Search results for: Waste load allocation (WLA)

Authors: Livinus A. Obasi, Augustine N. Ajah

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Biotechnology in recent times has tried to develop a mechanism whereby sustainable electricity can be generated by the activity of microorganisms on waste and renewable biomass (often regarded as “negative value”) in a device called microbial fuel cell, MFC. In this paper, we established how the biocatalytic activities of bacteria on organic matter (substrates) produced some electrons with the associated removal of some water pollution parameters; Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) to the tune of 77.2% and 88.3% respectively from a petrochemical sanitary wastewater. The electricity generation was possible by conditioning the bacteria to operate anaerobically in one chamber referred to as the anode while the electrons are transferred to the fully aerated counter chamber containing the cathode. Power densities ranging from 12.83 mW/m² to 966.66 mW/m² were achieved using a dual-chamber starch membrane MFC experimental set-up. The maximum power density obtained in this research shows an improvement in the use of low cost MFC set up to achieve power production. Also, the level of organic matter removal from the sanitary waste water by the operation of this device clearly demonstrates its potential benefit in achieving an improved benign environment. The beauty of the MFCs is their potential utility in areas lacking electrical infrastructures like in most developing countries.

Keywords: Bioelectricity, chemical oxygen demand, microbial fuel cell, sanitary wastewater, wheat starch.

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Authors: Bohuslava Juhasova, Martin Juhas, Renata Masarova, Zuzana Sutova

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The article deals with the tool in Matlab GUI form that is designed to analyse a mechatronic system sensitivity and tolerance. In the analysed mechatronic system, a torque is transferred from the drive to the load through a coupling containing flexible elements. Different methods of control system design are used. The classic form of the feedback control is proposed using Naslin method, modulus optimum criterion and inverse dynamics method. The cascade form of the control is proposed based on combination of modulus optimum criterion and symmetric optimum criterion. The sensitivity is analysed on the basis of absolute and relative sensitivity of system function to the change of chosen parameter value of the mechatronic system, as well as the control subsystem. The tolerance is analysed in the form of determining the range of allowed relative changes of selected system parameters in the field of system stability. The tool allows to analyse an influence of torsion stiffness, torsion damping, inertia moments of the motor and the load and controller(s) parameters. The sensitivity and tolerance are monitored in terms of the impact of parameter change on the response in the form of system step response and system frequency-response logarithmic characteristics. The Symbolic Math Toolbox for expression of the final shape of analysed system functions was used. The sensitivity and tolerance are graphically represented as 2D graph of sensitivity or tolerance of the system function and 3D/2D static/interactive graph of step/frequency response.

Keywords: Mechatronic systems, Matlab GUI, sensitivity, tolerance.

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Authors: Nurul Liyana Abdul Aziz, Nur Aidya Hanum Aizam

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Course timetabling problems occur every semester in a university which includes the allocation of resources (subjects, lecturers and students) to a number of fixed rooms and timeslots. The assignment is carried out in a way such that there are no conflicts within rooms, students and lecturers, as well as fulfilling a range of constraints. The constraints consist of rules and policies set up by the universities as well as lecturers’ and students’ preferences of courses to be allocated in specific timeslots. This paper specifically focuses on the preferences of the course timetabling problem in one of the public universities in Malaysia. The demands will be considered into our existing mathematical model to make it more generalized and can be used widely. We have distributed questionnaires to a number of lecturers and students of the university to investigate their demands and preferences for their desired course timetable. We classify the preferences thus converting them to construct one mathematical model that can produce such timetable.

Keywords: University course timetabling problem, integer programming, preferences, constraints.

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Authors: M. Mydlárová Blaščáková, J. Bernasovská, J. Poráčová, I. Boroňová

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Obesity is frequent attendant phenomenon of patients with endocrinological disease. Between BMI and endocrinological diseases is close correlation. In thesis we focused on the allocation of hormone concentration – PTH and TSH, CHOL a mineral element Ca in a blood serum. The examined group was formed by 100 respondents (women) aged 36 – 83 years, who were divided into two groups – control group (CG), group with diagnosed endocrine disease (DED). The concentration of PTH and TSH, Ca and CHOL was measured through the medium of analyzers Cobas e411 (Japan); Cobas Integra 400 (Switzerland). At individuals was measured body weight as well as stature and thereupon from those data we enumerated BMI. On the basis of Student T-test in biochemical parameter of PTH and Ca we found out significantly meaningful difference (p<0,05) between CG and DED. In CG we made a founding the association between BMI and PTH by means of correlation analysis.

Keywords: Biochemical markers, hormones, obesity, women.

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Authors: Sheng-Shih Wang, Wei-Ting Wang

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This paper designs an intelligent guidance system, based on wireless sensor networks, for efficient parking in parking lots. The proposed system consists of a parking space allocation subsystem, a parking space monitoring subsystem, a driving guidance subsystem, and a vehicle detection subsystem. In the system, we propose a novel and effective virtual coordinate system for sensing and displaying devices to determine the proper vacant parking space and provide the precise guidance to the driver. This study constructs a ZigBee-based wireless sensor network on Arduino platform and implements the prototype of the proposed system using Arduino-based complements. Experimental results confirm that the proposed prototype can not only work well, but also provide drivers the correct parking information.

Keywords: Arduino, Parking guidance, Wireless sensor network, ZigBee.

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Authors: Derjew Ayele Ejigu, Houde Song, Xiaojing Liu

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This work presents the particle swarm optimization trained neural network (PSO-NN) supervisory proportional integral derivative (PID) control method to monitor the pressurized water reactor (PWR) core power for safe operation. The proposed control approach is implemented on the transfer function of the PWR core, which is computed from the state-space model. The PWR core state-space model is designed from the neutronics, thermal-hydraulics, and reactivity models using perturbation around the equilibrium value. The proposed control approach computes the control rod speed to maneuver the core power to track the reference in a closed-loop scheme. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to train the neural network (NN) and to tune the PID simultaneously. The controller performance is examined using integral absolute error, integral time absolute error, integral square error, and integral time square error functions, and the stability of the system is analyzed by using the Bode diagram. The simulation results indicated that the controller shows satisfactory performance to control and track the load power effectively and smoothly as compared to the PSO-PID control technique. This study will give benefit to design a supervisory controller for nuclear engineering research fields for control application.

Keywords: machine learning, neural network, pressurized water reactor, supervisory controller

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Authors: Nawfal A. Mehdi, Ali Mamat, Hamidah Ibrahim, Shamala K. Syrmabn

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The increase on the demand of IT resources diverts the enterprises to use the cloud as a cheap and scalable solution. Cloud computing promises achieved by using the virtual machine as a basic unite of computation. However, the virtual machine pre-defined settings might be not enough to handle jobs QoS requirements. This paper addresses the problem of mapping jobs have critical start deadlines to virtual machines that have predefined specifications. These virtual machines hosted by physical machines and shared a fixed amount of bandwidth. This paper proposed an algorithm that uses the idle virtual machines bandwidth to increase the quote of other virtual machines nominated as executors to urgent jobs. An algorithm with empirical study have been given to evaluate the impact of the proposed model on impatient jobs. The results show the importance of dynamic bandwidth allocation in virtualized environment and its affect on throughput metric.

Keywords: Insufficient bandwidth, virtual machine, cloudprovider, impatient jobs.

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Authors: K. S. Hui, K. N. Hui, Seong Kon Lee

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Zeolite A and MCM-41 have extensive applications in basic science, petrochemical science, energy conservation/storage, medicine, chemical sensor, air purification, environmentally benign composite structure and waste remediation. However, the use of zeolite A and MCM-41 in these areas, especially environmental remediation, are restricted due to prohibitive production cost. Efficient recycling of and resource recovery from coal fly ash has been a major topic of current international research interest, aimed at achieving sustainable development of human society from the viewpoints of energy, economy, and environmental strategy. This project reported an original, novel, green and fast methods to produce nano-porous zeolite A and MCM-41 materials from coal fly ash. For zeolite A, this novel production method allows a reduction by half of the total production time while maintaining a high degree of crystallinity of zeolite A which exists in a narrower particle size distribution. For MCM-41, this remarkably green approach, being an environmentally friendly process and reducing generation of toxic waste, can produce pure and long-range ordered MCM-41 materials from coal fly ash. This approach took 24 h at 25 oC to produce 9 g of MCM-41 materials from 30 g of the coal fly ash, which is the shortest time and lowest reaction temperature required to produce pure and ordered MCM-41 materials (having the largest internal surface area) compared to the values reported in the literature. Performance evaluation of the produced zeolite A and MCM-41 materials in wastewater treatment and air pollution control were reported. The residual fly ash was also converted to zeolite Na-P1 which showed good performance in removal of multi-metal ions in wastewater. In wastewater treatment, compared to commercial-grade zeolite A, adsorbents produced from coal fly ash were effective in removing multi heavy metal ions in water and could be an alternative material for treatment of wastewater. In methane emission abatement, the zeolite A (produced from coal fly ash) achieved similar methane removal efficiency compared to the zeolite A prepared from pure chemicals. This report provides the guidance for production of zeolite A and MCM-41 from coal fly ash by a cost-effective approach which opens potential applications of these materials in environmental industry. Finally, environmental and economic aspects of production of zeolite A and MCM-41 from coal fly ash were discussed.

Keywords: Metal ions, waste water, methane, volatile organic compounds

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Authors: Mustapha Kamel Mihoubi, Mohamed Essadik Kerkar

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Probabilistic risk analysis models are used to provide a better understanding of the reliability and structural failure of works, including when calculating the stability of large structures to a major risk in the event of an accident or breakdown. This work is interested in the study of the probability of failure of concrete dams through the application of reliability analysis methods including the methods used in engineering. It is in our case, the use of level 2 methods via the study limit state. Hence, the probability of product failures is estimated by analytical methods of the type first order risk method (FORM) and the second order risk method (SORM). By way of comparison, a level three method was used which generates a full analysis of the problem and involves an integration of the probability density function of random variables extended to the field of security using the Monte Carlo simulation method. Taking into account the change in stress following load combinations: normal, exceptional and extreme acting on the dam, calculation of the results obtained have provided acceptable failure probability values which largely corroborate the theory, in fact, the probability of failure tends to increase with increasing load intensities, thus causing a significant decrease in strength, shear forces then induce a shift that threatens the reliability of the structure by intolerable values of the probability of product failures. Especially, in case the increase of uplift in a hypothetical default of the drainage system.

Keywords: Dam, failure, limit-state, Monte Carlo simulation, reliability, probability, simulation, sliding, Taylor.

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Authors: Cora Fernandez Dacosta, John A. Posada, Andrea Ramirez

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The biodegradable family of polymers polyhydroxyalkanoates is an interesting substitute for convectional fossil-based plastics. However, the manufacturing and environmental impacts associated with their production via intracellular bacterial fermentation are strongly dependent on the raw material used and on energy consumption during the extraction process, limiting their potential for commercialization. Industrial wastewater is studied in this paper as a promising alternative feedstock for waste valorization. Based on results from laboratory and pilot-scale experiments, a conceptual process design, techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment are developed for the large-scale production of the most common type of polyhydroxyalkanoate, polyhydroxbutyrate. Intracellular polyhydroxybutyrate is obtained via fermentation of microbial community present in industrial wastewater and the downstream processing is based on chemical digestion with surfactant and hypochlorite. The economic potential and environmental performance results help identifying bottlenecks and best opportunities to scale-up the process prior to industrial implementation. The outcome of this research indicates that the fermentation of wastewater towards PHB presents advantages compared to traditional PHAs production from sugars because the null environmental burdens and financial costs of the raw material in the bioplastic production process. Nevertheless, process optimization is still required to compete with the petrochemicals counterparts.

Keywords: Circular economy, life cycle assessment, polyhydroxyalkanoates, waste valorization.

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Authors: Mohamad Izuddin Nordin, Azween Abdullah, Mahamat Issa Hassan

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In this paper, cloud resource broker using goalbased request in medical application is proposed. To handle recent huge production of digital images and data in medical informatics application, the cloud resource broker could be used by medical practitioner for proper process in discovering and selecting correct information and application. This paper summarizes several reviewed articles to relate medical informatics application with current broker technology and presents a research work in applying goal-based request in cloud resource broker to optimize the use of resources in cloud environment. The objective of proposing a new kind of resource broker is to enhance the current resource scheduling, discovery, and selection procedures. We believed that it could help to maximize resources allocation in medical informatics application.

Keywords: Broker, Cloud Computing, Medical Informatics, Resources Discovery, Resource Selection.

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Authors: Essam A. Al-Bahkali, Mahir H. Es-saheb, Jonny Herwan

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In this study the elastic-plastic stress distribution in weld-bonded joint, fabricated from austenitic stainless steel (AISI 304) sheet of 1.00 mm thickness and Epoxy adhesive Araldite 2011, subjected to axial loading is investigated. This is needed to improve design procedures and welding codes, and saving efforts in the cumbersome experiments and analysis. Therefore, a complete 3-D finite element modelling and analysis of spot welded, bonded and weld-bonded joints under axial loading conditions is carried out. A comprehensive systematic experimental program is conducted to determine many properties and quantities, of the base metals and the adhesive, needed for FE modelling, such like the elastic – plastic properties, modulus of elasticity, fracture limit, the nugget and heat affected zones (HAZ) properties, etc. Consequently, the finite element models developed, for each case, are used to evaluate stresses distributions across the entire joint, in both the elastic and plastic regions. The stress distribution curves are obtained, particularly in the elastic regions and found to be consistent and in excellent agreement with the published data. Furthermore, the stresses distributions are obtained in the weld-bonded joint and display the best results with almost uniform smooth distribution compared to spot and bonded cases. The stress concentration peaks at the edges of the weld-bonded region, are almost eliminated resulting in achieving the strongest joint of all processes.

Keywords: Spot Welded, Weld-Bonded, Load-Displacement curve, Stress distribution

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Authors: Ayad Salih Sabbar, Amin Chegenizadeh, Hamid Nikraz

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Utilizing waste materials in civil engineering applications has a positive influence on the environment by reducing carbon dioxide emissions and issues associated with waste disposal. Granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) is a by-product of the iron and steel industry, with millions of tons of slag being annually produced worldwide. Slag has been widely used in structural engineering and for stabilizing clay soils; however, studies on the effect of slag on sandy soils are scarce. This article investigates the effect of slag content on shear strength parameters through direct shear tests and unconsolidated undrained triaxial tests on mixtures of Perth sand and slag. For this purpose, sand-slag mixtures, with slag contents of 2%, 4%, and 6% by weight of samples, were tested with direct shear tests under three normal stress values, namely 100 kPa, 150 kPa, and 200 kPa. Unconsolidated undrained triaxial tests were performed under a single confining pressure of 100 kPa and relative density of 80%. The internal friction angles and shear stresses of the mixtures were determined via the direct shear tests, demonstrating that shear stresses increased with increasing normal stress and the internal friction angles and cohesion increased with increasing slag. There were no significant differences in shear stresses parameters when slag content rose from 4% to 6%. The unconsolidated undrained triaxial tests demonstrated that shear strength increased with increasing slag content.

Keywords: Direct shear, shear strength, slag, UU test.

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Authors: Koudjo M. Koumadi, Kester Quist-Aphetsi, Robert A. Sowah, Amevi Acakpovi

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Downlink/Uplink (DL/UL) time slot allocation (TSA) in time division duplex (TDD) systems is generally uniform for all the cells. This TSA however is not efficient in case of different traffic asymmetry ratios in different cells. We first propose a new 3-coordinate architecture to identify cells in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system where each cell is divided into three sectors. Then, this coordinate system is used to derive a TSA for symmetric traffic. Mathematical analysis and simulations are used to show that the proposed TSA outperforms the traditional all uniform type of TSA in terms of total intercellular interference, even under uniform symmetrical traffic. Two adaptation strategies are further proposed to adjust the proposed TSA to asymmetrical traffic with different DL/UL traffic ratios in different cells. Further simulation results show that the adaptation strategies also yield higher signal-to-interference ratio (SIR).

Keywords: Crossed TSA, different-entity interference, same-entity interference, uniform TSA

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Authors: Adel M. Sharaf, Foad H. Gandoman

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Nowadays, Photovoltaic-PV Farms/ Parks and large PV-Smart Grid Interface Schemes are emerging and commonly utilized in Renewable Energy distributed generation. However, PVhybrid- Dc-Ac Schemes using interface power electronic converters usually has negative impact on power quality and stabilization of modern electrical network under load excursions and network fault conditions in smart grid. Consequently, robust FACTS based interface schemes are required to ensure efficient energy utilization and stabilization of bus voltages as well as limiting switching/fault onrush current condition. FACTS devices are also used in smart grid- Battery Interface and Storage Schemes with PV-Battery Storage hybrid systems as an elegant alternative to renewable energy utilization with backup battery storage for electric utility energy and demand side management to provide needed energy and power capacity under heavy load conditions. The paper presents a robust interface PV-Li-Ion Battery Storage Interface Scheme for Distribution/Utilization Low Voltage Interface using FACTS stabilization enhancement and dynamic maximum PV power tracking controllers. Digital simulation and validation of the proposed scheme is done using MATLAB/Simulink software environment for Low Voltage- Distribution/Utilization system feeding a hybrid Linear-Motorized inrush and nonlinear type loads from a DC-AC Interface VSC-6- pulse Inverter Fed from the PV Park/Farm with a back-up Li-Ion Storage Battery.

Keywords: AC FACTS, Smart grid, Stabilization, PV-Battery Storage, Switched Filter-Compensation (SFC).

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Authors: Yash Pal, A.Swarup, Bhim Singh

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This paper presents a novel control strategy of a threephase four-wire Unified Power Quality (UPQC) for an improvement in power quality. The UPQC is realized by integration of series and shunt active power filters (APFs) sharing a common dc bus capacitor. The shunt APF is realized using a thee-phase, four leg voltage source inverter (VSI) and the series APF is realized using a three-phase, three leg VSI. A control technique based on unit vector template technique (UTT) is used to get the reference signals for series APF, while instantaneous sequence component theory (ISCT) is used for the control of Shunt APF. The performance of the implemented control algorithm is evaluated in terms of power-factor correction, load balancing, neutral source current mitigation and mitigation of voltage and current harmonics, voltage sag and swell in a three-phase four-wire distribution system for different combination of linear and non-linear loads. In this proposed control scheme of UPQC, the current/voltage control is applied over the fundamental supply currents/voltages instead of fast changing APFs currents/voltages, there by reducing the computational delay and the required sensors. MATLAB/Simulink based simulations are obtained, which support the functionality of the UPQC. MATLAB/Simulink based simulations are obtained, which support the functionality of the UPQC.

Keywords: Power Quality, UPQC, Harmonics, Load Balancing, Power Factor Correction, voltage harmonic mitigation, currentharmonic mitigation, voltage sag, swell

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Authors: Rupali, Anil Kumar Jaiswal

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Cloud computing can be defined as one of the prominent technologies that lets a user change, configure and access the services online. it can be said that this is a prototype of computing that helps in saving cost and time of a user practically the use of cloud computing can be found in various fields like education, health, banking etc.  Cloud computing is an internet dependent technology thus it is the major responsibility of Cloud Service Providers(CSPs) to care of data stored by user at data centers. Scheduling in cloud computing environment plays a vital role as to achieve maximum utilization and user satisfaction cloud providers need to schedule resources effectively.  Job scheduling for cloud computing is analyzed in the following work. To complete, recreate the task calculation, and conveyed scheduling methods CloudSim3.0.3 is utilized. This research work discusses the job scheduling for circulated processing condition also by exploring on this issue we find it works with minimum time and less cost. In this work two load balancing techniques have been employed: ‘Throttled stack adjustment policy’ and ‘Active VM load balancing policy’ with two brokerage services ‘Advanced Response Time’ and ‘Reconfigure Dynamically’ to evaluate the VM_Cost, DC_Cost, Response Time, and Data Processing Time. The proposed techniques are compared with Round Robin scheduling policy.

Keywords: Physical machines, virtual machines, support for repetition, self-healing, highly scalable programming model.

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Authors: Bakari M. M. Mwinyiwiwa, Mighanda J. Manyahi, Nicodemu Gregory, Alex L. Kyaruzi

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Microgrids are increasingly being considered to provide electricity for the expanding energy demand in the grid distribution network and grid isolated areas. However, the technical challenges associated with the operation and controls are immense. Management of dynamic power balances, power flow, and network voltage profiles imposes unique challenges in the context of microgrids. Stability of the microgrid during both grid-connected and islanded mode is considered as the major challenge during its operation. Traditional control methods have been employed are based on the assumption of linear loads. For instance the concept of PQ, voltage and frequency control through decoupled PQ are some of very useful when considering linear loads, but they fall short when considering nonlinear loads. The deficiency of traditional control methods of microgrid suggests that more research in the control of microgrids should be done. This research aims at introducing the dq technique concept into decoupled PQ for dynamic load demand control in inverter interfaced DG system operating as isolated LV microgrid. Decoupled PQ in exact mathematical formulation in dq frame is expected to accommodate all variations of the line parameters (resistance and inductance) and to relinquish forced relationship between the DG variables such as power, voltage and frequency in LV microgrids and allow for individual parameter control (frequency and line voltages). This concept is expected to address and achieve accurate control, improve microgrid stability and power quality at all load conditions.

Keywords: Decoupled PQ, microgrid, multisource, renewable energy, dq control.

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Authors: M. Oloomi-Buygi, M. Reza Salehizadeh

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In this paper a new approach for transmission pricing is presented. The main idea is voltage angle allocation, i.e. determining the contribution of each contract on the voltage angle of each bus. DC power flow is used to compute a primary solution for angle decomposition. To consider the impacts of system non-linearity on angle decomposition, the primary solution is corrected in different iterations of decoupled Newton-Raphson power flow. Then, the contribution of each contract on power flow of each transmission line is computed based on angle decomposition. Contract-related flows are used as a measure for “extent of use" of transmission network capacity and consequently transmission pricing. The presented approach is applied to a 4-bus test system and IEEE 30-bus test system.

Keywords: Deregulation, Power electric markets, Transmission pricing methodologies, decoupled Newton-Raphson power flow.

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Authors: Shivani Chaturvedi, Santosh Satya, S. K. Tiwari

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Recent research on seeds of bio-diesel plants like Jatropha curcas, constituting 40-50% bio-crude oil indicates its potential as one of the most promising alternatives to conventional sources of energy. Also, limited studies on utilization of de-oiled cake have revealed that Jatropha bio-waste has good potential to be used as organic fertilizers produced via aerobic and anaerobic treatment. However, their commercial exploitation has not yet been possible. The present study aims at developing appropriate bio-processes and formulations utilizing Jatropha seed cake as organic fertilizer, for improving the growth of Polianthes tuberose L. (Tuberose). Pot experiments were carried out by growing tuberose plants on soil treated with composted formulations of Jatropha de-oiled cake, Farm Yard Manure (FYM) and inorganic fertilizers were also blended in soil. The treatment was carried out through soil amendment as well as foliar spray. The growth and morphological parameters were monitored for entire crop cycle. The growth Length and number of leaves, spike length, rachis length, number of bulb per plant and earliness of sprouting of bulb and yield enhancement were comparable to that achieved under inorganic fertilizer. Furthermore, performance of inorganic fertilizer also showed an improvement when blended with composted bio-waste. These findings would open new avenues for Jatropha based bio-wastes to be composted and used as organic fertilizers for commercial floriculture.

Keywords: Organic fertilizer, Jaropha cake, Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.).

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Authors: Maurício Covolan Rosito, Ricardo Melo Bastos

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Software projects are very dynamic and require recurring adjustments of their project plans. These settings can be understood as reconfigurations in the schedule, in the resources allocation and other design elements. Yet, during the planning and execution of a software project, the integration of specific activities in the projects with the activities that take part in the organization-s common activity flow should be considered. This article presents the results from a systematic review of aspects related to software projects- dynamic reconfiguration emphasizing the integration of project management with the organizational flows. A series of studies was analyzed from the year 2000 to the present. The results of this work show that there is a diversity of techniques and strategies for dynamic reconfiguration of software projects-. However, few approaches consider the integration of software project activities with the activities that take part in the organization-s common workflow.

Keywords: Dynamic Reconfiguration, Organizational workflows, Project Management, Systematic Review

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Authors: Nagesha, G. Hemantha Kumar

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Although the level crossing concept has been the subject of intensive investigation over the last few years, certain problems of great interest remain unsolved. One of these concern is distribution of threshold levels. This paper presents a new threshold level allocation schemes for level crossing based on nonuniform sampling. Intuitively, it is more reasonable if the information rich regions of the signal are sampled finer and those with sparse information are sampled coarser. To achieve this objective, we propose non-linear quantization functions which dynamically assign the number of quantization levels depending on the importance of the given amplitude range. Two new approaches to determine the importance of the given amplitude segment are presented. The proposed methods are based on exponential and logarithmic functions. Various aspects of proposed techniques are discussed and experimentally validated. Its efficacy is investigated by comparison with uniform sampling.

Keywords: speech signals, sampling, signal reconstruction, asynchronousdelta modulation, non-linear quantization.

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Authors: M. Bortolini, E. Ferrari, F. G. Galizia, C. Mora

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In the last decades, an increasing set of companies adopted lean philosophy to improve their productivity and efficiency promoting the so-called continuous improvement concept, reducing waste of time and cutting off no-value added activities. In parallel, increasing attention rises toward green practice and management through the spread of the green supply chain pattern, to minimise landfilled waste, drained wastewater and pollutant emissions. Starting from a review on contributions deepening lean and green principles applied to supply chain management, the most relevant drivers to measure the performance of industrial processes are pointed out. Specific attention is paid on the role of cost because it is of key importance and it crosses both lean and green principles. This analysis leads to figure out an original reference framework for integrating lean and green principles in designing and managing supply chains. The proposed framework supports the application, to the whole value chain or to parts of it, e.g. distribution network, assembly system, job-shop, storage system etc., of the lean-green integrated perspective. Evidences show that the combination of the lean and green practices lead to great results, higher than the sum of the performances from their separate application. Lean thinking has beneficial effects on green practices and, at the same time, methods allowing environmental savings generate positive effects on time reduction and process quality increase.

Keywords: Environmental sustainability, green supply chain, integrated framework, lean thinking, supply chain management.

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Authors: M. De Filippo, J. S. Kuang

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In construction industry, reinforced concrete (RC) slabs represent fundamental elements of buildings and bridges. Different methods are available for analysing the structural behaviour of slabs. In the early ages of last century, the yield-line method has been proposed to attempt to solve such problem. Simple geometry problems could easily be solved by using traditional hand analyses which include plasticity theories. Nowadays, advanced finite element (FE) analyses have mainly found their way into applications of many engineering fields due to the wide range of geometries to which they can be applied. In such cases, the application of an elastic or a plastic constitutive model would completely change the approach of the analysis itself. Elastic methods are popular due to their easy applicability to automated computations. However, elastic analyses are limited since they do not consider any aspect of the material behaviour beyond its yield limit, which turns to be an essential aspect of RC structural performance. Furthermore, their applicability to non-linear analysis for modeling plastic behaviour gives very reliable results. Per contra, this type of analysis is computationally quite expensive, i.e. not well suited for solving daily engineering problems. In the past years, many researchers have worked on filling this gap between easy-to-implement elastic methods and computationally complex plastic analyses. This paper aims at proposing a numerical procedure, through which a pseudo-lower bound solution, not violating the yield criterion, is achieved. The advantages of moment distribution are taken into account, hence the increase in strength provided by plastic behaviour is considered. The lower bound solution is improved by detecting over-yielded moments, which are used to artificially rule the moment distribution among the rest of the non-yielded elements. The proposed technique obeys Nielsen’s yield criterion. The outcome of this analysis provides a simple, yet accurate, and non-time-consuming tool of predicting the lower-bound solution of the collapse load of RC slabs. By using this method, structural engineers can find the fracture patterns and ultimate load bearing capacity. The collapse triggering mechanism is found by detecting yield-lines. An application to the simple case of a square clamped slab is shown, and a good match was found with the exact values of collapse load.

Keywords: Computational mechanics, lower bound method, reinforced concrete slabs, yield-line.

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Authors: Walid M. Saad

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techniques are examined to overcome the performance degradation caused by the channel dispersion using slow frequency hopping (SFH) with dynamic frequency hopping (DFH) pattern adaptation. In DFH systems, the frequency slots are selected by continuous quality monitoring of all frequencies available in a system and modification of hopping patterns for each individual link based on replacing slots which its signal to interference ratio (SIR) measurement is below a required threshold. Simulation results will show the improvements in BER obtained by DFH in comparison with matched frequency hopping (MFH), random frequency hopping (RFH) and multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) in multipath slowly fading dispersive channels using a generalized bandpass two-path transfer function model, and will show the improvement obtained according to the threshold selection.

Keywords: code division multiple access (CDMA), dynamic channel allocation (DCA), dynamic channel assignment, frequency hopping, matched frequency hopping (MFH).

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Authors: A. K. Abdel-Fattah, A. B. El-Tawil, N. A. Harraz

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the operational and strategic planning decisions related to the quayside of container terminals. We introduce an integrated operational research (OR) and system dynamics (SD) approach to solve the Berth Allocation Problem (BAP) and the Quay Crane Assignment Problem (QCAP). A BAP-QCAP optimization modeling approach which considers practical aspects not studied before in the integration of BAP and QCAP is discussed. A conceptual SD model is developed to determine the long-term effect of optimization on the system behavior factors like resource utilization, attractiveness to port, number of incoming vessels to port and port profits. The framework can be used for improving the operational efficiency of container terminals and providing a strategic view after applying optimization.

Keywords: Operational research, system dynamics, container terminal, quayside operational problems, strategic planning decisions.

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Authors: B. Gangloff, L. Mayoral, A. Rezrazi

Abstract:

Three types of salary distribution are usually proposed by the theorists of distributive justice: Equality, equity and need. Their influence has been studied, taking into consideration (in terms of equity) the performance of the employees and their degree of allegiance/rebellion in what regards discriminatory hierarchical orders, by taking into account the reasons of such allegiance/rebellion (allegiance out of conviction, legalism or opportunism/ethical rebellion). Conducted in Argentina, the study has confronted 480 students (240 male and 240 female) with a practical case in which they had to advise a manager of a real estate agency on the allocation of a bonus amongst his employees. The latter were characterized according to their respective performance, one of them being further defined as being (or not) in a financial need and as having complied (or not) with a discriminatory hierarchical order regarding foreigners. The results show that the distribution of the bonus only follows the rules of equity and need: The employees more efficient, allegiant or in need, are rewarded more than the others. It is also noteworthy that the allegiant employees are rewarded in the same way, regardless of the reason for their allegiance, and that the employee who refuses to adopt a discriminatory conduct is penalized.

Keywords: Distributive justice, equity, performance, allegiance, ethic.

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Authors: A. O. Salami

Abstract:

The transportation problems are primarily concerned with the optimal way in which products produced at different plants (supply origins) are transported to a number of warehouses or customers (demand destinations). The objective in a transportation problem is to fully satisfy the destination requirements within the operating production capacity constraints at the minimum possible cost. The objective of this study is to determine ways of minimizing transportation cost in order to maximum profit. Data were sourced from the records of the Distribution Department of 7-Up Bottling Company Plc., Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. The data were computed and analyzed using the three methods of solving transportation problem. The result shows that the three methods produced the same total transportation costs amounting to N1, 358, 019, implying that any of the method can be adopted by the company in transporting its final products to the wholesale dealers in order to minimize total production cost. 

Keywords: Allocation problem, Cost Minimization, Distribution system, Resources utilization.

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Authors: Kamalendu Pal

Abstract:

Supply chains are the backbone of trade and commerce. Their logistics use different transport corridors on regular basis for operational purpose. The international supply chain transport corridors include different infrastructure elements (e.g. weighbridge, package handling equipments, border clearance authorities, and so on). This paper presents the use of multi-agent systems (MAS) to model and simulate some aspects of transportation corridors, and in particular the area of weighbridge resource optimization for operational profit. An underlying multi-agent model provides a means of modeling the relationships among stakeholders in order to enable coordination in a transport corridor environment. Simulations of the costs of container unloading, reloading, and waiting time for queuing up tracks have been carried out using data sets. Results of the simulation provide the potential guidance in making decisions about optimal service resource allocation in a trade corridor.

Keywords: Multi-agent systems, simulation, supply chain, transport corridor, weighbridge.

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Authors: R.Narmatha Banu, D.Devaraj

Abstract:

This paper presents a genetic algorithm based approach for solving security constrained optimal power flow problem (SCOPF) including FACTS devices. The optimal location of FACTS devices are identified using an index called overload index and the optimal values are obtained using an enhanced genetic algorithm. The optimal allocation by the proposed method optimizes the investment, taking into account its effects on security in terms of the alleviation of line overloads. The proposed approach has been tested on IEEE-30 bus system to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm for solving the SCOPF problem.

Keywords: Optimal Power Flow, Genetic Algorithm, FlexibleAC transmission system (FACTS) devices, Severity Index (SI), Security Enhancement, Thyristor controlled series capacitor (TCSC).

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