Applications of artificial intelligence in engineering and manufacturing: a systematic review

Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing - Engineering and manufacturing processes and systems designs involve many challenges, such as dynamism, chaotic behaviours, and complexity. Of late, the...     

Heavy metals concentration and human health risk assessment in seven commercial fish species from Asafo Market,Ghana

Food Science and Biotechnology - Health risk assessment and heavy metal accumulation were evaluated in the muscles of widely consumed Trachurus trachurus, Lutjanus fulgens, Lutjanus goreensis,...     

The potential and economic viability of solar photovoltaic power in Ghana

In this study, the potentiality and economic viability of solar photovoltaic (PV) in Ghana was assessed using RETScreen software. 5 MW of grid-connected solar PV power system using SunPower SPR-320E-WHT-D PV module can be harnessed from Navrongo, Bawku, Wa, Tema, Bolgatanga, Axim, Salaga, Kintampo, Kete Krachi, Tamale, Hohoe, Koforidua, Ejura, Takoradi, Bole, Sunyani, Bibiani, Cape coast, Prestea, and Akuse, which requires US$17,752,179 of investment capital and 25,313 m² of land for PV installation. The potential of 5 MW grid-connected PV development for Accra, Kumasi, Wenchi, and Tafo are limited. However, there are solar PV energy potentials for low-capacity PV modules for these locations. Investing in solar photovoltaic technology is capital intensive in a developing country like Ghana. However, Government’s effort to provide incentives like subsidies and creating the economic environment for private sector investment will boost investment possibilities of renewable energy in Ghana, which can help in curbing the recent power outages and load shedding, thereby increasing productivity and economic resilience.     

A comprehensive preference-based optimization framework with application to high-lift aerodynamic design

An integral component of transport aircraft design is the high-lift configuration, which can provide significant benefits in aircraft payload-carrying capacity. However, aerodynamic optimization of a high-lift configuration is a computationally challenging undertaking, due to the complex flow-field. The use of a designer-interactive multiobjective optimization framework is proposed, which identifies and exploits preferred regions of the Pareto frontier. Visual data mining tools are introduced to statistically extract information from the design space and confirm the relative influence of both variables and objectives to the preferred interests of the designer. The framework is assisted by the construction of time-adaptive Kriging models, which are cooperatively used with a high-fidelity Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes solver. The successful integration of these design tools is facilitated through the specification of a reference point, which can ideally be based on an existing design configuration. The framework is demonstrated to perform efficiently for the present case-study within the imposed computational budget.     

Heat-induced denaturation and aggregation of β-Lactoglobulin: kinetics of formation of hydrophobic and disulphide-linked aggregates

Summary Solutions of a whey protein mixture were subjected to various time/temperature treatments, at pH 6.7. Kinetic and thermodynamic activation parameters for the rates of irreversible denaturation/aggregation of the principal whey protein component—β-lactoglobulin (β-lg) were followed by gel permeation. Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography (non-dissociating, non-reducing conditions) and by SDS-PAGE (dissociating, non-reducing conditions). The rate of loss of native β-lg owing to the formation of disulphide linked protein aggregates (k_sds-page) and the rate of formation of aggregates via both covalent and non-covalent bonds (k_gp-fplc) showed similar biphasic Arrhenius plots. However, the break of the plot occurred at different points. The k_gp-fplc values were higher than values of k_sds-page for all the temperatures examined. There was a similar trend for the thermodynamic activation parameters implying that not all of the β-lg aggregates through thiol–disulphide interactions. Hydrophobically driven associations occur within the aggregates.     

ARMS Collaborator — intelligent agents using markets to organise resourcing in modern enterprises

An efficient deployment of the BT workforce in response to the dynamic nature of customer requests for services is crucial to BT’s ability to compete in the ever-competitive telecommunications markets. The Automated Resource Management System (ARMS) is being developed to tackle this challenging problem. Its aim is to efficiently utilise the BT workforce by intelligently assigning engineers in line with forecast and real jobs. ARMS has three major functional components — Forecasting and Job Generation (FJG), Dynamic Planner (DP) and Collaborator. This paper is based on Collaborator — a computer system responsible for monitoring and supporting resource redistribution decision-making in BT’s operational resource management units. Collaborator enhances the deployment process by allowing dynamic redistribution of engineers among a group of customer service teams (CSTs) so that resource utilisation is improved. Collaborator focuses on balancing the workforce across multiple patches. Collaborator is formulated as a multi-agent coordination problem. Various software agents support the manager’s decision-making process. BT aims to further optimise resource deployment by using this novel approach, and ultimately to substantially reduce its operational costs.