Manufacturing system engineering ontology for semantic interoperability across extended project teams

Communication, knowledge sharing and awareness of available expertise are complex issues for any multidiscipline team. Complexity increases substantially in extended enterprise environments. The concepts of an MSE Moderator have previously been considered in environments with shared information models and vocabularies. These concepts are now translated to the realm of extended enterprises, where inevitably, individual partners will have their own terminology and information sources. An MSE Ontology is proposed to enable the operation of an extended enterprise MSE Moderator to provide common understanding of manufacturing-related terms, and therefore to enhance the semantic inter-operability and reuse of knowledge resources within globally extended manufacturing teams

Product design and manufacturing process improvement using association rules

Modern manufacturing systems equipped with computerized data logging systems collect large volumes of data in real time. The data may contain valuable information for operation and control strategies as well as providing knowledge of normal and abnormal operational patterns. Knowledge discovery in databases can be applied to these data to unearth hidden, unknown, representable, and ultimately useful knowledge. Data mining offers tools for discovery of patterns, associations, changes, anomalies, rules, and statistically significant structures and events in data. Extraction of previously unknown, meaningful information from manufacturing databases provides knowledge that may benefit many application areas within the enterprise, for example improving design or fine tuning production processes. This paper examines the application of association rules to manufacturing databases to extract useful information about a manufacturing system's capabilities and its constraints. The quality of each identified rule is tested and, from numerous rules, only those that are statistically very strong and contain substantial design information are selected. The final set of extracted rules contains very interesting information relating to the geometry of the product and also indicates where limitations exist for improvement of the manufacturing processes involved in the production of complex geometric shapes

Conversion of oil palm waste into value-added products through pyrolysis: a sensitivity and techno-economic investigation

In this study, an empirical model for the pyrolysis of major oil palm wastes (OPW) such as palm kernel shell (PKS), empty fruit bunches (EFB), and oil palm frond (OPF), and their blends is developed. Moreover, the techno-economic feasibility of the wastes is investigated to determine the type of waste that would be suitable for the commercialization of different types of products. According to the model results, the bio-oil dominates the pyrolysis process’ product output, accounting for 59.21, 50.51, 56.60, and 55.65% of PKS, EFB, OPF, and their blend, respectively. Whereas biochar yield is 23.21, 23.1, 22.95, and 23.08%, gas yield is 17.57, 26.38, 20.44, and 21.27%. The findings demonstrate that the feedstocks under consideration are mostly suitable for producing bio-oil. According to the economic analysis, PKS-based pyrolysis has the highest capital expenses (CAPEX), while EFB-based pyrolysis has the lowest CAPEX of all tested feedstocks. Furthermore, PKS has the highest operating expenses (OPEX) due to its relatively higher market price as well as higher moisture content, which necessitates more energy input during the drying stage. Among the feedstocks, OPF has delivered the highest profit of USD 17 M/year, with a 22% return on investment (ROI). In terms of investment capital payback period, all OPW feedstocks demonstrated a reasonable period of 4–6 years. Bio-oil is the most valuable pyrolysis product, with the highest market value when compared to biochar and syngas. The established prediction model can be utilized as a solid reference for biomass pyrolysis modelling studies. Furthermore, the predicted values are reasonable enough to be used in industrial process design.Other Information Published in: Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13399-022-03144-2</p

Effect of strigolactone on growth, photosynthetic efficiency, antioxidant activity, and osmolytes accumulation in different maize (<i>Zea mays</i> L.) hybrids grown under drought stress

Drought alters plant physiology, morphology, and biochemical pathways, necessitating effective mitigation strategies. Strigolactones (SLs) are phytohormones known to enhance plant growth under abiotic stress. However, their specific impact on drought stress in maize remains unclear. This study aimed to determine the optimal SL concentration for mitigating drought stress in two maize hybrids (HY-1898, FH-1046). Maize plants were subjected to 60% field capacity drought stress in a pot experiment. After 40 d, different concentrations (0, 0.001, 0.01, and 0.1 mg L−1) of the synthetic SL analogue GR24 were applied to evaluate their effects on growth features, photosynthesis attributes, and osmolyte accumulation in the maize hybrids. Results showed that exogenous SL application significantly increased photosynthetic pigments in maize hybrids under drought stress. Chlorophyll content, gas exchange characteristics, net CO2 assimilation rate, stomatal conductance, water use efficiency, and antioxidant activities were enhanced by GR24. Leaf ascorbic acid and total phenolics also increased with SL application. Organic osmolytes, such as glycine betaine and free proline, were elevated in both maize hybrids under drought stress. Yield-related parameters, including cob diameter, cob weight, number of seeds per cob, and number of seeds per plant, were significantly increased by GR24 under drought stress. Our findings highlight the potential of GR24 foliar application to mitigate drought stress and promote maize growth and grain yield in a concentration-dependent manner. The minimum effective SL concentration against drought stress was determined to be 0.01 mg L−1. Overall, foliar application of GR24 could serve as a sustainable approach for drought tolerance in agriculture.</p

Investigation of biomass components on the slow pyrolysis products yield using Aspen Plus for techno-economic analysis

Prior information on the pyrolysis product behaviour of biomass components-cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin is critical in the selection of feedstock as components have a significant influence on the pyrolysis products yield. In this study, the effect of biomass components on the yield of slow pyrolysis products (char, bio-oil and syngas) is investigated using a validated ASPEN Plus® model. The model is simulated at a temperature of 450 °C, a heating rate of 10 °C/min and a solid residence time of 30 min. The results indicated that at the given conditions, lignin contributed 2.4 and 2.5 times more char yield than cellulose and hemicellulose. The hemicellulose contributed 1.33 times more syngas yield than lignin while the cellulose and hemicellulose contributed 8.67 times more bio-oil yield than lignin. Moreover, the cost involved in the production of char using lignin (110 $/ton) is significantly economical than using cellulose (285$/ton) and hemicellulose (296 $/ton). The net CO2 emission of lignin pyrolysis is 4.14 times lower than cellulose pyrolysis and 3.94 times lower than hemicellulose pyrolysis. It can be concluded that lignin pyrolysis is more advantageous than cellulose and hemicellulose pyrolysis. In the selection of feedstock for the slow pyrolysis, the feedstock with more lignin content is preferred. Graphical abstractOther Information Published in: Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13399-020-01040-1</p

Surgical Outcomes.

<p>VAS data are given as mean±SD.</p><p>VAS, visual analog scale.</p><p>Surgical Outcomes.</p

Changes of heart rate after surgery for CSM.

<p>(A) Surgery for CSM decreased heart rate significantly in three hypertension stages. (B) Changes of heart rate after surgery in normotensive patients. (C) Comparison of the two approaches in decreasing heart rate in hypertensive patients. ***p<0.001.</p

Comparison of the two approaches in decreasing blood pressure.

<p>(A) Changes of SBP after surgery was analyzed to investigate which approach is more effective. (B) Changes of DBP after surgery was analyzed to investigate which approach is more effective. *p<0.05.</p

Changes of blood pressure after surgery for CSM.

<p>(A) Surgery for CSM decreased SBP significantly in three hypertension stages. (B) Surgery for CSM decreased DBP significantly in three hypertension stages. ***p<0.001. (C)Surgery for CSM had no effect on SBP in normotensive patients. (D) Surgery for CSM had no effect on DBP in normotensive patients.</p