Search results for: weight management
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 3806

Search results for: weight management

2306 Chelate Enhanced Modified Fenton Treatment for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Contaminated Soils

Authors: Venny, S. Gan, H. K. Ng

Abstract:

This work focuses on the remediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)-contaminated soil via Fenton treatment coupled with novel chelating agent (CA). The feasibility of chelated modified Fenton (MF) treatment to promote PAH oxidation in artificially contaminated soils was investigated in laboratory scale batch experiments at natural pH. The effects of adding inorganic and organic CA are discussed. Experiments using different iron catalyst to CA ratios were conducted, resulting in hydrogen peroxide: soil: iron: CA weight ratios that varied from 0.049: 1: 0.072: 0.008 to 0.049: 1: 0.072: 0.067. The results revealed that (1) inorganic CA could provide much higher PAH removal efficiency and (2) most of the proposed CAs were more efficient than commonly utilised CAs even at mild ratio. This work highlights the potential of novel chelating agents in maintaining a suitable environment throughout the Fenton treatment, particularly in soils with high buffer capacity.

Keywords: Chelating agent, Fenton, hydroxyl radicals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon.

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2305 Fuzzy Inference System Based Unhealthy Region Classification in Plant Leaf Image

Authors: K. Muthukannan, P. Latha

Abstract:

In addition to environmental parameters like rain, temperature diseases on crop is a major factor which affects production quality & quantity of crop yield. Hence disease management is a key issue in agriculture. For the management of disease, it needs to be detected at early stage. So, treat it properly & control spread of the disease. Now a day, it is possible to use the images of diseased leaf to detect the type of disease by using image processing techniques. This can be achieved by extracting features from the images which can be further used with classification algorithms or content based image retrieval systems. In this paper, color image is used to extract the features such as mean and standard deviation after the process of region cropping. The selected features are taken from the cropped image with different image size samples. Then, the extracted features are taken in to the account for classification using Fuzzy Inference System (FIS).

Keywords: Image Cropping, Classification, Color, Fuzzy Rule, Feature Extraction.

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2304 A Forecast Model for Projecting the Amount of Hazardous Waste

Authors: J. Vilgerts, L. Timma, D. Blumberga

Abstract:

The objective of the paper is to develop the forecast model for the HW flows. The methodology of the research included 6 modules: historical data, assumptions, choose of indicators, data processing, and data analysis with STATGRAPHICS, and forecast models. The proposed methodology was validated for the case study for Latvia. Hypothesis on the changes in HW for time period of 2010-2020 have been developed and mathematically described with confidence level of 95.0% and 50.0%. Sensitivity analysis for the analyzed scenarios was done. The results show that the growth of GDP affects the total amount of HW in the country. The total amount of the HW is projected to be within the corridor of – 27.7% in the optimistic scenario up to +87.8% in the pessimistic scenario with confidence level of 50.0% for period of 2010-2020. The optimistic scenario has shown to be the least flexible to the changes in the GDP growth.

Keywords: Forecast models, hazardous waste management, sustainable development, waste management indicators.

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2303 Evaluation and Preparation of Crystal Modifications of Artesunate: In vivo Studies

Authors: S. Gupta, R. Chadha

Abstract:

Five crystal modifications of water insoluble artesunate were generated by recrystallizing it from various solvents with improved physicochemical properties. These generated crystal forms were characterized to select the most potent and soluble form. SEM of all the forms showed changes in external shape leading them to be different morphologically. DSC thermograms of Form III and Form V showed broad endotherm peaks at 83.04oC and 76.96oC prior to melting fusion of drug respectively. Calculated weight loss in TGA revealed that Form III and Form V are methanol and acetone solvates respectively. However, few additional peaks were appeared in XRPD pattern in these two solvate forms. All forms exhibit exothermic behavior in buffer and two solvates display maximum ease of molecular release from the lattice. Methanol and acetone solvates were found to be most soluble forms and exhibited higher antimalarial efficacy showing higher survival rate (83.3%) after 30 days.

Keywords: Artesunate, Crystal modifications, in vivo studies, Recrystallization.

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2302 A Hybrid Radial-Based Neuro-GA Multiobjective Design of Laminated Composite Plates under Moisture and Thermal Actions

Authors: Mohammad Reza Ghasemi, Ali Ehsani

Abstract:

In this paper, the optimum weight and cost of a laminated composite plate is seeked, while it undergoes the heaviest load prior to a complete failure. Various failure criteria are defined for such structures in the literature. In this work, the Tsai-Hill theory is used as the failure criterion. The theory of analysis was based on the Classical Lamination Theory (CLT). A newly type of Genetic Algorithm (GA) as an optimization technique with a direct use of real variables was employed. Yet, since the optimization via GAs is a long process, and the major time is consumed through the analysis, Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (RBFNN) was employed in predicting the output from the analysis. Thus, the process of optimization will be carried out through a hybrid neuro-GA environment, and the procedure will be carried out until a predicted optimum solution is achieved.

Keywords: Composite Laminates, GA, Multi-objectiveOptimization, Neural Networks, RBFNN.

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2301 The Role of Knowledge Management in Innovation: Spanish Evidence

Authors: María Jesús Luengo-Valderrey, Mónica Moso-Díez

Abstract:

In the knowledge-based economy, innovation is considered essential in order to achieve survival and growth in organizations. On the other hand, knowledge management is currently understood as one of the keys to innovation process. Both factors are generally admitted as generators of competitive advantage in organizations. Specifically, activities on R&D&I and those that generate internal knowledge have a positive influence in innovation results. This paper examines this effect and if it is similar or not is what we aimed to quantify in this paper. We focus on the impact that proportion of knowledge workers, the R&D&I investment, the amounts destined for ICTs and training for innovation have on the variation of tangible and intangibles returns for the sector of high and medium technology in Spain. To do this, we have performed an empirical analysis on the results of questionnaires about innovation in enterprises in Spain, collected by the National Statistics Institute. First, using clusters methodology, the behavior of these enterprises regarding knowledge management is identified. Then, using SEM methodology, we performed, for each cluster, the study about cause-effect relationships among constructs defined through variables, setting its type and quantification. The cluster analysis results in four groups in which cluster number 1 and 3 presents the best performance in innovation with differentiating nuances among them, while clusters 2 and 4 obtained divergent results to a similar innovative effort. However, the results of SEM analysis for each cluster show that, in all cases, knowledge workers are those that affect innovation performance most, regardless of the level of investment, and that there is a strong correlation between knowledge workers and investment in knowledge generation. The main findings reached is that Spanish high and medium technology companies improve their innovation performance investing in internal knowledge generation measures, specially, in terms of R&D activities, and underinvest in external ones. This, and the strong correlation between knowledge workers and the set of activities that promote the knowledge generation, should be taken into account by managers of companies, when making decisions about their investments for innovation, since they are key for improving their opportunities in the global market.

Keywords: High and medium technology sector, innovation, knowledge management, Spanish companies.

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2300 On the Fatigue Behavior of a Triphasic Composite

Authors: G. Minak, D. Ghelli, A. Zucchelli

Abstract:

This paper presents the results of an experimental characterization of a glass fibre-epoxy composite. The behavior of the traditional two-phase composite has been compared with the one of a new three-phase composite where the epoxy matrix was modified by addition of a 3% weight fraction of montmorillonite nano-particles. Two different types of nano-clays, Cloisite® 30B and RXG7000, produced by Southern Clay Products Inc., have been considered. Three-point bending tests, both monotonic and cyclic, were carried out. A strong reduction of the ultimate flexural strength upon nano-modification has been observed in quasi-static tests. Fatigue tests yielded a smaller strength loss. In both quasi-static and fatigue tests a more pronounced tendency to delamination has been noticed in three-phase composites, especially in the case of 30B nano-clay, with respect to the standard two-phase glass fiber composite.

Keywords: Bending fatigue, epoxy resin, glass fiber, montmorillonite.

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2299 Carrageenan Properties Extracted From Eucheuma cottonii, Indonesia

Authors: Sperisa Distantina, Wiratni , Moh. Fahrurrozi, Rochmadi

Abstract:

The effect of extraction solvent upon properties of carrageenan from Eucheuma cottonii was studied. The distilled water and KOH solution (concentration 0.1- 0.5N) were used as the solvent. Extraction process was carried out in water bath equipped by stirrer with constant speed of 275 rpm with a constant ratio of seaweed weight to solvent volume ( 1:50 g/mL) at 86oC for 45 minutes. The extract was then precipitated in 3 volume of 90% ethanol, oven dried at 60oC. Based on experimental data, alkali significantly influenced yield and properties of extracted carrageenan. The extracted carrageenan was found to have essentially identical FTIR spectra to the reference samples of kappa-carrageenan. Increasing the KOH concentration led to carrageenan containing less sulfate content and intrinsic viscosity. The gel strength increased along with the increasing of KOH concentration. The decreasing of intrinsic viscosity value indicates that a polymer degradation occurs during alkali extraction.

Keywords: gel strength, sulfate, intrinsic viscosity, Eucheumacottonii

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2298 A Comparative Study on Survival and Growth of Larvivorous Fish, Rasbora daniconius, Puntius ticto, and Puntius Conchonius

Authors: Lavkush Kumar Brahman, Ramesh Chandra

Abstract:

Experiments were carried out on the survival and growth of Rasbora daniconius, Puntius ticto and Puntius conchonius. The motivation of the study was to obtain information for growing the fish on a commercial scale for their use as biological control agents against mosquito larvae. The effects of temperature, total hardness, DO, pH and feed on the growth of fish were also investigated. Excessive value of total hardness was found because very rich calcium ion is present in Chitrakoot area. There was significant increases in growth rates of fish as temperature was increased from 280C to 300C. Further increases in temperature up to 320C, did not further affect growth. The positive and highly significant correlations 0.991488, 0.9581 and 0.9935 were found between length and weight of P. ticto, P. conchonius and R. daniconius respectively. The regression was significant at 5% level of probability.

Keywords: Indigenous fish, DO, larvae, mosquito, pH, Temperature, total hardness.

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2297 A Proposal for a Secure and Interoperable Data Framework for Energy Digitalization

Authors: Hebberly Ahatlan

Abstract:

The process of digitizing energy systems involves transforming traditional energy infrastructure into interconnected, data-driven systems that enhance efficiency, sustainability, and responsiveness. As smart grids become increasingly integral to the efficient distribution and management of electricity from both fossil and renewable energy sources, the energy industry faces strategic challenges associated with digitalization and interoperability — particularly in the context of modern energy business models, such as virtual power plants (VPPs). The critical challenge in modern smart grids is to seamlessly integrate diverse technologies and systems, including virtualization, grid computing and service-oriented architecture (SOA), across the entire energy ecosystem. Achieving this requires addressing issues like semantic interoperability, Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) convergence, and digital asset scalability, all while ensuring security and risk management. This paper proposes a four-layer digitalization framework to tackle these challenges, encompassing persistent data protection, trusted key management, secure messaging, and authentication of IoT resources. Data assets generated through this framework enable AI systems to derive insights for improving smart grid operations, security, and revenue generation. Furthermore, this paper also proposes a Trusted Energy Interoperability Alliance as a universal guiding standard in the development of this digitalization framework to support more dynamic and interoperable energy markets.

Keywords: Digitalization, IT/OT convergence, semantic interoperability, TEIA alliance, VPP.

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2296 A Research on Glass Ceiling Syndrome Career Barriers of Women Academics

Authors: Serdar Öge, Alpay Karasoy, Özlem Kara

Abstract:

Although women have merit in their jobs, they still are located very few in the top management in many sectors. There are many causes of such situation. Such a situation creates obstacles; especially invisible ones are called “glass ceiling syndrome”. Also, studies which handle this subject in academic community are very few. The aim of this research is to reach the results about glass ceiling obstacles in terms of female teaching staff (academics) working in higher education institutions. To this end, our study was performed on female academics working at Selcuk University, Konya / Turkey. Our study's main aim can be expressed as to determine whether there are glass ceiling obstacles for female academics working at the higher education institution in question, to measure their glass ceiling perceptions and, thus, to identify what the glass ceiling barrier components for them to promotion to senior management positions are.

Keywords: Career, Career Barriers, Glass ceiling syndrome.

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2295 Factors Affecting Happiness Learning of Students of Faculty of Management Science, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University

Authors: Somtop Keawchuer

Abstract:

The objectives of this research are to compare the satisfaction of students, towards the happiness learning, sorted by their personal profiles, and to figure out the factors that affect the students’ happiness learning. This paper used survey method to collect data from 362 students. The survey was mainly conducted in the Faculty of Management Science, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, including 3,443 students. The statistics used for interpreting the results included the frequencies, percentages, standard deviations and One-way ANOVA. The findings revealed that the students are aware and satisfaction that all the factors in 3 categories (knowledge, skill and attitude) influence the happiness learning at the highest levels. The comparison of the satisfaction levels of the students toward their happiness learning leads to the results that the students with different genders, ages, years of study, and majors of the study have the similar satisfaction at the high level.

Keywords: Happiness Learning, Satisfaction, Students.

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2294 Genetic Variation of Durum Wheat Landraces and Cultivars Using Morphological and Protein Markers

Authors: M. R. Naghavi, S. Rashidi Monfared, A. H. Ahkami, M. A. Ombidbakhsh

Abstract:

Knowledge of patterns of genetic diversity enhances the efficiency of germplasm conservation and improvement. In this study 96 Iranian landraces of Triticum turgidum originating from different geographical areas of Iran, along with 18 durum cultivars from ten countries were evaluated for variation in morphological and high molecular weight glutenin subunit (HMW-GS) composition. The first two principal components clearly separated the Iranian landraces from cultivars. Three alleles were present at the Glu-A1 locus and 11 alleles at Glu-B1. In both cultivars and landraces of durum wheat, the null allele (Glu-A1c) was observed more frequently than the Glu-A1a and Glu-A1b alleles. Two alleles, namely Glu-B1a (subunit 7) and Glu-B1e (subunit 20) represented the more frequent alleles at Glu-B1 locus. The results showed that the evaluated Iranian landraces formed an interesting source of favourable glutenin subunits that might be very desirable in breeding activities for improving pasta-making quality.

Keywords: Triticum turgidum var. durum, glutenin subunits, morphological characters.

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2293 Service-Oriented Architecture for Object- Centric Information Fusion

Authors: Jeffrey A. Dunne, Kevin Ligozio

Abstract:

In many applications there is a broad variety of information relevant to a focal “object" of interest, and the fusion of such heterogeneous data types is desirable for classification and categorization. While these various data types can sometimes be treated as orthogonal (such as the hull number, superstructure color, and speed of an oil tanker), there are instances where the inference and the correlation between quantities can provide improved fusion capabilities (such as the height, weight, and gender of a person). A service-oriented architecture has been designed and prototyped to support the fusion of information for such “object-centric" situations. It is modular, scalable, and flexible, and designed to support new data sources, fusion algorithms, and computational resources without affecting existing services. The architecture is designed to simplify the incorporation of legacy systems, support exact and probabilistic entity disambiguation, recognize and utilize multiple types of uncertainties, and minimize network bandwidth requirements.

Keywords: Data fusion, distributed computing, service-oriented architecture, SOA

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2292 Degradation Propensity of Welded Mild Steel in Coastal Soil of University of Lagos

Authors: S. O. Adeosun, O. S. Sanni

Abstract:

Study on corrosion propensity of welded mild steel- bar in soil media around the coastal area of University of Lagos has been carried out using gravimetric method. Six (6) samples each for welded and unwelded mild steels were cut, their initial weights were recorded and buried in two selected soil. The weight losses of these coupons were measured at regular intervals for a period of six months (180 days).

The corrosiveness of the soil media varied widely depending on the potency level of its constituents. The results revealed that soil in the studied area have marked variations in composition and contents. Soil medium with a lower pH and higher chloride ion concentration aggressively attacked the coupons with the welded steel coupon corroding faster than unwelded one. The medium resistivity to the flow of current is another strong factor affecting corrosion rate.

Keywords: Coastal area, corrosion rate, mild steel, soil media, welds.

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2291 Absorption of CO2 in EAF Reducing Slag from Stainless Steel Making Process by Wet Grinding

Authors: B.M.N. Nik Hisyamudin, S. Yokoyama, M. Umemoto

Abstract:

In the current study, we have conducted an experimental investigation on the utilization of electronic arc furnace (EAF) reducing slag for the absorption of CO2 via wet grinding method. It was carried out by various grinding conditions. The slag was ground in the vibrating ball mill in the presence of CO2 and pure water under ambient temperature. The reaction behavior was monitored with constant pressure method, and the changes of experimental systems volume as a function of grinding time were measured. It was found that the CO2 absorption occurred as soon as the grinding started. The CO2 absorption was significantly increased in the case of wet grinding compare to the dry grinding. Generally, the amount of CO2 absorption increased as the amount of water, weight of slag and initial pressure increased. However, it was decreased when the amount of water exceeds 200ml and when smaller balls were used. The absorption of CO2 occurred simultaneously with the start of the grinding and it stopped when the grinding was stopped. According to this research, the CO2 reacted with the CaO inside the slag, forming CaCO3.

Keywords: CO2 absorption, EAF reducing slag, vibration ball mill, wet grinding.

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2290 Security in Resource Constraints Network Light Weight Encryption for Z-MAC

Authors: Mona Almansoori, Ahmed Mustafa, Ahmad Elshamy

Abstract:

Wireless sensor network was formed by a combination of nodes, systematically it transmitting the data to their base stations, this transmission data can be easily compromised if the limited processing power and the data consistency from these nodes are kept in mind; there is always a discussion to address the secure data transfer or transmission in actual time. This will present a mechanism to securely transmit the data over a chain of sensor nodes without compromising the throughput of the network by utilizing available battery resources available in the sensor node. Our methodology takes many different advantages of Z-MAC protocol for its efficiency, and it provides a unique key by sharing the mechanism using neighbor node MAC address. We present a light weighted data integrity layer which is embedded in the Z-MAC protocol to prove that our protocol performs well than Z-MAC when we introduce the different attack scenarios.

Keywords: Hybrid MAC protocol, data integrity, lightweight encryption, Neighbor based key sharing, Sensor node data processing, Z-MAC.

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2289 Compression Strength of Treated Fine-Grained Soils with Epoxy or Cement

Authors: M. Mlhem

Abstract:

Geotechnical engineers face many problematic soils upon construction and they have the choice for replacing these soils with more appropriate soils or attempting to improve the engineering properties of the soil through a suitable soil stabilization technique. Mostly, improving soils is environmental, easier and more economical than other solutions. Stabilization soils technique is applied by introducing a cementing agent or by injecting a substance to fill the pore volume. Chemical stabilizers are divided into two groups: traditional agents such as cement or lime and non-traditional agents such as polymers. This paper studies the effect of epoxy additives on the compression strength of four types of soil and then compares with the effect of cement on the compression strength for the same soils. Overall, the epoxy additives are more effective in increasing the strength for different types of soils regardless its classification. On the other hand, there was no clear relation between studied parameters liquid limit, passing No.200, unit weight and between the strength of samples for different types of soils.

Keywords: Additives, clay, compression strength, epoxy, stabilization.

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2288 A Scenario Oriented Supplier Selection by Considering a Multi Tier Supplier Network

Authors: Mohammad Najafi Nobar, Bahareh Pourmehr, Mehdi Hajimirarab

Abstract:

One of the main processes of supply chain management is supplier selection process which its accurate implementation can dramatically increase company competitiveness. In presented article model developed based on the features of second tiers suppliers and four scenarios are predicted in order to help the decision maker (DM) in making up his/her mind. In addition two tiers of suppliers have been considered as a chain of suppliers. Then the proposed approach is solved by a method combined of concepts of fuzzy set theory (FST) and linear programming (LP) which has been nourished by real data extracted from an engineering design and supplying parts company. At the end results reveal the high importance of considering second tier suppliers features as criteria for selecting the best supplier.

Keywords: Supply Chain Management (SCM), SupplierSelection, Second Tier Supplier, Scenario Planning, Green Factor, Linear Programming, Fuzzy Set Theory

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2287 The Role of Home Composting in Waste Management Cost Reduction

Authors: Nahid Hassanshahi, Ayoub Karimi-Jashni, Nasser Talebbeydokhti

Abstract:

Due to the economic and environmental benefits of producing less waste, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) introduces source reduction as one of the most important means to deal with the problems caused by increased landfills and pollution. Waste reduction involves all waste management methods, including source reduction, recycling, and composting, which reduce waste flow to landfills or other disposal facilities. Source reduction of waste can be studied from two perspectives: avoiding waste production, or reducing per capita waste production, and waste deviation that indicates the reduction of waste transfer to landfills. The present paper has investigated home composting as a managerial solution for reduction of waste transfer to landfills. Home composting has many benefits. The use of household waste for the production of compost will result in a much smaller amount of waste being sent to landfills, which in turn will reduce the costs of waste collection, transportation and burial. Reducing the volume of waste for disposal and using them for the production of compost and plant fertilizer might help to recycle the material in a shorter time and to use them effectively in order to preserve the environment and reduce contamination. Producing compost in a home-based manner requires very small piece of land for preparation and recycling compared with other methods. The final product of home-made compost is valuable and helps to grow crops and garden plants. It is also used for modifying the soil structure and maintaining its moisture. The food that is transferred to landfills will spoil and produce leachate after a while. It will also release methane and greenhouse gases. But, composting these materials at home is the best way to manage degradable materials, use them efficiently and reduce environmental pollution. Studies have shown that the benefits of the sale of produced compost and the reduced costs of collecting, transporting, and burying waste can well be responsive to the costs of purchasing home compost machine and the cost of related trainings. Moreover, the process of producing home compost may be profitable within 4 to 5 years and as a result, it will have a major role in reducing waste management.

Keywords: Compost, home compost, reducing waste, waste management.

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2286 Singular Value Decomposition Based Optimisation of Design Parameters of a Gearbox

Authors: Mehmet Bozca

Abstract:

Singular value decomposition based optimisation of geometric design parameters of a 5-speed gearbox is studied. During the optimisation, a four-degree-of freedom torsional vibration model of the pinion gear-wheel gear system is obtained and the minimum singular value of the transfer matrix is considered as the objective functions. The computational cost of the associated singular value problems is quite low for the objective function, because it is only necessary to compute the largest and smallest singular values (μmax and μmin) that can be achieved by using selective eigenvalue solvers; the other singular values are not needed. The design parameters are optimised under several constraints that include bending stress, contact stress and constant distance between gear centres. Thus, by optimising the geometric parameters of the gearbox such as, the module, number of teeth and face width it is possible to obtain a light-weight-gearbox structure. It is concluded that the all optimised geometric design parameters also satisfy all constraints.

Keywords: Singular value, optimisation, gearbox, torsional vibration.

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2285 Assessing Community Participation in Decision-Making Process under Co-Management: A Case Study on Hail Haor, Bangladesh

Authors: R. Ferdous

Abstract:

Power, responsibility sharing, and democratic decision-making are the central ethos to co-management. It is assumed that involving local community in the decision-making process can create a sense of ownership and responsibility of that community and motivate the community towards collective action. But this paper demonstrated that the process to involve local community is not simple and straightforward as it is influenced by structural aspects, power relations among the actors, and social embedded institutions. These factors shape the process in that way who will participate, how they will participate and how the local community maneuvers their agency in the decision-making process. To grasp the complexities that materialize in the process of participation and to understand the inclusionary and exclusionary nature of participation, this paper examines the subjective understanding of different stakeholders concerning participation and furthermore observes the enabling or constraining factors that affect the community to exercise their agency.

Keywords: Participation, social embeddedness, power, structure.

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2284 Maintenance Dredging at Port of Townsville

Authors: M. Jaditager, J. Lovisa, N. Sivakugan

Abstract:

The Port of Townsville conducts regular annual maintenance dredging to maintain depths of its harbor basin and approach channels for the navigational safety of the vessels against the natural accumulation of marine sediments. In addition to the regular maintenance dredging, the port undertakes emergency dredging in cases where large quantities of sediments are mobilized and deposited in port waters by cyclone or major flood events. The maintenance dredging material derived from the port may be disposed at sea or on land in accordance with relevant state and commonwealth regulations. For the land disposal, the dredged mud slurry is hydraulically placed into containment ponds and left to undergo sedimentation and self-weight consolidation to form fill material for land reclamation. This paper provides an overview of the maintenance dredging at the Port of Townsville and emphasis on maintenance dredging requirements, sediment quality, bathymetry, dredging methods used, and dredged material disposal options.

Keywords: Consolidation, dredged material, maintenance dredging, marine sediments, sedimentation.

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2283 Innovative Fabric Integrated Thermal Storage Systems and Applications

Authors: Ahmed Elsayed, Andrew Shea, Nicolas Kelly, John Allison

Abstract:

In northern European climates, domestic space heating and hot water represents a significant proportion of total primary total primary energy use and meeting these demands from a national electricity grid network supplied by renewable energy sources provides an opportunity for a significant reduction in EU CO2 emissions. However, in order to adapt to the intermittent nature of renewable energy generation and to avoid co-incident peak electricity usage from consumers that may exceed current capacity, the demand for heat must be decoupled from its generation. Storage of heat within the fabric of dwellings for use some hours, or days, later provides a route to complete decoupling of demand from supply and facilitates the greatly increased use of renewable energy generation into a local or national electricity network. The integration of thermal energy storage into the building fabric for retrieval at a later time requires much evaluation of the many competing thermal, physical, and practical considerations such as the profile and magnitude of heat demand, the duration of storage, charging and discharging rate, storage media, space allocation, etc. In this paper, the authors report investigations of thermal storage in building fabric using concrete material and present an evaluation of several factors that impact upon performance including heating pipe layout, heating fluid flow velocity, storage geometry, thermo-physical material properties, and also present an investigation of alternative storage materials and alternative heat transfer fluids. Reducing the heating pipe spacing from 200 mm to 100 mm enhances the stored energy by 25% and high-performance Vacuum Insulation results in heat loss flux of less than 3 W/m2, compared to 22 W/m2 for the more conventional EPS insulation. Dense concrete achieved the greatest storage capacity, relative to medium and light-weight alternatives, although a material thickness of 100 mm required more than 5 hours to charge fully. Layers of 25 mm and 50 mm thickness can be charged in 2 hours, or less, facilitating a fast response that could, aggregated across multiple dwellings, provide significant and valuable reduction in demand from grid-generated electricity in expected periods of high demand and potentially eliminate the need for additional new generating capacity from conventional sources such as gas, coal, or nuclear.

Keywords: Fabric integrated thermal storage, FITS, demand side management, energy storage, load shifting, renewable energy integration.

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2282 Factors Affecting Weld Line Movement in Tailor Welded Blank

Authors: Shakil A. Kagzi, Sanjay Patil, Harit K. Raval

Abstract:

Tailor Welded Blanks (TWB) are utilized in automotive industries widely because of their advantage of weight and cost reduction and maintaining required strength and structural integrity. TWB consist of two or more sheet having dissimilar or similar material and thickness; welded together to form a single sheet before forming it to desired shape. Forming of the tailor welded blank is affected by ratio of thickness of blanks, ratio of their strength, etc. mainly due to in-homogeneity of material. In the present work the relative effect of these parameters on weld line movement is studied during deep drawing of TWB using FE simulation using HYPERWORKS. The simulation is validated with results from the literature. Simulations were than performed based on Taguchi orthogonal array followed by the ANOVA analysis to determine the significance of these parameters on forming of TWB.

Keywords: ANOVA, Deep drawing, Tailor Welded Blank, TWB, Weld line movement.

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2281 Math Curriculum Adaptation for Disadvantaged Students in an Inclusive Classroom

Authors: Tai-Hwa Emily Lu

Abstract:

This study was a part of the three-year longitudinal research on setting up an math learning model for the disadvantaged students in Taiwan. A target 2nd grade class with 10 regular students and 6 disadvantaged students at a disadvantaged area in Taipei participated in this study. Two units of a market basal math textbook concerning fractions, three-dimensional figures, weight and capacity were adapted to enhance their math learning motivations, confidences and effects. The findings were (1) curriculum adaptation was effective on enhancing students- learning motivations, confidences and effects; (2) story-type problems and illustrations decreased difficulties on understanding math language for students from new immigrant families and students with special needs; (3) “concrete – semiconcrete – abstract" teaching strategies and hands-on activities were essential to raise students learning interests and effects; and (4) curriculum adaptation knowledge and skills needed to be included in the pre- and in-service teacher training programs.

Keywords: curriculum adaptations, mathematics, disadvantaged students, inclusive classroom

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2280 Bioethanol Production from Enzymatically Saccharified Sunflower Stalks Using Steam Explosion as Pretreatment

Authors: Pilanee Vaithanomsat, Sinsupha Chuichulcherm, Waraporn Apiwatanapiwat

Abstract:

Sunflower stalks were analysed for chemical compositions: pentosan 15.84%, holocellulose 70.69%, alphacellulose 45.74%, glucose 27.10% and xylose 7.69% based on dry weight of 100-g raw material. The most optimum condition for steam explosion pretreatment was as follows. Sunflower stalks were cut into small pieces and soaked in 0.02 M H2SO4 for overnight. After that, they were steam exploded at 207 C and 21 kg/cm2 for 3 minutes to fractionate cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The resulting hydrolysate, containing hemicellulose, and cellulose pulp contained xylose sugar at 2.53% and 7.00%, respectively.The pulp was further subjected to enzymatic saccharification at 50 C, pH 4.8 citrate buffer) with pulp/buffer 6% (w/w)and Celluclast 1.5L/pulp 2.67% (w/w) to obtain single glucose with maximum yield 11.97%. After fixed-bed fermentation under optimum condition using conventional yeast mixtures to produce bioethanol, it indicated maximum ethanol yield of 0.028 g/100 g sunflower stalk.

Keywords: Enzymatic, steam explosion, sunflower stalk, ethanol production.

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2279 Quality Management in Spice Paprika Production as a Synergy of Internal and External Quality Measures

Authors: É. Kónya, E. Szabó, I. Bata-Vidács, T. Deák, M. Ottucsák, N. Adányi, A. Székács

Abstract:

Spice paprika is a major spice commodity in the European Union (EU), produced locally and imported from non-EU countries, reported not only for chemical and microbiological contamination, but also for fraud. The effective interaction between producers’ quality management practices and government and EU activities is described on the example of spice paprika production and control in Hungary, a country of leading spice paprika producer and per capita consumer in Europe. To demonstrate the importance of various contamination factors in the Hungarian production and EU trade of spice paprika, several aspects concerning food safety of this commodity are presented. Alerts in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) of the EU between 2005 and 2013, as well as Hungarian state inspection results on spice paprika in 2004 are discussed, and quality non-compliance claims regarding spice paprika among EU member states are summarized in by means of network analysis. Quality assurance measures established along the spice paprika production technology chain at the leading Hungarian spice paprika manufacturer, Kalocsai Fűszerpaprika Zrt. are surveyed with main critical control points identified. The structure and operation of the Hungarian state food safety inspection system is described. Concerted performance of the latter two quality management systems illustrates the effective interaction between internal (manufacturer) and external (state) quality control measures.

Keywords: Spice paprika, quality control, reporting mechanisms, RASFF, vulnerable points, HACCP, BRC Global Standard.

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2278 An Improvement of Flow Forming Process for Pressure Vessels by Four Rollers Machine

Authors: P. Sawitri, S. Cdr. Sittha, T. Kritsana

Abstract:

Flow forming is widely used in many industries, especially in defence technology industries. Pressure vessels requirements are high precision, light weight, seamless and optimum strength. For large pressure vessels, flow forming by 3 rollers machine were used. In case of long range rocket motor case flow forming and welding of pressure vessels have been used for manufacturing. Due to complication of welding process, researchers had developed 4 meters length pressure vessels without weldment by 4 rollers flow forming machine. Design and preparation of preform work pieces are performed. The optimization of flow forming parameter such as feed rate, spindle speed and depth of cut will be discussed. The experimental result shown relation of flow forming parameters to quality of flow formed tube and prototype pressure vessels have been made.

Keywords: Flow forming, Pressure vessel, four rollers, feed rate, spindle speed, cold work.

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2277 A Practical Model for Managing Beach Safety Focusing on Tourist Drownings in Koh Samui, Thailand

Authors: Siyathorn Khunon, Thanawit Buafai

Abstract:

This paper aims to investigate management of beach safety with a focus on tourist drownings in Samui. The data collected in this investigation will then lead to the proposal of a practical management model suitable for use in Samui. Qualitative research was conducted in the following manner: nine stakeholders from local government organizations and tourism businesses were interviewed in-depth. Additionally, a best practice case study from Phuket was applied to analyze beach safety. Twelve foreign tourists were also interviewed. Then, a focus group comprised of 32 people was used to determine practical solutions for enhancing tourists’ safety on the beach in Samui. A steering committee to coordinate between public and private organizations was proposed to manage and enhance tourists’ safety. A practical model is proposed to increase the safety level of tourists in Samui

Keywords: Beach safety, drowning, tourists, Samui.

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