel eccentric lapping method with two rotatable lapping plates was proposed in this paper. A mathematical model was constructed to analyze the influence of each design parameter on this lapping method. To validate this new lapping method, an orthogonal experiment was conducted with cemented carbide balls (YG6). The simulation model was verified and the optimal lapping parameters were derived. The results show that the surface roundness of the balls reaches to 0.65um from 2um in 1 hour using this lapping method. So, using this novel lapping method, it can effectively improve the machining precision and efficiency of cemented carbide balls.

Keywords: Cemented carbide balls, eccentric lapping, high precision, lapping tracks, V-groove.

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Authors: Avadhesh Yadav, Manoj Kumar, Balram

Abstract:

A solar powered air heating system using parabolic trough collector was experimentally investigated. In this experimental setup, the reflected solar radiations were focused on absorber tube which was placed at focal length of the parabolic trough. In this setup, air was used as working fluid which collects the heat from absorber tube. To enhance the performance of parabolic trough, collector with different type of reflectors were used. It was observed For Aluminum sheet maximum temperature is 52.3ºC, which 24.22% more than steel sheet as reflector and 8.5% more than Aluminum foil as reflector, also efficiency by using Aluminum sheet as reflector compared to steel sheet as reflector is 61.18% more. Efficiency by using Aluminum sheet as reflector compared to Aluminum foil as reflector is 18.98% more.

Keywords: Parabolic trough collector, Reflectors, Air flow rates.

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Authors: Sony P. Aquino, Helen F. Gavino, Victorino T. Taylan, Teresito G. Aguinaldo

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A simple mobile engine-driven pneumatic paddy collector made of locally available materials using local manufacturing technology was designed, fabricated, and tested for collecting and bagging of paddy dried on concrete pavement. The pneumatic paddy collector had the following major components: radial flat bladed type centrifugal fan, power transmission system, bagging area, frame and the conveyance system. Results showed significant differences on the collecting capacity, noise level, and fuel consumption when rotational speed of the air mover shaft was varied. Other parameters such as collecting efficiency, air velocity, augmented cracked grain percentage, and germination rate were not significantly affected by varying rotational speed of the air mover shaft. The pneumatic paddy collector had a collecting efficiency of 99.33 % with a collecting capacity of 2685.00 kg/h at maximum rotational speed of centrifugal fan shaft of about 4200 rpm. The machine entailed an investment cost of P 62,829.25. The break-even weight of paddy was 510,606.75 kg/yr at a collecting cost of 0.11 P/kg of paddy. Utilizing the machine for 400 hours per year generated an income of P 23,887.73. The projected time needed to recover cost of the machine based on 2685 kg/h collecting capacity was 2.63 year.

Keywords: Mobile engine-driven pneumatic paddy collector, collecting capacity and efficiency, simple cost analysis.

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Authors: Su Ying-Ming

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High density of high rise buildings in urban areas lead to a deteriorative Urban Heat Island Effect, gradually. This study focuses on discussing the relationship between urban layout and ventilation comfort in street canyons. This study takes Songjiang Nanjing Rd. area of Taipei, Taiwan as an example to evaluate the wind environment comfort index by field measurement and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to improve both the quality and quantity of the environment. In this study, different factors including street blocks size, the width of buildings, street width ratio and the direction of the wind were used to discuss the potential of ventilation. The environmental wind field was measured by the environmental testing equipment, Testo 480. Evaluation of blocks sizes, the width of buildings, street width ratio and the direction of the wind was made under the condition of constant floor area with the help of Stimulation CFD to adjust research methods for optimizing regional wind environment. The results of this study showed the width of buildings influences the efficiency of outdoor ventilation; improvement of the efficiency of ventilation with large street width was also shown. The study found that Block width and H/D value and PR value has a close relationship. Furthermore, this study showed a significant relationship between the alteration of street block geometry and outdoor comfortableness.

Keywords: Urban ventilation path, ventilation efficiency indices, CFD, building layout.

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Authors: Almutasim Billa A. Alanazi, Hal S. Tharp

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Safe performance and efficient energy consumption are essential factors for designing a control system. This paper presents a reinforcement learning (RL) model that can be applied to control applications to improve safety and reduce energy consumption. As hardware constraints and environmental disturbances are imprecise and unpredictable, conventional control methods may not always be effective in optimizing control designs. However, RL has demonstrated its value in several artificial intelligence (AI) applications, especially in the field of control systems. The proposed model intelligently monitors a system's success by observing the rewards from the environment, with positive rewards counting as a success when the controlled reference is within the desired operating zone. Thus, the model can determine whether the system is safe to continue operating based on the designer/user specifications, which can be adjusted as needed. Additionally, the controller keeps track of energy consumption to improve energy efficiency by enabling the idle mode when the controlled reference is within the desired operating zone, thus reducing the system energy consumption during the controlling operation. Water temperature control for a hydroponic system is taken as a case study for the RL model, adjusting the variance of disturbances to show the model’s robustness and efficiency. On average, the model showed safety improvement by up to 15% and energy efficiency improvements by 35%-40% compared to a traditional RL model.

Keywords: Control system, hydroponics, machine learning, reinforcement learning.

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Authors: Moslem Afrashteh Mehr

Abstract:

Wireless Sensor Networks consist of small battery powered devices with limited energy resources. once deployed, the small sensor nodes are usually inaccessible to the user, and thus replacement of the energy source is not feasible. Hence, One of the most important issues that needs to be enhanced in order to improve the life span of the network is energy efficiency. to overcome this demerit many research have been done. The clustering is the one of the representative approaches. in the clustering, the cluster heads gather data from nodes and sending them to the base station. In this paper, we introduce a dynamic clustering algorithm using genetic algorithm. This algorithm takes different parameters into consideration to increase the network lifetime. To prove efficiency of proposed algorithm, we simulated the proposed algorithm compared with LEACH algorithm using the matlab

Keywords: Wireless Sensor Networks, Clustering, Geneticalgorithm, Energy Consumption

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Authors: M. J. San José, S. Alvarez, R. López

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In order to prove the applicability of a conical spouted bed combustor for the thermal exploitation of vineyard pruning wastes, the flow regimes of beds consisting of vine shoot beds and an inert bed were established under different operating conditions. The effect of inlet air temperature on the minimum spouted velocity was evaluated. Batch combustion of vine shoots in a conical spouted bed combustor was conducted at temperatures in the range 425-550 ºC with an inert bed. The experimental values of combustion efficiency of vine shoot calculated from the concentration the exhaust gases were assessed. The high experimental combustion efficiency obtained evidenced the proper suitability of the conical spouted bed combustor for the thermal combustion of vine shoots.

Keywords: Biomass wastes, thermal combustion, conical spouted beds, vineyard wastes.

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Authors: Amado, M. P., Amado, A., Poggi, F., Correia de Freitas, J.

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Today is widely understood that global energy consumption patterns are directly related to the urban expansion and development process. This expansion is based on the natural growth of human activities and has left most urban areas totally dependent on fossil fuel derived external energy inputs. This status-quo of production, transportation, storage and consumption of energy has become inefficient and is set to become even more so when the continuous increases in energy demand are factored in. The territorial management of land use and related activities is a central component in the search for more efficient models of energy use, models that can meet current and future regional, national and European goals.

In this paper a methodology is developed and discussed with the aim of improving energy efficiency at the municipal level. The development of this methodology is based on the monitoring of energy consumption and its use patterns resulting from the natural dynamism of human activities in the territory and can be utilized to assess sustainability at the local scale. A set of parameters and indicators are defined with the objective of constructing a systemic model based on the optimization, adaptation and innovation of the current energy framework and the associated energy consumption patterns. The use of the model will enable local governments to strike the necessary balance between human activities and economic development and the local and global environment while safeguarding fairness in the energy sector.

Keywords: Solar urban planning, solar smart city, urban development, energy efficiency.

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Authors: Y. Galerkin, K. Soldatova, A. Drozdov

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The 6th version of Universal modeling method for centrifugal compressor stage calculation is described. Identification of the new mathematical model was made. As a result of identification the uniform set of empirical coefficients is received. The efficiency definition error is 0,86 % at a design point. The efficiency definition error at five flow rate points (except a point of the maximum flow rate) is 1,22 %. Several variants of the stage with 3D impellers designed by 6th version program and quasi threedimensional calculation programs were compared by their gas dynamic performances CFD (NUMECA FINE TURBO). Performance comparison demonstrated general principles of design validity and leads to some design recommendations.

Keywords: Compressor design, loss model, performance prediction, test data, model stages, flow rate coefficient, work coefficient.

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Authors: M. Hosseinnejad, K. Gharanjig

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In the present study, metal free organic dyes were prepared and used as photo-sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells. Double rhodanine was utilized as the fundamental electron acceptor group to which electron donor aldehyde with varying substituents was attached to produce new organic dye. This dye was first purified and then characterized by analytical techniques. Spectrophotometric evaluations of the prepared dye in solution and on a nano anatase TiO₂ substrate were carried out in order to assess possible changes in the status of the dyes in different environments. The results show that the dye form j-type aggregates on the nano TiO₂. Additionally, oxidation potential measurements were also carried out. Finally, dye sensitized solar cell based on synthesized dye was fabricated in order to determine the photovoltaic behavior and conversion efficiency of individual dye.

Keywords: Conversion efficiency, dye-sensitized solar cell, photovoltaic behavior, sensitizer.

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Authors: Vishnu Prasad Sharma, S. Kumaraswamy, A. Mani

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This paper reports on the results of experimental investigations on the performance of a jet pump operated under selected primary flows to optimize the related parameters. For this purpose a two-phase flow jet pump was used employing various profiles of nozzles as the primary device which was designed, fabricated and used along with the combination of mixing tube and diffuser. The profiles employed were circular, conical, and elliptical. The diameter of the nozzle used was 4 mm. The area ratio of the jet pump was 0.16. The test facility created for this purpose was an open loop continuous circulation system. Performance of the jet pump was obtained as iso-efficiency curves on characteristic curves drawn for various water flow rates. To perform the suction capability, evacuation test was conducted at best efficiency point for all the profiles.

Keywords: Evacuation test, jet pump, nozzle profile, nozzle spacing, performance test, two phase flow

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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: Minh Vuong Pham, Frédéric Plourde, Son Doan Kim

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A strip domain decomposition parallel algorithm for fast direct Poisson solver is presented on a 3D Cartesian staggered grid. The parallel algorithm follows the principles of sequential algorithm for fast direct Poisson solver. Both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions are addressed. Several test cases are likewise addressed in order to shed light on accuracy and efficiency in the strip domain parallelization algorithm. Actually the current implementation shows a very high efficiency when dealing with a large grid mesh up to 3.6 * 10⁹ under massive parallel approach, which explicitly demonstrates that the proposed algorithm is ready for massive parallel computing.

Keywords: Strip-decomposition, parallelization, fast directpoisson solver.

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Authors: Mahboubeh Molaei

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Transferring information developed by other peoples is an ordinary event that happens during daily conversations, for example when employees sea each other in the organization, or when they are having lunch together, or attending a meeting, they use to talk about their experience, and discuss about their current projects, and talk about their successes over some specific problems. Despite the potential value of leveraging organizational memory and expertise by using OMS and ER, still small organizations haven-t been able to capitalize on its promised value. Each organization has its internal knowledge management system, in some of organizations the system face the lack of expert people to save their experience in the repository and in another hand on some other organizations there are lots of expert people but the organization doesn-t have the maximum use of their knowledge.

Keywords: Knowledge, knowledge management.

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Authors: Velmurugan. A, Loganathan. M

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The increased number of automobiles in recent years has resulted in great demand for fossil fuel. This has led to the development of automobile by using alternative fuels which include gaseous fuels, biofuels and vegetables oils as fuel. Energy from biomass and more specific bio-diesel is one of the opportunities that could cover the future demand of fossil fuel shortage. Biomass in the form of cashew nut shell represents a new energy source and abundant source of energy in India. The bio-fuel is derived from cashew nut shell oil and its blend with diesel are promising alternative fuel for diesel engine. In this work the pyrolysis Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL)-Diesel Blends (CDB) was used to run the Direct Injection (DI) diesel engine. The experiments were conducted with various blends of CNSL and Diesel namely B20, B40, B60, B80 and B100. The results are compared with neat diesel operation. The brake thermal efficiency was decreased for blends of CNSL and Diesel except the lower blends of B20. The brake thermal efficiency of B20 is nearly closer to that of diesel fuel. Also the emission level of the all CNSL and Diesel blends was increased compared to neat diesel. The higher viscosity and lower volatility of CNSL leads to poor mixture formation and hence lower brake thermal efficiency and higher emission levels. The higher emission level can be reduced by adding suitable additives and oxygenates with CNSL and Diesel blends.

Keywords: Bio-oil, Biodiesel, Cardanol, Cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL)

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Authors: Worakrit Worananthakij, Kamonchanok Doungtadum, Nattagan Mingkwan, Supatsorn Chupong

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Natural products from herb have been used in different aspects of life as a result of their various biological activities. Generally, plant growth and production of secondary compounds largely depend on environmental conditions. To better understand this correlation, study on biological activity and soil parameter is necessary. This research aims to study the soil parameters which affect the efficiency of the antioxidant activity of essential oils extracted from the Zingiber zerumbet in three areas of Thailand, including Min Buri district, Bangkok province; Muang district, Chiang Mai province and Kaeng Sanam Nang district, Nakhon Ratchasima province. The soil samples in each area were collected and analyzed in the laboratory. The essential oil of Z. zerumbet in each province was extracted and tested for antioxidant activity by hydrodistillation method and DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical) assay, respectively. The results showed that, the soil parameters such as pH, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus elements and exchange of cations of soil specimen from Nakhon Ratchasima province were the highest (P<0.05) (6.10 ±0.03, 0.15 ± 0.04 percent of total nitrogen, 16.67 ± 0.46 mg/L, 3.35 ± 0.65 mg/kg and 12.87 ± 0.11 cmol/kg, respectively). In addition, IC50 (Inhibition Concentrtion of antioxidant at 50%) of Z. zerumbet essential oil collected from Nakhon Ratchasima showed the highest value (P<0.05) (1,400 µg/mL). In conclusion, the soil parameters are once important factor for the efficiency of essential oils extract from Z. zerumbet.

Keywords: Antioxidant, essential oil, herb, soil parameter, Zingiber zerumbet.

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Authors: Tseng, Wei-Bin., Lou, Jie-Chung, Han, Jia-Yun

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SUVA (equivalent to UV₂₅₄/DOC) value in raw water is a precursor for the formation of trihalomethane during chlorination at a water treatment plant. This study collected rapidly filtered water from an advanced water treatment plant for use in experiments on raw water. The removal rate of treating the trihalomethanes formation potential (THMFP) was conducted by using a biological activated carbon. The hydraulic retention time and SUVA loading were major factors in biological degradation tests. The results showed that biological powder-activated carbon (BPAC) lowered the average concentration of UV₂₅₄ and value of SUVA in raw water. A removal efficiency of THMFP was present in the treatment of the three primary organic carbon items. These results highlighted the importance of the BPAC had an excellent treatment efficiency on THMFP.

Keywords: Water treatment, BPAC, THMFP, SUVA, correlation analysis.

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Authors: Chia-Feng Lu, Yuh-Jen Wang, Shin Teng, Yu-Te Wu, Sui-Hing Yan

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Brain functional networks based on resting-state EEG data were compared between patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease (mAD) and matched patients with amnestic subtype of mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). We integrated the time–frequency cross mutual information (TFCMI) method to estimate the EEG functional connectivity between cortical regions and the network analysis based on graph theory to further investigate the alterations of functional networks in mAD compared with aMCI group. We aimed at investigating the changes of network integrity, local clustering, information processing efficiency, and fault tolerance in mAD brain networks for different frequency bands based on several topological properties, including degree, strength, clustering coefficient, shortest path length, and efficiency. Results showed that the disruptions of network integrity and reductions of network efficiency in mAD characterized by lower degree, decreased clustering coefficient, higher shortest path length, and reduced global and local efficiencies in the delta, theta, beta2, and gamma bands were evident. The significant changes in network organization can be used in assisting discrimination of mAD from aMCI in clinical.

Keywords: EEG, functional connectivity, graph theory, TFCMI.

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