Simulation analysis for assembly line workstation layout: case study

The paper explores the cost saving projects that have been implemented in an electrical product assembly line, so called subwoofer speaker. Observation has been conducted on 26 workstations which are involved in an assembly line. Group discussion, real time study and simulation analysis have been performed to reduce operational cost. The result shows that the proposed layout was improved at least 22.68% space utilisation in the production area but only able to improve at least 0.56 percent of production rate. The simulation result gave the production personnel to decide the best improvement workstation layout and enhance the participation of employee in cost saving activities while improve production capacity

Swelling Behaviour of Starch-g-Acrylic Acid Hydrogel and its Potential Application in Removal of Rhodamine B and Alkali Blue Dyes

Starch-g-acrylic acid hydrogel was prepared by free radical polymerization technique adopting potassium persulphate (KPS) as an initiator and N’N-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as a linking agent. The aim of the research is to inspect the potentials of starch-based hydrogel in remediating wastewater. Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy was used to find the formation of hydrogel while Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) were used for the characterization of the hydrogel. The FT-IR spectroscopy confirmed hydrogel formation. The DSC results showed that the generated hydrogel is thermally stable, and the SEM depicts a good porous site for dye adsorption. Batch adsorption for Rhodamine B (RDB) and Alkali blue (AB) dyes under the variation of contact time was 105 minutes for both dyes with percentage removal of 89.80 and 60.32%, adsorbent dose was 0.4 and 0.8 g with percentage removal of 86.42 and 57.95%, concentration was 50 and 30 ppm with percentage removal of 67.01 and 77.18% and pH was 8 for both dyes with percentage removal of 77.43 and 79.13% as the optimum. The results indicates that acrylic acid monomer was efficiently grafted on the starch, and the adsorption method correlated with Freundlich isotherm equation. It was concluded that the starch-based hydrogel is an appropriate adsorbent and can be explored for industrial wastewater treatment

Outlier detection in 2 × 2 crossover design using Bayesian framework

We consider the problem of outlier detection method in 2×2 crossover design via Bayesian framework. We study the problem of outlier detection in bivariate data fitted using generalized linear model in Bayesian framework used by Nawama. We adapt their work into a 2×2 crossover design. In Bayesian framework, we assume that the random subject effect and the errors to be generated from normal distributions. However, the outlying subjects come from normal distribution with different variance. Due to the complexity of the resulting joint posterior distribution, we obtain the information on the posterior distribution from samples by using Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling. We use two real data sets to illustrate the implementation of the method

Chemical composition and sensory acceptability of partially gelatinised pasta produced from blends of wheat, bambara nut and cassava flours

Pasta products were produced from partially gelatinized blends of wheat, cassava and bambaranut nut flours. The three flours from wheat, cassava and bambaranut nut were blended in the following ratios: 100% wheat flour, 64:10:26, 60:12:28, 56:14:30, 52:16:32 and 48:18:34 flour blends, representing samples A, B, C, D, E and F, respectively. 180 ml of water and 65 ml of vegetable oil were added to each blend and thoroughly mixed to form a dough. The dough from each blend was steamed for 20 min to partially gelatinize it and pressed manually through home pasta making machine. Pasta made from these blends were subjected to proximate analyses, sensory evaluation, mineral determination and physical properties evaluation. The result of the proximate composition showed significant (p < 0.05) variation in all the parameters measured. Also, various blends significantly influenced the mineral composition of the products. In physical properties, pasta products were significantly different in height, thickness and expansion ratio but, not significantly different (p > 0.05) in deformation strength. The sensory properties of the pasta products were significantly (p < 0.05) different from each other. However, pasta with high ratio of bambaranut flour received less sensory acceptability. Pasta with the least amount of bambaranut and cassava flour in this study compared favourably with the control. Key words: pasta, wheat, bambaranut, cassava, functiona

Evaluation of Noise Pollution and Effects on Workers during Wheat Processing

This study assessed the intensity and likely effects of noise on workers during wheat processing. Noise measurements were taken using HD600 sound level meter. Subjective assessment of the effects of noise was undertaken using semi structured questionnaire. Also audiometric test was conducted on workers using AD229e diagnostic audiometer. The results of the study show that during wheat processing operations, the noise level in the factory ranges between 56.0 dB(A) and100.9 dB(A). Also, only 25.6 % of all the readings was below the specified limit of 85 dB(A). Workers are also observed to have certain forms of physiological and psychological disorders related to noise. The audiometric test results revealed that 33 % of the examined workers have defect in their left or right ear. Based on these results, WHO Class-5 hearing protector is recommended to be worn by workers in the processing sections while room acoustics should be upgraded to absorb some sounds transmitted to offices

Slepton Flavor Nonuniversality, the Muon EDM and its Proposed sensitive Search at Brookhaven

We analyze the electric dipole moment of the electron ($d_e$), of the neutron ($d_n$) and of the muon ($d_{\mu}$) using the cancellation mechanism in the presence of nonuniversalities of the soft breaking parameters. It is shown that the nonuniversalities in the slepton sector produce a strong violation of the scaling relation $d_{\mu}/d_e\simeq m_{\mu}/m_e$ in the cancellation region. An analysis of $d_e, d_n$ and $d_{\mu}$ under the constraints of the current experimental limits on $d_e$ and $d_n$ and under the constraints of the recent Brookhaven result on $g_{\mu}-2$ shows that in the non-scaling region $d_{\mu}$ can be as large as ($10^{-24}-10^{-23}$)ecm and thus within reach of the recently proposed Brookhaven experiment for a sensitive search for $d_{\mu}$ at the level of $10^{-24}$ ecm.Comment: 24 pages, Latex, including 5 figures with additional reference

Probing exotic phenomena at the interface of nuclear and particle physics with the electric dipole moments of diamagnetic atoms: A unique window to hadronic and semi-leptonic CP violation

The current status of electric dipole moments of diamagnetic atoms which involves the synergy between atomic experiments and three different theoretical areas -- particle, nuclear and atomic is reviewed. Various models of particle physics that predict CP violation, which is necessary for the existence of such electric dipole moments, are presented. These include the standard model of particle physics and various extensions of it. Effective hadron level combined charge conjugation (C) and parity (P) symmetry violating interactions are derived taking into consideration different ways in which a nucleon interacts with other nucleons as well as with electrons. Nuclear structure calculations of the CP-odd nuclear Schiff moment are discussed using the shell model and other theoretical approaches. Results of the calculations of atomic electric dipole moments due to the interaction of the nuclear Schiff moment with the electrons and the P and time-reversal (T) symmetry violating tensor-pseudotensor electron-nucleus are elucidated using different relativistic many-body theories. The principles of the measurement of the electric dipole moments of diamagnetic atoms are outlined. Upper limits for the nuclear Schiff moment and tensor-pseudotensor coupling constant are obtained combining the results of atomic experiments and relativistic many-body theories. The coefficients for the different sources of CP violation have been estimated at the elementary particle level for all the diamagnetic atoms of current experimental interest and their implications for physics beyond the standard model is discussed. Possible improvements of the current results of the measurements as well as quantum chromodynamics, nuclear and atomic calculations are suggested.Comment: 46 pages, 19 tables and 16 figures. A review article accepted for EPJ

Trends in the Statistical Assessment of Reliability

Changes in technology have had and will continue to have a strong effect on changes in the area of statistical assessment of reliability data. These changes include higher levels of integration in electronics, improvements in measurement technology and the deployment of sensors and smart chips into more products, dramatically improved computing power and storage technology, and the development of new, powerful statistical methods for graphics, inference, and experimental design and reliability test planning. This paper traces some of the history of the development of statistical methods for reliability assessment and makes some predictions about the future

Higgs and neutrino sector, EDM and epsilon_K in a spontaneously CP and R-parity breaking supersymmetric model

We construct an extension of the supersymmetric standard model where both CP symmetry and R-parity are spontaneously broken. We study the electroweak symmetry breaking sector of the model and find minima consistent with the experimental bounds on Higgs boson masses. Neutrino masses and mixing angles are generated through both seesaw and bilinear R-parity violation. We show that the hierarchical mass pattern is obtained, and mixings are consistent with measured values. Due to the spontaneous CP and R-parity violation, the neutrino sector is CP violating, and we calculate the corresponding phase. We further restrict the parameter space to agree with the limits on the electric dipole moment of the neutron. Finally, we study the CP violation parameter epsilon_K in the kaon system and show that we obtain results consistent with the experimental value.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, submitted to EPJ

Search for leptophobic Z ' bosons decaying into four-lepton final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

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