Engine performance characteristics and evaluation of variation in the length of intake plenum

In the engine with multipoint fuel injection system using electronically controlled fuel injectors has an intake manifold in which only the air flows and, the fuel is injected into the intake valve. Since the intake manifolds transport mainly air, the supercharging effects of the variable length intake plenum will be different from carbureted engine. Engine tests have been carried out with the aim of constituting a base study to design a new variable length intake manifold plenum. The objective in this research is to study the engine performance characteristics and to evaluate the effects of the variation in the length of intake plenum. The engine test bed used for experimental work consists of a control panel, a hydraulic dynamometer and measurement instruments to measure the parameters of engine performance characteristics. The control panel is being used to perform administrative and management operating system. Besides that, the hydraulic dynamometer was used to measure the power of an engine by using a cell filled with liquid to increase its load. Thus, measurement instrument is provided in this test to measure the as brake torque, brake power, thermal efficiency and specific fuel consumption. The results showed that the variation in the plenum length causes an improvement on the engine performance characteristics especially on the fuel consumption at high load and low engine speeds which are put forward the system using for urban roads. From this experiment, it will show the behavior of engine performance

The Value of Evidence-Based Computer Simulation of Oral Health Outcomes for Management Analysis of the Alaska Dental Health Aide Program

Objectives: To create an evidence‐based research tool to inform and guide policy and program managers as they develop and deploy new service delivery models for oral disease prevention and intervention. Methods: A village‐level discrete event simulation was developed to project outcomes associated with different service delivery patterns. Evidence‐ based outcomes were associated with dental health aide activities, and projected indicators (DMFT, F+ST, T‐health, SiC, CPI, ECC) were proxy for oral health outcomes. Model runs representing the planned program implementation, a more intensive staffing scenario, and a more robust prevention scenario, generated 20‐year projections of clinical indicators; graphs and tallies were analyzed for trends and differences. Results: Outcomes associated with alternative patterns of service delivery indicate there is potential for substantial improvement in clinical outcomes with modest program changes. Not all segments of the population derive equal benefit when program variables are altered. Children benefit more from increased prevention, while adults benefit more from intensive staffing. Conclusions: Evidence‐ based simulation is a useful tool to analyze the impact of changing program variables on program outcome measures. This simulation informs dental managers of the clinical outcomes associated with policy and service delivery variables. Simulation tools can assist public health managers in analyzing and understanding the relationship between their policy decisions and long‐term clinical outcomes.The Ford Foundation

Collaborative information systems and business process design using simulation

The Information Systems (IS) community promotes the idea that IS analyst should have a clear understanding of the way the organization operates before attempting to propose an IS solution. It is argued that to take a complete advantage of the underlying Information Technology (IT), organizations should first identify any process flaw and then propose a suitable IT solution. Similarly, many process design approaches claim that Business Process (BP) design should be done considering the advantages provided and the limitations imposed by the underlying (IT). Despite this fact research in these domains provides little indication of which mechanisms or tools can help BP and IS analyst to understand the complex relationships amongst these two areas. This paper describes the insights gained during a UK funded research project, namely ASSESS-IT, that aimed to depict the dynamic relationships between IT and BP using simulation. One of the major limitations of the ASSESS-IT project is that it looked at relationship between BP and IT as a three layered structure, namely BP, IS and Computer Networks (CN), and did not explore in detail the relationships between BP and IS alone. This paper uses the outcomes derived from this project and suggests that, is some cases, the relationship between BP and IT could be analyzed by looking at the relationship between BP and IS alone. It then proposes an alternative simulation framework, namely BPISS, that provides the guideline to develop simulation models that portray BP and IS behavior performance measurements, offering in this way an alternative mechanism that can help BP and IS analyst to understand in more detail the dynamic interactions between BP and IS domains

Modelling the integration of BP and IT using business process simulation

Information Technology (IT) and Business Process (BP) communities argues that the use of IT to support business processes can bring a number of benefits to the organisation. Most of these benefits, however, can only be seen after the implementation of such technology. Moreover, there are many cases where the benefits brought by the implementation of IT do not fulfil the organisation’s expectations. One reason of this may happen is because research in BP and IS domains show little indication of which modelling methods, techniques or tools can help organisations to foresee the benefits of the integration of IT with BP. This paper describes the insights gained during a UK funded research project, namely ASSESS-IT, which used simulation techniques to address this problem. Considering IT as a two layered system, namely Information Systems (IS) and Computer Networks (CN), ASSESS-IT aimed to depict the benefits that new IT may bring to the BP. This paper uses the outcomes derived from ASSESS-IT to suggest that, in some cases; the relationship between BP and IT could be better understood by looking at the relationship between BP and IS alone. It then proposes an alternative simulation framework, namely ISBPS, that provides the means to develop simulation models that portray quantifiable metrics of the integration of BP and IS, offering in this way an alternative mechanism that can help BP and IS analyst to foresee the benefits that the insertion of a given IS design may bring to the organisational processes

A derivative-free approach for a simulation-based optimization problem in healthcare

Hospitals have been challenged in recent years to deliver high quality care with limited resources. Given the pressure to contain costs,developing procedures for optimal resource allocation becomes more and more critical in this context. Indeed, under/overutilization of emergency room and ward resources can either compromise a hospital's ability to provide the best possible care, or result in precious funding going toward underutilized resources. Simulation--based optimization tools then help facilitating the planning and management of hospital services, by maximizing/minimizing some specific indices (e.g. net profit) subject to given clinical and economical constraints. In this work, we develop a simulation--based optimization approach for the resource planning of a specific hospital ward. At each step, we first consider a suitably chosen resource setting and evaluate both efficiency and satisfaction of the restrictions by means of a discrete--event simulation model. Then, taking into account the information obtained by the simulation process, we use a derivative--free optimization algorithm to modify the given setting. We report results for a real--world problem coming from the obstetrics ward of an Italian hospital showing both the effectiveness and the efficiency of the proposed approach

A Discrete Event Simulation model to evaluate the treatment pathways of patients with Cataract in the United Kingdom

Background The number of people affected by cataract in the United Kingdom (UK) is growing rapidly due to ageing population. As the only way to treat cataract is through surgery, there is a high demand for this type of surgery and figures indicate that it is the most performed type of surgery in the UK. The National Health Service (NHS), which provides free of charge care in the UK, is under huge financial pressure due to budget austerity in the last decade. As the number of people affected by the disease is expected to grow significantly in coming years, the aim of this study is to evaluate whether the introduction of new processes and medical technologies will enable cataract services to cope with the demand within the NHS funding constraints. Methods We developed a Discrete Event Simulation model representing the cataract services pathways at Leicester Royal Infirmary Hospital. The model was inputted with data from national and local sources as well as from a surgery demand forecasting model developed in the study. The model was verified and validated with the participation of the cataract services clinical and management teams. Results Four scenarios involving increased number of surgeries per half-day surgery theatre slot were simulated. Results indicate that the total number of surgeries per year could be increased by 40% at no extra cost. However, the rate of improvement decreases for increased number of surgeries per half-day surgery theatre slot due to a higher number of cancelled surgeries. Productivity is expected to improve as the total number of doctors and nurses hours will increase by 5 and 12% respectively. However, non-human resources such as pre-surgery rooms and post-surgery recovery chairs are under-utilized across all scenarios. Conclusions Using new processes and medical technologies for cataract surgery is a promising way to deal with the expected higher demand especially as this could be achieved with limited impact on costs. Non-human resources capacity need to be evenly levelled across the surgery pathway to improve their utilisation. The performance of cataract services could be improved by better communication with and proactive management of patients.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Simulation for business processes and information systems design

Business Process (BP) literature promotes the value of business processes as essential gearwheels that help organizations to reach their goals. Similarly, many process design approaches claim that Information Technology (IT) is a major enabler of business process, a view also shared by the Information Systems (IS) community. Despite this, BP and IS approaches do not provide clear guidance on how to assess the benefits that a given IS design may bring to the BP prior the IS implementation. Nor is clear indication of which modeling techniques could be used to assess such relationship. This paper uses the insights gained during a UK funded research project, namely ASSESS-IT, that aimed to depict the dynamic relationships between BP and IT to propose an alternative framework to develop BP simulation models that depict the dynamic behavior of the relationships between BP and IS

The interaction of lean and building information modeling in construction

Lean construction and Building Information Modeling are quite different initiatives, but both are having profound impacts on the construction industry. A rigorous analysis of the myriad specific interactions between them indicates that a synergy exists which, if properly understood in theoretical terms, can be exploited to improve construction processes beyond the degree to which it might be improved by application of either of these paradigms independently. Using a matrix that juxtaposes BIM functionalities with prescriptive lean construction principles, fifty-six interactions have been identified, all but four of which represent constructive interaction. Although evidence for the majority of these has been found, the matrix is not considered complete, but rather a framework for research to explore the degree of validity of the interactions. Construction executives, managers, designers and developers of IT systems for construction can also benefit from the framework as an aid to recognizing the potential synergies when planning their lean and BIM adoption strategies