Sulfur dioxide adsorption by activated carbons having different textural and chemical properties

Activated carbons from Turkish lignite were prepared with different methods to investigate the influence of physico-chemical characteristics of the carbon materials on the sulfur dioxide (SO₂) adsorption. The effects of SO₂ concentration, adsorption temperature, and sample particle size on adsorption were investigated using a thermogravimetric analysis system. An intraparticle diffusion model based on Knudsen diffusion and Freundlich isotherm (or Henry isotherm) was applied for predicting the amount of SO₂ adsorbed. The textural and chemical properties of the activated carbon samples, resulted from the effects of activation conditions and demineralization of the carbon precursor, on the SO₂ adsorption were also analyzed.     

Stepwise demineralisation and chemical isolation of the mineral matter of Göynük lignite

The mineral matter of coal contains a number of inorganic constituents, which play an important role in almost all coal utilisation systems. Some techniques have been applied to coal to separate its mineral matter from its organic part. In this study, an alternative method was applied to separate the mineral matter content of a Turkish lignite. For this purpose, Göynük lignite was treated, in sequence, with acetic acid, ammonia, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid at 70°C for 60 min in order to remove individual mineral species. After each stage, the lignite was treated with performic acid, the product of reaction between hydrogen peroxide and formic acid, at 50°C. The organic coal matrix was decomposed as a result of performic acid oxidation, and consequently, the recovered mineral species were isolated. Ammonia, which has the potential of chemical comminution, was used to increase the effects of the subsequent reagents and enhance the extent of separation between the organic and inorganic phases. In each mineral matter removal stage, the lignite was treated with the reagents of the previous stage, and then, a new reagent was added to investigate whether the last stage has a different effect on the mineral species. FT-IR and X-ray diffractometry techniques were used to determine the constituents of the isolated mineral matter after each stage.     

Performance Comparison of 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi Signals and Proposing a New Method for Mobile Indoor Positioning

Wireless Personal Communications - Nowadays, the location information of people and objects is a necessity for indoor environments. Therefore, many technologies, methods, and algorithms have been...     

Rolling horizon,multi-product production planning with chance constraints and forecast evolution for wafer fabs

In this paper, we study production planning models for semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities (wafer fabs) that consider both safety stocks at the finished goods inventory level and workload-dependent lead times. The evolution of demand forecasts over time follows the multiplicative Martingale Model of Forecast Evolution (MMFE) for multiple products and is incorporated into the planning models via shortfall-based chance constraints, permitting the simultaneous determination of production quantities and safety stocks. We study two variants of this formulation, one that considers forecast updates and one that does not. A planning model with workload-dependent lead times that does not consider safety stocks is used for comparison. The performance of the planning models is assessed in a rolling horizon environment using a simulation model of a scaled-down wafer fab. We find that the chance-constrained model with forecast updates outperforms the one without forecast updates with respect to expected service level and profit. Both chance-constrained models outperform the model without safety stocks. These results indicate that considering forecast evolution in production planning models can lead to improved performance by exploiting the advance demand information provided by the forecast updates.     

A high performance Σ-Δ readout circuitry for μg resolution microaccelerometers

This paper reports a second order electromechanical sigma-delta readout for micro-g resolution accelerometers in addition to other high-sensitivity capacitive microsensors with large base capacitance. The chip implements a switched-capacitor readout front-end and an oversampled sigma-delta modulator, and hence can be used for both open-loop analog readout and closed-loop control and readout with direct digital output. The readout circuit has more than 115 dB dynamic range and can resolve less than 3 aF/√Hz. Also this IC includes start-up circuit and feedback mechanism for closed-loop control of the accelerometer with a single 5 V supply in a ±4 g range. Together with the accelerometer, bandwidth of the overall system is limited with the sensor resonance frequency (1.53 kHz) in the open-loop mode. However in closed loop mode, oversampling of the acceleration data increases the bandwidth of the system up to few hundred kilohertz which is limited with the cut-off frequency of the low-pass filter placed at the output of the system. The start-up circuit allows rebalancing of a thick silicon proof mass with the limited 5 V supply after system start from power down or in the case of over-range input acceleration. The readout chip has been combined with a Silicon-On-Glass lateral accelerometer, which has a high sensitivity of 1.88 pF/g with large proof mass and long finger structures. A digital filtration and decimation circuitry is also implemented to signal process the output bit stream of the readout circuit. The complete module consumes 16 mW from a ±2.5 V supply and has an adjustable sensitivity up to 8 V/g with a noise level of 4.8 μg/√Hz in open-loop.     

Efficient Multi-Resolution Multi-Stream Video Systems with Standard Codecs

The availability of international standards based video codecs for inexpensive platforms is reducing the cost of desk-top video systems to a level which makes their wide deployment possible. The current systems, however, are tuned for processing a single video stream only and their use in multiple video applications, such as continuous presence video teleconferencing and digital picture-in-picture, is difficult and inefficient. In this paper, we discuss two systems for efficient generation and display of multi-resolution, multiple compressed video material. Based on simple additions to standard codecs, both systems are capable of generating multiple bit streams corresponding to different resolutions of a single video source and they can decode such streams from multiple sources and display the resulting video sequences simultaneously. Both systems provide multiple video functionality to standard codecs with almost no extra memory or processing power requirements. Also, they make it possible for the users to customize the placement and size of their video windows, just as text and graphics windows can be manipulated.     

Minimizing total tardiness on a batch processing machine with incompatible job families

Motivated by an application in semiconductor manufacturing, we study the problem of minimizing total tardiness on a batch processing machine with incompatibl8e job families, where all jobs of the same family have identical processing times and jobs of different families cannot be processed together. We present a dynamic programming algorithm which has polynomial time complexity when the number of job families and the batch machine capacity are fixed. We also examine various heuristic solution procedures which can provide near optimal solutions in a reasonable amount of computation time.     

An integrated production planning model with load-dependent lead-times and safety stocks

The divergence over the years of research paradigms addressing the production planning problem has led to the development of an extensive set of techniques, each of which can address a particular aspect of the practical problem and none of which provides a complete solution. In particular, most approaches fail to address the circular, non-linear dependency between resource utilization, lead-times and safety stocks. We present a non-linear programming formulation of the integrated problem using clearing functions that determines a work release schedule guaranteeing a specified service level in the face of stochastic demand. We introduce an iterative heuristic solution procedure that solves a relaxed LP approximation of the original NLP at each iteration to determine the lead-time profile to set safety-stock levels. Computational experiments suggest that our proposed iterative procedure performs well relative to conventional LP models that assume fixed, workload-independent lead-times.     

Learning effective dispatching rules for batch processor scheduling

Batch processor scheduling, where machines can process multiple jobs simultaneously, is frequently harder than its unit-capacity counterpart because an effective scheduling procedure must not only decide how to group the individual jobs into batches, but also determine the sequence in which the batches are to be processed. We extend a previously developed genetic learning approach to automatically discover effective dispatching policies for several batch scheduling environments, and show that these rules yield good system performance. Computational results show the competitiveness of the learned rules with existing rules for different performance measures. The autonomous learning approach addresses a growing practical need for rapidly developing effective dispatching rules for these environments by automating the discovery of effective job dispatching procedures.     

A decision support system for spare parts management in a waferfabrication facility

We present a decision support system for spare parts management in a wafer fabrication facility. The system is based on an analytical stochastic inventory model, which calculates the reorder level and quantity for each part to attain a specified service level. Results from our simulation study indicate that the policies suggested by the system either improve the service level or reduce the operating cost