60 research outputs found
Business process improvement using multi-objective optimisation
No full textBusiness process redesign and improvement has become an increasingly attractive subject in the wider area of business process intelligence. Although there have been many attempts to establish a business process redesign framework, there is little work on the actual optimisation of business processes with given objectives. Furthermore, most of the attempts to optimise a business process are manual and do not involve a formal automated methodology. This paper proposes a process improvement approach for automated multi-objective optimisation of business processes. The proposed framework uses a generic business process model that is formally defined. The formal definition of business processes is necessary to ensure that the optimisation will take place in a clearly defined, repeatable and verifiable way. Multi-objectivity is expressed in terms of process cost and duration as two key objectives for any business process. The business process model is programmed and incorporated into a software optimisation platform where a selection of multi-objective optimisation algorithms can be applied to a business process design. This paper outlines a case study of business process design that is optimised by the state-of-the-art multi-objective optimisation algorithm NSGA2. The results indicate that, although business process optimisation is a highly constrained problem with fragmented search space, a number of alternative optimised business processes that meet the optimisation criteria can be produced. The paper also provides directions for future research in this area
Project Execution and Offshore Field Development in the Current Oil Market Downturn
No full textThis Record of Study presents the author���s experience in the capacity of riser lead and technical advisor working on multiple engineering and management project assignments by Cuneiform Offshore Consulting (Cuneiform). Cuneiform is a consulting firm based in Houston, Texas, specialized in providing engineering, technical advisory and project management services to the offshore energy industry.
The author provided direct technical and managerial support to several of Noble Energy���s field developments in Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and Eastern Mediterranean; and, performed CVA (Certified Verification Agent) duties on behalf of BSEE (Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement) by conducting riser design, fabrication and installation verification for risers intended for operation in two different GOM developments.
The author���s assignments were comprised of different technical and managerial challenges related to design, engineering, fabrication and installation of offshore risers. A fundamental goal and imperative challenge was to minimize project execution and operational risks and costs.
The author emphasizes the importance of correct hazard identification, appropriate risk assessments, good decision making and judgement to ensure the health, safety and protection of the offshore personnel, the public and the environment, as well as the avoidance of incidents through proper riser design and proper execution to help safeguard the offshore asset and the interest of all stakeholders.
The engineering and execution of offshore dynamic risers require a detailed understanding of the internal and external environment and interfaces. Early assessment of key design considerations during feasibility and concept selection phases was of utmost importance as it allowed for the identification of technical gaps and risk evaluation. Indeed, particular attention was given to the riser type selection philosophy with respect to host floater types, field configurations, environmental conditions, and fluid properties amongst primary parameters.
Moreover, the author���s experience highlights the importance of staffing, teamwork, communication, planning, management, leadership and decision making as key factors and challenges to the overall project execution success.
Furthermore, organizational elements such as talent identification, retention and acquisition; continuous investment into innovation and R&D; risk assessment and minimization; ability to adapt to changing market demands; cost control; and maintaining a cash flow positive organization with access to capital are found to contribute to an enhanced operational efficiency.
The thorough assessment of outcomes for each project provided valuable technical and managerial lessons. The acquired experience and proper implementation of the gathered lessons from past projects enables better execution of future projects.
Finally, the overall outcome and success of any project can be judged by assessing its technical rigor and robustness as well as the efficacy in its managerial decisions, approaches, processes, priorities and execution
Dental Anomalies in Primary Dentition among Arabian Children: A Hospital-Based Study
No full textAn observational study was carried out in a teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia to determine the occurrence of dental anomalies among Arabian children. The study included children of Saudi nationality with primary teeth. The study assessed the prevalence of dental anomalies in their primary dentition. The assessment and data collection were conducted by a single examiner, utilizing clinical examination and intra-oral radiographs. A comparative analysis was conducted to examine dental anomalies in relation to gender (boys and girls) and arch type (maxillary and mandibular). In addition, the study explored the occurrence of gender-specific dental anomalies depending on arch type. The data analysis was conducted using IBM Statistics (version 21.0) with a significance level of p < 0.05. In total, there were 245 children included in the final analysis. The study population consisted of boys (66%) and girls (34%), with an average age of 4.87 ± 0.9 years. Taurodontism was the most prevalent dental abnormality, occurring in 2.8% of the individuals in the study sample. The study sample exhibited hypodontia in 2%, supernumerary teeth in 2.4%, double teeth in 2%, and microdontia in 1.2%. Talon cusp and macrodontia have a relatively low incidence of 0.4%. Boys exhibit supernumerary teeth, microdontia, macrodontia, talon cusp, and taurodontism, whereas hypodontia and double teeth were more frequent in girls
Plan d'Izmir 1923
No full textKnjiga faksimila planova Izmira iz 1923. godine objavljena je 2024. godine. Autor knjige je Çinar Atay, glavna urednica Dragana Lucija Ratković Aydemir, izdavač Doubletriangle Troas Production SRL, priprema za tisak i tisak Metro Basim Hizmetleri A. Ş. Knjiga je tvrdo uvezana, nosi oznaku ISBN 978-625-98335-0-7, širina knjige 35 cm, visina 51 cm, broj stranica 74, napisana je na engleskom jeziku. Sadrži faksimile 28 listova plana Izmira. Donator je bio H. Oğuz Aydemir.The book of facsimile plans of Izmir from 1923 was published in 2024. The author of the book is Çinar Atay, editor-in-chief Dragana Lucija Ratković Aydemir, publisher Doubletriangle Troas Production SRL, prepress and printing Metro Basim Hizmetleri A. Ş. The book is hardbound, with ISBN 978-625-98335-0-7; the width of the book is 35 cm, the height is 51 cm, the number of pages is 74, and it is written in English. It contains facsimiles of 28 sheets of the plan of Izmir. The donor was H. Oğuz Aydemir
Perceptions and Preventive Practices Regarding COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak and Oral Health Care Perceptions during the Lockdown: A Cross-Sectional Survey from Saudi Arabia
No full textAims: The study aimed to evaluate perceptions and preventive practices regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and oral health care perceptions during the lockdown in the Saudi Arabian population. Materials and Method: This cross-sectional study was performed by collecting the data from individuals belonging to various parts of the Saudi Arabian Population through an online self-reported questionnaire. The questionnaire had two main parts: first comprised of demographic data include the region of residence, gender, nationality, age, the number of family members, monthly income of the family, and the second was further divided into three sections of perception (P), practice (PRA) and oral health care practice (D) questions. All these (P, PRA, and D) were analyzed by comparing all of the demographic characteristics. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS IBM (version 21.0), and statistical significance was set at a 5% level. Results: Overall, 2013 participants (54% males and 46% females) contributed to the Saudi Arabia study. Only 5% of non-Saudis live in Saudi Arabia were participated in the study, while the majority of participants were of 21–40 years age group (45%), 59% of having more than five family members, and 60% of them had ≤10 K Suadi riyal monthly income respectively. The majority of the participants were from Riyadh (33.7%) and Asir (25.1%) in the study. Overall, 89.5% of the participants were aware of the COVID-19 global pandemic. The majority of the participants (55%) from Saudi Arabia utilized the Ministry of Health website, a source of information regarding COVID-19. However, 56.5% of the participants had COVID-19 related perception, and 74.3% followed an appropriate preventive practice. Approximately 60% had good oral health practice. The study participants showed mixed opinions on perceptions regarding COVID-19, preventive practice, and oral health practices. Conclusion: The present study suggested that the Saudi Arabian population has good attention to COVID-19, but preventive practice and oral health perception need better awareness to control this novel virus spread. The Ministry of Health website utilized as a significant source of information among the Saudi Arabian population regarding COVID-19
Influence of Tooth Brushing and Previous Dental Visits on Dental Caries Status among Saudi Arabian Children
No full textObjective: To evaluate the dental caries status and its association with tooth brushing frequency and previous dental visits among Arabian children. Methods: Arabian school children attend a specialty pediatric dental clinic at Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia. Only children of Saudi origin with primary dentition were included in the study, and only one examiner was involved in the assessment and data collection. The parents of children completed a questionnaire to investigate possible explanatory variables for caries status, including tooth brushing frequency and previous dental visits. Dental caries were diagnosed according to the criteria recommended by the World Health Organization (2013). The comparison performed was based on sex, age, tooth brushing frequency, and previous dental visits. The descriptive statistics were carried out using SPSS (version 21.0) with a p-value of <0.05 significance. Results: The study involved 268 Saudi children with a mean age of 4.6 ± 1.1 years. The caries prevalence was 78.8%, and the mean dmft was 5.82 ± 4.48, while the overall mean scores for decayed, missing, and filled were 3.903 ± 3.69, 1.18 ± 1.69, and 0.73 ± 1.35, respectively. The mean dmft scores for the <3 years, 3.1–6 years, and >6 years old children were found to be 1.74, 6.58, and 4.58, respectively. Among the children, the females reported higher dmf scores (7.51 ± 4.18) compared to males (4.97 ± 4.39) with a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001). Fifty percent of the children had tooth brushing habits of once daily, followed by never (22.4%), twice daily (15.7%), and rarely (11.2%) brushed their teeth. Statistically significant correlations were found between the children’s dental caries status, age, and dental visits, while sex and tooth brushing did not find a correlation. Conclusion: The prevalence of dental caries among Arabian preschool children was higher. Mandibular second molars were commonly affected by dental caries, while mandibular central incisors were less frequently affected. The child’s age and frequency of dental checkups were positively related to the prevalence of dental caries
USTALANIE AUTORSTWA LISTÓW SAMOBÓJCÓW: DOWODY NA PODSTAWIE OPINI BIEGŁYCH Z ZAKRESU JĘZYKOZNAWSTWA STOSOWANEGO
No full textAuthorship attribution is a branch of authorship identification whose aim is to examine the characteristic features of a piece of writing to establish its author. The present study applies the methods and techniques of forensic and applied linguistics to the analysis of a suicide note believed to have been written by a 49-year old brigadier in the Iraqi Army who was found shot in the head. The accident was regarded as a suicidal act, which the family of the deceased challenged. They suspected an assassination disguised as a suicide and claimed that the suicide note left close to the deceased was either a mere fabrication, or was written under duress. The present study attempts to verify these assumptions using the techniques commonly followed in authorship attribution in analyzing the form and content of the suicide note and comparing it to a text that is known to have been written by the deceased. The results indicate that the suicide note was not simulated or tampered with and was not written under threat or duress.Ustalanie autorstwa tesktów polega na analizie dyskursu stosowanego przez domniemnaego autora tekstu w celu odnalezienia typowych dla jego idiolektu cech. W niniejszym artykule przedstawiono analizę listu samobójcy, którym był 49 letni brygadier z Armii Iraku, którego znaleziono z raną postrzałową głowy. Rodzina zmarłego poddała w wątpliwość fakt popełnienia przez niego samobójstwa, twierdząc, że list został bądź sfabrykowany bądż napisany pod wpływem groźby. Badanie listu przy wykorzystaniu technik językoznawstwa sądowego i stosowanego wykazało, że list nie był ani sfałszowany, ani napisanie go nie zostało wymuszone na autorze
TTT-plots for CM of rolling element bearings in paper mills
No full textIn general, it is easier to detect that some sort of damage has occurred in rolling element bearings than to accurately assess damage severity and the risk of failure if no replacement is done when using vibration-based maintenance. When the vibration level of a rolling element bearing is increasing, close to or greater than the predetermined replacement level, the assessment of the probability of a bearing's failure enhances the decision making process. Thus, at each vibration measurement a decision has to be made regarding whether the bearing needs to be replaced and how urgent it is actually. The paper describes a graphical method for both assessing the probability of failure of damaged rolling element bearing and predicting the residual of its effective life. It uses history of the bearing in question and life statistics as well as the vibration levels at failure/condition-based replacements of past bearings of the same design or very similar performing and duties. This method is based on the concept of Total Time on Test, M-plot. The application of TTT-plot on age and condition-based maintenance techniques are discussed and two examples are presented. This graphical method is developed from previous work by the author and others.</p
Total Time on Test, TTT-plots for Condition Monitoring of Rolling Element Bearings in Paper Mills
No full textWhen using vibration-based maintenance, it is easier to detect damage in rolling element bearings. But the damage severity and risk of bearing's failure, if no maintenance action such as replacement is done, can not be assessed accurately. When the vibration level of a rolling element bearing is increasing or it is close to (or greater than) a predetermined replacement level, the assessment of the probability of a bearing’s failure enhances the decision making process. Thus, at each vibration measurement occasion a decision has to be made regarding whether the bearing needs to be maintained and how urgent it actually is.The paper describes a graphical method for both assessing the probability of failure of damaged rolling element bearing and predicting the residual of its effective life. It uses history of the bearing in question and life statistics as well as the vibration levels at failure/condition-based replacements of past bearings of the same design or of very similar performance and duties. This method is based on the concept of Total Time on Test, TTT-plot. The application of TTT-plot on age and condition-based maintenance techniques are discussed and described by two examples. This graphical method is developed from previous work by the author and others. </p
- …
