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The slag and waste tires are among the major wastes associated with the mining and automobile sectors, respectively. The disposal of such large quantities of waste requires immediate attention. This manuscript focusses on the application of copper slag under unreinforced and reinforced conditions as a load-bearing filling material in shallow foundations. For this purpose, model footing tests were conducted on copper slag under central and eccentric-inclined loading. The locally available sand was used as a reference. The parameters studied included the placement density, type of loading, tire chip content, and depth of reinforced zone. The pressure settlement behaviour of the copper slag was superior to local sand under central vertical as well as under eccentric inclined loading conditions. Quantitively, the bearing capacity increased by up to 21 times, when compared to the locally available sand. Furthermore, when mixed with tire chips, the bearing capacity of the copper slag increased by up to 1.41 times to that of the unreinforced case. The leaching potential of the copper slag was evaluated using toxicity characteristic leaching procedure tests. It was observed that the concentrations of the leached elements were well below the regulatory limits prescribed by the US, EPA. Henceforth, it can be concluded that the use of copper slag as a load-bearing filling material not only prevents the disposal of this waste into valuable land but also works as a sustainable alternative to prevalent ground improvement methods.

In recent years, new media has been booming in our country. College students can learn about everything happening in the world in real time through the Internet, which speeds up their understanding and acceptance of information. However, due to the relatively simple environment the college students grew up in, the incomplete formation of their own values, and the mixture of information on the Internet, learning through the Internet can have adverse effects on the psychology of college students. Based on the in-depth and systematic exploration of the current situation on ideological and political education in colleges and universities, this paper analyzes the existing problems of ideological and political education in colleges and universities under the influence of new media. In view of these problems, an in-depth study on the innovation of ideological and political education in contemporary colleges and universities was conducted, and this paper puts forward relevant improvement methods for the discussion and exchange of the industry.

In this study aims to find about the implementation of a direct method in improving Arabic in the Modern Ar-Ridho Sentul Pondok, as Arabic as the language of the Koran revealed by Allah to the prophet Muhammad SAW, while in this discussion produced several important points, among others, the application of the direct method of language improvement is done by creating a good language environment (bi'ah lugowiyah), all pondok residents speak Arabic without exception, making activities that support the implementation of Arabic language improvement methods, namely conversation, contest drama and others, in an effort to implement direct methods there are driving and inhibiting factors in applying these methods, the hope of this research is to provide benefits to all those who wrestle in their respective fields both, from education practitioners, boarding schools, or researchers and readers Keywords: Ar-Ridho, Arabic, direct method, teaching

Most traditional soil improvement methods are time-consuming, expensive, require heavy machinery and environmentally detrimental. As a more ecofriendly ground improvement method, the biocementation...

The study focuses on characterizing the thermo-mechanical properties of SiCf/SiC using micromechanics finite element method (FEM) and multi-scale thermal–mechanical coupling asymptotic homogenization methods. A multi-scale model of fiber, fiber bundle and 2D woven SiCf/SiC has been established, while the predicted properties of the model are verified with the relevant experiments. The detailed steps to realize the micromechanical FEM are discussed, and the improvement methods have been put forward. To provide an optimal process of the micromechanical FEM based on the general software, different boundary and post-processing conditions are used and compared. Based on the traditional homogenization theory, the multi-scale thermal–mechanical coupling asymptotic homogenization method has also been developed to predict the thermo-mechanical properties of the RVE model with introduced realization. To verify the theoretical method, the properties of the 2D woven SiCf/SiC were predicted using micromechanics FEM and multi-scale thermal–mechanical coupling method, and the experimental analysis was carried out to compare with the predict results. The two methods exhibit errors in predicting the inter-layer directional performance, while the performance in other directions varies only slightly. The error between the most of the predicted values and experimental measurements is approximately 11%.

Molecular surface mesh generation plays a vital role in molecular modeling and visualization. However, meshes extracted directly from Protein Data Bank files have several issues such as small and large triangles, redundant elements, self-intersections, and irregular vertices. The state-of-the-art mesh improvement methods often fail to deal with these issues. In this paper, we present a novel method for valence optimization and angle improvement. For valence optimization, we remove the bad valence vertices with its neighbor triangle making regular holes in the mesh. The holes are filled in a careful manner to improve their valences as well as angle quality. We also use a segmentation-based surface remeshing which segments the mesh into random segments and then each segment is independently remeshed. In addition, a point insertion scheme is applied to minimize the ratio of obtuse triangles. Experimental results show that our method not only improves the maximal and minimal angles to an angle bound of $$[30^{\circ }\;120^{\circ }]$$ but also improves the vertices’ regularity, reduces the ratio of obtuse triangles, preserves the area and volume, and always succeeds with downstream applications.

Finite element analysis method is used to study the wrinkling of the inner wall of the “日”-shaped profile during the rotary draw bending process in this paper. Based on Abaqus/explicit platform, we establish finite element analysis (FEA) models of rotary draw bending process with flexible core device and rigid core device and discuss the improvement methods of two types of core and the causes of defects in profile forming. Comparing with the forming effect of two kinds of core devices in the rotary draw bending process through FEA, it is proved that adopting a rigid core device can reduce wrinkling obviously. It provides a theoretical basis for the reasonable design of the mold for the “日”-shaped section and has certain reference value for the actual production.

Biodiesel is a mixture of fatty acid alkyl esters (FAAEs) produced by transesterification, which has been promoted as a substitute for petroleum diesel in some areas of China. However, it shows poo...

Hesitant fuzzy linguistic preference relations (HFLPRs) are commonly used by decision makers when they are hesitant to express preferences. The use of HFLPRs in group decision-making (GDM) requires that the consistency of each HFLPR and consensus of the HFLPRs be acceptable. To ensure the reliability of using HFLPRs in GDM, a novel GDM model based on HFLPRs integrating the consistency and consensus improvement process is introduced. First, some novel consistency and consensus improvement methods by using an optimization technique are proposed for three actual cases: (1) the decision makers refuse to modify their opinions and the problem is without time pressure; (2) the decision makers are willing to modify their opinions and the problem is without time pressure; (3) the decision-making problem is under time pressure. For the former two cases, two iterative consistency and consensus improvement methods are introduced, and, for the last case, a method based on optimization models is introduced to modify the decision makers’ weights. A novel GDM model is given based on the proposed methods. Finally, an example is solved by using the proposed GDM model, and a comparison analysis is given.

Dada a importância da solução de problemas para a manutenção da qualidade em um processo, esse trabalho objetiva avaliar dois métodos de melhoria contínua amplamente utilizados para solução de problemas: o A3 e a Análise de Causa Raiz (RCA). Para esse fim, as duas abordagens foram aplicadas no mesmo processo, de prescrição e medicação, da emergência de um hospital universitário. Os resultados das aplicações foram verificados de acordo com os critérios: número de ações de melhoria propostas, dificuldade de implementação, a abrangência das ações entre as unidades do hospital, o tempo necessário para aplicação dos métodos, o número de envolvidos e a necessidade de capacitação da equipe. Os resultados demonstram que, no contexto avaliado, o método RCA resultou em um número maior de ações de melhoria sugeridas, as quais tiveram, em média, melhores avaliações nos critérios dificuldade de implementação e abrangência entre as unidades.

The high-altitude airships have great potential in military and civilian applications with the advantages of long endurance and low operating costs. Solar energy, which can be converted into electrical energy through photoelectric cells, plays an important role in the endurance performance of high-altitude airships. However, due to the insufficient efficiency of photoelectric cells, the energy supply is still a significant limitation for high-altitude airships. Although many researchers have proposed a number of techniques to improve the endurance of airships, different methods are suitable to diverse operation conditions, which will result in inefficiency and complexity in selection of optimized techniques. Therefore, it is necessary to present a detailed review on improvement methods of high-altitude airship endurance. According to the features and functional principles of energy system of high-altitude airships, the improvement methods are classified into two categories: increasing the output electrical energy and reducing the energy consumption caused by wind resistance. The current problems and future trends of these methods are also discussed. The results can provide a reasonable reference in the selection of endurance improvement methods for the designers and researchers.

At present, off-design centrifugal compressor suffers from great instabilities, such as rotating stall and surge, which lead to work failure, strong pressure fluctuations, and violent vibrations of the entire system. One cause of these instabilities is the rotating stall occurring in vaneless diffuser. In this review, recent researches on rotating stall of vaneless diffuser in centrifugal compressor are reviewed, and its inductive mechanism and characteristic description are emphatically introduced. In vaneless diffuser, the rotating stall starts up and fully develops under non-design conditions with the characteristic of increasing pressure fluctuation amplitude. The negative effects of rotating stall include reverse flow and vortex, both of which have significant effects on the instability of centrifugal compressors. Some improvement methods of rotating stall are also introduced, and a lot of examples are given. Finally, some suggestions and discussions are put forward for the future work.

The purpose of this article is to identify and investigate the factors affecting the accuracy of the control mechanism. The analysis has shown that the accuracy of the structure control is also affected by the cardan connection, including those associated with its manufacturing error. The analysis made it possible to propose methods for improving the hexapod design and control accuracy.

The Co-Current reactor gasifier is a promising technique, owing to its good performance and less residue content. Even though it can be used only for low moisture feedstock, it is needed improvement by incorporating modifications in the design of reactor, feeding system, air supply system, preheating air or feedstock, discharge system, recirculation technique, and co-gasification. Many of the researchers found that various improvement methods have been done to improve the performance of the gasifier at different operating condition. Therefore, in this paper a detailed review has been made to study about that developments of Co-Current gasifier and their effects on the performance of the gasifier. Further to improve the performance a suitable method for the gasifier is identified. A comparision with various methods reveals that design modification showed better performance, higher producer gas yield and less pollution.

The design and improvement of business processes is of central importance for realizing benefits of information systems. A broad spectrum of methods has been proposed since the 1990s, which ranges into several dozen. It is unclear whether this large number trivially stems from copying and relabeling or whether there are substantial differences in these methods that can be tied to their applicability in different contexts or to the pursuit of different goals. Accordingly, we ask: Which activities do process improvement methods have in common, how do they differ, and why? In this paper, we approach these research questions using a multi-method design integrating techniques from systematic literature review, process mining, and statistical analysis. Our contributions are as follows. First, we provide a framework with 264 activities clustered in six stages that could be used for incrementally and radically improving processes. Second, we find that methods map to different configurations of the three dimensions described by the redesign orbit. Third, we uncover similarities and differences of the different methods contingent to the factors industry, objectives and whether a method is proposed or applied. Fourth, we observe three distinct clusters of method activities, which show that different strategies play a role when choosing a method for improvement. Our findings have important implications for the application of improvement methods in various improvement scenarios.

In lieu of the conventional carbon-intensive and expensive cement-based ground improvement methods, microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) method has gained prominence recently as a susta...

A life-cycle sustainability assessment evaluated and compared the impacts of five ground improvement methods commonly implemented to mitigate liquefaction: compaction grouting, deep dynamic...

Prediction of the settlements and the lateral deformations of the ground are essential for the design of embankments. Several techniques are available to control embankment deformations by different construction and ground improvement methods. One frequently used method of improving soft ground is to provide a stiff reinforced granular bed (RGB) over soft ground. This paper presents the analysis of deformations of the embankment over RGB treating the system as a two-layer soil system consisting of a stiff layer over homogeneous soft clay layer as the foundation through incremental loading representing the staged construction of the embankment. The settlements and lateral deformations of the two-layer system are obtained using PLAXIS software. The results indicate that the toe displacement at the end of construction of the embankment gets reduced up to 60% of those without reinforced granular bed with the placement of RGB over soft ground.

In order to solve issues of air pollution, to monitor human health, and to promote agricultural production, gas sensors have been used widely. Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) gas sensors have become an important area of research in the field of gas sensing due to their high sensitivity, quick response time, and short recovery time for NO2, CO2, acetone, etc. In our article, we mainly focus on the gas-sensing properties of MOS gas sensors and summarize the methods that are based on the interface effect of MOS materials and micro–nanostructures to improve their performance. These methods include noble metal modification, doping, and core-shell (C-S) nanostructure. Moreover, we also describe the mechanism of these methods to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of energy barrier modulation and electron transfer for gas adsorption. Finally, we put forward a variety of research ideas based on the above methods to improve the gas-sensing properties. Some perspectives for the development of MOS gas sensors are also discussed.

A number of methods for improving organizational operations are becoming more common in human service organizations. Capacity building typically addresses enhancing management systems capacity in areas such as strategic planning, information systems, and fund development. Benchmarking and best practices are tools that can be used at the level of the entire organization or for specific service delivery practices to search for models that can be adapted to one’s own organization. Implementing evidence-based practices, known broadly as implementation science, is a very common organizational change challenge for human service organizations these days. Formal evidence-based practice implementation methods for human service organizations include the exploration, adoption/preparation, implementation, and sustainment model and the work of the National Implementation Research Network. Organizational learning and learning organization principles are become increasingly better known in human service organizations and actually represent an arena of organizational change that can help organizations develop ongoing methods for continuous improvement.

The significant problem on the machine learning is a pattern recognition. The recognition based on classification methods. There are many classification methods that use adaptive learning AI. The Genetic Algorithms are prominent for optimization but not good in classification. The authors try to find out and present new improvement methods based on the simple Genetic Algorithm and the classic XOR problem. We found how to make a Genetic Algorithm solve the classic problem. The break-through results encourage the researchers to reconsider Genetic Algorithm as a classifier.

This paper sets out to investigate the options available for the transition from Concrete Injected Columns (CICs) to other ground improvement methods, used away from the bridge abutment. Two possible alternatives, widely spaced CICs socketed into stiff material and shorter, closely spaced, frictional CICs, were numerically simulated using FLAC3D software considering the dissipation of porewater pressure and variation of soil permeability with time. The total length of the CICs and the total volume of concrete used for their construction were the same for both alternatives. A geosynthetic layer was introduced into the load transfer platform, and interface elements were incorporated to simulate CIC-soil interaction. The numerical results were also compared with an established analytical solution and a good agreement was achieved. A comparison was then made between the two scenarios; indeed, the embankment on frictional CICs experienced less settlement on the surface, less loads in the geosynthetic, and the bending moments and shear forces generated in the columns were less than the corresponding values for socketed CICs. This study offers an enhanced understanding of the available options to practising engineers when designing road embankments on soft soil.

Stone columns are one of the common types of ground improvement methods that applied to reduce the settlement and increase the stability of structures. This paper focuses on the non-uniform diamete...

The roundness quality of small meatballs, called Bakso Unyil, produced by PT X has been considered non-uniform and in-competitive. Hence, roundness quality improvement has been becoming one of the priorities for increasing consumer acceptance. This research aims to identify the causes of the poor quality of Unyil Meatballs roundness and find a solution. The improvement methods were: identification of the causes of low quality of roundness (Plan), improvement trials based on alternative solution (Do), and implementation of corrective actions (Action). A total of 60 meatballs samples were taken from three batches (for each batch of 20 samples). Ishikawa Diagram, and histogram were conducted and analysed. Implementation of alternative solutions to improve roundness quality that have been carried out as follows: 1). adjusting the amount of dough in mixing step, 2). the installation of temperature measuring equipment in the preheater, 3). Usage standardization of ice, 4). improvement of phosphate and salt mixing techniques, 5). removal of baking powder, and 6). turn of blades in mixing cake. Result showed that those improvements were not only improve the roundness quality of Unyil meatballs but also improve the smoothness and reducing wrinkle conditions on the surface of Unyil meatballs

Indoor localization is essential for healthcare, security, augmented reality gaming, and many other location-based services. There is currently a wealth of relevant literature on indoor localization. This article focuses on recent advances in indoor localization methods that use spatial context to improve the location estimation. Spatial context in the form of maps and spatial models have been used to improve the localization by constraining location estimates in the navigable parts of indoor environments. Landmarks such as doors and corners, which are also one form of spatial context, have proved useful in assisting indoor localization by correcting the localization error. This survey gives a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art indoor localization methods and localization improvement methods using maps, spatial models, and landmarks.

The South African fruit export industry is a key contributor to the country's economy, and must be managed efficiently to that ensure its vital role is maintained. Significant increases in reefer freight rates have placed substantial pressure on the fruit export industry to find new and innovative ways of improving the space / volume use of fruit in these reefer containers. Improvements must adhere to key constraints to ensure that fruit quality and shelf life are not compromised. This paper analyses the current potential for increasing the mass of stone and pome fruit that is exported in reefer containers. The study indicates that pome fruit has the greatest opportunity for improvement, whereas stone fruit has less room for improving the use of space / volume. Proposed improvement methods are: optimal packing arrangements of fruit; improved packaging and pallet dimensions (special pallet sizes); improved stacking arrangements of cartons on pallets and pallets in reefers; and lastly, the use of slip sheets instead of pallets. Die Suid-Afrikaanse vrugte uitvoer industrie is 'n belangrike bydraer tot die land se ekonomie, en moet doeltreffend bestuur word om te verseker dat hierdie rol volhou word. Beduidende toenames in koelhouer vragkostes het aansienlike druk op die vrugte uitvoer industrie geplaas om nuwe en innoverende maniere te vind om die spasie / volume benutting binne die koelhouers te verbeter. Verbeteringe moet voldoen aan belangrike beperkings om te verseker dat die kwaliteit en raklewe van vrugte nie benadeel word nie. Hierdie studie ontleed die potensiaal om die uitvoer massa van steen- en kernvrugte in verkoelde houers te verhoog. Die studie dui aan dat kernvrugte die grootste geleentheid bied vir verbetering, terwyl met steenvrugte daar minder potensiaal is om spasie / volume benutting te verbeter. Die voorgestelde verbeterings-metodes is soos volg: optimale verpakkingsreëlings van vrugte; verbeterde verpakking en palletafmetings (spesiale pallet-groottes); verbeterde stapelreëlings van kartonne op palette en palette in koelkashouers; en laastens, die gebruik van 'slip sheets' in plaas van palette.

Though the properties of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) are generally dominated by the very strong σ donating character, electronic activation has emerged as an effective method to cooperate with typical carbon-framework steric optimization for highly enantioselective chiral NHC–transition-metal catalysis in recent years. NHC electronic changes associated with structural variations are now better understood by quantitative analysis using various methods. Here we highlighted and correlated some interesting chiral induction improvement methods, which were brought by electronic and steric cooperation on chiral NHC–transition-metal catalysis.1 Introduction2 Hemilabile Sidechains on NHC Ligands3 Electronic and Bond Angle Changes Brought by NHC Core Size Variations4 Electronic Activators on the NHC Core5 Conjugated Systems and Fused Ring Structures6 Remote Electronic Activators on the N-Aryl Ring7 Summary and Outlook

Vacuum preloading–electro-osmosis is one of the most useful ground improvement methods for soft soil but is not widely used in practical engineering because of its high power consumption and poor electro-osmotic efficiency in the later stages. To overcome these drawbacks, a new method – vacuum preloading with stepped-voltage electro-osmosis – is proposed in this paper. Five laboratory tests were performed on dredged slurry. The results showed that an appropriate stepped-voltage method is not only better than the general combined method but also requires less power and results in less electrode corrosion. For different initial voltages, the results indicated that an appropriate increase in the initial voltage significantly increased the water discharge; however, a higher initial voltage did not further improve the dredged slurry and led to increased energy consumption.

Road infrastructure is a land transportation infrastructure that affects the development of an area. When infrastructure is damaged, distribution between regions will be disrupted and have an impact on regional economic development, in addition to the inconvenience felt by road users. This condition occurs on provincial roads in Pemalang District which are damaged. Roaddamage was caused by the passing of the Pemalang-Batang Toll Road construction project so that the volume of vehicles passing exceeded the capacity of the road. The high growth of traffic because economic growth can cause serious problems if it is notbalanced with the maintenance and improvement of the quality of existing road facilities and infrastructure. It is necessary to addroad infrastructure and good pavement planning and sustainable road maintenance so that road conditions remain safe andcomfortable to provide services for vehicle traffic. The purpose of this study is to find economic costs to repair road damage. Theresearch method used is descriptive quantitative method. This research was conducted at Jalan Letjend DI Panjaitan in PemalangDistrict. From the results of this analysis, it was found that the damage that occurred on Jalan Letjend DI. Panjaitan in PemalangDistrict according to the Bina Marga method shows the number of road conditions 58.30% (good), 10% (minor damage), and31.60% (heavily damaged). Improvement methods for good road conditions and minor damage are Bina Marga Standards andrepairs to heavily damaged road conditions using a rigid pavement method with a thickness of 25 cm. Total budget of Rp. 2,880,928,554.00 can save 72.57% compared to the calculation of Bina Marga Standards using overall pavement repairs.

The aim to be achieved from this research activity is to provide an overview of the factors and causes of cracks, labar and crack depth on the concrete slab of the vehicle floor of the parking building and recommendations for improvement methods. This research method is a used research method and is a success story of crack evaluation and handling methods that have been carried out. The results showed that the crack width that occurred was 0.624-1.022 mm vs. 0.33 mm, out of tolerance. The results of the deflection measurements also show an average deflection in the concrete slab of the vehicle floor is 5.8-10.5 Cm and indicates that the crack has reached the concrete reinforcement, out of tolerance. With the results of this study, it is recommended that improvements be made with crack injection methods using low-pressure injection tools and specifications of an epoxy resin material.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze a parallel system consisting of n dependent components with lifetimes following Weibull distribution. FGM Copula in multivariate case is used to generate the reliability function of the original system. A reduction method is introduced to improve system reliability. Other methods of hot, cold and warm duplication are established to improve system reliability. An application is introduced to show the results and compare between different improvement methods. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, a study of a parallel system consisting of n dependent and non-identical components is introduced. Reliability function of the original system is derived by using the concepts of copula, subject to Weibull distribution. Reliability function of the original system is improved according to reduction, hot duplication, warm and cold duplication methods. Reliability equivalence factors are introduced to compare between different system designs. Numerical illustration and real-time data application are discussed to show the results obtained in this paper. Findings Copulas can be used to model the reliability of systems with dependent units. Originality/value This paper is original. Improvement of the reliability of dependent systems is not discussed in literature. Copula is a useful tool to analyze the reliability of dependent systems. The introduced model is considered as a generalization of the models discussed in literature.

The Port of Brisbane (PoB) is located at the mouth of the Brisbane River at Fisherman Islands, Queensland, Australia. In 1999, PoB decided to expand into the sea using reclamation. While the readers are advised to browse the SHRP2 website and FHWA manual, in this book, the authors have simplified the guidance offered to provide a soft clay specific investigation and design process to identify and select, and carry out preliminary designs for ground improvement. The initial alert to the presence of soft clays should be made during the desk study of available information. Groundwater chemistry may also be important for some type of ground improvement methods. Mitchell and Jardine provide a simple but illustrative example of foundation options for a building to be constructed over a site underlain by soft clay. Usually, numerical analysis is considered a minimum for major projects because of the ramifications associated with differential settlements at critical locations.

With the continuous development of the Internet of Things and information technology, smart vending machines are becoming more and more popular and have great potential in the post-epidemic era. In the gym environment, based on the concept of public service, this paper proposes improvement methods and design strategies for the unreasonable design of the existing self-vending machines and poor product use experience. The research starts from the whole, coordinates the relationship between various interests, optimizes the service process, analyzes the buying behavior and psychology of users, and improves the design of smart vending machines from the perspective of users to provide new design ideas for the same type of retail machines.