An investigation of the drivers,barriers, and incentives for environmental management systems in the Malaysian food and beverage industry

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Food production and consumption is one of the major causes of global environmental degradation. One way to address environmental impacts in the food...     

Large-scale simulation studies in image pattern recognition

Many obstacles to progress in image pattern recognition result from the fact that per-class distributions are often too irregular to be well-approximated by simple analytical functions. Simulation studies offer one way to circumvent these obstacles. We present three closely related studies of machine-printed character recognition that rely on synthetic data generated pseudo-randomly in accordance with an explicit stochastic model of document image degradations. The unusually large scale of experiments - involving several million samples that makes this methodology possible have allowed us to compute sharp estimates of the intrinsic difficulty (Bayes risk) of concrete image recognition problems, as well as the asymptotic accuracy and domain of competency of classifiers     

Yield surface linearization in elastoplastic analysis

A method for the historical elastoplastic analysis of plane frames under the assumption of small deformation theory is presented. Interaction of bending moment and axial force is taken into account. A major feature of the procedure lies in the piecewise linearization of the convex nonlinear yield surface, thereby guaranteeing the satisfaction of both equilibrium and yield conditions. Local unloading can also be catered for. A computer program based on this technique has been written and three simple numerical examples are given to illustrate its capabilities.     

Drying with Chemical Reaction in Cocoa Beans

Desirable flavor qualities of cocoa are dependent on how the cocoa beans are fermented, dried, and roasted. During fermentation and drying, polyphenols such as leucocyanidin and apecatechin are oxidized by polyphenols oxidase to form o-quinone, which later react nonenzymatically with a hydroquinone in a condensation reaction to form browning products and moisture. The objective of this article is to model the cocoa beans drying together with the browning reaction. A Luikov drying model for the moisture and a simple Fick's law diffusion model combined with first-order reactions for both the enzymatic oxidation and nonenzymatic condensation reactions were constructed. Both models were used to identify moisture diffusivity coefficient and total polyphenols diffusivity in cocoa beans from experimental drying and polyphenols degradation data and published kinetic data of the reactions. The theoretical drying model fitted the experimental cocoa bean drying curves with low mean square of residuals. The polyphenols diffusion and reaction model also fitted the experimental polyphenols degradation curves with minimum mean residual squares. The rate of polyphenols degradation in the cocoa beans increases at higher temperature and higher relative humidity. This is because the increasing reaction rate of polyphenols oxidation reaction as well as higher moisture diffusion at higher relative humidity and temperature. The effective moisture diffusivity in cocoa beans is estimated to be between 8.194 × 10^-9 and 8.542 × 10^-9 m²·s^-1, which is of the same order of magnitude as published data. The effective total polyphenols diffusivity is estimated to be between 8.333 × 10^-12 to 1.000 × 10^-11 m²·s^-1 with minimum mean residual squares. It is three orders of magnitude less than the estimated moisture diffusivity because of the larger polyphenols molecules. The estimated polyphenols diffusivity is very close to those published in the literature for sorption and ultrafiltration processes.     

一种由WiFi智能插座构成的智能家届

本文首先叙述了智能家居的基本概念以及分析了智能家居中的通信技术,分析了WiFi技术在智能家居中的应用优势。接着讨论了串口WiFi的功能,以WiFi插座为例,描述了串口WiFi在智能家居中的具体应用。最后叙述了基于WiFi技术的智能家居系统。     

A modified θ projection model for constant load creep curves-II. Application of creep life prediction

To minimize the deviation of the predicted creep curves obtained under constant load conditions by the original θ projection model, a new modified version that can be expressed by $\epsilon ={\theta }_1\left(1-e^{-{\theta }_{2}t}\right)+{\theta }_3\left(e^{{\theta }_4{e}^{{\theta }_5\epsilon }t}-1\right)$, was derived and experimentally validated in our last study. In the present study, the predictive capability of the modified θ projection model was investigated by comparing the simulated and experimentally determined creep curves of K465 and DZ125 superalloys over a range of temperatures and stresses. Furthermore, the linear relationship between creep temperature and initial stress was extended to the 5-parameter model. The results indicated that the modified model could be used as a creep life prediction method, as it described the creep curve shape and resulted in predictions that fall within a specified error interval. Meanwhile, this modified model provides a more accurate way of describing creep curves under constant load conditions. The limitations and future direction of the modified model were also discussed. In addition, this modified θ projection model shows great potential for the evaluation and assessment of the service safety of structural materials used in components governed by creep deformation.     

A castability model based on elemental solid-liquid partitioning in advanced nickel-base single-crystal superalloys

A castability model that accounts for the characteristic segregation behavior of constituent elements in Ni-base superalloys has been developed and experimentally verified in production scale casting trials. The model ranks alloy compositions with respect to their susceptibility to freckle formation during directional solidification. Thirty-nine distinct Ni-base single-crystal superalloys encompassing a broad range of compositions were investigated to assess the influence of the constituent elements on their solidification characteristics. Linear regression was applied to the fitted solid-liquid partition coefficients of the major constituent elements to develop formulas capable of describing elemental interactions. The high-density refractory elements Ta, W, and Re were found to segregate most severely during solidification. Increasing the amount of Cr and Mo in high-refractory single-crystal alloys reduced the extent of W and Re microsegregation during solidification. This effect was found to minimize the occurrence of freckle defects due to the corresponding decrease in the density inversion term, which is effectively the driving force for thermosolutal convective instabilities known to cause macroscopic grain defects during single-crystal solidification. Model predictions were validated using production scale casting trials where additions of 1.5 wt pct (1.9 at. pct) Cr and 3.0 wt pct (2.0 at. pct) Mo to a high-refractory superalloy more than halved the number of solidification-related grain defects formed. These findings suggest that elemental interactions between Cr, Mo, W, and Re need to be considered when optimizing alloys for high-temperature creep properties.     

A direct complementarity approach for the elastoplastic analysis of plane stress and plane strain structures

This paper presents a direct complementarity approach for carrying out the elastoplastic analysis of plane stress and plane strain structures. Founded on a traditional finite‐step formulation, our approach, however, avoids the typically cumbersome implementation of iterative predictor–corrector procedures associated with the ubiquitous return mapping algorithm. Instead, at each predefined step, the governing formulation—cast in its most natural mathematical programming format known as a mixed complementarity problem—is directly solved by using a complementarity solver run from within a mathematical modeling system. We have chosen the industry‐standard General Algebraic Modeling System/PATH mixed complementarity problem solver that is called from within the General Algebraic Modeling System environment. We consider both von Mises and Tresca materials, with perfect or hardening (kinematic and isotropic) behaviors. Our numerical tests, five (benchmark) examples of which are presented in this paper, have been carried out using models constructed from the mixed finite element of Capsoni and Corradi (Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng. 1997; 141 :67–93), which beneficially offers a locking‐free behavior and coarse‐mesh accuracy. The results indicate, in addition to an isochoric locking‐free behavior, good accuracy and the ability to circumvent the difficult singularity problem associated with the corners of Tresca yield surfaces. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fuel cell powered autonomous surface vehicle: The Eco-SWAMP project

Autonomous surface vehicles are becoming consolidated robotic tools for marine, coastal and inland surveys. Autonomous surface vehicles are usually equipped with electronic instruments to perform remotely controlled or autonomous geo-morphological, biological, chemical, physical analyses and data collection. Actually, well-established solutions provide battery power but the research focuses on introducing a fuel cell to decrease the environmental impact meanwhile increasing the cruising range. In this paper, the design of the Eco-SWAMP, a fuel cell powered autonomous surface vehicle, is presented starting from its battery-powered version, the SWAMP prototype. The experimental power consumption profile of the SWAMP during four missions is analysed to define the primary energy sources ratings of the Eco-SWAMP. After a commercial choice of primary sources, power management algorithms are designed and compared in MATLAB/Simulink environment by simulation results. The proposed procedure can be easily applied to any autonomous marine vehicle.