Search results for: total variation.

Authors: Hasan Atak

Abstract:

Emerging adulthood, between the ages of 18 and 25, as a distinct developmental stage extending from adolescence to young adulthood. The proportions composing the five-factor model are neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. In the literature, there is any study which includes the relationship between emerging adults loneliness and personality traits. Therefore, the relationship between emerging adults loneliness and personality traits have to be investigated. This study examines the association between the Big Five personality traits, and loneliness among Turkish emerging adults. A total of 220 emerging adults completed the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), and the The UCLA Loneliness Scale (UCLALS). Correlation analysis showed that three Big Five personality dimensions which are Neuroticism (positively), and Extraversion and Aggreableness (negatively) are moderately correlated with emerging adults loneliness. Regression analysis shows that Extraversion, Aggreableness and Neuroticism are the most important predictors of emerging adults loneliness. Results can be discussed in the context of emerging adulthood theory.

Keywords: Personality, Big Five Traits, Loneliness, Turkish Emerging Adults

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2812

Authors: Badr M. Alshammari, T. Guesmi

Abstract:

This study presents a modified version of the artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm by including a local search technique for solving the non-convex economic power dispatch problem. The local search step is incorporated at the end of each iteration. Total system losses, valve-point loading effects and prohibited operating zones have been incorporated in the problem formulation. Thus, the problem becomes highly nonlinear and with discontinuous objective function. The proposed technique is validated using an IEEE benchmark system with ten thermal units. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed optimization algorithm has better convergence characteristics in comparison with the original ABC algorithm.

Keywords: Economic power dispatch, artificial bee colony, valve-point loading effects, prohibited operating zones.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 755

Authors: Benjamin Y. M. Kwan, Jennifer Y. Y. Kwan, Hon Keung Kwan

Abstract:

In the paper, the relative performances on spectral classification of short exon and intron sequences of the human and eleven model organisms is studied. In the simulations, all combinations of sixteen one-sequence numerical representations, four threshold values, and four window lengths are considered. Sequences of 150-base length are chosen and for each organism, a total of 16,000 sequences are used for training and testing. Results indicate that an appropriate combination of one-sequence numerical representation, threshold value, and window length is essential for arriving at top spectral classification results. For fixed-length sequences, the precisions on exon and intron classification obtained for different organisms are not the same because of their genomic differences. In general, precision increases as sequence length increases.

Keywords: Exons and introns classification, Human genome, Model organism genome, Spectral analysis

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2061

Authors: P.Megala, T.V.Hymavathi

Abstract:

Papaya and banana bars were developed incorporating inulin (IN) and fructooligosaccharides (FOS) (Liquid and Powder form) in various proportions. The control bars were standardized using 70% fruit pulp, 30% sugar, 0.3% citric acid while the treated bars were standardized with 70% fruit pulp, 15% sugar, 15% of IN and FOS and 0.3% citric acid. Among the various proportions tested, papaya bars with 90% FOS (Powder) + 10% IN and banana bars with 90% FOS (liquid) + 10% IN were sensorially best accepted. The study revealed that addition of IN and FOS improved the sensory scores. The Physico-chemical and proximatecomposition analysis revealed slight changes in brix°, total sugars, reducing sugars, nonreducing sugars, moisture, protein, fat, vitamin C, ash, iron, zinc, calcium and crude fibre between control and treated fruit bars. Further the glycemic index of papaya bar was reduced from 65 to 54 when treated with FOS and IN.

Keywords: Banana, fructooligosaccharides, functional fruit bars, inulin, papaya

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2410

Authors: Yen-Cheng Chen, Gong-Da Fang

Abstract:

Wireless LAN (WLAN) access in public hotspot areas becomes popular in the recent years. Since more and more multimedia information is available in the Internet, there is an increasing demand for accessing multimedia information through WLAN hotspots. Currently, the bandwidth offered by an IEEE 802.11 WLAN cannot afford many simultaneous real-time video accesses. A possible way to increase the offered bandwidth in a hotspot is the use of multiple access points (APs). However, a mobile station is usually connected to the WLAN AP with the strongest received signal strength indicator (RSSI). The total consumed bandwidth cannot be fairly allocated among those APs. In this paper, we will propose an effective load-balancing scheme via the support of the IAPP and SNMP in APs. The proposed scheme is an open solution and doesn-t need any changes in both wireless stations and APs. This makes load balancing possible in WLAN hotspots, where a variety of heterogeneous mobile devices are employed.

Keywords: Wireless LAN, Load balancing, IAPP, SNMP.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1773

Authors: Yuan-Jye Tseng, Jia-Shu Li

Abstract:

To design a product with the given product requirement and design objective, there can be alternative ways to propose the detailed design specifications of the product. In the design modeling stage, alternative design cases with detailed specifications can be modeled to fulfill the product requirement and design objective. Therefore, in the design evaluation stage, it is required to perform an evaluation of the alternative design cases for deciding the final design. The purpose of this research is to develop a product evaluation model for evaluating the alternative design cases by integrated evaluating the criteria of functional design, Kansei design, and design for supply chain. The criteria in the functional design group include primary function, expansion function, improved function, and new function. The criteria in the Kansei group include geometric shape, dimension, surface finish, and layout. The criteria in the design for supply chain group include material, manufacturing process, assembly, and supply chain operation. From the point of view of value and cost, the criteria in the functional design group and Kansei design group represent the design value of the product. The criteria in the design for supply chain group represent the supply chain and manufacturing cost of the product. It is required to evaluate the design value and the supply chain cost to determine the final design. For the purpose of evaluating the criteria in the three criteria groups, a fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) method is presented to evaluate a weighted index by calculating the total relational values among the three groups. A method using the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) is used to compare and rank the design alternative cases according to the weighted index using the total relational values of the criteria. The final decision of a design case can be determined by using the ordered ranking. For example, the design case with the top ranking can be selected as the final design case. Based on the criteria in the evaluation, the design objective can be achieved with a combined and weighted effect of the design value and manufacturing cost. An example product is demonstrated and illustrated in the presentation. It shows that the design evaluation model is useful for integrated evaluation of functional design, Kansei design, and design for supply chain to determine the best design case and achieve the design objective.

Keywords: Design evaluation, functional design, Kansei design, supply chain, design value, manufacturing cost, fuzzy analytic network process, technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 793

Authors: Enerit Saçdanaku, Idriz Haxhiu

Abstract:

In this study was monitored the population of the European Pond Turtle, Emys orbicularis (Linnaeus, 1758) in the area of Narta Lagoon, Vlora Bay (Albania), from August to October 2014. A total of 54 individuals of E. orbicularis were studied using different methodologies. Curved Carapace Length (CCL), Plastron Length (PL) and Curved Carapace Width (CCW) were measured for each individual of E. orbicularis and were statistically analyzed. All captured turtles were separated in seven different size – classes based on their carapace length (CCL). Each individual of E. orbicularis was marked by notching the carapace (marginal scutes). Form all individuals captured resulted that 37 were females (68.5%), 14 males (25.9%), 3 juveniles (5.5%), while 18 individuals of E. orbicularis were recaptured for the first and some for the second time.

Keywords: Emys orbicularis, female, juvenile, male, population, size – classes.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1782

Authors: Pushkar Umaranikar, Chris Pollett

Abstract:

An online advertisement system and its implementation for the Yioop open source search engine are presented. This system supports both selling advertisements and displaying them within search results. The selling of advertisements is done using a system to auction off daily impressions for keyword searches. This is an open, ascending price auction system in which all accepted bids will receive a fraction of the auctioned day’s impressions. New bids in our system are required to be at least one half of the sum of all previous bids ensuring the number of accepted bids is logarithmic in the total ad spend on a keyword for a day. The mechanics of creating an advertisement, attaching keywords to it, and adding it to an advertisement inventory are described. The algorithm used to go from accepted bids for a keyword to which ads are displayed at search time is also presented. We discuss properties of our system and compare it to existing auction systems and systems for selling online advertisements.

Keywords: Online markets, online ad system, online auctions, search engines.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1361

Authors: Wilaiwan Sornpoon, Sébastien Bonnet, Savitri Garivait

Abstract:

Open burning of sugarcane fields is recognized to have a negative impact on soil by degrading its properties, especially soil organic carbon (SOC) content. Better understating the effect of open burning on soil carbon dynamics is crucial for documenting the carbon sequestration capacity of agricultural soils. In this study, experiments to investigate soil carbon stocks under burned and unburned sugarcane plantation systems in Thailand were conducted. The results showed that cultivation fields without open burning during 5 consecutive years enabled to increase the SOC content at a rate of 1.37 Mg ha^-1y^-1. Also it was found that sugarcane fields burning led to about 15% reduction of the total carbon stock in the 0-30 cm soil layer. The overall increase in SOC under unburned practice is mainly due to the large input of organic material through the use of sugarcane residues. 

Keywords: Soil organic carbon, Soil inorganic carbon, Carbon sequestration, Open burning, Sugarcane.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3382

Authors: B. S. Raghavendra, D. Narayana Dutt

Abstract:

In this paper, we have developed a method to compute fractal dimension (FD) of discrete time signals, in the time domain, by modifying the box-counting method. The size of the box is dependent on the sampling frequency of the signal. The number of boxes required to completely cover the signal are obtained at multiple time resolutions. The time resolutions are made coarse by decimating the signal. The loglog plot of total number of boxes required to cover the curve versus size of the box used appears to be a straight line, whose slope is taken as an estimate of FD of the signal. The results are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method using parametric fractal signals. The estimation accuracy of the method is compared with that of Katz, Sevcik, and Higuchi methods. In addition, some properties of the FD are discussed.

Keywords: Box-counting, Fractal dimension, Higuchi method, Katz method, Parametric fractal signals, Sevcik method.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4593

Authors: M. Yaldagard, S.A. Mortazavi, F. Tabatabaie

Abstract:

In the present study, the effects of ultrasound as emerging technology were investigated on germination stimulation, amount of alpha-amylase activity on dry barley seeds before steeping stage of malting process. All experiments were carried out at 20 KHz on the ultrasonic generator in 3 different ultrasonic intensities (20, 60 and 100% setting from total power of device) and time (5, 10 and 15 min) at constant temperature (30C). For determining the effects of these parameters on enzyme the Fuwa method assay based on the decreased staining value of blue starch–iodine complexes employed for measurement an activity. The results of these assays were analyzed by Qualitek4 software using the Taguchi statistical method to evaluate the factor-s effects on enzyme activity. It has been found that when malting barley is irradiated with an ultrasonic power, a stimulating effect occurs as to the enzyme activity.

Keywords: ultrasound, alpha-amylase activity, stimulationand Taguchi statistical method.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4616

Authors: K. Vasupen, S. Wongsuthavas, S. Bureenok, B. Saenmahayak, K. Ampaporn, C. Yuangklang

Abstract:

This study was designed to determine effect of supplemented tomato pomace and fobrolytic enzyme on egg production and egg quality. A total of 40 CP brown laying hens (95 week old) were used in completely randomized design in 2x2 factorial arrangement with or without enzyme supplementation. Four dietary treatments included: Control (C), Fibrolytic enzyme (FE), 10% Tomato pomace (TP), and Fibrolytic enzyme + 10 % Tomato pomace (FE+TP). Each of the four dietary treatments was fed up to 30 days (10 birds/treatment). Live performance, egg production, egg weight and quality were determined for whole period. Dietary treatments had no effect (P>0.05) on live performance, egg weight, yolk color, and egg production. Therefore, laying hens fed diets with fibrolytic enzyme were significantly (P<0.05) increased yolk weight (17.37 g) as compared to other treatments. Additional of dietary tomato pomace had reduced capital costs for egg production.

Keywords: Hen, Tomato Pomace, Fibrolytic Enzyme, Egg Quality.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1792

Authors: Sanaz Haddadian, Rahele Hedayati

Abstract:

A 10bit, 40 MSps, sample and hold, implemented in 0.18-μm CMOS technology with 3.3V supply, is presented for application in the front-end stage of an analog-to-digital converter. Topology selection, biasing, compensation and common mode feedback are discussed. Cascode technique has been used to increase the dc gain. The proposed opamp provides 149MHz unity-gain bandwidth (wu), 80 degree phase margin and a differential peak to peak output swing more than 2.5v. The circuit has 55db Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), using the improved fully differential two stage operational amplifier of 91.7dB gain. The power dissipation of the designed sample and hold is 4.7mw. The designed system demonstrates relatively suitable response in different process, temperature and supply corners (PVT corners).

Keywords: Analog Integrated Circuit Design, Sample & Hold Amplifier and CMOS Technology.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4160

Authors: Naser Ojaroudi Parchin, Haleh Jahanbakhsh Basherlou, Raed A. Abd-Alhameed, Peter S. Excell

Abstract:

In this paper, a multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) antenna design with polarization and radiation pattern diversity is presented for future smartphones. The configuration of the design consists of four double-fed circular-ring antenna elements located at different edges of the printed circuit board (PCB) with an FR-4 substrate and overall dimension of 75×150 mm². The antenna elements are fed by 50-Ohm microstrip-lines and provide polarization and radiation pattern diversity function due to the orthogonal placement of their feed lines. A good impedance bandwidth (S₁₁ ≤ -10 dB) of 3.4-3.8 GHz has been obtained for the smartphone antenna array. However, for S₁₁ ≤ -6 dB, this value is 3.25-3.95 GHz. More than 3 dB realized gain and 80% total efficiency are achieved for the single-element radiator. The presented design not only provides the required radiation coverage but also generates the polarization diversity characteristic.

Keywords: Cellular communications, MIMO systems, mobile-phone antenna, polarization diversity.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1009

Authors: Giovanni Incerti

Abstract:

The motion planning technique described in this paper has been developed to eliminate or reduce the residual vibrations of belt-driven rotary platforms, while maintaining unchanged the motion time and the total angular displacement of the platform. The proposed approach is based on a suitable choice of the motion command given to the servomotor that drives the mechanical device; this command is defined by some numerical coefficients which determine the shape of the displacement, velocity and acceleration profiles. Using a numerical optimization technique, these coefficients can be changed without altering the continuity conditions imposed on the displacement and its time derivatives at the initial and final time instants. The proposed technique can be easily and quickly implemented on an actual device, since it requires only a simple modification of the motion command profile mapped in the memory of the electronic motion controller.

Keywords: Command shaping, residual vibrations, belt transmission, servomechanism.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1509

Authors: Asmaa M. Hussein, Amr Wassal, Ahmed Farouk Al-Sadek, A. F. Abd El-Rahman

Abstract:

In this study, a multivariate analysis of potato spectroscopic data was presented to detect the presence of brown rot disease or not. Near-Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy (1,350-2,500 nm) combined with multivariate analysis was used as a rapid, non-destructive technique for the detection of brown rot disease in potatoes. Spectral measurements were performed in 565 samples, which were chosen randomly at the infection place in the potato slice. In this study, 254 infected and 311 uninfected (brown rot-free) samples were analyzed using different advanced statistical analysis techniques. The discrimination performance of different multivariate analysis techniques, including classification, pre-processing, and dimension reduction, were compared. Applying a random forest algorithm classifier with different pre-processing techniques to raw spectra had the best performance as the total classification accuracy of 98.7% was achieved in discriminating infected potatoes from control.

Keywords: Brown rot disease, NIR spectroscopy, potato, random forest.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 885

Authors: Asal Pournaghshband

Abstract:

This paper presents the development of a finite element model to study the large deflection behaviour of restrained stainless steel cellular beams at elevated temperature. Cellular beams are widely used for efficient utilization of raw materials to facilitate long spans with faster construction resulting sustainable design solution that can enhance the performance and merit of any construction project. However, their load carrying capacity is less than the equivalent beams without opening due to developing shear-moment interaction at the openings. In structural frames due to elements continuity, such beams are restrained by their adjoining members which has a substantial effect on beams behaviour in fire. Stainless steel has also become integral part of the build environment due to its excellent corrosion resistance, whole life-cycle costs, and sustainability. This paper reports the numerical investigations into the effect of structural continuity on the thermo-mechanical performance of restrained steel beams with circle and elongated circle shapes of web opening in fire. The numerical model is firstly validated using existing numerical results from the literature, and then employed to perform a parametric study. Parametric studies to explore the influence of variation in i) axial restraint stiffness, ii) steel grades, iii) shape and size of web openings, and iv) load level were described. Hence, the structural continuity is evaluated through the application of different levels of axial restraints on the response of carbon steel and stainless steel cellular beam in fire. The transit temperature for stainless steel cellular beam is shown to be less affected by the level of axial stiffness than the equivalent carbon steel cellular beam. Overall, it was established that whereas stainless steel cellular beams show similar stages of behaviour of carbon steel cellular beams in fire, they are capable of withstanding higher temperatures prior to the onset of catenary action in large deflection, despite the higher thermal expansion of stainless steel material.

Keywords: Axial restraint, catenary action, cellular beam, fire, numerical modelling, stainless steel, transit temperature.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 69

Authors: Rania Samir Zaki

Abstract:

Because of their inhibitory effects, selected probiotic Lactobacilli may be used as antimicrobial against some hazardous microorganisms responsible for spoilage of fresh minced beef (cattle) minced meat and camel minced meat. Lactic acid bacteria were isolated from camel meat. These included 10 isolates; 1 Lactobacillus fermenti, 4 Lactobacillus plantarum, 4 Lactobacillus pulgaricus, 3 Lactobacillus acidophilus and 1 Lactobacillus brevis. The most efficient inhibitory organism was Lactobacillus plantarum which can be used as a propiotic with antibacterial activity. All microbiological analyses were made at the time 0, first day and the second day at altered ranges of temperature [4±2 ⁰C (chilling temperature), 25±2 ⁰C, and 38±2 ⁰C]. Results showed a significant decrease of pH 6.2 to 5.1 within variant types of meat, in addition to reduction of Total Bacterial Count, Enterococci, Bacillus cereus and Escherichia coli together with the stability of Coliforms and absence of Staphylococcus aureus.

Keywords: Antibacterial, camel meat, inhibition, probiotics.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1057

Authors: A. Shyamala Devi, K. Chitra Devi, R. Rajendiran

Abstract:

A total of 6 isolates of Bacillus subtilis were isolated from oil mill waste collected in Namakkal district, Tamilnadu, India. The isolated bacteria were screened using lipase screening medium containing Tween 80. BS-3 isolate exhibited a greater clear zone than the others, indicating higher lipase activity. Therefore, this isolate was selected for media optimization studies. Ten process variables were screened using Plackett–Burman design and were further optimized by central composite design of response surface methodology for lipase production in submerged fermentation. Maximum lipase production of 16.627 U/min/ml were predicted in medium containing yeast extract (9.3636g), CaCl2 (0.8986g) and incubation periods (1.813 days). A mean value of 16.98 ± 0.2286 U/min/ml of lipase was acquired from real experiments.

Keywords: Bacillus subtilis, extracellular lipase, Plackett–Burman design, response surface methodology.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4145

Authors: Mohsen Ziaee

Abstract:

In this paper, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is presented to solve the flexible job shop scheduling problem (FJSP). This problem is one of the hardest combinatorial problems. The objective considered is the minimization of the makespan. The computational results of the proposed MILP model were compared with those of the best known mathematical model in the literature in terms of the computational time. The results show that our model has better performance with respect to all the considered performance measures including relative percentage deviation (RPD) value, number of constraints, and total number of variables. By this improved mathematical model, larger FJS problems can be optimally solved in reasonable time, and therefore, the model would be a better tool for the performance evaluation of the approximation algorithms developed for the problem.

Keywords: Scheduling, flexible job shop, makespan, mixed integer linear programming.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1685

Authors: N. Kotabin, Y. Tahara, K. Issakul, O. Chunhachart

Abstract:

Cadmium (II) (Cd) is one of the major toxic elemental pollutants, which is hazardous for humans, animals and plants. γ- Polyglutamic acid (γ-PGA) is an extracellular biopolymer produced by several species of Bacillus which has been reported to be an effective biosorbent for metal ions. The effect of γ-PGA on growth of rice grown under laboratory conditions was investigated. Rice seeds were germinated and then grown at 30±1°C on filter paper soaked with Cd solution and γ-PGA for 7 days. The result showed that Cd significantly inhibited the growth of roots, shoots by reducing root, and shoot lengths. Fresh and dry weights also decreased compared with control; however, the addition of 500 mg·L-1 γ-PGA alleviated rice seedlings from the adverse effects of Cd. The analysis of physiological traits revealed that Cd caused a decrease in the total chlorophyll and soluble protein contents and amylase activities in all treatments. The Cd content in seedling tissues increased for the Cd 250 μM treatment (P<0.05) but the addition of 500 mg·L-1 γ-PGA resulted in a noticeable decrease in Cd (P<0.05).

Keywords: Polyglutamic acid, Cadmium, Rice, Bacillus subtilis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5762

Authors: Hamid Reza Alipour, Ali Mohammadi Torkashvand

Abstract:

In composting process, N high-organic wastes loss the great part of its nitrogen as ammonia; therefore, using compost amendments can promote the quality of compost due to the decrease in ammonia volatilization. With regard to the effect of pH on composting, microorganisms- activity and ammonia volatilization, sulfuric acid and alkaline wastewater of paper mill (as liming agent with Ca and Mg ions) were used as compost amendments. Study results indicated that these amendments are suitable for reclamation of compost quality properties. These held nitrogen in compost caused to reduce C/N ratio. Both amendments had a significant effect on total nitrogen, but it should be used sulfuric acid in fewer amounts (20 ml/kg fresh organic wastes); and the more amounts of acid is not proposed.

Keywords: Compost, Paper mill wastewater, sulfuric acid, Ammonia Volatilization.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1880

Authors: Iman Atighi, Jalal Soleimannejad, Reza Pourjafarabadi, Saeid Moradpour

Abstract:

In the past, we could increase profit by increasing product prices. But in the new decade, a competitive market does not let us to increase profit with increased prices. Therefore, the only way to increase profit will be to reduce costs. A significant percentage of production costs are the maintenance costs, and analysis of these costs could achieve more profit. Most maintenance strategies such as RCM (Reliability-Center-Maintenance), TPM (Total Productivity Maintenance), PM (Preventive Maintenance) and etc., are trying to reduce maintenance costs. In this paper, decreasing the maintenance costs of Concentration Plant of Golgohar Iron Ore Mining & Industrial Company (GeG) was examined by using of MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) and MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) analyses. These analyses showed that instead of buying new machines and increasing costs in order to promote capacity, the improving of MTBF and MTTR indexes would solve capacity problems in the best way and decrease costs.

Keywords: GeG Company, maintainability, maintenance costs, reliability-center-maintenance.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 716

Authors: Barenten Suciu, Akio Miyamura

Abstract:

In this paper, following the study-case of an inclined plane gravitational machine, efficiency of a double-cone gravitational motor and generator is evaluated. Two types of efficiency ratios, called translational efficiency and rotational efficiency, are defined relative to the intended duty of the gravitational machine, which can be either the production of translational kinetic energy, or rotational kinetic energy. One proved that, for pure rolling movement of the double- cone, in the absence of rolling friction, the total mechanical energy is conserved. In such circumstances, as the motion of the double-cone progresses along rails, the translational efficiency decreases and the rotational efficiency increases, in such way that sum of the rotational and translational efficiencies remains unchanged and equal to 1. Results obtained allow a comparison of the gravitational machine with other types of motor-generators, in terms of the achievable efficiency.

Keywords: Truncated double-cone, friction, rolling and sliding, efficiency, gravitational motor and generator.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 946

Authors: Yu Zhao, Shinsuke Kato, Jianing Zhao

Abstract:

Particles exhausted from cars have adverse impacts on human health. The study developed a three-dimensional particle dispersion numerical model including particle coagulation to simulate the particle concentration distribution under idling conditions in a residential underground garage. The simulation results demonstrate that particle disperses much faster in the vertical direction than that in horizontal direction. The enhancement of particle dispersion in the vertical direction due to the increase of cars with engine running is much stronger than that in the car exhaust direction. Particle dispersion from each pair of adjacent cars has little influence on each other in the study. Average particle concentration after 120 seconds exhaust is 1.8-4.5 times higher than the initial total particles at ambient environment. Particle pollution in the residential underground garage is severe.

Keywords: Dispersion, Idling conditions, Particle concentration, Residential underground garage.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1980

Authors: Oznur Korukcu, Kamile Kukulu, Mehmet Z. Firat

Abstract:

The propose of this study is to investigate the factor structures of the W-DEQ, originally developed on UK and Swedish women, were confirmed in Turkish samples, and to obtain a new modified factor structure appropriate to Turkish culture. Statistical analyses of the data obtained were performed using SPSS© for Windows version 13.0 and the SAS statistical software Version 9.1. Both confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis of W-DEQ were performed in the study. Factor analysis yielded four factors related to hope, fear, lack of positive anticipation and riskiness. The alpha estimates of the total W-DEQ score were somewhat higher, being 0.92 for the parous and 0.90 for the nulliparous sample. These are well above the accepted limit of 0.70 and indicate excellent levels of internal reliability, thus showing that the questions were appropriate to the Turkish culture and useful scale for the evaluation of fear of childbirth in Turkish pregnants.

Keywords: Confirmatory factor analysis, cross-cultural research, exploratory factor analysis, fear of childbirth.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5126

Authors: Hsiao-Ming Chang, Jui-Liang Hsu

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to analyze the cognitive and travel experience the situation of the tourist attraction of the sport tourism in Penghu. This study used a questionnaires, the main island of Taiwan to Penghu in the way of marine sports tourists adopted the designated convenience sampling method, a total of 1447 valid questionnaires. After statistical analysis, this study found that: 1. Tourists to Penghu sports tourism attraction cognitive as “good air quality, suitable for water activities". 2. Tourists in Penghu's tourism experience, “Let me taste the delicious specialties and snacks". 3. The attraction of the sport tourism, travel experience and perceived value are correlated, and both the perceived value with a high degree of predictive ability. Based on the findings of this study not only for Penghu's tourism industry with the unit in charge of the proposed operating and suggestions for future research to other researchers.

Keywords: Sport tourism, travel experience, perceived value, sport attraction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3191

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

Abstract:

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

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2230

Authors: Ria Millati, Fiametta A. Purwandari, Adhitya P. Sanjaya, Muhammad N. Cahyanto, I. Sarvari Horvath, Claes Niklasson, Mohammad J. Taherzadeh

Abstract:

Pretreatment of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) with N-Methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) to enhance biogas production was investigated. The pretreatments were performed at 90 and 120ºC for 1, 3, and 5 h using three different concentrations of NMMO of 73%, 79%, and 85%. The pretreated OPEFB was subsequently anaerobically digested to produce biogas. After pretreatment, there were no significant changes of the main composition of OPEFB and the maximum total solid recovery was 92%. The amorphous phase was increased up to 78% at pretreatment condition using 85% NMMO solution for 3 h at 120oC. In general, higher concentration of NMMO and higher temperature resulted in increased amorphous form and higher biogas production. The best results of biogas production reached enhancement of methane yield of 148% compared to the untreated OPEFB and increased in digestion of 94% compared to starch as reference.

Keywords: Oil palm empty fruit bunch, pretreatment, NMMO, biogas.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1725

Authors: Xiang Li, Kui Chen, Bin Wu, Min Zhou

Abstract:

Sclareolide is made from sclareol by oxidiative synthesis and subsequent crystallization, while the crystallization mother liquor still contains 15%~30%wt of sclareolide to be reclaimed. With the reaction material of sclareol is provided as plant extract, many sorts of complex impurities exist in the mother liquor. Due to the difficulty in recycling sclareolide after solvent recovery, it is common practice for the factories to discard the mother liquor, which not only results in loss of sclareolide, but also contributes extra environmental burden. In this paper, a process based on adsorption and elution has been presented for recycling of sclareolide from mother liquor. After pretreatment of the crystallization mother liquor by HZ-845 resin to remove parts of impurities, sclareolide is adsorbed by HZ-816 resin. The HZ-816 resin loaded with sclareolide is then eluted by elution solvent. Finally, the eluent containing sclareolide is concentrated and fed into the crystallization step in the process. By adoption of the recycle from mother liquor, total yield of sclareolide increases from 86% to 90% with a stable purity of the final sclareolide products maintained.

Keywords: Sclareolide, resin, adsorption, chromatography.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1828