121,638 research outputs found
Alternative sweetener from curculigo fruits
This study gives an overview on the advantages of Curculigo Latifolia as an alternative sweetener and a health product. The purpose of this research is to provide another option to the people who suffer from diabetes. In this research, Curculigo Latifolia was chosen, due to its unique properties and widely known species in Malaysia. In order to obtain the sweet protein from the fruit, it must go through a couple of procedures. First we harvested the fruits from the Curculigo trees that grow wildly in the garden. Next, the Curculigo fruits were dried in the oven at 50 0C for 3 days. Finally, the dried fruits were blended in order to get a fine powder. Curculin is a sweet protein with a taste-modifying activity of converting sourness to sweetness. The curculin content from the sample shown are directly proportional to the mass of the Curculigo fine powder. While the FTIR result shows that the sample spectrum at peak 1634 cmâ1 contains secondary amines. At peak 3307 cmâ1 contains alkynes
An Analysis of Plant Closings in Georgia's Apparel and Textile Industries
This report explores various issues and programs associated with re employment of workers from apparel and textile plants that close
The role of the reactor size for an investment in the nuclear sector: an evaluation of not-financial parameters
The literature presents many studies about the economics of new Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). Such studies are based on Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) methods encompassing the accounts related to Construction, Operation & Maintenance, Fuel and Decommissioning. However the investment evaluation of a nuclear reactor should also include not-financial factors such as siting and grid constraints, impact on the national industrial system, etc.
The Integrated model for the Competitiveness Assessment of SMRs (INCAS), developed by Politecnico di Milano cooperating with the IAEA, is designed to analyze the choice of the better Nuclear Power Plant size as a multidimensional problem. In particular the INCASâs module âExternal Factorsâ evaluates the impact of the factors that are not considered in the traditional DCF methods.
This paper presents a list of these factors, providing, for each one, the rationale and the quantification procedure; then each factor is quantified for the Italian case. The IRIS reactor has been chosen as SMR representative.
The approach and the framework of the model can be applied to worldwide countries while the specific results apply to most of the European countries. The results show that SMRs have better performances than LRs with respect to the external factors, in general and in the Italian scenario in particular
Resilience markers for safer systems and organisations
If computer systems are to be designed to foster resilient
performance it is important to be able to identify contributors to resilience. The
emerging practice of Resilience Engineering has identified that people are still a
primary source of resilience, and that the design of distributed systems should
provide ways of helping people and organisations to cope with complexity.
Although resilience has been identified as a desired property, researchers and
practitioners do not have a clear understanding of what manifestations of
resilience look like. This paper discusses some examples of strategies that
people can adopt that improve the resilience of a system. Critically, analysis
reveals that the generation of these strategies is only possible if the system
facilitates them. As an example, this paper discusses practices, such as
reflection, that are known to encourage resilient behavior in people. Reflection
allows systems to better prepare for oncoming demands. We show that
contributors to the practice of reflection manifest themselves at different levels
of abstraction: from individual strategies to practices in, for example, control
room environments. The analysis of interaction at these levels enables resilient
properties of a system to be âseenâ, so that systems can be designed to explicitly
support them. We then present an analysis of resilience at an organisational
level within the nuclear domain. This highlights some of the challenges facing
the Resilience Engineering approach and the need for using a collective
language to articulate knowledge of resilient practices across domains
Pilot interaction with automated airborne decision making systems
The use of advanced software engineering methods (e.g., from artificial intelligence) to aid aircraft crews in procedure selection and execution is investigated. Human problem solving in dynamic environments as effected by the human's level of knowledge of system operations is examined. Progress on the development of full scale simulation facilities is also discussed
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Public-Public Partnerships as a catalyst for capacity building and institutional development: Lessons from Stockholm Vattenâs experience in the Baltic region
This report explores the developmental potential of Public-Public Partnerships in the water sector, in light of Stockholm Vatten's experience in Kaunas, Lithuania and Riga, Latvia
How Governance Regimes Shape the Implementation of Water Reuse Schemes
The governance dimensions of water reuse scheme development and operation, such as policies and regulatory frameworks, and public involvement and stakeholder collaboration, can serve to both facilitate and constrain wider adoption of water reuse practices. This paper explores the significance and underlying structure of the key governance challenges facing the water reuse sector in Europe. It presents empirical evidence from interviews and focus group sessions conducted at four water reuse schemes: an indirect potable reuse scheme at Torreele (Belgium), the urban reuse of treated municipal wastewater at the London Olympic Park (United Kingdom) and at Sabadell (Spain), and the reuse of agro-industrial effluent for irrigation at Capitanata (Italy). The findings underscore the importance of clarity in policy arrangements around water reuse, as well as of the financial competitiveness of reuse projects compared to alternative water supply options. Operators of water reuse schemes expressed a preference for water quality standards, which focus on appropriateness for use rather than over-emphasise the watersâ origin so that unnecessary treatment and costs can be avoided. Positive public support was widely acknowledged as an important factor in the success or failure of water reuse schemes. We conclude that constructive institutional relationships underpin many of the challenges faced by reuse scheme operators and that greater emphasis should be given to building confidence and gaining trust in water service providers through early identification of how governance regimes shape the viability of new scheme
Formal Design of Asynchronous Fault Detection and Identification Components using Temporal Epistemic Logic
Autonomous critical systems, such as satellites and space rovers, must be
able to detect the occurrence of faults in order to ensure correct operation.
This task is carried out by Fault Detection and Identification (FDI)
components, that are embedded in those systems and are in charge of detecting
faults in an automated and timely manner by reading data from sensors and
triggering predefined alarms. The design of effective FDI components is an
extremely hard problem, also due to the lack of a complete theoretical
foundation, and of precise specification and validation techniques. In this
paper, we present the first formal approach to the design of FDI components for
discrete event systems, both in a synchronous and asynchronous setting. We
propose a logical language for the specification of FDI requirements that
accounts for a wide class of practical cases, and includes novel aspects such
as maximality and trace-diagnosability. The language is equipped with a clear
semantics based on temporal epistemic logic, and is proved to enjoy suitable
properties. We discuss how to validate the requirements and how to verify that
a given FDI component satisfies them. We propose an algorithm for the synthesis
of correct-by-construction FDI components, and report on the applicability of
the design approach on an industrial case-study coming from aerospace.Comment: 33 pages, 20 figure
Interdependent supply relationships as institutions: The role of HR practices
This paper aims to use institutional theory to explore the role of human
resource (HR) practices as carriers in the evolution of interdependent supply
relationships. Design/methodology/approach â This is a qualitative study of an
inter-firm supply relationship where the two partners were interdependent as a
result of a âclosed loopâ supply relationship. The paper explores the
perspectives of employees at multiple levels within both partners, and collects
pluralist evidence from 36 interviewees from both sides of the dyad. It collects
documentary evidence such as minutes, contractual agreements and HR documents.
This paper re-analyses the evidence from earlier work using an institutional
theory framework. Findings â Using Scott's âthree pillarsâ the paper shows that
HR practices can act as carriers of regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive
elements in interdependent supply relationships through both formal and informal
mechanisms. Regulative elements were less evident, but could be fundamental in
shaping the other two. A tension was found between institutional pressures at
the inter- and intra-firm levels, an emergence of innovative practices and new
routines at inter-organizational level, and an evolution over time that could
involve a de-institutionalisation of the relationship as a result of internal
priorities competing with the resource requirements of the supply relationship.
Originality/value â The paper addresses the interface between OM and
organisational theory. Areas are proposed where institutionalisation of a supply
relationship can be strengthened or weakened. The findings further challenge the
view of supply relationships as a âspectrumâ in which progress is unidir
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