Search results for: field service management

Authors: Levan Sabauri

Abstract:

In this paper, we discuss the deteriorated standing of engineering companies, some of the reasons behind it and the problems facing engineering enterprises during the financial crisis. We show the part that financial analysis plays in the detection of the main factors affecting the standing of a company, classify internal problems and the reasons influencing efficiency thereof. The publication contains the analysis of municipal engineering companies in post-Soviet transitional economies. In the wake of the 2008 world financial crisis the issue became even more poignant. It should be said though that even before the problem had been no less acute for some post-Soviet states caught up in a lengthy transitional period. The paper highlights shortcomings in the management of transportation companies, with new, more appropriate methods suggested. In analyzing the financial stability of a company, three elements need to be considered: current assets, investment policy and structural management of the funding sources leveraging the stability, should be focused on. Inappropriate management of the three may create certain financial problems, with timely and accurate detection thereof being an issue in terms of improved standing of an enterprise. In this connection, the publication contains a diagram reflecting the reasons behind the deteriorated financial standing of a company, as well as a flow chart thereof. The main reasons behind low profitability are also discussed.

Keywords: Efficiency, financial management, financial analysis funding structure, financial sustainability, investment policy, profitability, solvency, working capital.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1571

Authors: Anant Oonsivilai, Kenedy A. Greyson

Abstract:

The demand of the energy management systems (EMS) set forth by modern power systems requires fast energy management systems. Contingency analysis is among the functions in EMS which is time consuming. In order to handle this limitation, this paper introduces agent based technology in the contingency analysis. The main function of agents is to speed up the performance. Negotiations process in decision making is explained and the issue set forth is the minimization of the operating costs. The IEEE 14 bus system and its line outage have been used in the research and simulation results are presented.

Keywords: Agents, model, negotiation, optimal dispatch, powersystems.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2131

Authors: Khryslyn Araño, Dela Cruz, Michael Leo, Dela Pena, Eden May, Leslie Joy Diaz

Abstract:

Montmorillonite (MMT) is a very abundant clay mineral and is versatile such that it can be chemically or physically altered by changing the ions between the sheets of its layered structure. This clay mineral can be prepared into functional nanoparticles that can be used as fillers in other nanomaterials such as nanofibers to achieve special properties. In this study, two types of iron-modified MMT, Iron-MMT (FeMMT) and Zero Valent Iron-MMT (ZVIMMT) were synthesized via ion exchange technique. The modified clay was incorporated in polymer nanofibers which were produced using a process called electrospinning. ICP analysis confirmed that clay modification was successful where there is an observed decrease in the concentration of Na and an increase in the concentration of Fe after ion exchange. XRD analysis also confirmed that modification took place because of the changes in the d-spacing of Na-MMT from 11.5 Å to 13.6 Å and 12.6 Å after synthesis of FeMMT and ZVIMMT, respectively. SEM images of the electrospun nanofibers revealed that the ZVIMMT-filled fibers have a smaller average diameter than the FeMMT-filled fibers because of the lower resistance of the suspensions of the former to the elongation force from the applied electric field. The resistance to the electric field was measured by getting the bulk voltage of the suspensions.

Keywords: Electrospinning, nanofibers, montmorillonite.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2757

Authors: B. Bahmani Firouzi, T. Niknam, M. Nayeripour

Abstract:

With Power system movement toward restructuring along with factors such as life environment pollution, problems of transmission expansion and with advancement in construction technology of small generation units, it is expected that small units like wind turbines, fuel cells, photovoltaic, ... that most of the time connect to the distribution networks play a very essential role in electric power industry. With increase in developing usage of small generation units, management of distribution networks should be reviewed. The target of this paper is to present a new method for optimal management of active and reactive power in distribution networks with regard to costs pertaining to various types of dispersed generations, capacitors and cost of electric energy achieved from network. In other words, in this method it-s endeavored to select optimal sources of active and reactive power generation and controlling equipments such as dispersed generations, capacitors, under load tapchanger transformers and substations in a way that firstly costs in relation to them are minimized and secondly technical and physical constraints are regarded. Because the optimal management of distribution networks is an optimization problem with continuous and discrete variables, the new evolutionary method based on Ant Colony Algorithm has been applied. The simulation results of the method tested on two cases containing 23 and 34 buses exist and will be shown at later sections.

Keywords: Distributed Generation, Optimal Operation Management of distribution networks, Ant Colony Optimization(ACO).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1710

Authors: Brenden M. Shutt, Lubjana Beshaj, Paul L. Goethals, Ambrose Kam

Abstract:

Communication security is of particular interest to military data networks. A relatively novel approach to network security is blockchain, a cryptographically secured distribution ledger with a decentralized consensus mechanism for data transaction processing. Recent advances in blockchain technology have proposed new techniques for both data validation and trust management, as well as different frameworks for managing dataflow. The purpose of this work is to test the feasibility of different blockchain architectures as applied to military command and control networks. Various architectures are tested through discrete-event simulation and the feasibility is determined based upon a blockchain design’s ability to maintain long-term stable performance at industry standards of throughput, network latency, and security. This work proposes a consortium blockchain architecture with a computationally inexpensive consensus mechanism, one that leverages a Proof-of-Identity (PoI) concept and a reputation management mechanism.

Keywords: Blockchain, command & control network, discrete-event simulation, reputation management.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 848

Authors: Kazuhide Sugiyama, Hiroshi Osada

Abstract:

Lately management strategy that put Industrial Design (ID) in its core is recognized more important, as technology and price alone cannot differentiate a product. The needs to shorten the time to develop a product also shorten the development period of ID, and it necessitates the ID process management. This research analyzes the status of integration process of ID and Engineering Design (ED) of office equipment that requires the collaboration of ID and ED to clarify the issues for the efficiency of the development and to propose solutions.

Keywords: Industrial Design (ID), Engineering Design (ED), Integration process, Office equipment

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1813

Authors: N. Yagnesh Sharma, K. Vasudeva Karanth

Abstract:

The flow field in a centrifugal fan is highly complex with flow reversal taking place on the suction side of impeller and diffuser vanes. Generally performance of the centrifugal fan could be enhanced by judiciously introducing splitter vanes so as to improve the diffusion process. An extensive numerical whole field analysis on the effect of splitter vanes placed in discrete regions of suspected separation points is possible using CFD. This paper examines the effect of splitter vanes corresponding to various geometrical locations on the impeller and diffuser. The analysis shows that the splitter vanes located near the diffuser exit improves the static pressure recovery across the diffusing domain to a larger extent. Also it is found that splitter vanes located at the impeller trailing edge and diffuser leading edge at the mid-span of the circumferential distance between the blades show a marginal improvement in the static pressure recovery across the fan. However, splitters provided near to the suction side of the impeller trailing edge (25% of the circumferential gap between the impeller blades towards the suction side), adversely affect the static pressure recovery of the fan.

Keywords: Splitter vanes, Flow separation, Sliding mesh, Unsteady analysis, Recirculation zone, Jets and wakes.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3081

Authors: Campisi Domenico, Costa Roberta

Abstract:

Intellectual capital measurement is a central aspect of knowledge management. The measurement and the evaluation of intangible assets play a key role in allowing an effective management of these assets as sources of competitiveness. For these reasons, managers and practitioners need conceptual and analytical tools taking into account the unique characteristics and economic significance of Intellectual Capital. Following this lead, we propose an efficiency and productivity analysis of Intellectual Capital, as a determinant factor of the company competitive advantage. The analysis is carried out by means of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI). These techniques identify Bests Practice companies that have accomplished competitive advantage implementing successful strategies of Intellectual Capital management, and offer to inefficient companies development paths by means of benchmarking. The proposed methodology is employed on the Biotechnology industry in the period 2007-2010.

Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis, Innovation, Intangible assets, Intellectual Capital, Malmquist Productivity Index.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1924

Authors: M. E. Abalaka, S. Y. Daniyan, S. O. Adeyemo, D. Damisa

Abstract:

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have gained increasing interest in recent times. This is greatly due to their special features, which include unusual optical and electronic properties, high stability and biological compatibility, controllable morphology and size dispersion, and easy surface functionalization. In typical synthesis, AuNPs were produced by reduction of gold salt AuCl4 in an appropriate solvent. A stabilizing agent was added to prevent the particles from aggregating. The antibacterial activity of different sizes of gold nanoparticles was investigated against Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi and Pseudomonas pneumonia using the disk diffusion method in a Müeller–Hinton Agar. The Au-NPs were effective against all bacteria tested. That the Au-NPs were successfully synthesized in suspension and were used to study the antibacterial activity of the two medicinal plants against some bacterial pathogens suggests that Au-NPs can be employed as an effective bacteria inhibitor and may be an effective tool in medical field. The study clearly showed that the Au-NPs exhibiting inhibition towards the tested pathogenic bacteria in vitro could have the same effects in vivo and thus may be useful in the medical field if well researched into.

Keywords: Gold Nanoparticles, Gomphrena celesioides, Prunus amygdalus, Pathogens.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3827

Authors: Luka Pavlič, Marjan Heričko

Abstract:

E-services have significantly changed the way of doing business in recent years. We can, however, observe poor use of these services. There is a large gap between supply and actual eservices usage. This is why we started a project to provide an environment that will encourage the use of e-services. We believe that only providing e-service does not automatically mean consumers would use them. This paper shows the origins of our project and its current position. We discuss the decision of using semantic web technologies and their potential to improve e-services usage. We also present current knowledge base and its real-world classification. In the paper, we discuss further work to be done in the project. Current state of the project is promising.

Keywords: E-Services, E-Services Repository, Ontologies, Semantic Web

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1400

Authors: Yanting Cao, Kazumitsu Nawata

Abstract:

The UK has strong economic growth, which attracts other countries to invest there through globalization. This research process will be based on quantitative and qualitative descriptive analysis using interviews. The secondary analysis will involve a case study approach to understand the important aspects of leadership skills. The research outcomes will be identifying the strength and weakness of the leadership skills of UK automobile manufacturing enterprises and suggest the best practices adopted by the respective countries for better results.

Keywords: engineering management, leadership, industrial project management, project managers, automobile manufacturing

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1418

Authors: Sanae Attioui, Said Najah

Abstract:

The Earth's surface is constantly changing through forces of nature and human activities. Reliable, accurate, and timely change detection is critical to environmental monitoring, resource management, and planning activities. Recently, interest in deep learning algorithms, especially convolutional neural networks, has increased in the field of image change detection due to their powerful ability to extract multi-level image features automatically. However, these networks are prone to drawbacks that limit their applications, which reside in their inability to capture spatial relationships between image instances, as this necessitates a large amount of training data. As an alternative, Capsule Network has been proposed to overcome these shortcomings. Although its effectiveness in remote sensing image analysis has been experimentally verified, its application in change detection tasks remains very sparse. Motivated by its greater robustness towards improved hierarchical object representation, this study aims to apply a capsule network for PolSAR image Change Detection. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed change detection method can yield a significantly higher detection rate compared to methods based on convolutional neural networks.

Keywords: Change detection, capsule network, deep network, Convolutional Neural Networks, polarimetric synthetic aperture radar images, PolSAR images.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 499

Authors: Inna R. Edara, Haw-Lin Wu

Abstract:

Positive psychology investigates human strengths and virtues and promotes well-being. Relying on this assumption, positive interventions have been continuously designed to build pleasure and happiness, joy and contentment, engagement and meaning, hope and optimism, satisfaction and gratitude, spirituality, and various other positive measures of well-being. In line with this model of positive psychology and interventions, this study investigated certain measures of well-being in a group of 45 students enrolled in an 18-week positive psychology course and simultaneously engaged in service-oriented interventions that they chose for themselves based on the course content and individual interests. Students’ well-being was measured at the beginning and end of the course. The well-being indicators included positive automatic thoughts, optimism and hope, satisfaction with life, and spirituality. A paired-samples t-test conducted to evaluate the impact of class content and service-oriented interventions on students’ scores of well-being indicators indicated statistically significant increase from pre-class to post-class scores. There were also significant gender differences in post-course well-being scores, with females having higher levels of well-being than males. A two-way between groups analysis of variance indicated a significant interaction effect of age by gender on the post-course well-being scores, with females in the age group of 56-65 having the highest scores of well-being in comparison to the males in the same age group. Regression analyses indicated that positive automatic thought significantly predicted hope and satisfaction with life in the pre-course analysis. In the post-course regression analysis, spiritual transcendence made a significant contribution to optimism, and positive automatic thought made a significant contribution to both hope and satisfaction with life. Finally, a significant test between pre-course and post-course regression coefficients indicated that the regression coefficients at pre-course were significantly different from post-course coefficients, suggesting that the positive psychology course and the interventions were helpful in raising the levels of well-being. The overall results suggest a substantial increase in the participants’ well-being scores after engaging in the positive-oriented interventions, implying a need for designing more positive interventions in education to promote well-being.  

Keywords: Hope, optimism, positive automatic thoughts, satisfaction with life, spirituality, well-being.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 966

Authors: Youcef Bekakra, Djilani Ben attous

Abstract:

In this paper, a field oriented control (FOC) induction motor drive is presented. In order to eliminate the speed sensor, an adaptation algorithm for tuning the rotor speed is proposed. Based on the Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS) scheme, the rotor speed is tuned to obtain an exact FOC induction motor drive. The reference and adjustable models, developed in stationary stator reference frame, are used in the MRAS scheme to estimate induction rotor speed from measured terminal voltages and currents. The Integral Proportional (IP) gains speed controller are tuned by a modern approach that is the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm in order to optimize the parameters of the IP controller. The use of PSO as an optimization algorithm makes the drive robust, with faster dynamic response, higher accuracy and insensitive to load variation. The proposed algorithm has been tested by numerical simulation, showing the capability of driving load.

Keywords: Induction motor drive, field oriented control, model reference adaptive system (MRAS), particle swarm optimization (PSO).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2011

Authors: Yu-Min Chang, Kuo-Sheng Tsai, Hung-Te Tsai, Chia-Hsin Li

Abstract:

This paper presents the early-warning lights classification management system for industrial parks promoted by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) since 2011, including the definition of each early-warning light, objectives, action program and accomplishments. All of the 151 industrial parks in Taiwan were classified into four early-warning lights, including red, orange, yellow and green, for carrying out respective pollution management according to the monitoring data of soil and groundwater quality, regulatory compliance, and regulatory listing of control site or remediation site. The Taiwan EPA set up a priority list for high potential polluted industrial parks and investigated their soil and groundwater qualities based on the results of the light classification and pollution potential assessment. In 2011-2013, there were 44 industrial parks selected and carried out different investigation, such as the early warning groundwater well networks establishment and pollution investigation/verification for the red and orange-light industrial parks and the environmental background survey for the yellow-light industrial parks. Among them, 22 industrial parks were newly or continuously confirmed that the concentrations of pollutants exceeded those in soil or groundwater pollution control standards. Thus, the further investigation, groundwater use restriction, listing of pollution control site or remediation site, and pollutant isolation measures were implemented by the local environmental protection and industry competent authorities; the early warning lights of those industrial parks were proposed to adjust up to orange or red-light. Up to the present, the preliminary positive effect of the soil and groundwater quality management system for industrial parks has been noticed in several aspects, such as environmental background information collection, early warning of pollution risk, pollution investigation and control, information integration and application, and inter-agency collaboration. Finally, the work and goal of self-initiated quality management of industrial parks will be carried out on the basis of the inter-agency collaboration by the classified lights system of early warning and management as well as the regular announcement of the status of each industrial park.

Keywords: Industrial park, soil and groundwater quality management, early-warning lights classification, SOP for reporting and treatment of monitored abnormal events.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1991

Authors: Seyed Hossein Iranmanesh, Mansoureh Zarezadeh

Abstract:

This paper presents an application of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to forecast actual cost of a project based on the earned value management system (EVMS). For this purpose, some projects randomly selected based on the standard data set , and it is produced necessary progress data such as actual cost ,actual percent complete , baseline cost and percent complete for five periods of project. Then an ANN with five inputs and five outputs and one hidden layer is trained to produce forecasted actual costs. The comparison between real and forecasted data show better performance based on the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) criterion. This approach could be applicable to better forecasting the project cost and result in decreasing the risk of project cost overrun, and therefore it is beneficial for planning preventive actions.

Keywords: Earned Value Management System (EVMS), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Estimate At Completion, Forecasting Methods, Project Performance Measurement.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2768

Authors: Douangmala Kounsana, Toru Takahashi

Abstract:

In recent years, the number of natural disasters in Laos has a trend to increase, especially the disaster of flood. To make a flood plan risk management in the future, it is necessary to understand and analyze the characteristics of the rainfall and Mekong River level data. To reduce the damage, this paper presents the flood risk analysis in Luangprabang and Vientiane, the prefecture of Laos. In detail, the relationship between the rainfall and the Mekong River level has evaluated and appropriate countermeasure for flood was discussed.

Keywords: Lao flood, Mekong river, rainfall, risk management.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1839

Authors: Excellence Favor, Bakari M. M. Mwinyiwiwa

Abstract:

Access to information holds the key to the empowerment of everybody despite where they are living. This research has been carried out in respect of the people living in developing countries, considering their plight and complex geographical, demographic, social-economic conditions surrounding the areas they live, which hinder access to information and of professionals providing services such as medical workers, which has led to high death rates and development stagnation. Research on Unified Communications and Integrated Collaborations (UCIC) system in the health sector of developing countries aims at creating a possible solution of bridging the digital canyon among the communities. The system is meant to deliver services in a seamless manner to assist health workers situated anywhere to be accessed easily and access information which will enhance service delivery. The proposed UCIC provides the most immersive telepresence experience for one-to-one or many-to-many meetings. Extending to locations anywhere in the world, the transformative platform delivers Ultra-low operating costs through the use of general purpose networks and using special lenses and track systems. The essence of this study is to create a security model for the deployment of the UCIC system in the health sector of developing countries. The model approach used for building the UCIC system security carefully considers the specific requirements for the health sector environment organization such as data centre, national, regional and district hospitals, and health centers IV, III, II and I and then builds the single best possible secure network to meet their needs. The security model demonstrates on how the components of the UCIC system will be protected physically and logically in the health sector environment. The UCIC system once adopted and implemented correctly will bring enhancement to the speed and quality of services offered by health workers. The capacities of UCIC will help health workers shorten decision cycles, accelerate service delivery and save lives by speeding access to information and by making it possible for all health workers and patients to collaborate ubiquitously.

Keywords: Developing Countries, Health Sector Environment, Security, Unified Communications and Integrated Collaborations.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1529

Authors: Rizwan Nasir, Hilmi Mukhtar, Zakaria Man, Dzeti Farhah Mohshim

Abstract:

Carbon dioxide has been well associated with greenhouse effect, and due to its corrosive nature it is an undesirable compound. A variety of physical-chemical processes are available for the removal of carbon dioxide. Previous attempts in this field have established alkanolamine group has the capability to remove carbon dioxide. So, this study combined the polymeric membrane and alkanolamine solutions to fabricate the amine polymeric membrane (APM) to remove carbon dioxide (CO₂). This study entails the effect of three types of amines, monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), and methyldiethanolamine (MDEA). The effect of each alkanolamine group on the morphology and performance of polyether sulfone (PES) polymeric membranes was studied. Flat sheet membranes were fabricated by solvent evaporation method by adding polymer and different alkanolamine solutions in the N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) solvent. The final membranes were characterized by using Field Emission Electron Microscope (FESEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), and Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis (TGA). The membrane separation performance was studied. The PES-DEA and PES-MDEA membrane has good ability to remove carbon dioxide. 

Keywords: Amine Polymeric membrane, Alkanolamine solution, CO2 Removal, Characterization.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2253

Authors: M. Dachyar, Fatkhurrohman

Abstract:

Innovation is being view from four areas of innovation, product, service, technology, and marketing. Whereas customer loyalty is composed of customer expectation, perceived quality, perceived value, corporate image, customer satisfaction, customer trust/confidence, customer commitment, customer complaint, and customer loyalty. This study aimed to investigate the influence of innovation factors to customer loyalty to GSM in the telecom companies where use of products and services. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using to analyze innovation factors. It was found the factor of innovation have significant influence on customer loyalty.

Keywords: Innovation, telecommunication, customer loyalty, SEM

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3430

Authors: Hafiz ul Azad, Dragan V.Lazic, Waqar Shahid

Abstract:

This paper presents implementation of attitude controller for a small UAV using field programmable gate array (FPGA). Due to the small size constrain a miniature more compact and computationally extensive; autopilot platform is needed for such systems. More over UAV autopilot has to deal with extremely adverse situations in the shortest possible time, while accomplishing its mission. FPGAs in the recent past have rendered themselves as fast, parallel, real time, processing devices in a compact size. This work utilizes this fact and implements different attitude controllers for a small UAV in FPGA, using its parallel processing capabilities. Attitude controller is designed in MATLAB/Simulink environment. The discrete version of this controller is implemented using pipelining followed by retiming, to reduce the critical path and thereby clock period of the controller datapath. Pipelined, retimed, parallel PID controller implementation is done using rapidprototyping and testing efficient development tool of “system generator", which has been developed by Xilinx for FPGA implementation. The improved timing performance enables the controller to react abruptly to any changes made to the attitudes of UAV.

Keywords: Field Programmable gate array (FPGA), Hardwaredescriptive Language (HDL), PID, Pipelining, Retiming, XilinxSystem Generator.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3189

Authors: Özlem Küçükakça

Abstract:

The world population is rapidly growing. In the last few decades, environmental protection and climate change have been remarked as a global concern. All events have their own ecological footprint. Therefore, all participants who take part in the events, from event organizer to audience should be responsible for reducing carbon emissions. Currently, there is a literature gap which investigates the relationship between events and environment. Hence, this study is conducted to investigate how to implement environmental sustainability in the event management. Therefore, a wide literature and also the UK festivals database have been investigated. Finally, environmental effects and the solution of reducing impacts at events were discussed.

Keywords: Ecological footprint, environmental sustainability, events, sustainability.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1232

Authors: Keke Gao, Tao Lin, Yonghui Xie, Di Zhang

Abstract:

Complicated unsteady flow in axial turbines produces high-frequency unsteady aerodynamic exciting force, which threatens the safe operation of turbines. This paper illustrates how negative-bowed stator reduces the rotor unsteady aerodynamic exciting force by unsteady flow field. With the support of three-dimensional viscous compressible Navier-Stokes equation, the single axial turbines with 0, -10 and -20 degree bowed stator are comparably investigated, aiming to identify the flow field structure difference caused by various negative-bowed degrees. The results show that negative-bowed stator strengthens the turbulence kinetic energy, which is further strengthened with the increase of negative-bowed degree. Meanwhile, the flow phenomenon including stator wakes and passage vortex is shown. In addition, the interaction of upstream negative-bowed wakes contributes to the reduction of unsteady blade load fluctuation. Furthermore, the aerodynamic exciting force decreases with the increasing negative bowed degree, while the efficiency is correspondingly reduced. This paper provides the reference for the alleviation of the harmful impact caused by unsteady interaction with the method of wake control.

Keywords: Unsteady flow, axial turbine, wake, aerodynamic force, loss.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 795

Authors: José A. D. Machuca, Bernabé Escobar-Pérez, Pedro Garrido Vega, Darkys E. Lujan García

Abstract:

Starting with an analysis of the financial and operational indicators that can be found in the specialised literature, this study aims to contribute to improvements in the performance measurement systems used when the unit of analysis is the manufacturing plant. For this a search was done in the highest impact Journals of Production and Operations Management and Management Accounting , with the aim of determining the financial and operational indicators used to evaluate performance when Advanced Production Practices have been implemented, more specifically when the practices implemented are Total Quality Management, JIT/Lean Manufacturing and Total Productive Maintenance. This has enabled us to obtain a classification of the two types of indicators based on how much each is used. For the financial indicators we have also prepared a proposal that can be adapted to manufacturing plants- accounting features. In the near future we will propose a model that links practices implementation with financial and operational indicators and these two last with each other. We aim to will test this model empirically with the data obtained in the High Performance Manufacturing Project.

Keywords: Advanced Production Practices, Financial Indicators, Non-Financial Indicators

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1507

Authors: Olga V. Krivobokova

Abstract:

A major goal of any enterprise is to create a ratings system of customer satisfaction, goods and services. It is obvious that the company cannot change what is not measured. In order to get a clearer picture of the preferences of the major consumer groups, this stage should be based on extensive research, including a variety of interviews and surveys. It is necessary to know the key benefits, which determine customer satisfaction in the market segment, of the properties of certain goods and services. It is important to estimate the terms of these preferences from the viewpoint of the client. This article discusses the importance of customer satisfaction, and ways of assessing it.

Keywords: Costs, customer, evaluation, organization, producer, quality management, satisfaction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1944

Authors: Enrique Barra, Aldo Gordillo, Juan Quemada

Abstract:

This paper presents the Virtual Science Hub platform. It is an open source platform that combines a social network, an e-learning authoring tool, a videoconference service and a learning object repository for science teaching enrichment. These four main functionalities fit very well together. The platform was released in April 2012 and since then it has not stopped growing. Finally we present the results of the surveys conducted and the statistics gathered to validate this approach.

Keywords: E-learning, platform, authoring tool, science teaching.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3521

Authors: Mona M. Salem, Khaled S. Al-Hagla, Hany M. Ayad

Abstract:

The concept of urban metabolism has increasingly been employed in a diverse range of disciplines as a mean to analyze and theorize the city. Urban ecology has a particular focus on the implications of applying the metabolism concept to the urban realm. This approach has been developed by a few researchers, though it has rarely if ever been used in policy development for city planning. The aim of this research is to use ecologically informed urban planning interventions to increase the sustainability of urban metabolism; with special focus on land stock as a most important city resource by developing a system dynamic based DSS. This model identifies two critical management strategy variables for the Strategic Urban Plan Alexandria SUP 2032. As a result, this comprehensive and precise quantitative approach is needed to monitor, measure, evaluate and observe dynamic urban changes working as a decision support system (DSS) for policy making.

Keywords: Alexandria SUP 2032, DSS, ecology, land resource, LULCC, management, metabolism, model, scenarios, System dynamics, urban development.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1197

Authors: Pavel Pešout, Miroslav Andrle

Abstract:

Frauds in insurance industry are one of the major sources of operational risk of insurance companies and constitute a significant portion of their losses. Every reasonable company on the market aims for improving their processes of uncovering frauds and invests their resources to reduce them. This article is addressing fraud management area from the view of extension of existing Business Intelligence solution. We describe the frame of such solution and would like to share with readers all benefits brought to insurance companies by adopting this approach in their fight against insurance frauds.

Keywords: business intelligence, insurance fraud, fraudmanagement

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2182

Authors: A. Das, L. Hitihamillage, S. Moridpour

Abstract:

Natural disasters are inevitable to the biodiversity. Disasters such as flood, tsunami and tornadoes could be brutal, harsh and devastating. In Australia, flooding is a major issue experienced by different parts of the country. In such crisis, delays in evacuation could decide the life and death of the people living in those regions. Congestion management could become a mammoth task if there are no steps taken before such situations. In the past to manage congestion in such circumstances, many strategies were utilised such as converting the road shoulders to extra lanes or changing the road geometry by adding more lanes. However, expansion of road to resolving congestion problems is not considered a viable option nowadays. The authorities avoid this option due to many reasons, such as lack of financial support and land space. They tend to focus their attention on optimising the current resources they possess and use traffic signals to overcome congestion problems. Traffic Signal Management strategy was considered a viable option, to alleviate congestion problems in the City of Geelong, Victoria. Arterial road with signalised intersections considered in this paper and the traffic data required for modelling collected from VicRoads. Traffic signalling software SIDRA used to model the roads, and the information gathered from VicRoads. In this paper, various signal parameters utilised to assess and improve the corridor performance to achieve the best possible Level of Services (LOS) for the arterial road.

Keywords: Congestion, constraints, management, LOS.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 963

Authors: Vesna Bosilj Vuksic, Mirjana Pejic Bach, Tomislav Hernaus

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to present a framework for empirical investigation of the effectiveness of simulation games for student learning of BPM concept. A future research methodology is explained and a normative model that extends the standard TAM model by introducing latent and mediating variables into the relationship between independent variables and dependent variable is developed. Future research propositions are defined in order to examine the benefits that can be achieved through the use of BPM simulation games in ERP courses.

Keywords: Business process management, simulation games, education, technology acceptance model.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2570