Abstract: The present work deals with the structural analysis of
turbine blades and modeling of turbine blades. A common failure
mode for turbine machines is high cycle of fatigue of compressor and
turbine blades due to high dynamic stresses caused by blade vibration
and resonance within the operation range of the machinery. In this
work, proper damping system will be analyzed to reduce the
vibrating blade. The main focus of the work is the modeling of under
platform damper to evaluate the dynamic analysis of turbine-blade
vibrations. The system is analyzed using Bond graph technique. Bond
graph is one of the most convenient ways to represent a system from
the physical aspect in foreground. It has advantage of putting together
multi-energy domains of a system in a single representation in a
unified manner. The bond graph model of dry friction damper is
simulated on SYMBOLS-shakti® software. In this work, the blades
are modeled as Timoshenko beam. Blade Vibrations under different
working conditions are being analyzed numerically.
Abstract: The hydrologic time series data display periodic
structure and periodic autoregressive process receives considerable
attention in modeling of such series. In this communication long
term record of monthly waste flow of Lyari river is utilized to
quantify by using PAR modeling technique. The parameters of
model are estimated by using Frances & Paap methodology. This
study shows that periodic autoregressive model of order 2 is the most
parsimonious model for assessing periodicity in waste flow of the
river. A careful statistical analysis of residuals of PAR (2) model is
used for establishing goodness of fit. The forecast by using proposed
model confirms significance and effectiveness of the model.
Abstract: Where renewable energy sources, solar, hydro, wind are available the remote communities and businesses can be provided with the most reliable and affordable source of electrical energy. This paper presents a model of safari rest contains all the necessary services for the interested tourists who visit the safari Sinai desert. The PV energy system provides the rural energy needs of remote communities. A photovoltaic renewable energy system is designed to feed the global Ac and Dc electrical required load of this safari rest . The benefits of photovoltaic renewable energy at rural applications are its versatility and convenience. This model of safari rest must be taken in consideration by Egyptian Government as it will provide the tourism plane by new interested tourism field which put a big spot on Red sea area: El Ghordaka.
Abstract: The Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy, bestowed
by His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej to the people of
Thailand, highlights a balanced way of living. Three principles of
moderation reasonableness, and immunity, along with the conditions
for morality and knowledge, can be applied to any level of the
society–from an individual to the nation. The Philosophy of
Sufficiency Economy helps address the current development
challenges, which are issues on institutions, environmental
sustainability, human well-being, and the role of the government.
Abstract: With the increasing spread of computers and the internet among culturally, linguistically and geographically diverse communities, issues of internationalization and localization and becoming increasingly important. For some of the issues such as different scales for length and temperature, there is a well-developed measurement theory. For others such as date formats no such theory will be possible. This paper fills a gap by developing a measurement theory for a class of scales previously overlooked, based on discrete and interval-valued scales such as spanner and shoe sizes. The paper gives a theoretical foundation for a class of data representation problems.
Abstract: Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) are a class of
structural and functional related enzymes involved in altering the
natural elements of the extracellular matrix. Most of the MMP
structures are cristalographycally determined and published in
WorldWide ProteinDataBank, isolated, in full structure or bound to
natural or synthetic inhibitors. This study proposes an algorithm to
replace missing crystallographic structures in PDB database. We
have compared the results of a chosen docking algorithm with a
known crystallographic structure in order to validate enzyme sites
reconstruction there where crystallographic data are missing.
Abstract: The degradation of selected pharmaceuticals in some
water matrices was studied by using several chemical treatments. The
pharmaceuticals selected were the beta-blocker metoprolol, the
nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory naproxen, the antibiotic amoxicillin,
and the analgesic phenacetin; and their degradations were conducted
by using UV radiation alone, ozone, Fenton-s reagent, Fenton-like
system, photo-Fenton system, and combinations of UV radiation and
ozone with H2O2, TiO2, Fe(II), and Fe(III). The water matrices, in
addition to ultra-pure water, were a reservoir water, a groundwater,
and two secondary effluents from two municipal WWTP. The results
reveal that the presence of any second oxidant enhanced the
oxidation rates, with the systems UV/TiO2 and O3/TiO2 providing the
highest degradation rates. It is also observed in most of the
investigated oxidation systems that the degradation rate followed the
sequence: amoxicillin > naproxen > metoprolol > phenacetin. Lower
rates were obtained with the pharmaceuticals dissolved in natural
waters and secondary effluents due to the organic matter present
which consume some amounts of the oxidant agents.
Abstract: Kojic acid is an organic acid that is widely used as an ingredient for dermatological products, precursor for flavor enhancer and also as anti-inflammatory drug. The present study was undertaken to test the feasibility of pineapple residues as substrate for kojic acid production by Aspergillus flavus Link 44-1 via solid-state fermentation. The effect of initial moisture content, pH and incubation time on kojic acid fermentation was investigated. The best initial moisture content for kojic acid production from pineapple residues was observed at 70% (v/w) whereas initial culture pH 2.5 was identified to give high production of kojic acid. The optimal range of incubation time was identified between 8 and 14 days of incubation which corresponded to highest range of kojic acid produced. The results from this study pronounce the promising usability of pineapple residues as alternative substrate for kojic acid production by A. flavus Link 44-1.
Abstract: Laser engraving is a manufacturing method for those applications where previously Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) was the only choice. Laser engraving technology removes material layer-by-layer and the thickness of layers is usually in the range of few microns. The aim of the present work is to investigate the influence of the process parameters on the surface quality when machined by laser engraving. The examined parameters were: the pulse frequency, the beam speed and the layer thickness. The surface quality was determined by the surface roughness for every set of parameters. Experimental results on Al7075 material showed that the surface roughness strictly depends on the process parameters used.
Abstract: As the network based technologies become
omnipresent, demands to secure networks/systems against threat
increase. One of the effective ways to achieve higher security is
through the use of intrusion detection systems (IDS), which are a
software tool to detect anomalous in the computer or network. In this
paper, an IDS has been developed using an improved machine
learning based algorithm, Locally Linear Neuro Fuzzy Model
(LLNF) for classification whereas this model is originally used for
system identification. A key technical challenge in IDS and LLNF
learning is the curse of high dimensionality. Therefore a feature
selection phase is proposed which is applicable to any IDS. While
investigating the use of three feature selection algorithms, in this
model, it is shown that adding feature selection phase reduces
computational complexity of our model. Feature selection algorithms
require the use of a feature goodness measure. The use of both a
linear and a non-linear measure - linear correlation coefficient and
mutual information- is investigated respectively
Abstract: Extensive research has been devoted to economic
production quantity (EPQ) problem. However, no attention has been
paid to problems where production period length is constrained. In
this paper, we address the problem of deciding the optimal
production quantity and the number of minor setups within each
cycle, in which, production period length is constrained but a minor
setup is possible for pass the constraint. A mathematical model is
developed and Iterated Local Search (ILS) is proposed to solve this
problem. Finally, solution procedure illustrated with a numerical
example and results are analyzed.
Abstract: Buildings with floating column are highly undesirable built in seismically active areas. Many urban multi-storey buildings today have floating column buildings which are adopted to accommodate parking at ground floor or reception lobbies in the first storey. The earthquake forces developed at different floor levels in a building need to be brought down along the height to the ground by the shortest path; any deviation or discontinuity in this load transfer path results in poor performance of the building. Floating column buildings are severely damaged during earthquake. Damage on this structure can be reduce by taking the effect of infill wall. This paper presents the effect of stiffness of infill wall to the damage occurred in floating column building when ground shakes. Modelling and analysis are carried out by non linear analysis programme IDARC-2D. Damage occurred in beams, columns, storey are studied by formulating modified Park & Ang model to evaluate damage indices. Overall structural damage indices in buildings due to shaking of ground are also obtained. Dynamic response parameters i.e. lateral floor displacement, storey drift, time period, base shear of buildings are obtained and results are compared with the ordinary moment resisting frame buildings. Formation of cracks, yield, plastic hinge, are also observed during analysis.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose an efficient hierarchical DNA
sequence search method to improve the search speed while the
accuracy is being kept constant. For a given query DNA sequence,
firstly, a fast local search method using histogram features is used as a
filtering mechanism before scanning the sequences in the database.
An overlapping processing is newly added to improve the robustness
of the algorithm. A large number of DNA sequences with low
similarity will be excluded for latter searching. The Smith-Waterman
algorithm is then applied to each remainder sequences. Experimental
results using GenBank sequence data show the proposed method
combining histogram information and Smith-Waterman algorithm is
more efficient for DNA sequence search.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to develop a dynamic cardiac phantom for quality control in myocardial scintigraphy. The dynamic heart phantom constructed only contained the left ventricle, made of elastic material (latex), comprising two cavities: one internal and one external. The data showed a non-significant variation in the values of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) obtained by varying the heart rate. It was also possible to evaluate the ejection fraction (LVEF) through different arrays of image acquisition and to perform an intercomparison of LVEF by two different scintillation cameras. The results of the quality control tests were satisfactory, showing that they can be used as parameters in future assessments. The new dynamic heart phantom was demonstrated to be effective for use in LVEF measurements. Therefore, the new heart simulator is useful for the quality control of scintigraphic cameras.
Abstract: In this paper we describe the recognition process of Greek compound words using the PC-KIMMO software. We try to show certain limitations of the system with respect to the principles of compound formation in Greek. Moreover, we discuss the computational processing of phenomena such as stress and syllabification which are indispensable for the analysis of such constructions and we try to propose linguistically-acceptable solutions within the particular system.
Abstract: High purity hydrogen and the valuable by-product of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be produced by the methane catalytic decomposition. The methane conversion and the performance of CNTs were determined by the choices of catalysts and the condition of decomposition reaction. In this paper, Ni/MgO and Ni/O-D (oxidized diamond) catalysts were prepared by wetness impregnation method. The effects of reaction temperature and space velocity of methane on the methane conversion were investigated in a fixed-bed. The surface area, structure and micrography were characterized with BET, XPS, SEM, EDS technology. The results showed that the conversion of methane was above 8% within 150 min (T=500) for 33Ni/O-D catalyst and higher than 25% within 120 min (T=650) for 41Ni/MgO catalyst. The initial conversion increased with the increasing temperature of the decomposition reaction, but their catalytic activities decreased rapidly while at too higher temperature. To decrease the space velocity of methane was propitious to promote the methane conversion, but not favor of the hydrogen yields. The appearance of carbon resulted from the methane decomposition lied on the support type and the condition of catalytic reaction. It presented as fiber shape on the surface of Ni/O-D at the relatively lower temperature such as 500 and 550, but as grain shape stacked on and overlayed on the surface of the metal nickel while at 650. The carbon fiber can form on the Ni/MgO surface at 650 and the diameter of the carbon fiber increased with the decreasing space velocity.
Abstract: One of the aims of the paper is to make a comparison
of experimental results with numerical simulation for a side cooler.
Specifically, it was the amount of air to be delivered by the side
cooler with fans running at 100%. This integral value was measured
and evaluated within the plane parallel to the front side of the side
cooler at a distance of 20mm from the front side. The flow field
extending from the side cooler to the space was also evaluated.
Another objective was to address the contribution of evaluated values
to the increase of data center energy consumption.
Abstract: Team efficacy beliefs show promise in enhancing
team performance. Using a model-based quantitative research design,
we investigated the antecedents and performance consequences of
generalized team efficacy (potency) in a sample of 56 capital projects
executed by 15 Fortune 500 companies in the process industries.
Empirical analysis of our field survey identified that generalized
team efficacy beliefs were positively associated with an objective
measure of project cost performance. Regression analysis revealed
that team competence, empowering leadership, and performance
feedback all predicted generalized team efficacy beliefs. Tests of
mediation revealed that generalized team efficacy fully mediated
between these three inputs and project cost performance.
Abstract: This paper aims to study the methodology of building the knowledge of planning adequate punches in order to complete the task of strip layout for shearing processes, using progressive dies. The proposed methodology uses die design rules and characteristics of different types of punches to classify them into five groups: prior use (the punches must be used first), posterior use (must be used last), compatible use (may be used together), sequential use (certain punches must precede some others) and simultaneous use (must be used together). With these five groups of punches, the searching space of feasible designs will be greatly reduced, and superimposition becomes a more effective method of punch layout. The superimposition scheme will generate many feasible solutions, an evaluation function based on number of stages, moment balancing and strip stability is developed for helping designers to find better solutions.
Abstract: Collaborative networked learning (hereafter CNL)
was first proposed by Charles Findley in his work “Collaborative
networked learning: online facilitation and software support" as part
of instructional learning for the future of the knowledge worker. His
premise was that through electronic dialogue learners and experts
could interactively communicate within a contextual framework to
resolve problems, and/or to improve product or process knowledge.
Collaborative learning has always been the forefront of educational
technology and pedagogical research, but not in the mainstream of
operations management. As a result, there is a large disparity in the
study of CNL, and little is known about the antecedents of network
collaboration and sharing of information among diverse employees in
the manufacturing environment. This paper presents a model to
bridge the gap between theory and practice. The objective is that
manufacturing organizations will be able to accelerate organizational
learning and sharing of information through various collaborative