Fuzzy FMEA application to improve purchasing process in a public hospital

Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is one of the well-known techniques of quality management that is used for continuous improvements in product or process designs. While applying this technique, determining the risk priority numbers, which indicate the levels of risks associated with potential problems, is of prime importance for the success of application. These numbers are generally attained from past experience and engineering judgments, and this way of risk assessment sometimes leads to inaccuracies and inconsistencies during priority numbering. Fuzzy logic approach is preferable in order to remove these deficiencies in assigning the risk priority numbers. In this study, a fuzzy-based FMEA is to be applied first time to improve the purchasing process of a public hospital. Results indicate that the application of fuzzy FMEA method can solve the problems that have arisen from conventional FMEA, and can efficiently discover the potential failure modes and effects. It can also provide the stability of process assurance.     

Fair referee assignments for professional football leagues

Assignment of referees to football games is an important problem faced in professional football leagues. Despite its importance, the problem has received limited academic attention. This paper presents a model and analysis of the problem for fair referee assignments, and develops a constructive heuristic and a local search procedure for its solution. Results from an extensive computational study show that the methods are effective in solving the problem in a second of computation time and yielding an excellent solution quality.     

One-dimensional partitioning for heterogeneous systems: Theory and practice

We study the problem of one-dimensional partitioning of nonuniform workload arrays, with optimal load balancing for heterogeneous systems. We look at two cases: chain-on-chain partitioning, where the order of the processors is specified, and chain partitioning, where processor permutation is allowed. We present polynomial time algorithms to solve the chain-on-chain partitioning problem optimally, while we prove that the chain partitioning problem is NP-complete. Our empirical studies show that our proposed exact algorithms produce substantially better results than heuristics, while solution times remain comparable.     

Fuzzy boundary layer tuning for sliding mode systems as applied to the control of a direct drive robot

Chattering in the control signal is a significant problem in sliding mode control (SMC). The boundary layer approach is one of the many modifications proposed in the literature to avoid the chattering. In this approach, instead of the discontinuous SMC, a continuous feedback control law is employed in a boundary layer around the sliding surface. The thickness of the boundary layer is an important design parameter. This paper proposes a fuzzy online tuning method to adjust the boundary layer thickness for the best system performance without chattering. The method features the measurement of the chattering in the control signal. The paper validates the performance of the algorithm by experiments on a direct drive robot with a range of different payloads.     

The Training of Pi-Sigma Artificial Neural Networks with Differential Evolution Algorithm for Forecasting

Computational Economics - Looking at the artificial neural networks’ literature, most of the studies started with feedforward artificial neural networks and the training of many feedforward...     

Electrical and Dielectric Properties of Y<Superscript>3+</Superscript>-Substituted Barium Hexaferrites

In this study, Y³⁺ ion-substituted M-type barium hexaferrites (BaM; BaFe₁₂O₁₉) were fabricated via facile ceramic route. As-prepared powders were characterized by X-ray powder diffractometry (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and impedance spectroscopy. XRD (Rietveld) analyses confirmed the presence of a single characterization of all samples (except x = 0.0 and 0.1 samples). The crystallite sizes of products are found in the range of 47.2–63.2 nm. Spectral analysis (FT-IR) also presented the formation of spinel structure for all products. The ac conductivity of the substituted samples was found to initially decrease slightly with increase in Y³⁺ compared with unsubstituted, and then variation tendency changes at the medium substitution ranges are observed with a different attitude against temperature. In the end, the lower conductivity for high substitutions is recorded and increases as functions of frequency while it also increases with the elevation of temperature. It was observed that ac conductivities of products increased by increasing frequency which indicate that observed ac conductivity is due to both electronic and polaron hopping mechanism.     

Approximation by Stancu–Chlodowsky polynomials

In this paper, we investigate convergence and approximation properties of a Chlodowsky type generalization of Stancu polynomials (we called Stancu–Chlodowsky polynomials).The rates of convergence of this generalization are obtained by means of modulus of continuity and by using the $K$-functional of Peetre. We also present and prove theorems on weighted approximation and the order of approximation of continuous functions by these operators on all positive semi-axis.     

Schauder bases and approximation property in fuzzy normed spaces

Our aim in this article is to introduce and study the notion of weak and strong Schauder bases in fuzzy normed spaces. Further, we introduce strong and weak fuzzy approximation properties and set a relationship between these two new notions which may provide an acceleration to the structural analysis of fuzzy normed spaces.     

Bandwidth-effective streaming of educational medical videos

Real-time delivery of medical videos requires high level of quality of service that shows no tolerance to loss and delay. In this study, how content-adaptive streaming can aid to maintain high-quality streaming sessions is investigated. The proposed strategy allocates a specific amount of bandwidth to streaming sessions and takes advantage of the general structure of instructional medical videos to decrease bandwidth consumption below this limit. The main contribution of the proposed mechanism is that it eliminates the need for rate adaptation which is common in traditional streaming by employing a proper bandwidth management scheme that enables constant bandwidth consumption below the allocated capacity. A streaming system based on the proposed mechanism has been implemented and its performance has been tested via emulation. Experimental results indicate that content-adaptive streaming successfully eliminates the need of rate adaptation during the delivery of critical data and hence preserves viewers’ satisfaction.