Wind turbine condition monitoring : technical and commercial challenges.

Deployment of larger scale wind turbine systems, particularly offshore, requires more organized operation and maintenance strategies to ensure systems are safe, profitable and cost-effective. Among existing maintenance strategies, reliability centred maintenance is regarded as best for offshore wind turbines, delivering corrective and proactive (i.e. preventive and predictive) maintenance techniques enabling wind turbines to achieve high availability and low cost of energy. Reliability centred maintenance analysis may demonstrate that an accurate and reliable condition monitoring system is one method to increase availability and decrease the cost of energy from wind. In recent years, efforts have been made to develop efficient and cost-effective condition monitoring techniques for wind turbines. A number of commercial wind turbine monitoring systems are available in the market, most based on existing techniques from other rotating machine industries. Other wind turbine condition monitoring reviews have been published but have not addressed the technical and commercial challenges, in particular, reliability and value for money. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap and present the wind industry with a detailed analysis of the current practical challenges with existing wind turbine condition monitoring technology

The Impact Of The International Standards Organization Quality Management System On The In Vitro Diagnostics Industry In South Africa

Quality is an important subject in the modern business world and Total Quality Management (TQM) and the ISO-based Quality Management System (QMS) have been the most common approaches to quality management by organizations. This paper assesses customer service, operational performance, quality, competitive advantage and benefits obtained through ISO certification of IVD products. Five hypotheses were tested through a survey conducted among a random probability sample of 337 employees of IVD companies in South Africa, using the online platform, Survey Monkey. The findings revealed that top management’s commitment has a strong positive effect on the adoption of ISO certification in the IVD industry and ISO certification has a positive and strong effect on product quality performance, customer service satisfaction focus as well as organisational performance. Based on the research findings, it is recommended that top management of IVD companies should be committed to the adoption of ISO certification and use it as a strategic tool to influence product quality performance, customer service satisfaction focus and organisational performance in the IVD industry

MOBILE DICTIONARY

Having difficulties in understanding the meaning of particular word in a particular language is unavoidable. The solutionfor this concern is either paper-based or electronic dictionary. With growing technological advancement, electronic dictionary keeps on emerging. Current existing electronic dictionaries are limited with functionality to translate for multiword correctly. This paper aims to discover a searching algorithm that can read single and two words (multiword) in a Malay or English language and translate it correctly to another language, either Malay or English. The objectives of the study is to develop a Mobile Dictionary system, namely MobileDic which able to cater for single and multiword translation in Malay and English language in J2ME-enabled mobile phones. The system incorporates a searching algorithm, by using Hashtable function. The system prototype should be able to recognize whether the input word is a single or multiword and intelligently translate the word matched by Hashtable key and value. The multiword will have its own separate database or corpus listing all the possible second word after the first word of that multiword. The output of this system will be evaluated by users who already have experienced in using existing electronic dictionaries based on MobileDic accuracy as well as its usefulness. As a conclusion, MobileDic is able to improve current situation and can be a useful look-up source especially to students and tourist

European White Book on Real-Time Power Hardware in the Loop Testing : DERlab Report No. R- 005.0

The European White Book on Real-Time-Powerhardware-in-the-Loop testing is intended to serve as a reference document on the future of testing of electrical power equipment, with specifi c focus on the emerging hardware-in-the-loop activities and application thereof within testing facilities and procedures. It will provide an outlook of how this powerful tool can be utilised to support the development, testing and validation of specifi cally DER equipment. It aims to report on international experience gained thus far and provides case studies on developments and specifi c technical issues, such as the hardware/software interface. This white book compliments the already existing series of DERlab European white books, covering topics such as grid-inverters and grid-connected storag

Review and critical analysis: Rolling-element bearings for system life and reliability

A ball and cylindrical roller bearing technical specification which incorporates the latest state-of-the-art advancements was prepared for the purpose of improving bearing reliability in U.S. Army aircraft. The current U.S. Army aviation bearing designs and applications, including life analyses, were analyzed. A bearing restoration and refurbishment specification was prepared to improve bearing availability

Advanced Manned Launch System (AMLS) study

To assure national leadership in space operations and exploration in the future, NASA must be able to provide cost effective and operationally efficient space transportation. Several NASA studies and the joint NASA/DoD Space Transportation Architecture Studies (STAS) have shown the need for a multi-vehicle space transportation system with designs driven by enhanced operations and low costs. NASA is currently studying an advanced manned launch system (AMLS) approach to transport crew and cargo to the Space Station Freedom. Several single and multiple stage systems from air-breathing to all-rocket concepts are being examined in a series of studies potential replacements for the Space Shuttle launch system in the 2000-2010 time frame. Rockwell International Corporation, under contract to the NASA Langley Research Center, has analyzed a two-stage all-rocket concept to determine whether this class of vehicles is appropriate for the AMLS function. The results of the pre-phase A study are discussed

Towards a model of factors affecting resistance to using multi-method authentication systems in higher-education environments

Over the course of history, different means of object as well as person identification and verification have evolved for user authentication. In recent years, a new concern has emerged regarding the accuracy of authentication and of protection of personal identifying information (PII), because previous information systems (IS) misuses have resulted in significant financial loss. Such losses have escalated more noticeably because of identity-theft incidents due to breaches of PII within multiple public-access environments, such asinstitutions of higher-education. Although the use of various biometric and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies is expanding, resistance to using these technologies remains an issue. As such, in this research-in-progress paper, we outline a predictive study to assess the contribution of campus students’ perceptions of the importance of protecting their PII, noted as Perceived Value of Organizational Protection of PII (PVOP), authentication complexity (AC), and invasion of privacy (IOP) on their resistance to using multi-method authentication systems (RMS) in higher-education environments. In this work-in-progress study, we seek to better understand the theoretical foundations for the effect of students’ perceptions on their resistance to using multi-method authentication systems (RMS) in higher-education environments and uncover key constructs that may significantly contribute to such resistance. A quasiexperiment is proposed including clearly identified procedures and data analyses

An Ideal Approach for Detection and Prevention of Phishing Attacks

AbstractPhishing is a treacherous attempt to embezzle personal information such as bank account details, credit card information, social security number, employment details, and online shopping account passwords and so on from internet users. Phishing, or stealing of sensitive information on the web, has dealt a major blow to Internet security in recent times. These attacks use spurious emails or websites designed to fool users into divulging personal financial data by emulating the trusted brands of well-known banks, e-commerce and credit card companies.In this paper, we propose a phishing detection and prevention approach combining URL-based and Webpage similarity based detection. URL-based phishing detection involves extraction of actual URL (to which the website is actually directed) and the visual URL (which is visible to the user). LinkGuard Algorithm is used to analyze the two URLs and finally depending on the result produced by the algorithm the procedure proceeds to the next phase. If phishing is not detected or Phishing possibility is predicted in URL-based detection, the algorithm proceeds to the visual similarity based detection. A novel technique to visually compare a suspicious page with the legitimate one is presented

First Meeting of the joint IOC-ICES Study Group on Nutrient Standards (SGONS)

A meeting of the joint IOC-ICES Study Group on Nutrient Standards (SGONS) was held in Paris, France on 23-24 March 2010. It focused on the ongoing activities of the SGONS and plans for extended international collaborations to establish global comparability of the nutrient data from the world’s ocean. Thirty two scientists and experts from 11 countries and 2 delegates from IOC attended the meeting. The discussions followed the Terms of References of SGONS established in July 2009. Development of the reference materials for nutrients in seawater (RMNS) were also discussed in collaboration with the producers. The background and history of SGONS and an international nutrients scale system INSS and the progress with the production of RMNS materials and their current availability were reported. The production of RMNS and the latest status of the RMNS production facility, current status on the certification of RMNS for nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and silicate at the National Metrology Institute of Japan were also reported. The revised nutrients analysis manual which is being undertaken by the SGONS hopefully would be completed by 1 August 2010, and it will be published on line at the Go-Ship website. Results obtained with RMNS solutions used on the P6 reoccupation cruise in 2009-2010 by SIO (Scripps Institute of Oceanography, USA) showed that considerable improvement could be made in the internal comparability of the data by referencing it to the RMNS results and related good comparability with the previous P6 cruise in 2003 by JAMSTEC when RMNS were also used. The meeting strongly endorsed the idea of a ship board workshop in 2013/14 during which major groups would carry out a full inter-comparison of all procedures including analytical methods on board a research ship. The global stability test of RMNS by ten core laboratories of SGONS which started in 2009 will continue for more two years. It also was agreed to set up an international steering committee to plan the next inter-laboratory comparison study which will extend the study to about 70 laboratories working globally on deep sea hydrography. This will happen in early 2011. Future arrangements were considered for the collection of more batches of seawater for the preparation of RMNS waters suitable for use in all major water masses, and a list of candidate cruises in 2010/2011 was prepared. The related point of the extension of the use of RMNS for work in shelf sea water was also discussed, this followed on from discussions at the ICES Marine Chemistry Working Group (MCWG) meeting in 2010. The ICES MCWG considered that the use of suitable RMNS solutions would be valuable for improving the inter comparability of shelf sea data and be a valuable complement to work with the existing QUASIMEME proficiency testing scheme