Search results for: moving average process

Authors: Chandan Deep Singh

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In present days, companies are facing the rapid competition in terms of customer requirements to be satisfied, new technologies to be integrated into future products, new safety regulations to be followed, new computer-based tools to be introduced into design activities that becomes more scientific. In today’s highly competitive market, survival focuses on various factors such as quality, innovation, adherence to standards, and rapid response as the basis for competitive advantage. For competitive advantage, companies have to produce various competencies: for improving the capability of suppliers and for strengthening the process of integrating technology. For more competitiveness, organizations should operate in a strategy driven way and have a strategic architecture for developing core competencies. Traditional ways to take such experience and develop competencies tend to take a lot of time and they are expensive. A new learning environment, which is built around a gaming engine, supports the development of competences in specific subject areas. Technology competencies have a significant role in firm innovation and competitiveness; they interact with the competitive environment. Technological competencies vary according to the type of competitive environment, thus enhancing firm innovativeness. Technological competency is gained through extensive experimentation and learning in its research, development and employment in manufacturing. This is a review paper based on competency and strategic success of automobile industry. The aim here is to study strategy formulation and competency tools in the industry. This work is a review of literature related to competency and strategy in automobile industry. This study involves review of 34 papers related to competency and strategy.

Keywords: Competency, competitiveness, manufacturing competency, strategic formulation.

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Authors: Pankaj Gupta, Amit Kumar Srivastava, Nitesh Pandey

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This article explores the domain of generative design in order to enhance the development of robot designs for innovative and efficient maintenance approaches for tall buildings. This study aims to optimize the design of robotic hands by focusing on minimizing mass and volume while ensuring they can withstand the specified pressure with equal strength. The research procedure is structured and systematic. The purpose of optimization is to enhance the efficiency of the robot and reduce the manufacturing expenses. The project seeks to investigate the application of generative design in order to optimize products. Autodesk Fusion 360 offers the capability to immediately apply the generative design functionality to the solid model. The effort involved creating a solid model of the Smart Glass Cleaning Robot and optimizing one of its components, the Hand, using generative techniques. The article has thoroughly examined the designs, outcomes, and procedure. These loads serve as a benchmark for creating designs that can endure the necessary level of pressure and preserve their structural integrity. The efficacy of the generative design process is contingent upon the selection of materials, as different materials possess distinct physical attributes. The study utilizes five different materials, namely Steel, Stainless Steel, Titanium, Aluminum, and CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer), in order to investigate a range of design possibilities.

Keywords: Generative design, mass and volume optimization, material strength analysis, generative design, smart glass cleaning robot.

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Authors: P. Selva, B. Lorrain, J. Alexis, A. Seror, A. Longuet, C. Mary, F. Denard

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Over the past four decades, the fatigue behavior of nickel-based alloys has been widely studied. However, in recent years, significant advances in the fabrication process leading to grain size reduction have been made in order to improve fatigue properties of aircraft turbine discs. Indeed, a change in particle size affects the initiation mode of fatigue cracks as well as the fatigue life of the material. The present study aims to investigate the fatigue behavior of a newly developed nickel-based superalloy under biaxial-planar loading. Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) tests are performed at different stress ratios so as to study the influence of the multiaxial stress state on the fatigue life of the material. Full-field displacement and strain measurements as well as crack initiation detection are obtained using Digital Image Correlation (DIC) techniques. The aim of this presentation is first to provide an in-depth description of both the experimental set-up and protocol: the multiaxial testing machine, the specific design of the cruciform specimen and performances of the DIC code are introduced. Second, results for sixteen specimens related to different load ratios are presented. Crack detection, strain amplitude and number of cycles to crack initiation vs. triaxial stress ratio for each loading case are given. Third, from fractographic investigations by scanning electron microscopy it is found that the mechanism of fatigue crack initiation does not depend on the triaxial stress ratio and that most fatigue cracks initiate from subsurface carbides.

Keywords: Cruciform specimen, multiaxial fatigue, Nickelbased superalloy.

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Authors: Nihat Hakan Akyol, Irfan Yolcubal

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In-situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) has been widely used for source zone remediation of Dense Nonaqueous Phase Liquids (DNAPLs) in subsurface environments. DNAPL source zones for karst aquifers are generally located in epikarst where the DNAPL mass is trapped either in karst soil or at the regolith contact with carbonate bedrock. This study aims to investigate the performance of oxidation of residual trichloroethylene found in such environments by potassium permanganate. Batch and flow cell experiments were conducted to determine the kinetics and the mass removal rate of TCE. pH change, Cl production, TCE and MnO4 destruction were monitored routinely during experiments. Nonreactive tracer tests were also conducted prior and after the oxidation process to determine the influence of oxidation on flow conditions. The results show that oxidant consumption rate of the calcareous epikarst soil was significant and the oxidant demand was determined to be 20 g KMnO4/kg soil. Oxidation rate of residual TCE (1.26x10-3 s-1) was faster than the oxidant consumption rate of the soil (2.54 - 2.92x10-4 s-1) at only high oxidant concentrations (> 40 mM KMnO4). Half life of TCE oxidation ranged from 7.9 to 10.7 min. Although highly significant fraction of residual TCE mass in the system was destroyed by permanganate oxidation, TCE concentration in the effluent remained above its MCL. Flow interruption tests indicate that efficiency of ISCO was limited by the rate of TCE dissolution and the rate-limited desorption of TCE. The residence time and the initial concentration of the oxidant in the source zone also controlled the efficiency of ISCO in epikarst.

Keywords: Epikarst, in-situ chemical oxidation, permanganate.

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Authors: Pibool Waijittragum

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The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the research result of brand Identities of Thai Halal brands which related to the way of life for Thai Muslims. The results will be transforming to Thai Halal Brands packaging and label design. The expected benefit is an alternative of marketing strategy for brand building process for Halal products in Thailand. Four elements of marketing strategies which necessary for the brand identity creation is the research framework: consists of Attributes, Benefits, Values and Personality. The research methodology was applied using qualitative and quantitative; 19 marketing experts with dynamic roles in Thai consumer products were interviewed. In addition, a field survey of 122 Thai Muslims selected from 175 Muslim communities in Bangkok was studied. Data analysis will be according to 5 categories of Thai Halal product: 1) Meat 2) Vegetable and Fruits 3) Instant foods and Garnishing ingredient 4) Beverages, Desserts and Snacks 5) Hygienic daily products.

The results will explain some suitable approach for brand Identities of Thai Halal brands as are: 1) Benefit approach as the characteristics of the product with its benefit. The brand identity created transform to the packaging design should be clear and display a fresh product 2) Value approach as the value of products that affect to consumers’ perception. The brand identity created transform to the packaging design should be simply look and using a trustful image 3) Personality approach as the reflection of consumers thought. The brand identity created transform to the packaging design should be sincere, enjoyable, merry, flamboyant look and using a humoristic image.

Keywords: Marketing strategies, Brand identity, Packaging and Label Design, Thai Halal products.

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Authors: J. Martin, A. Dannenberg, G. Detrell, R. Ewald, S. Fasoulas

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Microalgae-based photobioreactors (PBR) for Life Support Systems (LSS) are currently being investigated for future space missions such as a crewed base on planets or moons. Biological components may help reducing resupply masses by closing material mass flows with the help of regenerative components. Via photosynthesis, the microalgae use CO₂, water, light and nutrients to provide oxygen and biomass for the astronauts. These capabilities could have synergies with Earth applications that tackle current problems and the developed technologies can be transferred. For example, a current worldwide discussed issue is the increased nitrate and phosphate pollution of ground water from agricultural waste waters. To investigate the potential use of a biological system based on the ability of the microalgae to extract and use nitrate and phosphate for the treatment of polluted ground water from agricultural applications, a scalable test stand is being developed. This test stand investigates the maximization of intake rates of nitrate and quantifies the produced biomass and oxygen. To minimize the required energy, for the uptake of nitrate from artificial waste water (AWW) the Flashing Light Effect (FLE) and the adaption of the illumination spectrum were realized. This paper describes the composition of the AWW, the development of the illumination unit and the possibility of non-invasive process optimization and control via the adaption of the illumination spectrum and illumination cycles. The findings were a doubling of the energy related growth rate by adapting the illumination setting.

Keywords: Microalgae, illumination, nitrate uptake, flashing light effect.

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Authors: Hock Chuan, Lim

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This paper presents an approach for identifying interactive effects using Network Science (NS) supported by Social Network Analysis (SNA) techniques. Based on general observations that learning processes and behaviors are shaped by the social relationships and influenced by learning environment, the central idea was to understand both the human and non-human interactive effects for a blended learning mode of delivery of computer science modules. Important findings include (a) the importance of non-human nodes to influence the centrality and transfer; (b) the degree of non-human and human connectivity impacts learning. This project reveals that the NS pattern and connectivity as measured by node relationships offer alternative approach for hypothesis generation and design of qualitative data collection. An iterative process further reinforces the analysis, whereas the experimental simulation option itself is an interesting alternative option, a hybrid combination of both experimental simulation and qualitative data collection presents itself as a promising and viable means to study complex scenario such as blended learning delivery mode. The primary value of this paper lies in the design of the approach for studying interactive effects of human (social nodes) and non-human (learning/study environment, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) infrastructures nodes) components. In conclusion, this project adds to the understanding and the use of SNA to model and study interactive effects in blended social learning.

Keywords: Blended learning, network science, social learning, social network analysis, study environment.

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Authors: C. Ardil

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This paper presents a software product quality evaluation model based on the ISO/IEC 25010 quality model. The evaluation characteristics and sub characteristics were identified from the ISO/IEC 25010 quality model. The multidimensional structure of the quality model is based on characteristics such as functional suitability, performance efficiency, compatibility, usability, reliability, security, maintainability, and portability, and associated sub characteristics. Random numbers are generated to establish the decision maker’s importance weights for each sub characteristics. Also, random numbers are generated to establish the decision matrix of the decision maker’s final scores for each software product against each sub characteristics. Thus, objective criteria importance weights and index scores for datasets were obtained from the random numbers. In the proposed model, five different software product quality evaluation datasets under three different weight vectors were applied to multiple criteria decision analysis method, preference analysis for reference ideal solution (PARIS) for comparison, and sensitivity analysis procedure. This study contributes to provide a better understanding of the application of MCDMA methods and ISO/IEC 25010 quality model guidelines in software product quality evaluation process.

Keywords: ISO/IEC 25010 quality model, multiple criteria decisions making, multiple criteria decision making analysis, MCDMA, PARIS, Software Product Quality Evaluation Model, Software Product Quality Evaluation, Software Evaluation, Software Selection, Software

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Authors: E. C. Mattos, V. S. M. G. Daros, R. Dal Col, A. L. Nascimento

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The aim of this study is to present the results of a retrospective survey on the foreign matter found in foods analyzed at the Adolfo Lutz Institute, from July 2001 to July 2015. All the analyses were conducted according to the official methods described on Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (AOAC) for the micro analytical procedures and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the macro analytical procedures. The results showed flours, cereals and derivatives such as baking and pasta products were the types of food where foreign matters were found more frequently followed by condiments and teas. Fragments of stored grains insects, its larvae, nets, excrement, dead mites and rodent excrement were the most foreign matter found in food. Besides, foreign matters that can cause a physical risk to the consumer’s health such as metal, stones, glass, wood were found but rarely. Miscellaneous (shell, sand, dirt and seeds) were also reported. There are a lot of extraneous materials that are considered unavoidable since are something inherent to the product itself, such as insect fragments in grains. In contrast, there are avoidable extraneous materials that are less tolerated because it is preventable with the Good Manufacturing Practice. The conclusion of this work is that although most extraneous materials found in food are considered unavoidable it is necessary to keep the Good Manufacturing Practice throughout the food processing as well as maintaining a constant surveillance of the production process in order to avoid accidents that may lead to occurrence of these extraneous materials in food.

Keywords: Food contamination, extraneous materials, foreign matter, surveillance.

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Authors: Jui P. Hung, Yuan L. Lai, Tzuo L. Luo, Hsi H. Hsiao

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The machining performance is determined by the frequency characteristics of the machine-tool structure and the dynamics of the cutting process. Therefore, the prediction of dynamic vibration behavior of spindle tool system is of great importance for the design of a machine tool capable of high-precision and high-speed machining. The aim of this study is to develop a finite element model to predict the dynamic characteristics of milling machine tool and hence evaluate the influence of the preload of the spindle bearings. To this purpose, a three dimensional spindle bearing model of a high speed engraving spindle tool was created. In this model, the rolling interfaces with contact stiffness defined by Harris model were used to simulate the spindle bearing components. Then a full finite element model of a vertical milling machine was established by coupling the spindle tool unit with the machine frame structure. Using this model, the vibration mode that had a dominant influence on the dynamic stiffness was determined. The results of the finite element simulations reveal that spindle bearing with different preloads greatly affect the dynamic behavior of the spindle tool unit and hence the dynamic responses of the vertical column milling system. These results were validated by performing vibration on the individual spindle tool unit and the milling machine prototype, respectively. We conclude that preload of the spindle bearings is an important component affecting the dynamic characteristics and machining performance of the entire vertical column structure of the milling machine.

Keywords: Dynamic compliance, Milling machine, Spindle unit, Bearing preload.

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Authors: Omaima N. Ahmad AL-Allaf

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Over communication networks, images can be easily copied and distributed in an illegal way. The copyright protection for authors and owners is necessary. Therefore, the digital watermarking techniques play an important role as a valid solution for authority problems. Digital image watermarking techniques are used to hide watermarks into images to achieve copyright protection and prevent its illegal copy. Watermarks need to be robust to attacks and maintain data quality. Therefore, we discussed in this paper two approaches for image watermarking, first is based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and the second approach is based on Genetic Algorithm (GA). Discrete wavelet transformation (DWT) is used with the two approaches separately for embedding process to cover image transformation. Each of PSO and GA is based on co-relation coefficient to detect the high energy coefficient watermark bit in the original image and then hide the watermark in original image. Many experiments were conducted for the two approaches with different values of PSO and GA parameters. From experiments, PSO approach got better results with PSNR equal 53, MSE equal 0.0039. Whereas GA approach got PSNR equal 50.5 and MSE equal 0.0048 when using population size equal to 100, number of iterations equal to 150 and 3×3 block. According to the results, we can note that small block size can affect the quality of image watermarking based PSO/GA because small block size can increase the search area of the watermarking image. Better PSO results were obtained when using swarm size equal to 100.

Keywords: Image watermarking, genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, discrete wavelet transform.

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Authors: Mehtap Dursun, E. Ertugrul Karsak, Melis Almula Karadayi

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The management of the health-care wastes is one of the most important problems in Istanbul, a city with more than 12 million inhabitants, as it is in most of the developing countries. Negligence in appropriate treatment and final disposal of the healthcare wastes can lead to adverse impacts to public health and to the environment. This paper employs a fuzzy multi-criteria group decision making approach, which is based on the principles of fusion of fuzzy information, 2-tuple linguistic representation model, and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), to evaluate health-care waste (HCW) treatment alternatives for Istanbul. The evaluation criteria are determined employing nominal group technique (NGT), which is a method of systematically developing a consensus of group opinion. The employed method is apt to manage information assessed using multigranularity linguistic information in a decision making problem with multiple information sources. The decision making framework employs ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator that encompasses several operators as the aggregation operator since it can implement different aggregation rules by changing the order weights. The aggregation process is based on the unification of information by means of fuzzy sets on a basic linguistic term set (BLTS). Then, the unified information is transformed into linguistic 2-tuples in a way to rectify the problem of loss information of other fuzzy linguistic approaches.

Keywords: Group decision making, health care waste management, multi-criteria decision making, OWA, TOPSIS, 2-tuple linguistic representation

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Authors: Akrem Sellami, Imed Riadh Farah

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Hyperspectral imagery (HSI) typically provides a wealth of information captured in a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum for each pixel in the image. Hence, a pixel in HSI is a high-dimensional vector of intensities with a large spectral range and a high spectral resolution. Therefore, the semantic interpretation is a challenging task of HSI analysis. We focused in this paper on object classification as HSI semantic interpretation. However, HSI classification still faces some issues, among which are the following: The spatial variability of spectral signatures, the high number of spectral bands, and the high cost of true sample labeling. Therefore, the high number of spectral bands and the low number of training samples pose the problem of the curse of dimensionality. In order to resolve this problem, we propose to introduce the process of dimensionality reduction trying to improve the classification of HSI. The presented approach is a semi-supervised band selection method based on spatial hypergraph embedding model to represent higher order relationships with different weights of the spatial neighbors corresponding to the centroid of pixel. This semi-supervised band selection has been developed to select useful bands for object classification. The presented approach is evaluated on AVIRIS and ROSIS HSIs and compared to other dimensionality reduction methods. The experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of our approach compared to many existing dimensionality reduction methods for HSI classification.

Keywords: Hyperspectral image, spatial hypergraph, dimensionality reduction, semantic interpretation, band selection, feature extraction.

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Authors: Y. Abdelrazig, R. Moses

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Roadway planning and design is a very complex process involving five key phases before a project is completed; planning, project development, final design, right-of-way, and construction. The planning phase for a new roadway transportation project is a very critical phase as it greatly affects all latter phases of the project. A location study is usually performed during the preliminary planning phase in a new roadway project. The objective of the location study is to develop alignment alternatives that are cost efficient considering land acquisition and construction costs. This paper describes a methodology to develop optimal preliminary roadway alignments utilizing spatial-data. Four optimization criteria are taken into consideration; roadway length, land cost, land slope, and environmental impacts. The basic concept of the methodology is to convert the proposed project area into a grid, which represents the search space for an optimal alignment. The aforementioned optimization criteria are represented in each of the grid’s cells. A spatial-data optimization technique is utilized to find the optimal alignment in the search space based on the four optimization criteria. Two case studies for new roadway projects in Duval County in the State of Florida are presented to illustrate the methodology. The optimization output alignments are compared to the proposed Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) alignments. The comparison is based on right-of-way costs for the alignments. For both case studies, the right-of-way costs for the developed optimal alignments were found to be significantly lower than the FDOT alignments.

Keywords: Optimization, planning, roadway alignment, FDOT.

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Authors: A.K. Tangirala, S. Babji

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In the last few years, three multivariate spectral analysis techniques namely, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) have emerged as effective tools for oscillation detection and isolation. While the first method is used in determining the number of oscillatory sources, the latter two methods are used to identify source signatures by formulating the detection problem as a source identification problem in the spectral domain. In this paper, we present a critical drawback of the underlying linear (mixing) model which strongly limits the ability of the associated source separation methods to determine the number of sources and/or identify the physical source signatures. It is shown that the assumed mixing model is only valid if each unit of the process gives equal weighting (all-pass filter) to all oscillatory components in its inputs. This is in contrast to the fact that each unit, in general, acts as a filter with non-uniform frequency response. Thus, the model can only facilitate correct identification of a source with a single frequency component, which is again unrealistic. To overcome this deficiency, an iterative post-processing algorithm that correctly identifies the physical source(s) is developed. An additional issue with the existing methods is that they lack a procedure to pre-screen non-oscillatory/noisy measurements which obscure the identification of oscillatory sources. In this regard, a pre-screening procedure is prescribed based on the notion of sparseness index to eliminate the noisy and non-oscillatory measurements from the data set used for analysis.

Keywords: non-negative matrix factorization, PCA, source separation, plant-wide diagnosis

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Authors: Saad Alkhaldi, Fadi Ghammas, Tariq Alghamdi, Stefano Alexandirs

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The operating conditions and corrosive nature of the process fluid in the Haradh and Hawiyah areas are subjecting facility piping to undesirable corrosion phenomena. Therefore, production headers inside remote headers have been internally cladded with high alloy material to mitigate the corrosion damage mechanism. Corrosion mitigation in the jump-over lines, constructed between the existing flowlines and the newly constructed facilities to provide operational flexibility, is proposed. This corrosion mitigation system includes the application of fusion bond epoxy (FBE) coating on the internal surface of the pipe and depositing corrosion-resistant alloy (CRA) weld layers at pipe and fittings ends to protect the carbon steel material. In addition, high alloy CRA weld material is used to deposit the girth weld between the 90-degree elbows and mating internally coated segments. A rigorous testing and qualification protocol was established prior to actual adoption at the Haradh and Hawiyah Field Gas Compression Program, currently being executed by Saudi Aramco. The proposed mitigation system, aimed at applying the cladding at the ends of the internally FBE coated pipes/elbows, will resolve field joint coating challenges, eliminate the use of approximately 1700 breakout flanges, and prevent the potential hydrocarbon leaks.

Keywords: Corrosion, FBE coated sour service, cost savings.

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Authors: Yu-Cheng Chou, Po Ting Lin

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The network of delivering commodities has been an important design problem in our daily lives and many transportation applications. The delivery performance is evaluated based on the system reliability of delivering commodities from a source node to a sink node in the network. The system reliability is thus maximized to find the optimal routing. However, the design problem is not simple because (1) each path segment has randomly distributed attributes; (2) there are multiple commodities that consume various path capacities; (3) the optimal routing must successfully complete the delivery process within the allowable time constraints. In this paper, we want to focus on the design optimization of the Multi-State Flow Network (MSFN) for multiple commodities. We propose an efficient approach to evaluate the system reliability in the MSFN with respect to randomly distributed path attributes and find the optimal routing subject to the allowable time constraints. The delivery rates, also known as delivery currents, of the path segments are evaluated and the minimal-current arcs are eliminated to reduce the complexity of the MSFN. Accordingly, the correct optimal routing is found and the worst-case reliability is evaluated. It has been shown that the reliability of the optimal routing is at least higher than worst-case measure. Two benchmark examples are utilized to demonstrate the proposed method. The comparisons between the original and the reduced networks show that the proposed method is very efficient.

Keywords: Multiple Commodities, Multi-State Flow Network (MSFN), Time Constraints, Worst-Case Reliability (WCR)

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Authors: Beata Zima, Octavio A. Márquez Reyes, Masoud Mohammadgholiha, Jochen Moll, Luca De Marchi

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This document presents the approach of using compressed sensing in signal encoding and information transferring within a guided wave sensor network, comprised of specially designed frequency steerable acoustic transducers (FSATs). Wave propagation in a damaged plate was simulated using commercial FEM-based software COMSOL. Guided waves were excited by means of FSATs, characterized by the special shape of its electrodes, and modeled using PIC255 piezoelectric material. The special shape of the FSAT, allows for focusing wave energy in a certain direction, accordingly to the frequency components of its actuation signal, which makes a larger monitored area available. The process begins when a FSAT detects and records reflection from damage in the structure, this signal is then encoded and prepared for transmission, using a combined approach, based on Compressed Sensing Matching Pursuit and Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). After codification of the signal is in binary, the information is transmitted between the nodes in the network. The message reaches the last node, where it is finally decoded and processed, to be used for damage detection and localization purposes. The main aim of the investigation is to determine the location of detected damage using reconstructed signals. The study demonstrates that the special steerable capabilities of FSATs, not only facilitate the detection of damage but also permit transmitting the damage information to a chosen area in a specific direction of the investigated structure.

Keywords: Data compression, ultrasonic communication, guided waves, FEM analysis.

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Authors: Hossein Tavallali, Mohammad Ali Karimi, Gohar Deilamy-Rad

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The proposed method for speciation, preconcentration and determination of Fe(II) and Fe(III) in pharmaceutical products was developed using of alumina-coated magnetite nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄/Al₂O₃ NPs) as solid phase extraction (SPE) sorbent in magnetic mixed hemimicell solid phase extraction (MMHSPE) technique followed by flame atomic absorption spectrometry analysis. The procedure is based on complexation of Fe(II) with 1, 10-phenanthroline (OP) as complexing reagent for Fe(II) that immobilized on the modified Fe₃O₄/Al₂O₃ NPs. The extraction and concentration process for pharmaceutical sample was carried out in a single step by mixing the extraction solvent, magnetic adsorbents under ultrasonic action. Then, the adsorbents were isolated from the complicated matrix easily with an external magnetic field. Fe(III) ions determined after facility reduced to Fe(II) by added a proper reduction agent to sample solutions. Compared with traditional methods, the MMHSPE method simplified the operation procedure and reduced the analysis time. Various influencing parameters on the speciation and preconcentration of trace iron, such as pH, sample volume, amount of sorbent, type and concentration of eluent, were studied. Under the optimized operating conditions, the preconcentration factor of the modified nano magnetite for Fe(II) 167 sample was obtained. The detection limits and linear range of this method for iron were 1.0 and 9.0 - 175 ng.mL⁻¹, respectively. Also the relative standard deviation for five replicate determinations of 30.00 ng.mL^-1 Fe²⁺ was 2.3%.

Keywords: Alumina-coated magnetite nanoparticles, magnetic mixed hemimicell solid-phase extraction, Fe(ΙΙ) and Fe(ΙΙΙ), pharmaceutical sample.

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Authors: M. Khairulmazidah, A. B. Nurul Nadiah, A. R. Rumiza

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Formulation of biological profile is one of the modern roles of forensic anthropologist. The present study was conducted to estimate height using foot and shoeprint length of Malaysian population. The present work can be very useful information in the process of identification of individual in forensic cases based on shoeprint evidence. It can help to narrow down suspects and ease the police investigation. Besides, stature is important parameters in determining the partial identify of unidentified and mutilated bodies. Thus, this study can help the problem encountered in cases of mass disaster, massacre, explosions and assault cases. This is because it is very hard to identify parts of bodies in these cases where people are dismembered and become unrecognizable. Samples in this research were collected from 200 Malaysian adults (100 males and 100 females) with age ranging from 20 to 45 years old. In this research, shoeprint length were measured based on the print of the shoes made from the flat shoes. Other information like gender, foot length and height of subject were also recorded. The data was analyzed using IBM® SPSS Statistics 19 software. Results indicated that, foot length has a strong correlation with stature than shoeprint length for both sides of the feet. However, in the unknown, where the gender was undetermined have shown a better correlation in foot length and shoeprint length parameter compared to males and females analyzed separately. In addition, prediction equations are developed to estimate the stature using linear regression analysis of foot length and shoeprint length. However, foot lengths give better prediction than shoeprint length. 

Keywords: Forensic anthropology, foot length, shoeprints, stature estimation.

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Authors: Cornelia-Eugenia Munteanu

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From a psychological perspective, psychopathology is the area of clinical psychology that has at its core psychological assessment and psychotherapy. In day-to-day clinical practice, psychodiagnosis and psychotherapy are used independently, according to their intended purpose and their specific methods of application. The paper explores how the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and Mini Mental State Examination-2 (MMSE-2) psychological tools contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy (CBT). This combined approach, psychotherapy in conjunction with assessment of personality and cognitive functions, is illustrated by two cases, a severe depressive episode with psychotic symptoms and a mixed anxiety-depressive disorder. The order in which CBT, MMPI-2, and MMSE-2 were used in the diagnostic and therapeutic process was determined by the particularities of each case. In the first case, the sequence started with psychotherapy, followed by the administration of blue form MMSE-2, MMPI-2, and red form MMSE-2. In the second case, the cognitive screening with blue form MMSE-2 led to a personality assessment using MMPI-2, followed by red form MMSE-2; reapplication of the MMPI-2 due to the invalidation of the first profile, and finally, psychotherapy. The MMPI-2 protocols gathered useful information that directed the steps of therapeutic intervention: a detailed symptom picture of potentially self-destructive thoughts and behaviors otherwise undetected during the interview. The memory loss and poor concentration were confirmed by MMSE-2 cognitive screening. This combined approach, psychotherapy with psychological assessment, aligns with the trend of adaptation of the psychological services to the everyday life of contemporary man and paves the way for deepening and developing the field.

Keywords: Assessment, cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, MMPI-2, MMSE-2, psychopathology.

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Authors: Seyed Saeid Tabaee, Omid Bahar

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Nowadays, energy dissipation devices are commonly used in structures. High rate of energy absorption during earthquakes is the benefit of using such devices, which results in damage reduction of structural elements, specifically columns. The hysteretic damping capacity of energy dissipation devices is the key point that it may adversely make analysis and design process complicated. This effect may be generally represented by Equivalent Viscous Damping (EVD). The equivalent viscous damping might be obtained from the expected hysteretic behavior regarding to the design or maximum considered displacement of a structure. In this paper, the hysteretic damping coefficient of a steel Moment Resisting Frame (MRF), which its performance is enhanced by a Buckling Restrained Brace (BRB) system has been evaluated. Having foresight of damping fraction between BRB and MRF is inevitable for seismic design procedures like Direct Displacement-Based Design (DDBD) method. This paper presents an approach to calculate the damping fraction for such systems by carrying out the dynamic nonlinear time history analysis (NTHA) under harmonic loading, which is tuned to the natural system frequency. Two MRF structures, one equipped with BRB and the other without BRB are simultaneously studied. Extensive analysis shows that proportion of each system damping fraction may be calculated by its shear story portion. In this way, contribution of each BRB in the floors and their general contribution in the structural performance may be clearly recognized, in advance.

Keywords: Buckling restrained brace, Direct displacement based design, Dual systems, Hysteretic damping, Moment resisting frames.

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Authors: L. Krpalkova, N. O' Mahony, A. Carvalho, S. Campbell, G. Corkery, E. Broderick, J. Walsh

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Farm management and operations will drastically change due to access to real-time data, real-time forecasting and tracking of physical items in combination with Internet of Things (IoT) developments to further automate farm operations. Dairy farms have embraced technological innovations and procured vast amounts of permanent data streams during the past decade; however, the integration of this information to improve the whole farm decision-making process does not exist. It is now imperative to develop a system that can collect, integrate, manage, and analyze on-farm and off-farm data in real-time for practical and relevant environmental and economic actions. The developed systems, based on machine learning and artificial intelligence, need to be connected for useful output, a better understanding of the whole farming issue and environmental impact. Evolutionary Computing (EC) can be very effective in finding the optimal combination of sets of some objects and finally, in strategy determination. The system of the future should be able to manage the dairy farm as well as an experienced dairy farm manager with a team of the best agricultural advisors. All these changes should bring resilience and sustainability to dairy farming as well as improving and maintaining good animal welfare and the quality of dairy products. This review aims to provide an insight into the state-of-the-art of big data applications and EC in relation to smart dairy farming and identify the most important research and development challenges to be addressed in the future. Smart dairy farming influences every area of management and its uptake has become a continuing trend.

Keywords: Big data, evolutionary computing, cloud, precision technologies

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Authors: Wahidul K. Biswas

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Perth will run out of available sustainable natural water resources by 2015 if nothing is done to slow usage rates, according to a Western Australian study [1]. Alternative water technology options need to be considered for the long-term guaranteed supply of water for agricultural, commercial, domestic and industrial purposes. Seawater is an alternative source of water for human consumption, because seawater can be desalinated and supplied in large quantities to a very high quality. While seawater desalination is a promising option, the technology requires a large amount of energy which is typically generated from fossil fuels. The combustion of fossil fuels emits greenhouse gases (GHG) and, is implicated in climate change. In addition to environmental emissions from electricity generation for desalination, greenhouse gases are emitted in the production of chemicals and membranes for water treatment. Since Australia is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, it is important to quantify greenhouse gas emissions from desalinated water production. A life cycle assessment (LCA) has been carried out to determine the greenhouse gas emissions from the production of 1 gigalitre (GL) of water from the new plant. In this LCA analysis, a new desalination plant that will be installed in Bunbury, Western Australia, and known as Southern Seawater Desalinization Plant (SSDP), was taken as a case study. The system boundary of the LCA mainly consists of three stages: seawater extraction, treatment and delivery. The analysis found that the equivalent of 3,890 tonnes of CO2 could be emitted from the production of 1 GL of desalinated water. This LCA analysis has also identified that the reverse osmosis process would cause the most significant greenhouse emissions as a result of the electricity used if this is generated from fossil fuels

Keywords: Desalinization, Greenhouse gas emissions, life cycle assessment.

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Authors: P. Luangpaiboon, P. Aungkulanon

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This work presents a multiple objective linear programming (MOLP) model based on the desirability function approach for solving the aggregate production planning (APP) decision problem upon Masud and Hwang-s model. The proposed model minimises total production costs, carrying or backordering costs and rates of change in labor levels. An industrial case demonstrates the feasibility of applying the proposed model to the APP problems with three scenarios of inventory levels. The proposed model yields an efficient compromise solution and the overall levels of DM satisfaction with the multiple combined response levels. There has been a trend to solve complex planning problems using various metaheuristics. Therefore, in this paper, the multi-objective APP problem is solved by hybrid metaheuristics of the hunting search (HuSIHSA) and firefly (FAIHSA) mechanisms on the improved harmony search algorithm. Results obtained from the solution of are then compared. It is observed that the FAIHSA can be used as a successful alternative solution mechanism for solving APP problems over three scenarios. Furthermore, the FAIHSA provides a systematic framework for facilitating the decision-making process, enabling a decision maker interactively to modify the desirability function approach and related model parameters until a good optimal solution is obtained with proper selection of control parameters when compared.

Keywords: Aggregate Production Planning, Desirability Function Approach, Improved Harmony Search Algorithm, Hunting Search Algorithm and Firefly Algorithm.

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Authors: Meysam Jamali, Ebrahim Moghimi, Zean Alabden Jafarpour

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Karst term is the determiner of a variety of areas or landforms and unique perspectives that have been formed in result of the of the ingredients dissolution of rocks constituter by natural waters. Shiraz area with an area of 5322km2 is located in the simple folded belt in the southern part of Zagros Mountain of Fars, and is surrounded with Limestone Mountains (Asmari formation). Shiraz area is located in Calcareous areas. The infrastructure of this city is lime and absorbing wells that the city can influence the Limestone dissolution and those accelerate its rate and increase the cavitation below the surface. Dasht-e Arjan is a graben, which has been created as the result of activity of two normal faults in its east and west sides. It is a complete sample of Karst plains (Polje) which has been created with the help of tectonic forces (fault) and dissolution process of water in Asmari limestone formation. It is located 60km. off south west of Shiraz (on Kazeroon-Shiraz road). In 1971, UNESCO has recognized this plain as a reserve of biosphere. It is considered as one of the world’s most beautiful geological phenomena, so that most of the world’s geologists are interested in visiting this place. The purpose of this paper is to identify and introduce landscapes of Karst features shiraz city and Dasht-e Arjan including Karst dissolution features (Lapiez, Karst springs, dolines, caves, underground caves, ponors, and Karst valleys), anticlines and synclines, and Arjan Lake.

Keywords: Dasht-eArjan, Fault, Karst features, Shiraz City, Zagros.

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Authors: Shrikant Charhate, Gayatri Deshpande

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Permeable pavements have significant benefits like managing runoff, infiltration, and carrying traffic over conventional pavements in terms of sustainability and environmental impact. Some of the countries are using this technique, especially at locations where durability and other parameters are of importance in nature; however, sparse work has been done on this concept. In India, this is yet to be adopted. In this work, the progress in the characterization and development of Permeable Articulated Concrete Blocks (PACB) pavement design is described and discussed with reference to Indian conditions. The experimentation and in-depth analysis was carried out considering conditions like soil erosion, water logging, and dust which are significant challenges caused due to impermeability of pavement. Concrete blocks with size 16.5’’x 6.5’’x 7’’ consisting of arch shape (4’’) at beneath and ½” PVC holes for articulation were casted. These blocks were tested for flexural strength. The articulation process was done with nylon ropes forming series of concrete block system. The total spacing between the blocks was kept about 8 to 10% of total area. The hydraulic testing was carried out by placing the articulated blocks with the combination of layers of soil, geotextile, clean angular aggregate. This was done to see the percentage of seepage through the entire system. The experimental results showed that with the shape of concrete block the flexural strength achieved was beyond the permissible limit. Such blocks with the combination could be very useful innovation in Indian conditions and useful at various locations compared to the traditional blocks as an alternative for long term sustainability.

Keywords: Connections, geotextile, permeable ACB, pavements, stone base.

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Authors: Tharwat N. Hijjawi

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Learning oral skills in an Arabic speaking environment is challenging. A blended course (material, activities, and individual/ group work tasks …) was implemented in a module of level B1 for undergraduate students of French as a foreign language in order to increase their opportunities to practice listening and speaking skills. This research investigates the influence of this modality on enhancing active learning and examines the effectiveness of provided strategies. Moreover, it aims at discovering how it allows teacher to flip the traditional classroom and create a learner-centered framework. Which approaches were integrated to motivate students and urge them to search, analyze, criticize, create and accomplish projects? What was the perception of students? This paper is based on the qualitative findings of a questionnaire and a focus group interview with learners. Despite the doubled time and effort both “teacher” and “student” needed, results revealed that the NTIC allowed a shift into a learning paradigm where learners were the “chiefs” of the process. Tasks and collaborative projects required higher intellectual capacities from them. Learners appreciated this experience and developed new life-long learning competencies at many levels: social, affective, ethical and cognitive. To conclude, they defined themselves as motivated young researchers, motivators and critical thinkers.

Keywords: Active learning, critical thinking, inverted classroom, learning paradigm, problem-based.

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Authors: N. J. M. Yusof, T. Sabir, J. McLoughlin

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The garment manufacturing industry involves sequential processes that are subjected to uncontrollable variations. The industry depends on the skill of labour in handling the varieties of fabrics and accessories, machines, as well as complicated sewing operation. Due to these reasons, garment manufacturers have created systems to monitor and to control the quality of the products on a regular basis by conducting quality approaches to minimize variation. With that, the aim of this research has been to ascertain the quality approaches deployed by Malaysian garment manufacturers in three key areas - quality systems and tools; quality control and types of inspection; as well as sampling procedures chosen for garment inspection. Besides, the focus of this research was to distinguish the quality approaches adopted by companies that supplied finished garments to both domestic and international markets. Feedback from each company representative has been obtained via online survey, which comprised of five sections and 44 questions on the organizational profile and the quality approaches employed in the garment industry. As a result, the response rate was 31%. The results revealed that almost all companies have established their own mechanism of process control by conducting a series of quality inspections for daily production, either it was formally set up or otherwise. In addition, quality inspection has been the predominant quality control activity in the garment manufacturing, while the level of complexity of these activities was substantially dictated by the customers. Moreover, AQL-based sampling was utilized by companies dealing with exports, whilst almost all the companies that only concentrated on the domestic market were comfortable using their own sampling procedures for garment inspection. Hence, this research has provided insights into the implementation of a number of quality approaches that were perceived as important and useful in the garment manufacturing sector, which is truly labour-intensive.

Keywords: Garment manufacturing, quality approaches, quality control, inspection, acceptance quality limit (AQL), and sampling.

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Authors: Mamoon M. Atout

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The Middle East Gulf region has witnessed rapid growth and development in many areas over the last two decades. The development of the real-estate sector, construction industry and infrastructure projects are a major share of the development that has participated in the civilization of the countries of the Gulf. Construction industry projects were planned and managed by different types of experts, who came from all over the world having different types of experiences in construction management and industry. Some of these projects were completed on time, while many were not, due to many accumulating factors. Many accumulated factors are considered as the principle reason for the problem experienced at the project construction stage, which reflected negatively on the project success. Specific causes of delay have been identified by construction managers to avoid any unexpected delays through proper analysis and considerations to some implications such as risk assessment and analysis for many potential problems to ensure that projects will be delivered on time. Construction management implications were adopted and considered by project managers who have experience and knowledge in applying the techniques of the system of engineering construction management. The aim of this research is to determine the benefits of the implications of construction management by the construction team and level of considerations of the techniques and processes during the project development and construction phases to avoid any delay in the projects. It also aims to determine the factors that participate to project completion delays in case project managers are not well committed to their roles and responsibilities. The results of the analysis will determine the necessity of the applications required by the project team to avoid the causes of delays that help them deliver projects on time, e.g. verifying tender documents, quantities and preparing the construction method of the project.

Keywords: Construction management, control process, cost control, planning and scheduling, roles and responsibilities.

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