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  • 1
    Publication Date: 2018-07-01
    Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2260: Activity Based Costing for Wastewater Treatment and Reuse under Uncertainty: A Fuzzy Approach Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10072260 Authors: Orlando Durán Paulo Andrés Durán The objective of this article is to present a methodology for computing and allocating wastewater recuperation costs using an Activity-Based Costing (ABC) methodology. One of the most critical problems in modelling those costs is the limited information and the subjectivity used to represent some of the cost’s elements (e.g., values, drivers, among others). Thus, a fuzzy ABC approach is incorporated into the methodology to overcome those limitations. The application of this methodology aims at providing an alternative procedure to allocating the costs related to wastewater management activities to products. To validate the proposed methodology and illustrate its utility, a case study using data from a bus assembly plant is provided. Part of the wastewater produced is coming from a surface treatment installation which, after a recovery process, reuse part of the same water in a closed loop circuit. Using the proposed Fuzzy ABC methodology, the costs (including uncertainty) of the surface treatment and water treatment activities can be appropriately allocated to the products that generate those activities and that waste.
    Electronic ISSN: 2071-1050
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Published by MDPI Publishing
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  • 2
    Publication Date: 2018-02-01
    Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 362: Sustainable Overall Throughputability Effectiveness (S.O.T.E.) as a Metric for Production Systems Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10020362 Authors: Orlando Durán Andrea Capaldo Paulo Duran Acevedo This paper proposes a new index for a comprehensive and systematic measurement of sustainability and throughput performance in production systems. The proposed index, called Sustainable Overall Throughput Effectiveness (S.O.T.E.), is designed on the basis of a comparison of the environmental and operational factors. Specifically, it integrates the following four dimensions: availability, utilization, performance, and environmental sustainability. The way each dimension is measured is explained and justified. This index uses the overall environmental equipment effectiveness (OEEE) index, which is based on the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) index. However, such metrics are lacking at the factory level, because OEEE, as well as the OEE, is devoted to equipment-level. Its application and potential contribution to the analysis of sustainable throughput is demonstrated through a case study in an actual crushing plant. Through examining several hypotheses concerning the relationship between operational and environmental performance, a series of useful conclusions could be raised. The main difference and advantage of the proposed S.O.T.E. is that S.O.T.E., as it is based on the Overall Throughput Effectiveness (OTE), measures factory-level sustainability and operational performance. S.O.T.E. allows us to relate the impact of the overall effectiveness of each one of the components of the index to each piece of equipment that makes a part of the production systems. Furthermore, S.O.T.E., as OTE, take into account the production system configuration (series, parallel, assembly, etc.).
    Electronic ISSN: 2071-1050
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Published by MDPI Publishing
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  • 3
    Publication Date: 2017-10-20
    Description: Energies, Vol. 10, Pages 1653: Lean Maintenance Applied to Improve Maintenance Efficiency in Thermoelectric Power Plants Energies doi: 10.3390/en10101653 Authors: Orlando Duran Andrea Capaldo Paulo Duran Acevedo Thermoelectric power plants consist of a set of critical equipment that require high levels of availability and reliability. Due to this, maintenance of these physical assets is gaining momentum in industry. Maintenance is considered as an activity that contributes to improving the availability, efficiency and productivity of each piece of equipment. Several techniques have been used to achieve greater efficiencies in maintenance, among which we can find the lean maintenance philosophy. Despite the wide diffusion of lean maintenance, there is no structured method that supports the prescription of lean tools applied to the maintenance function. This paper presents the experience gathered in two lean maintenance projects in thermoelectric power plants. The application of lean techniques was based on using a previously developed multicriterial decision making process that uses the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology to carry out a diagnosis and prescription tasks. That methodology allowed the prescription of the appropriated lean techniques to resolve the main deficiencies in maintenance function. The results of applying such lean tools show that important results can be obtained, making the maintenance function in thermoelectric power plants more efficient and lean.
    Electronic ISSN: 1996-1073
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Published by MDPI Publishing
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  • 4
    Publication Date: 2015-10-16
    Description: This paper presents a novel method to compensate for hysteresis nonlinearities observed in the response of a tactile sensor. The External Loop Adaptation Method (ELAM) performs a piecewise linear mapping of the experimentally measured external curves of the hysteresis loop to obtain all possible internal cycles. The optimal division of the input interval where the curve is approximated is provided by the error minimization algorithm. This process is carried out off line and provides parameters to compute the split point in real time. A different linear transformation is then performed at the left and right of this point and a more precise fitting is achieved. The models obtained with the ELAM method are compared with those obtained from three other approaches. The results show that the ELAM method achieves a more accurate fitting. Moreover, the involved mathematical operations are simpler and therefore easier to implement in devices such as Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs) for real time applications. Furthermore, the method needs to identify fewer parameters and requires no previous selection process of operators or functions. Finally, the method can be applied to other sensors or actuators with complex hysteresis loop shapes.
    Electronic ISSN: 1424-8220
    Topics: Chemistry and Pharmacology , Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
    Published by MDPI Publishing
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  • 5
    Publication Date: 2015-12-17
    Description: Direct sensor–digital device interfaces measure time dependent variables of simple circuits to implement analog-to-digital conversion. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are devices whose hardware can be reconfigured to work in parallel. They usually do not have analog-to-digital converters, but have many general purpose I/O pins. Therefore, direct sensor-FPGA connection is a good choice in complex systems with many sensors because several capture modules can be implemented to perform parallel analog data acquisition. The possibility to work in parallel and with high frequency clock signals improves the bandwidth compared to sequential devices such as conventional microcontrollers. The price to pay is usually the resolution of measurements. This paper proposes capture modules implemented in an FPGA which are able to perform smart acquisition that filter noise and achieve high precision. A calibration technique is also proposed to improve accuracy. Resolutions of 12 effective number of bits are obtained for the reading of resistors in the range of an example piezoresistive tactile sensor.
    Electronic ISSN: 1424-8220
    Topics: Chemistry and Pharmacology , Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
    Published by MDPI Publishing
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  • 6
    Publication Date: 2016-02-02
    Description: Resistive sensor arrays are formed by a large number of individual sensors which are distributed in different ways. This paper proposes a direct connection between an FPGA and a resistive array distributed in M rows and N columns, without the need of analog-to-digital converters to obtain resistance values in the sensor and where the conditioning circuit is reduced to the use of a capacitor in each of the columns of the matrix. The circuit allows parallel measurements of the N resistors which form each of the rows of the array, eliminating the resistive crosstalk which is typical of these circuits. This is achieved by an addressing technique which does not require external elements to the FPGA. Although the typical resistive crosstalk between resistors which are measured simultaneously is eliminated, other elements that have an impact on the measurement of discharge times appear in the proposed architecture and, therefore, affect the uncertainty in resistance value measurements; these elements need to be studied. Finally, the performance of different calibration techniques is assessed experimentally on a discrete resistor array, obtaining for a new model of calibration, a maximum relative error of 0.066% in a range of resistor values which correspond to a tactile sensor.
    Electronic ISSN: 1424-8220
    Topics: Chemistry and Pharmacology , Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
    Published by MDPI Publishing
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  • 7
    Publication Date: 2016-01-26
    Description: One of the most suitable ways of distributing a resistive sensor array for reading is an array with M rows and N columns. This allows reduced wiring and a certain degree of parallelism in the implementation, although it also introduces crosstalk effects. Several types of circuits can carry out the analogue-digital conversion of this type of sensors. This article focuses on the use of operational amplifiers with capacitive feedback and FPGAs for this task. Specifically, modifications of a previously reported circuit are proposed to reduce the errors due to the non-idealities of the amplifiers and the I/O drivers of the FPGA. Moreover, calibration algorithms are derived from the analysis of the proposed circuitry to reduce the crosstalk error and improve the accuracy. Finally, the performances of the proposals is evaluated experimentally on an array of resistors and for different ranges.
    Electronic ISSN: 1424-8220
    Topics: Chemistry and Pharmacology , Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
    Published by MDPI Publishing
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  • 8
    Publication Date: 2012-08-30
    Description: In this paper compact alignment and position sensors based on coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission lines loaded with split ring resonators (SRRs) are proposed. The structure consists of a folded CPW loaded with two SRRs tuned at different frequencies to detect both the lack of alignment and the two-dimensional linear displacement magnitude. Two additional resonators (also tuned at different frequencies) are used to detect the displacement direction. The working principle for this type of sensor is explained in detail, and a prototype device to illustrate the potential of the approach has been designed and fabricated.
    Electronic ISSN: 1424-8220
    Topics: Chemistry and Pharmacology , Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
    Published by MDPI Publishing
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  • 9
    Publication Date: 2011-07-30
    Description: The symmetry properties of split ring resonators (SRRs) are exploited for the implementation of novel sensing devices. The proposed structure consists of a coplanar waveguide (CPW) loaded with movable SRRs on the back substrate side. It is shown that if the SRRs are placed with the slits aligned with the symmetry plane of the CPW, the structure is transparent to signal propagation. However, if the symmetry is broken, a net axial magnetic field can be induced in the inner region of the SRRs, and signal propagation is inhibited at resonance. The proposed structures can be useful as alignment sensors, position sensors and angle sensors. This novel sensing principle is validated through experiment.
    Electronic ISSN: 1424-8220
    Topics: Chemistry and Pharmacology , Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
    Published by MDPI Publishing
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  • 10
    Publication Date: 2014-10-15
    Description: This study examined associations between alcohol misuse and childhood maltreatment and out-of-home placement among urban lesbian, gay, and bisexual (referred to as two-spirit) American Indian and Alaska Native adults. In a multi-site study, data were obtained from 294 individuals who consumed alcohol during the past year. The results indicated that 72.3% of men and 62.4% of women engaged in hazardous and harmful alcohol use and 50.8% of men and 48.7% of women met criteria for past-year alcohol dependence. The most common types of childhood maltreatment were physical abuse among male drinkers (62.7%) and emotional abuse (71.8%) among female drinkers. Men and women reported high percentages of out-of-home placement (39% and 47%, respectively). Logistic multiple regressions found that for male drinkers boarding school attendance and foster care placement were significant predictors of past-year alcohol dependence. For female drinkers, being adopted was significantly associated with a decreased risk of past-year drinking binge or spree. Dose-response relationships, using number of childhood exposures as a predictor, were not significant. The results highlight the need for alcohol and violence prevention and intervention strategies among urban two-spirit individuals.
    Print ISSN: 1661-7827
    Electronic ISSN: 1660-4601
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Medicine
    Published by MDPI Publishing
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