Search results for: Material removal rate (MRR)

Authors: Navdeep Goel, Salvador Gabarda

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Digital images are widely used in computer applications. To store or transmit the uncompressed images requires considerable storage capacity and transmission bandwidth. Image compression is a means to perform transmission or storage of visual data in the most economical way. This paper explains about how images can be encoded to be transmitted in a multiplexing time-frequency domain channel. Multiplexing involves packing signals together whose representations are compact in the working domain. In order to optimize transmission resources each 4 × 4 pixel block of the image is transformed by a suitable polynomial approximation, into a minimal number of coefficients. Less than 4 × 4 coefficients in one block spares a significant amount of transmitted information, but some information is lost. Different approximations for image transformation have been evaluated as polynomial representation (Vandermonde matrix), least squares + gradient descent, 1-D Chebyshev polynomials, 2-D Chebyshev polynomials or singular value decomposition (SVD). Results have been compared in terms of nominal compression rate (NCR), compression ratio (CR) and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) in order to minimize the error function defined as the difference between the original pixel gray levels and the approximated polynomial output. Polynomial coefficients have been later encoded and handled for generating chirps in a target rate of about two chirps per 4 × 4 pixel block and then submitted to a transmission multiplexing operation in the time-frequency domain.

Keywords: Chirp signals, Image multiplexing, Image transformation, Linear canonical transform, Polynomial approximation.

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Authors: Farhad Asadi, S. Hossein Sadati

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This paper presents a prediction performance of feedforward Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and Echo State Networks (ESN) trained with extended Kalman filter. Feedforward neural networks and ESN are powerful neural networks which can track and predict nonlinear signals. However, their tracking performance depends on the specific signals or data sets, having the risk of instability accompanied by large error. In this study we explore this process by applying different network size and leaking rate for prediction of nonlinear or chaotic signals in MLP neural networks. Major problems of ESN training such as the problem of initialization of the network and improvement in the prediction performance are tackled. The influence of coefficient of activation function in the hidden layer and other key parameters are investigated by simulation results. Extended Kalman filter is employed in order to improve the sequential and regulation learning rate of the feedforward neural networks. This training approach has vital features in the training of the network when signals have chaotic or non-stationary sequential pattern. Minimization of the variance in each step of the computation and hence smoothing of tracking were obtained by examining the results, indicating satisfactory tracking characteristics for certain conditions. In addition, simulation results confirmed satisfactory performance of both of the two neural networks with modified parameterization in tracking of the nonlinear signals.

Keywords: Feedforward neural networks, nonlinear signal prediction, echo state neural networks approach, leaking rates, capacity of neural networks.

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Authors: E. Dabbour, S. M. Easa

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Most of the collision warning systems currently available in the automotive market are mainly designed to warn against imminent rear-end and lane-changing collisions. No collision warning system is commercially available to warn against imminent turning collisions at intersections, especially for left-turn collisions when a driver attempts to make a left-turn at either a signalized or non-signalized intersection, conflicting with the path of other approaching vehicles traveling on the opposite-direction traffic stream. One of the major factors that lead to left-turn collisions is the human error and misjudgment of the driver of the turning vehicle when perceiving the speed and acceleration of other vehicles traveling on the opposite-direction traffic stream; therefore, using a properly-designed collision warning system will likely reduce, or even eliminate, this type of collisions by reducing human error. This paper introduces perceptual framework for a proposed collision warning system that can detect imminent left-turn collisions at intersections. The system utilizes a commercially-available detection sensor (either a radar sensor or a laser detector) to detect approaching vehicles traveling on the opposite-direction traffic stream and calculate their speeds and acceleration rates to estimate the time-tocollision and compare that time to the time required for the turning vehicle to clear the intersection. When calculating the time required for the turning vehicle to clear the intersection, consideration is given to the perception-reaction time of the driver of the turning vehicle, which is the time required by the driver to perceive the message given by the warning system and react to it by engaging the throttle. A regression model was developed to estimate perception-reaction time based on age and gender of the driver of the host vehicle. Desired acceleration rate selected by the driver of the turning vehicle, when making the left-turn movement, is another human factor that is considered by the system. Another regression model was developed to estimate the acceleration rate selected by the driver of the turning vehicle based on driver-s age and gender as well as on the location and speed of the nearest approaching vehicle along with the maximum acceleration rate provided by the mechanical characteristics of the turning vehicle. By comparing time-to-collision with the time required for the turning vehicle to clear the intersection, the system displays a message to the driver of the turning vehicle when departure is safe. An application example is provided to illustrate the logic algorithm of the proposed system.

Keywords: Collision warning systems, intelligent transportationsystems, vehicle safety.

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Authors: Xi Wang, Xiaoming Tao, Raymond C. H. So

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As one of the convenient and noninvasive sensing approaches, the automatic limb girth measurement has been applied to detect intention behind human motion from muscle deformation. The sensing validity has been elaborated by preliminary researches but still need more fundamental studies, especially on kinetic contraction modes. Based on the novel fabric strain sensors, a soft and smart limb girth measurement system was developed by the authors’ group, which can measure the limb girth in-motion. Experiments were carried out on elbow isometric flexion and elbow isokinetic flexion (biceps’ isokinetic contractions) of 90°/s, 60°/s, and 120°/s for 10 subjects (2 canoeists and 8 ordinary people). After removal of natural circumferential increments due to elbow position, the joint torque is found not uniformly sensitive to the limb circumferential strains, but declining as elbow joint angle rises, regardless of the angular speed. Moreover, the maximum joint torque was found as an exponential function of the joint’s angular speed. This research highly contributes to the application of the automatic limb girth measuring during kinetic contractions, and it is useful to predict the contraction level of voluntary skeletal muscles.

Keywords: Fabric strain sensor, muscle deformation, isokinetic contraction, joint torque, limb girth strain.

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Authors: N. F .Hamedani, A.R. Mahjoub, A. A. khodadadi, Y. Mortazavi, F.Farzaneh

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ZnO nanostructure were synthesized via microwave method using zinc acetate as starting material, guanidinium as structure directing agents, and water as solvent.. This work investigates the photodegradation of azo dyes using the ZnO Flowerlike in aqueous solutions. As synthesized ZnO samples were characterized using X-Ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and FTIR spectroscopy.In this work photodecolorization of congored azo dye under UV irradiation by nano ZnO was studied.

Keywords: Photo catalyst, Nano crystals, Zinc Oxide

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Authors: Thomas Jin-Chee Liu, Yu-Shen Chen

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Using the numerical and experimental methods, this paper discusses some primary studies on the vibration and cooling performances of the piezoelectric cooling fan with the rectangular blade. When the fan works at its natural frequency, the vibrating displacement is largest and the cooling performance is best. Due to the vibration behavior, the cooling performance is affected by the geometry, material property, and working frequency of the piezoelectric cooling fan. 

Keywords: Piezoelectric cooling fan, finite element, vibration, natural frequency.

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Authors: P. S. Dabeer, G. K. Purohit

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Burnishing is a method of finishing and hardening machined parts by plastic deformation of the surface. Experimental work based on central composite second order rotatable design has been carried out on a lathe machine to establish the effects of ball burnishing parameters on the surface roughness of brass material. Analysis of the results by the analysis of variance technique and the F-test show that the parameters considered, have significant effects on the surface roughness.

Keywords: Ball burnishing, Response surface Methodology.

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Authors: Mamta Agrawal, Neeru Adlakha, K.R. Pardasani

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An attempt has been made to develop a seminumerical model to study temperature variations in dermal layers of human limbs. The model has been developed for two dimensional steady state case. The human limb has been assumed to have elliptical cross section. The dermal region has been divided into three natural layers namely epidermis, dermis and subdermal tissues. The model incorporates the effect of important physiological parameters like blood mass flow rate, metabolic heat generation, and thermal conductivity of the tissues. The outer surface of the limb is exposed to the environment and it is assumed that heat loss takes place at the outer surface by conduction, convection, radiation, and evaporation. The temperature of inner core of the limb also varies at the lower atmospheric temperature. Appropriate boundary conditions have been framed based on the physical conditions of the problem. Cubic splines approach has been employed along radial direction and Fourier series along angular direction to obtain the solution. The numerical results have been computed for different values of eccentricity resembling with the elliptic cross section of the human limbs. The numerical results have been used to obtain the temperature profile and to study the relationships among the various physiological parameters.

Keywords: Blood Mass Flow Rate, Metabolic Heat Generation, Fourier Series, Cubic splines and Thermal Conductivity.

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Authors: Sama’ila Idi Ningi, Abubakar Yusuf Dutse

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The banking sector poses a lot of problems in Nigeria in general and the non-oil export sector in particular. The banks' lack effectiveness in handling small, medium or long-term credit risk (lack of training of loan officers, lack of information on borrowers and absence of a reliable credit registry) results in non-oil exporters being burdened with high requirements, such as up to three years of financial statements, enough collateral to cover both the loan principal and interest (including a cash deposit that may be up to 30% of the loans' net present value), and to provide every detail of the international trade transaction in question. The stated problems triggered this research. Consequently, information on bank financing of non-oil exports was collected from 100 respondents from the 20 Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. The data was analysed by the use of descriptive statistics correlation and regression. It is found that, Nigerian banks are participants in the financing of non-oil exports. Despite their participation, the rate of interest for credit extended to non-oil export is usually high, ranging between 15-20%. Small and medium sized non-oil export businesses lack the credit history for banks to judge them as reputable. Banks also consider the non-oil export sector very risky for investment. The banks actually do grant less credit than the exporters may require and therefore are not properly funded by banks. Banks grant very low volume of foreign currency loan in addition to, unfavorable exchange rate at which Naira is exchanged to the Dollar and other currencies in the country. This makes importation of inputs costly and negatively impacted on the non-oil export performance in Nigeria.

Keywords: Supply Side Factors, Bank Financing, Non-Oil Exports.

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Authors: A. Soria-Verdugo, A. Morato-Godino, L. M. García-Gutiérrez, N. García-Hernando

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The evolution of the pyrolysis of sewage sludge in a fixed and a fluidized bed was analyzed using a novel measuring technique. This original measuring technique consists of installing the whole reactor over a precision scale, capable of measuring the mass of the complete reactor with enough precision to detect the mass released by the sewage sludge sample during its pyrolysis. The inert conditions required for the pyrolysis process were obtained supplying the bed with a nitrogen flowrate, and the bed temperature was adjusted to either 500 ºC or 600 ºC using a group of three electric resistors. The sewage sludge sample was supplied through the top of the bed in a batch of 10 g. The measurement of the mass released by the sewage sludge sample was employed to determine the evolution of the reaction rate during the pyrolysis, the total amount of volatile matter released, and the pyrolysis time. The pyrolysis tests of sewage sludge in the fluidized bed were conducted using two different bed materials of the same size but different densities: silica sand and sepiolite particles. The higher density of silica sand particles induces a flotsam behavior for the sewage sludge particles which move close to the bed surface. In contrast, the lower density of sepiolite produces a neutrally-buoyant behavior for the sewage sludge particles, which shows a proper circulation throughout the whole bed in this case. The analysis of the evolution of the pyrolysis process in both fluidized beds show that the pyrolysis is faster when buoyancy effects are negligible, i.e. in the bed conformed by sepiolite particles. Moreover, sepiolite was found to show an absorbent capability for the volatile matter released during the pyrolysis of sewage sludge.

Keywords: Bubbling fluidized bed, pyrolysis time, segregation effects, sewage sludge.

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Authors: D. Hilton

Abstract:

An analysis of the Australian Diabetes Screening Study estimated undiagnosed diabetes mellitus [DM] prevalence in a high risk general practice based cohort. DM prevalence varied from 9.4% to 18.1% depending upon the diagnostic criteria utilised with age being a highly significant risk factor. Utilising the gold standard oral glucose tolerance test, the prevalence of DM was 22-23% in those aged >= 70 years and <15% in those aged 40-59 years. Opportunistic screening in Australian general practice potentially can identify many persons with undiagnosed type 2 DM. An Australian Bureau of Statistics document published three years ago, reported the highest rate of DM in men aged 65-74 years [19%] whereas the rate for women was highest in those over 75 years [13%]. If you consider that the Australian Bureau of Statistics report in 2007 found that 13% of the population was over 65 years of age and that this will increase to 23-25% by 2056 with a further projected increase to 25-28% by 2101, obviously this information has to be factored into the equation when age related diabetes prevalence predictions are calculated. This 10-15% proportional increase of elderly persons within the population demographics has dramatic implications for the estimated number of elderly persons with DM in these age groupings. Computational methodology showing the age related demographic changes reported in these official statistical documents will be done showing estimates for 2056 and 2101 for different age groups. This has relevance for future diabetes prevalence rates and shows that along with many countries worldwide Australia is facing an increasing pandemic. In contrast Japan is expected to have a decrease in the next twenty years in the number of persons with diabetes.

Keywords: Epidemiological methods, aging, prevalence.

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Authors: Adnan F. Sheikh, Fayaz A. Mir

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After the recent devastating flood in Kashmir in 2014, dredging of the local water bodies, especially Jhelum River has become a priority for the government. Local government under the project name of 'Comprehensive Flood Management Programme' plans to undertake an increase in discharge of existing flood channels by removal of encroachments and acquisition of additional land, dredging and other works of the water bodies. The total quantity of soil to be dredged will be 16.15 lac cumecs. Dredged soil is a major component that would result from the project which requires disposal/utilization. This study analyses the effect of cement and sand on the engineering properties of soil. The tests were conducted with variable additions of sand (10%, 20% and 30%), whereas cement was added at 12%. Samples with following compositions: soil-cement (12%) and soil-sand (30%) were tested as well. Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the engineering characteristics of soil, i.e., compaction, strength, and CBR characteristics. The strength characteristics of the soil were determined by unconfined compressive strength test and direct shear test. Unconfined compressive strength of the soil was tested immediately and for a curing period of seven days. CBR test was performed for unsoaked, soaked (worst condition- 4 days) and cured (4 days) samples.

Keywords: Comprehensive flood management programme, dredge soil, strength characteristics, flood.

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Authors: Sarun Phibanchon, Michael A. Allen

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A variational method is used to obtain the growth rate of a transverse long-wavelength perturbation applied to the soliton solution of a nonlinear Schr¨odinger equation with a three-half order potential. We demonstrate numerically that this unstable perturbed soliton will eventually transform into a cylindrical soliton.

Keywords: Soliton, instability, variational method, spectral method.

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Authors: N. Damenia, E. Kharaishvili, N. Sagareishvili, M. Saghareishvili

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Women's Employment is one of the most important issues in the global economy. The article discusses the stated topic in Georgia, through historical content, Soviet experience, and modern perspectives. The paper discusses segmentation insa terms of employment and related problems. Based on statistical analysis, women's unemployment rate and its factors are analyzed. The level of employment of women in Transcaucasia (Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan) is discussed and is compared with Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia). The study analyzes women’s level of development, according to the average age of marriage and migration level. The focus is on Georgia's Association Agreement with the EU in 2014, which includes economic, social, trade and political issues. One part of it is gender equality at workplaces. According to the research, the average monthly remuneration of women managers in the financial and insurance sector equaled to 1044.6 Georgian Lari, while in overall business sector average monthly remuneration equaled to 961.1 GEL. Average salaries are increasing; however, the employment rate remains problematic. For example, in 2017, 74.6% of men and 50.8% of women were employed from a total workforce. It is also interesting that the proportion of men and women at managerial positions is 29% (women) to 71% (men). Based on the results, the main recommendation for government and civil society is to consider women as a part of the country’s economic development. In this aspect, the experience of developed countries should be considered. It is important to create additional jobs in urban or rural areas and help migrant women return and use their working resources properly.

Keywords: Employment of women, segregation in terms of employment, women's employment level in Transcaucasia, migration level.

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Authors: S. Aziz, M. Ali, S. Asghar, S. Ahmed

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Comparing other methods of waste water treatment, constructed wetlands are one of the most fascinating practices because being a natural process they are eco-friendly have low construction and maintenance cost and have considerable capability of wastewater treatment. The current research was focused mainly on comparison of Ranunculus muricatus and Typha latifolia as wetland plants for domestic wastewater treatment by designing and constructing efficient pilot scale horizontal subsurface flow mesocosms. Parameters like chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, phosphates, sulphates, nitrites, nitrates, and pathogenic indicator microbes were studied continuously with successive treatments. Treatment efficiency of the system increases with passage of time and with increase in temperature. Efficiency of T. latifolia planted setups in open environment was fairly good for parameters like COD and BOD5 which was showing reduction up to 82.5% for COD and 82.6% for BOD5 while DO was increased up to 125%. Efficiency of R. muricatus vegetated setup was also good but lowers than that of T. latifolia planted showing 80.95% removal of COD and BOD5. Ranunculus muricatus was found effective in reducing bacterial count in wastewater. Both macrophytes were found promising in wastewater treatment.

Keywords: Biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, horizontal subsurface flow, Total suspended solids, Wetland.

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Authors: Kensuke Akiyama, Satoru Kaneko, Takeshi Ozawa, Kazuya Yokomizo, Masaru Itakura

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The photoluminescence (PL) at 1.55 μm from semiconducting β-FeSi2 has attracted a noticeable interest for silicon-based optoelectronic applications. Moreover, its high optical absorption coefficient (higher than 105 cm-1 above 1.0 eV) allows this semiconducting material to be used as photovoltanics devices. A clear PL spectrum for β-FeSi2 was observed by Cu or Au coating on Si(001). High-crystal-quality β-FeSi2 with a low-level nonradiative center was formed on a Cu- or Au- reated Si layer. This method of deposition can be applied to other materials requiring high crystal quality.

Keywords: iron silicide, semiconductor, epitaxial, photoluminescence.

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Authors: Benazeer Md. Shahzada, Verelst Jan, Van Grembergen Wim, Mannaert Herwig

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This article is an extension and a practical application approach of Wheeler-s NEBIC theory (Net Enabled Business Innovation Cycle). NEBIC theory is a new approach in IS research and can be used for dynamic environment related to new technology. Firms can follow the market changes rapidly with support of the IT resources. Flexible firms adapt their market strategies, and respond more quickly to customers changing behaviors. When every leading firm in an industry has access to the same IT resources, the way that these IT resources are managed will determine the competitive advantages or disadvantages of firm. From Dynamic Capabilities Perspective and from newly introduced NEBIC theory by Wheeler, we know that only IT resources cannot deliver customer value but good configuration of those resources can guarantee customer value by choosing the right emerging technology, grasping the right economic opportunities through business innovation and growth. We found evidences in literature that SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is a promising emerging technology which can deliver the desired economic opportunity through modularity, flexibility and loose-coupling. SOA can also help firms to connect in network which can open a new window of opportunity to collaborate in innovation and right kind of outsourcing. There are many articles and research reports indicates that failure rate in outsourcing is very high but at the same time research indicates that successful outsourcing projects adds tangible and intangible benefits to the service consumer. Business executives and policy makers in the west should not afraid of outsourcing but they should choose the right strategy through the use of emerging technology to significantly reduce the failure rate in outsourcing.

Keywords: Absorptive capacity, Dynamic Capability, Netenabled business innovation cycle, Service oriented architecture.

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Authors: Kamel K. Alzboon, Khalid N.Mahasneh

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The aim of this work is to study the possible use of stone cutting sludge waste in concrete production, which would reduce both the environmental impact and the production cost .Slurry sludge was used a source of water in concrete production, which was obtained from Samara factory/Jordan, The physico-chemical and mineralogical characterization of the sludge was carried out to identify the major components and to compare it with the typical sand used to produce concrete. Samples analysis showed that 96% of slurry sludge volume is water, so it should be considered as an important source of water. Results indicated that the use of slurry sludge as water source in concrete production has insignificant effect on compression strength, while it has a sharp effect on the slump values. Using slurry sludge with a percentage of 25% of the total water content obtained successful concrete samples regarding slump and compression tests. To clarify slurry sludge, settling process can be used to remove the suspended solid. A settling period of 30 min. obtained 99% removal efficiency. The clarified water is suitable for using in concrete mixes, which reduce water consumption, conserve water recourses, increase the profit, reduce operation cost and save the environment. Additionally, the dry sludge could be used in the mix design instead of the fine materials with sizes < 160 um. This application could conserve the natural materials and solve the environmental and economical problem caused by sludge accumulation.

Keywords: Concrete, recycle, sludge, slurry waste, stone cutting waste, waste.

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Authors: Rabeb Triki, Hassene Djemel, Mounir Baccar

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Surface scraping is a passive heat transfer enhancement technique that is directly used in scraped surface heat exchanger (SSHE). The scraping action prevents the accumulation of the product on the inner wall, which intensifies the heat transfer and avoids the formation of dead zones. SSHEs are widely used in industry for several applications such as crystallization, sterilization, freezing, gelatinization, and many other continuous processes. They are designed to deal with products that are viscous, sticky or that contain particulate matter. This research work presents a three-dimensional numerical simulation of the coupled thermal and hydrodynamic behavior within a SSHE which includes Archimedes’ screw instead of scraper blades. The finite volume Fluent 15.0 was used to solve continuity, momentum and energy equations using multiple reference frame formulation. The process fluid investigated under this study is the pure glycerin. Different geometrical parameters were studied in the case of steady, non-isothermal, laminar flow. In particular, attention is focused on the effect of the conicity of the rotor and the pitch of Archimedes’ screw on temperature and velocity distribution and heat transfer rate. Numerical investigations show that the increase of the number of turns in the screw from five to seven turns leads to amelioration of heat transfer coefficient, and the increase of the conicity of the rotor from 0.1 to 0.15 leads to an increase in the rate of heat transfer. Further studies should investigate the effect of different operating parameters (axial and rotational Reynolds number) on the hydrodynamic and thermal behavior of the SSHE.

Keywords: ANSYS-Fluent, hydrodynamic behavior, SSHE, thermal behavior.

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Authors: Promise A. Azor, Avievie Igodo, Esabai M. Ase

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The paper merged the return of premium clause and voluntary contributions to investigate retirees’ investment plan in a defined contributory (DC) pension scheme with a portfolio comprising of a risk-free asset and a risky asset whose price process is described by geometric Brownian motion (GBM). The paper considers additional voluntary contributions paid by members, charge on balance by pension fund administrators and the mortality risk of members of the scheme during the accumulation period by introducing return of premium clause. To achieve this, the Weilbull mortality force function is used to establish the mortality rate of members during accumulation phase. Furthermore, an optimization problem from the Hamilton Jacobi Bellman (HJB) equation is obtained using dynamic programming approach. Also, the Legendre transformation method is used to transform the HJB equation which is a nonlinear partial differential equation to a linear partial differential equation and solves the resultant equation for the value function and the optimal distribution plan under logarithm utility function. Finally, numerical simulations of the impact of some important parameters on the optimal distribution plan were obtained and it was observed that the optimal distribution plan is inversely proportional to the initial fund size, predetermined interest rate, additional voluntary contributions, charge on balance and instantaneous volatility.

Keywords: Legendre transform, logarithm utility, optimal distribution plan, return clause of premium, charge on balance, Weibull mortality function.

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Authors: Petri Kouvo, Aino Kainulainen, Kimmo Koivunen

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Separate collection system for recyclable wastes in the Helsinki region was ranked second best of European capitals. The collection system includes paper, cardboard, glass, metals and biowaste. Residual waste is collected and used in energy production. The collection system excluding paper is managed by the Helsinki Region Environmental Services HSY, a public organization owned by four municipalities (Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa). Paper collection is handled by the producer responsibility scheme. The efficiency of the collection system in the Helsinki region relies on a good coverage of door-to-door-collection. All properties with 10 or more dwelling units are required to source separate biowaste and cardboard. This covers about 75% of the population of the area. The obligation is extended to glass and metal in properties with 20 or more dwelling units. Other success factors include public awareness campaigns and a fee system that encourages recycling. As a result of waste management regulations for source separation of recyclables and biowaste, nearly 50 percent of recycling rate of household waste has been reached. For households and small and medium size enterprises, there is a sorting station fleet of five stations available. More than 50 percent of wastes received at sorting stations is utilized as material. The separate collection of plastic packaging in Finland will begin in 2016 within the producer responsibility scheme. HSY started supplementing the national bring point system with door-to-door-collection and pilot operations will begin in spring 2016. The result of plastic packages pilot project has been encouraging. Until the end of 2016, over 3500 apartment buildings have been joined the piloting, and more than 1800 tons of plastic packages have been collected separately. In the summer 2015 a novel partial flow digestion process combining digestion and tunnel composting was adopted for source separated household and commercial biowaste management. The product gas form digestion process is converted in to heat and electricity in piston engine and organic Rankine cycle process with very high overall efficiency. This paper describes the efficient collection system and discusses key success factors as well as main obstacles and lessons learned as well as the partial flow process for biowaste management.

Keywords: Biowaste, HSY, MSW, plastic packages, recycling, separate collection.

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Authors: Syed Zohaib Javaid Zaidi, W. Iqbal

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The industrial automation is dependent upon pneumatic control systems. The industrial units are now controlled with digital control systems to tackle the process variables like Temperature, Pressure, Flow rates and Composition.

This research work produces an evaluation of the response time fluctuations for proportional mode, proportional integral and proportional integral derivative modes of automated chemical process control. The controller output is measured for different values of gain with respect to time in three modes (P, PI and PID). In case of P-mode for different values of gain the controller output has negligible change. When the controller output of PI-mode is checked for constant gain, it can be seen that by decreasing the integral time the controller output has showed more fluctuations. The PID mode results have found to be more interesting in a way that when rate minute has changed, the controller output has also showed fluctuations with respect to time.  The controller output for integral mode and derivative mode are observed with lesser steady state error, minimum offset and larger response time to control the process variable.   The tuning parameters in case of P-mode are only steady state gain with greater errors with respect to controller output. The integral mode showed controller outputs with intermediate responses during integral gain (ki).  By increasing the rate minute the derivative gain (kd) also increased which showed the controlled oscillations in case of PID mode and lesser overshoot.

Keywords: Controller Output, P, PI &PID modes, Steady state gain.

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Authors: Marita Pigłowska, Beata Kurc, Maciej Galiński

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The application of carbon materials in the branches of the electrochemical industry shows an increasing tendency each year due to the many interesting properties they possess. These are, among others, a well-developed specific surface, porosity, high sorption capacity, good adsorption properties, low bulk density, electrical conductivity and chemical resistance. All these properties allow for their effective use, among others in supercapacitors, which can store electric charges of the order of 100 F due to carbon electrodes constituting the capacitor plates. Coals (including expanded graphite, carbon black, graphite carbon fibers, activated carbon) are commonly used in electrochemical methods of removing oil derivatives from water after tanker disasters, e.g., phenols and their derivatives by their electrochemical anodic oxidation. Phenol can occupy practically the entire surface of carbon material and leave the water clean of hydrophobic impurities. Regeneration of such electrodes is also not complicated, it is carried out by electrochemical methods consisting in unblocking the pores and reducing resistances, and thus their reactivation for subsequent adsorption processes. Graphite is commonly used as an anode material in lithium-ion cells, while due to the limited capacity it offers (372 mAh g-1), new solutions are sought that meet both capacitive, efficiency and economic criteria. Increasingly, biodegradable materials, green materials, biomass, waste (including agricultural waste) are used in order to reuse them and reduce greenhouse effects and, above all, to meet the biodegradability criterion necessary for the production of lithium-ion cells as chemical power sources. The most common of these materials are cellulose, starch, wheat, rice, and corn waste, e.g., from agricultural, paper and pharmaceutical production. Such products are subjected to appropriate treatments depending on the desired application (including chemical, thermal, electrochemical). Starch is a biodegradable polysaccharide that consists of polymeric units such as amylose and amylopectin that build an ordered (linear) and amorphous (branched) structure of the polymer. Carbon is also used as a catalyst. Elemental carbon has become available in many nano-structured forms representing the hybridization combinations found in the primary carbon allotropes, and the materials can be enriched with a large number of surface functional groups. There are many examples of catalytic applications of coal in the literature, but the development of this field has been hampered by the lack of a conceptual approach combining structure and function and a lack of understanding of material synthesis. In the context of catalytic applications, the integrity of carbon environmental management properties and parameters such as metal conductivity range and bond sequence management should be characterized. Such data, along with surface and textured information, can form the basis for the provision of network support services.

Keywords: carbon materials, catalysis, BET, capacitors, lithium ion cell

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Authors: Rafiqul Tarefder, Mohiuddin Ahmad, Mohammad Hossain

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While millings materials from old pavement surface can be an important component of cost effective maintenance operation, their use in maintenance projects are not uniform and well documented. This study documents the different maintenance practices followed by four transportation districts of New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) in an attempt to find whether millings are being used in maintenance projects by those districts. Based on existing literature, a questionnaire was developed related to six common maintenance practices. NMDOT district personal were interviewed face to face to discuss and get answers to that questionnaire. It revealed that NMDOT districts mainly use chip seal and patching. Other maintenance procedures such as sand seal, scrub seal, slurry seal, and thin overlay have limited use. Two out of four participating districts do not have any documents on chip sealing; rather they employ the experiences of the chip seal crew. All districts use polymer modified high float emulsion (HFE100P) for chip seal with an application rate ranging from 0.4 to 0.56 gallons per square yard. Chip application rate varies from 15 to 40 lb/ square yard. State wide, the thickness of chip seal varies from 3/8'' to 1'' and life varies from 3 to 10 years. NMDOT districts mainly use three type of patching: pothole, dig-out and blade patch. Pothole patches are used for small potholes and during emergency, dig-out patches are used for all type of potholes sometimes after pothole patching, and blade patch is used when a significant portion of the pavement is damaged. Pothole patches last as low as three days whereas, blade patch lasts as long as 3 years. It was observed that all participating districts use millings in maintenance projects.

Keywords: Chip seal, sand seal, scrub seal, slurry seal, overlay, patching, millings.

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Authors: M. Hadi Kusuma, Nandy Putra, Anhar Riza Antariksawan, Ficky Augusta Imawan

Abstract:

Heat pipe is considered to be applied as a passive system to remove residual heat that generated from reactor core when incident occur or from spent fuel storage pool. The objectives are to characterized the heat transfer phenomena, performance of heat pipe, and as a model for large heat pipe will be applied as passive cooling system on nuclear spent fuel pool storage. In this experimental wickless heat pipe or two-phase closed thermosyphon (TPCT) is used. Variation of heat flux are 611.24 Watt/m² - 3291.29 Watt/m². Variation of filling ratio are 45 - 70%. Variation of initial pressure are -62 to -74 cm Hg. Demineralized water is used as working fluid in the TPCT. The results showed that increasing of heat load leads to an increase of evaporation of the working fluid. The optimum filling ratio obtained for 60% of TPCT evaporator volume, and initial pressure variation gave different TPCT wall temperature characteristic. TPCT showed best performance with 60% filling ratio and can be consider to be applied as passive residual heat removal system or passive cooling system on spent fuel storage pool.

Keywords: Two-phase closed thermo syphon, heat pipe, passive cooling, spent fuel storage pool.

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Authors: W. Assaad, D. Wilmink, H. R. Pasaribu, H. J. M. Geijselaers

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Shell has developed a mono-diameter well concept for oil and gas wells as opposed to the traditional telescopic well design. A Mono-diameter well design allows well to have a single inner diameter from the surface all the way down to reservoir to increase production capacity, reduce material cost and reduce environmental footprint. This is achieved by expansion of liners (casing string) concerned using an expansion tool (e.g. a cone). Since the well is drilled in stages and liners are inserted to support the borehole, overlap sections between consecutive liners exist which should be expanded. At overlap, the previously inserted casing which can be expanded or unexpanded is called the host casing and the newly inserted casing is called the expandable casing. When the cone enters the overlap section, an expandable casing is expanded against a host casing, a cured cement layer and formation. In overlap expansion, ironing or lengthening may appear instead of shortening in the expandable casing when the pressure exerted by the host casing, cured cement layer and formation exceeds a certain limit. This pressure is related to cement strength, thickness of cement layer, host casing material mechanical properties, host casing thickness, formation type and formation strength. Ironing can cause implications that hinder the deployment of the technology. Therefore, the understanding of ironing becomes essential. A physical model is built in-house to calculate expansion forces, stresses, strains and post expansion casing dimensions under different conditions. In this study, only free casing and overlap expansion of two casings are addressed while the cement and formation will be incorporated in future study. Since the axial strain can be predicted by the physical model, the onset of ironing can be confirmed. In addition, this model helps in understanding ironing and the parameters influencing it. Finally, the physical model is validated with Finite Element (FE) simulations and small-scale experiments. The results of the study confirm that high pressure leads to ironing when the casing is expanded in tension mode.

Keywords: Casing expansion, cement, formation, metal forming, plasticity, well design.

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Authors: Mohammad D. AL-Tahat, Shahnaz M. Alkhalil

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International markets driven forces are changing continuously, therefore companies need to gain a competitive edge in such markets. Improving the company's products, processes and practices is no longer auxiliary. Lean production is a production management philosophy that consolidates work tasks with minimum waste resulting in improved productivity. Lean production practices can be mapped into many production areas. One of these is Manufacturing Equipment and Technology (MET). Many lean production practices can be implemented in MET, namely, specific equipment configurations, total preventive maintenance, visual control, new equipment/ technologies, production process reengineering and shared vision of perfection.The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implementation level of these six practices in Jordanian industries. To achieve that a questionnaire survey has been designed according to five-point Likert scale. The questionnaire is validated through pilot study and through experts review. A sample of 350 Jordanian companies were surveyed, the response rate was 83%. The respondents were asked to rate the extent of implementation for each of practices. A relationship conceptual model is developed, hypotheses are proposed, and consequently the essential statistical analyses are then performed. An assessment tool that enables management to monitor the progress and the effectiveness of lean practices implementation is designed and presented. Consequently, the results show that the average implementation level of lean practices in MET is 77%, Jordanian companies are implementing successfully the considered lean production practices, and the presented model has Cronbach-s alpha value of 0.87 which is good evidence on model consistency and results validation.

Keywords: Lean Production, SME applications, Visual Control, New equipment/technologies, Specific equipment configurations, Jordan

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Authors: Gulnaziya Issabayeva, Mohamed Kheireddine Aroua

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commercially produced in Malaysia granular palm shell activated carbon (PSAC) was biomodified with bacterial biomass (Bacillus subtilis) to produce a hybrid biosorbent of higher efficiency. The obtained biosorbent was evaluated in terms of adsorption capacity to remove copper and zinc metal ions from aqueous solutions. The adsorption capacity was evaluated in batch adsorption experiments where concentrations of metal ions varied from 20 to 350 mg/L. A range of pH from 3 to 6 of aqueous solutions containing metal ions was tested. Langmuir adsorption model was used to interpret the experimental data. Comparison of the adsorption data of the biomodified and original palm shell activated carbon showed higher uptake of metal ions by the hybrid biosorbent. A trend in metal ions uptake increase with the increase in the solution-s pH was observed. The surface characterization data indicated a decrease in the total surface area for the hybrid biosorbent; however the uptake of copper and zinc by it was at least equal to the original PSAC at pH 4 and 5. The highest capacity of the hybrid biosorbent was observed at pH 5 and comprised 22 mg/g and 19 mg/g for copper and zinc, respectively. The adsorption capacity at the lowest pH of 3 was significantly low. The experimental results facilitated identification of potential factors influencing the adsorption of copper and zinc onto biomodified and original palm shell activated carbon.

Keywords: Adsorption, biomodification, copper, zinc, palm shell carbon.

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Authors: Ceren Ince, Berkay Z. Erdem, Shahram Derogar, Nabi Yuzer

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Fibre cement plates, often used in construction, generally are made using quartz as an inert material, cement as a binder and cellulose as a fibre. This paper, first of all, investigates the mechanical properties and durability of fibre cement plates when quartz is both partly and fully replaced with diatomite. Diatomite does not only have lower density compared to quartz but also has high pozzolanic activity. The main objective of this paper is the investigation of the effects of supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) on the short and long term mechanical properties and durability characteristics of fibre cement plates prepared using diatomite. Supplementary cementing materials such as ground granulated blast furnace slug (GGBS) and fly ash (FA) are used in this study. Volume proportions of 10, 20, 30 and 40% of GGBS and FA are used as partial replacement materials to cement. Short and long term mechanical properties such as compressive and flexural strengths as well as sorptivity characteristics and mass were investigated. Consistency and setting time at each replacement levels of SCMs were also recorded. The effects of using supplementary cementing materials on the carbonation and sulphate resistance of fibre cement plates were then experimented. The results, first of all, show that the use of diatomite as a full or partial replacement to quartz resulted in a systematic decrease in total mass of the fibre cement plates. The reduction of mass was largely due to the lower density and finer particle size of diatomite compared to quartz. The use of diatomite did not only reduce the mass of these plates but also increased the compressive strength significantly as a result of its high pozzolanic activity. The replacement levels of both GGBS and FA resulted in a systematic decrease in short term compressive strength with increasing replacement levels. This was essentially expected as the total rate of hydration is much lower in GGBS and FA than that of cement. Long term results however, indicated that the compressive strength of fibre cement plates prepared using both GGBS and FA increases with time and hence the compressive strength of plates prepared using SCMs is either equivalent or more than the compressive strength of plates prepared using cement alone. Durability characteristics of fibre cement plates prepared using SCMs were enhanced significantly. Measurements of sopritivty characteristics were also indicated that the plates prepared using SCMs has much lower water absorption capacities compared to plates prepared cement alone. Much higher resistance to carbonation and sulphate attach were observed with plates prepared using SCMs. The results presented in this paper show that the use of SCMs does not only support the production of more sustainable construction materials but also enhances the mechanical properties and durability characteristics of fibre cement plates.

Keywords: Diatomite, fibre, strength, supplementary cementing materials.

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Authors: Brian P. Bloomfield, Theo Vurdubakis

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The virulent debates that have dogged research on, and the diffusion of, a wide range of technologies indicate a growing loss of confidence in what we might call, the techno-scientific endeavour to reshape the world. Utopian images of a world rendered ever more amenable to human desires are now closely shadowed by just as compelling dystopian visions of monstrosity and disaster that are nevertheless constructed from the same cultural material. The paper uses the case of the debates over developments in reproductive technology to offer some observations on the ways in which such technologies routinely become enmirred in cultural ambivalence.

Keywords: Culture, media, new reproductive technologies, society.

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