A practical maintenance framework for production equipment manufactuers and users :"an analysis of maintenance strategies for SME's"

PhD ThesisThe work presented here concerns a Practical Maintenance Framework (PMF) for Small and Medium size Enterprises (SME's) aimed, ultimately, at implementing Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). Typically, the successful implementation of TPM requires large financial and human resource commitments, which are usually unrealistic in SME's. So it is usually the larger companies that are more willing and able to dedicate resources for TPM development. The PMF introduced in this work support SME's in four ways; the Model is simple and flexible for companies to implement, and typically it does not require a significant financial commitment during its implementation. Further improvements can be achieved shortly after implementation. Finally, the Model does not involve specialist TPM teams or committees; instead there is a single team to which every person in the company will be attached to. PMF is a framework that operates in an iterative and interactive process of improvement, review and analysis. The PMF is mainly built on a quantitative measure of performance basedo n data collection and subsequenta nalysiso f Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) originally introduced by Nakajima (1988). In addition, in this research, we show how a simplified version of this OEE measure can be usefully adopted in certain circumstances to calculate the efficiency of a production line. To illustrate some of our work we present and discuss results from one of many case studies, which demonstrate the value of maintenance strategies such as PMF. Both PMF and the OEE measure are shown to be effective when used to improve equipment efficiency. Finally, the research suggests a way that can help both equipment manufactures and equipment users to cooperate with an aim to produce more efficient equipment and products.HRH General Mohammed Al-Faisal

Analysis of grape fruits and grape seed for their major , minor and trace elemental contact by XRF technique

Grapes and grape seeds are important samples employed for environmental medical studies . The air of this work was to identify and concentration calculation of the elements in grapes fruit and thier seeds by using X-Ray fluoresces technique (XRF) . Samples were collected from Abo Ghraib of Baghdad city ,the grape seeds were obtained from those samples . Both samples were taken under experimental procedure to obtain the sample which were ready for analysis . The samples were then submitted to experimental conditions using a radiation source and then samples were applied for counting analysis shows the elements Na , Mg , Al , Si , P , S , Cl , K , Ca , and Sr as major components of the samples. Fe , Sr , I , Ba and V were found an minor elements other elements Cr , Cu , Sn , Sb , Te gave a value of 5 – 10 ppm , Co , Ni , Rb , Ag ,Cd < 5 ppm for the samples of grape seeds . The analysis of grape seeds present Sr , Ca , K , Cl , S , Si , P as major components of the samples, and gave a values for Cr and Rb , Sn , Sb and Te (5 – 10 ppm) , while Co , Rb , Ni , Ag ,Cd (Less than 5 ppm)

Epidemiological, Molecular, and Clinical Features of Norovirus Infections among Pediatric Patients in Qatar

Abstract: Background: Norovirus (NoV) is recognized as the second most important etiological agent leading to acute gastroenteritis globally. In order to determine the burden and characteristics of NoV infections in children in Qatar, profiling of circulating genotypes and their correlation with demographics and clinical manifestations were evaluated. Methods: A total of 177 NoV-positive fecal samples were collected from children suffering from acute gastroenteritis (AGE) during two-year period between June 2016 and June 2018. The age of the subjects ranged between 3 months and 12 years (median of 15 months). Genotyping was performed by amplifying and sequencing parts of viral VP1 and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) regions. Phylogenetic analysis and evolutionary relationships were performed using MEGA7.0. Fisher’s exact test was used to run statistical analysis for the clinical and demographical characteristics of circulating strains. Results: Overall, NoV infections were relatively higher in males than females with a ratio of 1.3:1 (p = 0.0073). Most of the NoV infections were reported in children between 1 and 3 years old (49.7%), followed by those 3 years of age (41.2% and 9.1%, respectively). NoV infections occurred throughout the year, with a noticeable increase in summer (36.6%) and drop in winter (25.4%). Nearly all (98.8%) NoV-infected children were positive for genogroup II (GII) compared to only two samples (1.2%) being positive for genogroup I (GI): GI.3 and GI.4. NoV genotype GII.4 (62.2%), GII.2 (15.8%), and GII.3 (13.5%) were predominant in our study. The detected strains shared >98% sequence homology with emerging recombinant strain of GII.P16-GII.4/RUS/Novosibirsk/2017 (MG892929), GII.P16-GII.4 Sydney/2012 (KY887601), GII.4 Sydney/2012, recombinant GII.P4 New Orleans /2009/GII.4 Sydney 2012 (MG585810.1), and the emerging strain GII.P16-GII.2 CHN/2017 (MH321823). Severe clinical illness (vesikari score >10) was reported in children infected with genotypes sharing homology with the above emerging strains. While GII.4 was reported in all age groups, NoV GII.3 infections were higher in children <1 year of age. Both genogroups (GII.4 and GII.3) in addition to GII.2 reported higher incidence in Qatari subjects compared to other nationalities (p = 0.034). Conclusion: This is the first report about NoV molecular epidemiology in Qatar. The most detected NoV strain was genogroup GII, which is the dominant genotype in the Middle East region. Further, we report GII.4, GII.2, and GII.3 as the most predominant NoV genotypes in our study. Moreover, disease severity scores were higher among children genotyped with genogroup GI (GI.4) and genogroup GII (GII.4, GII.2, GII.3, GII.6, and GII.7)

Direct heat stress-induced effects on rumen fermentation characteristics and nutrients degradability in sheep pair-fed alfalfa hay

Aim of the study: To investigate the direct effect of heat stress on rumen fermentation characteristics and nutrients degradability of pair-fed rams to subsequently eliminate the confounding effects of dissimilar feed intake induced by heat stress exposure.Area of study: Saudi Arabia.Material and methods: Five rumen-cannulated desert rams (45 ± 1.63 kg body weight; 2–3 years of age) were placed individually in controlled climatic-chambers to be exposed to two successive periods. The 1st period was a control thermoneutral period (TN; 23.64 ± 0.14 °C; extended for 21 days) followed by a 2nd period of heat stress (HS; 44.26 ± 1.70 °C, for another 21 days). Each period was consisted of a temperature acclimation phase (7 days) and a data collection phase (14 days). Alfalfa hay was offered twice daily during both periods in a pair-fed manner (800 g DM per head and day).Main results: Exposing pair-fed desert rams to elevated ambient temperature had (p&lt;0.05) elevated their respiration rate and skin temperature, without noticeable (p&gt;0.05) changes in their rectal temperature. Most of the rumen fermentation characteristics and nutrients degradability were not affected by HS (p&gt;0.05). However, exposure to HS increased (p&lt;0.05) pre-feeding rumen total volatile fatty acids concentrations, pre-feeding molar proportion of acetate, and post-feeding rumen osmolality.Research highlights: HS had no direct effect on post-feeding rumen fermentation characteristics and nutrients degradability in desert sheep. This implies that strategic approaches to mitigate the adverse effects of HS have to be directed towards promoting feed intake and nutrients utilization under such conditions

2-[(Indan-1-yl­idene)amino]­ethanol

The five-membed ring of the title compound, C11H13NO, that is fused with the aromatic ring is approximately planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.037 Å) despite the presence of the sp 3-hybrid­ized ethyl­ene linkage. The hy­droxy group of the N-bound hy­droxy­ethyl chain serves as hydrogen-bond donor to the azomethine N atom of an adjacent mol­ecule, generating a hydrogen-bonded C 2-symmetric dimer

4-(4-Meth­oxy­phen­yl)-2-oxo-1,2,5,6-tetra­hydro­benzo[h]quinoline-3-carbo­nitrile

In the mol­ecule of the title compound, C21H16N2O2, the tetra­hydro­benzo[h]quinoline fused-ring system is buckled owing to the ethyl­ene –CH2CH2– fragment, the benzene ring and the pyridine ring being twisted by 19.7 (1)°. The 4-substituted aromatic ring is bent away from the pyridine ring by 50.3 (1)° in order to avoid crowding the cyanide substituent. In the crystal, two mol­ecules are linked by a pair of N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form a centrosymmetric dimer

4-(1,3-Benzodioxol-5-yl)-2-oxo-1,2,5,6-tetra­hydro­benzo[h]quinoline-3-carbo­nitrile

In the mol­ecule of the title compound, C21H14N2O3, the tetra­hydro­benzo[h]quinoline fused-ring system is buckled owing to the ethyl­ene –CH2CH2– fragment, the benzene ring and the pyridine ring being twisted by 24.3 (1)°. The ring of the benzodioxol system is bent away from the pyridine ring by 61.4 (1)° in order to avoid crowding the cyanide substituent. Two mol­ecules are linked by a pair of N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form a centrosymmetric dimer

2-Oxo-4-(thio­phen-2-yl)-1,2,5,6-tetra­hydro­benzo[h]quinoline-3-carbonitrile

In the mol­ecule of the title compound, C18H12N2OS, the tetra­hydro­benzo[h]quinoline fused-ring system is buckled owing to the ethyl­ene –CH2CH2– fragment, the benzene ring and the pyridine ring being twisted by 16.0 (1)°. The 4-substituted aromatic ring is bent away from the pyridine ring by 59.5 (2)° (for the major disordered thienyl component) in order to avoid crowding the cyanide substituent. In the crystal, two mol­ecules are linked by a pair of N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form a centrosymmetric dimer. The thienyl ring is disordered over two sites in a 72.7 (2):27.3 ratio

4-(4-Bromo­phen­yl)-2-oxo-1,2,5,6-tetra­hydro­benzo[h]quinoline-3-carbonitrile

In the mol­ecule of the title compound, C20H13BrN2O, the tetra­hydro­benzo[h]quinoline fused-ring system is buckled owing to the ethyl­ene –CH2CH2– fragment, the benzene ring and the pyridine ring being twisted by 17.7 (1)°. The 4-substituted aromatic ring is bent away from the pyridine ring by 82.3 (1)° in order to avoid crowding the cyanide substituent. Two mol­ecules are linked by a pair of N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form a centrosymmetric dimer