Application of Geographic Information System and Probabilistic Analysis for Water Pipeline Renewal Prioritization

Aging infrastructure such as the water distribution system needs to be rehabilitated and maintained to provide uninterrupted and intended service, and to minimize possible failure with minimum expenditure. The failure of water distribution system is inherently uncertain and cannot be predicted deterministically. The theories and methodologies for rational maintenance decisions under uncertainty for water distribution systems have been well developed. The methodologies take into account the uncertainty in the break occurrence and consider the cost associated with rehabilitation and renewal. Some of these methodologies have been implemented in the decision support systems (DSS), and the presentation of the analysis results for the spatially distributed water main network is facilitated through the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS). However, in many studies, the integration of the probabilistic analysis models and a GIS to prioritize the rehabilitation scheme for water distribution systems is often either loose coupling, which is often considered to be cumbersome in data exchange among the GIS and other programs, or embedded computing system, which is often considered to be superficial in problem solving and expensive due to the complex system development. Therefore, in those studies, a GIS is often used as a tool for spatial query, spatial selection or thematic mapping and they do not take the full advantage of the features, such as the spatial analysis functionalities, available within the GIS environment. To facilitate the municipal engineers in using probabilistic based DSS to make informed decisions, in this study, development of integrated application of the GIS and probabilistic analysis for water pipeline renewal prioritization are carried out. The development includes the implementation of necessary subroutines and functions, and the m incorporation of optimization algorithm for the probabilistic analysis in Visual Basic Application (VBA) environment that is supported by the commercially available GIS software, ArcView 9.1 by ESRI. In addition, user friendly Graphic User Interfaces (GUIs) are built and within the ArcView 9.1 to assist the user with data processing (e.g., cost information) and result visualization in map format. The developed system uses the expected total cost during a service period or the expected cost per unit service period as objective functions, and takes into account stochastic break occurrence modeling, pipe material and surrounding soil condition. An illustrative application of the developed system is given with the water distribution system obtained from an industry partner, the City of Hamilton. Through the example application, it is shown that the developed GIS-integrated DSS is not only an effective and efficient tight coupling system to implement the analysis and provide optimal replacement schedules to decision makers and city planners, but also a user-friendly system with the developed GUIs in ArcGIS

Effects of kefirs on glycemic, insulinemic and satiety responses

We hypothesized that three types of kefir (Lifewayy Low Fat Strawberry Kefir, ProBugs Kefir, orange flavor, and Lifewayy Low Fat Plain Kefir) would have low glycemic index (GI), high insulinemic index (II) and high satiety index (SI). Secondarily, we hypothesized that there would be no significant correlations among postprandial satiety, glucose and insulin responses. Lastly, we hypothesized that kefir, like other dairy products, would have dissociation of GI and II. To test our hypotheses, this study was divided into three phases. In Phase I, a portion of Lifewayy Low Fat Strawberry Kefir (S group) and a portion of ProBugs Kefir, orange flavor (O group) containing 50 g of available carbohydrates were tested. In Phase II, a portion of Lifewayy Low Fat Plain Kefir (P group) containing 25 g of available carbohydrates were tested. In Phase III, 240-kcals portions of all three types of kefirs were tested. In all phases a single meal, randomized crossover design was performed in which the test meals were fed to 10 healthy, male and female adults. The total glucose AUC of S group (p\u3c 0.0023), O group (p\u3c 0.0002) and P group (p\u3c 0.0002) were significantly lower compared with their respective glucose controls. A slight, but not significant inverse relationship between glycemic and satiety responses was observed with kefir beverages (r = -0.87; P = 0.13). Using a variance of component analysis, it was found that in the future, a significant relationship between the correlated effects of the treatments on GI and SI can be further tested by increasing the number of subjects to 12. Like other dairy products, kefir showed a dissociation of GI and II. Kefir can potentially be a useful food choice for patients with diabetes who are required to control their blood glucose levels

Effect of Size and Shape of PDC Cutter on Wear Rate in Multi Layer Formation

During a normal drilling operation, the rate of penetration (ROP) often over focused while the wear rate is less taken care of. However, wear rate is a more severe problem faced in a long run drilling operation in multi-layer formation rather than focusing solely on the ROP. The project is to investigate the effect of Polycrystalline Diamond Compact (PDC) bit design features on the bit wear rate during the operation in multi-layer formation, which is sandstone formation and dolomite formation. The bit design features studied in the project is the shape of the cutters and the size of the cutters. The effect of drilling fluid is assumed to be optimum. Using ABAQUS, models with different shape of cutter and size of cutter are simulated and compared. Results are analyzed and compared to study the effects on wear rate and select the best model which has minimum wear rate. Result showed that 16mm size cutter and cone shape cutter are best design to minimize the cutter wear compared to other size and shape of cutter used in the project

WHAT AND HOW AFFECT INFLUENCE THE CONSEQUENCE OF PRODUCT TRIAL

IT product trial is an important method to promote consumers’ attitude toward IT product. Affect is one of the most essential factors and components in determining consumers’ attitude. However, previous studies pay more attention to the affective response to trial, which measure the holistic feeling about product trial experience. Affect in product trial is complex and multipartite that different parts may have different influence on consumers’ attitude. Therefore, we build the Affective Response Framework to divide consumers’ affect into affective response to product, affective response to behaviour, and affective response to environment. And then we analyse the relationship between three components of affective response and consumers’ attitude. In order to test the hypothesis, we launch a field study of new IT product trial (an electroencephalogram product) among 205 college students. Results reveal that affective response to product and behaviour have positive influence on attitude toward product; affective response to behaviour and environment have positive influence on attitude toward trial

The Quenching Timescale and Quenching Rate of Galaxies

The average star formation rate (SFR) in galaxies has been declining since the redshift of 2. A fraction of galaxies quench and become quiescent. We constrain two key properties of the quenching process: the quenching timescale and the quenching rate among galaxies. We achieve this by analyzing the galaxy number density profile in NUV−u color space and the distribution in NUV−u versus u − i color–color diagram with a simple toy-model framework. We focus on galaxies in three mass bins between 1010 and 1010.6 M ⊙. In the NUV−u versus u − i color–color diagram, the red u − i galaxies exhibit a different slope from the slope traced by the star-forming galaxies. This angled distribution and the number density profile of galaxies in NUV−u space strongly suggest that the decline of the SFR in galaxies has to accelerate before they turn quiescent. We model this color–color distribution with a two-phase exponential decline star formation history. The models with an e-folding time in the second phase (the quenching phase) of 0.5 Gyr best fit the data. We further use the NUV−u number density profile to constrain the quenching rate among star-forming galaxies as a function of mass. Adopting an e-folding time of 0.5 Gyr in the second phase (or the quenching phase), we found the quenching rate to be 19%/Gyr, 25%/Gyr and 33%/Gyr for the three mass bins. These are upper limits of the quenching rate as the transition zone could also be populated by rejuvenated red-sequence galaxies

Effect of Size and Shape of PDC Cutter on Wear Rate in Multi Layer Formation

During a normal drilling operation, the rate of penetration (ROP) often over focused while the wear rate is less taken care of. However, wear rate is a more severe problem faced in a long run drilling operation in multi-layer formation rather than focusing solely on the ROP. The project is to investigate the effect of Polycrystalline Diamond Compact (PDC) bit design features on the bit wear rate during the operation in multi-layer formation, which is sandstone formation and dolomite formation. The bit design features studied in the project is the shape of the cutters and the size of the cutters. The effect of drilling fluid is assumed to be optimum. Using ABAQUS, models with different shape of cutter and size of cutter are simulated and compared. Results are analyzed and compared to study the effects on wear rate and select the best model which has minimum wear rate. Result showed that 16mm size cutter and cone shape cutter are best design to minimize the cutter wear compared to other size and shape of cutter used in the project