Search results

Notes the recent increase in interstate shipments of hazardous materials, by road, in Malaysia following rapid expansion in the manufacturing sector. Although there has been no major accident involving transportation of hazardous materials, the high rate of road accidents has raised great concerns concerning motor vehicles carrying hazardous goods and petroleum products. Determines the emergency preparedness and response plans of the transportation companies. Data were obtained from management and drivers, and the results revealed that the companies did not have a proper management system of safe transportation, had inadequate training of personnel, and the transport vehicles were not provided with appropriate tools and equipment for emergency response during mishaps. The drivers lacked general awareness and principal knowledge of hazardous material emergency response. Suggests that there is an urgent need to stipulate legal requirements for hazardous material transportation in Malaysia.

The study aims at finding out major barriers for synergistic adoption of TQM-SCM in the medium- and large-scale manufacturing organizations in India. All these barriers create hurdles for the organizations as well as supply chain partners in improving their business performance. The study is a blend of theoretical and practical frameworks, which will focus on key barriers leading to interrupt the successful synergistic implementation of TQM-SCM in manufacturing organization.

Firstly, survey of 116 Indian organizations has been carried out to identify barriers that hinder successful implementation of TQM-SCM. Afterward, VIKOR approach was proposed to rank the major barriers of TQM-SCM implementation in Indian manufacturing organizations.

Identification of barriers to synergistic implementation of TQM-SCM in the manufacturing industry of India, ranking of these barriers in terms of their severity.

The adoption of TQM-SCM on synergistic basis is still in its early stages in India. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that is designed to prioritize barriers responsible for hindering successful synergistic implementation of (TQM-SCM) in Indian manufacturing industry. Further, the results of the study will be helpful for managers in order to prepare action plans to overcome the hurdles to TQM-SCM implementation.

This paper analyzed a complex system consisting n-identical units under a k-out-of-n: G; configuration via a new method which has not been studied by previous researchers. The computed results are more supportable for repairable system performability analysis.

In this paper, the authors have analyzed a complex system consisting n-identical units under a k-out-of-n: G; configuration via a new method which has not been studied by previous researchers. The supplementary variable technique has employed for analyzing the performance of the system.

Reliability measures have been computed for different types of configuration. It generalized the results for purely series and purely parallel configurations.

This research may be beneficial for industrial system performances whereas a k-out-of-n-type configuration exists.

Not sure as it is a theoretical assessment.

This research may not have social implications.

This work is the sole work of authors that have not been communicated to any other journal before.

This study aims to develop the governing differential equation and to analyze the free vibration of a rotating non-uniform beam having a flexible root and setting angle for variations in operating conditions and structural design parameters.

Hamiltonian principle is used to derive the flapwise bending motion of the structure, and the governing differential equations are solved numerically by using differential quadrature with satisfactory accuracy and computation time.

The results obtained by using the differential quadrature method (DQM) are compared to results of previous studies in the open literature to show the power of the used method. Important results affecting the dynamics characteristics of a rotating beam are tabulated and illustrated in concerned figures to show the effect of investigated design parameters and operating conditions.

The principal novelty of this paper arises from the application of the DQM to a rotating non-uniform beam with flexible root and deriving new governing differential equation including various parameters such as rotary inertia, setting angle, taper ratios, root flexibility, hub radius and rotational speed. Also, the application of the used numerical method is expressed clearly step by step with the algorithm scheme.

The purpose of this paper is to present a showcase of semantic time series processing which demonstrates how this technology can improve time series processing and community building by the use of a dedicated language.

The authors have developed a new semantic time series processing language and prepared showcases to demonstrate its functionality. The assumption is an environmental setting with data measurements from different sensors to be distributed to different groups of interest. The data are represented as time series for water and air quality, while the user groups are, among others, the environmental agency, companies from the industrial sector and legal authorities.

A language for time series processing and several tools to enrich the time series with meta‐data and for community building have been implemented in Python and Java. Also a GUI for demonstration purposes has been developed in PyQt4. In addition, an ontology for validation has been designed and a knowledge base for data storage and inference was set up. Some important features are: dynamic integration of ontologies, time series annotation, and semantic filtering.

This paper focuses on the showcases of time series semantic language (TSSL), but also covers technical aspects and user interface issues. The authors are planning to develop TSSL further and evaluate it within further research projects and validation scenarios.

The research has a high practical impact on time series processing and provides new data sources for semantic web applications. It can also be used in social web platforms (especially for researchers) to provide a time series centric tagging and processing framework.

The paper presents an extended version of the paper presented at iiWAS2012.

This study aims to propose, as the first time, the interval type-2 adaptive network-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) structure, which is given better results compared to previously presented in the open literature. So, the ANFIS can be used effectively for training of interval type-2 fuzzy logic system (IT2FLS) parameters.

Karnik–Mendel algorithm (KMA) is modified to use in interval type-2 ANFIS. The modified Karnik–Mendel algorithm (M-KMA) is implemented to change the uncertain ANFIS parameters into known ones. In this way, the interval type-2 ANFIS removes uncertainties of IT2FLS. Therefore, the interval type-2 ANFIS is reduced to a simple one, i.e. less mathematical operation required. Only consequent parameters are trained, and the consequent parameters are chosen in the form of crisp.

By applying the mentioned procedure, it can be shown that interval type-2 ANFIS has generally better results compared to type-1 ANFIS. However, it was noticed that the worst results obtained in the case of interval type-2 ANFIS are equal to the best result obtained in the case of type-1 ANFIS. Therefore, users in this field can use this approach in solving nonlinear problems.

The interval type-2 ANFIS can be used as controller for highly nonlinear systems such as air vehicles.

As stated in the open literature, it is ineffective to use ANFIS for IT2FLS. In this study, the KMA is modified for IT2FLS, and it is seen that the ANFIS can be used effectively for IT2FLS.

To estimate mean droplet diameter (MDD) of a spray, three different numerical models were used in this paper. One of them is investigation of the surface instability of the liquid sheet producing from an injector.

First, the linear instability (LI) analysis introduced by Ibrahim (2006) is implemented. Second, the improved (ILI) analysis already introduced by the present authors is used. ILI analysis is different from the prior analysis, so that the instability of hollow-cone liquid sheet with different cone angles is investigated rather than a cylindrical liquid sheet. It means that besides the tangential and axial movements, radial movements of the liquid sheet and gas streams have been considered in the governing equations. Beside LI theory as a momentum-based approach, a new model as a theoretical energy-based (TEB) model based on the energy conservation law is proposed in this paper.

Based on the energy-based approach, atomization occurs because of kinetic energy loss. The resulting formulation reveals that the MDD is inversely proportional to the atomization efficiency and liquid Weber number.

The results of these three models are compared with the available experimental data. Prediction obtained by the proposed TEB model is in reasonable agreement with the result of experiment.

The results of these three models are compared with the available experimental data. Prediction of the proposed energy-based theoretical model is in very good agreement with experimental data.

Comparison between the results of new model, experimental data, other previous methods show that it can be used as a new simple and fast model to achieve good estimation of spray MDD.

Since the end of the 1990s, large-scale mega projects have been initiated in Gulf cities to enable an unprecedented urban growth and the expansion of new economic sectors. In this respect, mega projects have played a key role in redefining housing developments in Gulf cities. This paper explores the newly emerging housing typologies and their distinctive roles in defining new urban environments. The selected case studies are located in the Jumeirah District in Dubai, which can be seen as the first prototype of a large cohesive development area that has been built of nine rather differing mega projects including the iconic Palm project and one of the largest residential high-rise agglomerations in the Middle East. The paper is based on the evaluation of official planning data from each project as well as field observations. Conclusions are drawn to highlight key implications while identifying housing development tendencies.

The purpose of this study is to consider the dynamics of Casson–Walters-B alongside gyrotactic microorganisms through the investigation of antibacterial and antiviral mechanisms using silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The Casson fluid and Walters-B flow from the penetrable plate to the boundary layer (BL) in this analysis. The antiviral and antibacterial mechanisms of AgNPs were separately examined in this study.

The physical phenomenon of this problem was analyzed with partial differential equations (PDEs). These PDEs were changed into ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to further explain the significance of pertinent control parameters. The set of equations is solved numerically by implementing the spectral relaxation method (SRM). SRM is a numerical technique that uses the basic techniques of Gauss-Seidel. The SRM first decouples and linearizes the coupled nonlinear set of ODEs.

In this finding, it is found that the thermal radiation parameter produces higher temperatures within the BL to cause blockage in viral replications. It is found in this study that the magnetic parameter assisted in disinfection by lowering the antiviral and antibacterial mechanisms within the momentum BL. This is evident from the reduction in the velocity and momentum BL as the Casson and Walters-B parameters increase.

This paper is unique because it examined the antiviral and antibacterial mechanisms by using AgNPs. Prior to the authors’ understanding, no study of this type was conducted in the past. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study in the past has examined the mechanisms of antiviral and antibacterial separately within the BL. Also, the simultaneous flow of Casson (honey) and Walters-B fluids were considered flowing through the vertical porous plate to the BL.