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Article
Publication date: 12 June 2017

Suraj R. and Jithish K.S.

This paper aims to present a comparative study of the wear properties of ferrous welded materials like EN8, EN9 and mild steel (MS).

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present a comparative study of the wear properties of ferrous welded materials like EN8, EN9 and mild steel (MS).

Design/methodology/approach

The material is cut into specific dimension after hardfacing and is studied for the wear properties of the material. The wear testing is done on a pin-on-disc apparatus. The microhardness of the material is studied using the Vickers microhardness measuring apparatus.

Findings

The wear properties of ferrous welded materials like EN8, EN9 and MS are studied. It is found the MS has the least wear when compared to EN8 and EN9. The microhardness of MS is higher than EN8 and EN9, thus making it more wear-resistant than EN8 and EN9. The coefficient of friction in the dry sliding condition is found to be constant throughout the experiment.

Research limitations/implications

Major restriction is the amount of time required for use-wear analysis and replication experiments that are necessary to produce reliable results. These limitations mean that the analysis of total assemblages with the intention of producing specific results, especially of worked materials, is not feasible.

Practical implications

Generally, the complexity and rigour of the analysis depend primarily on the engineering needs and secondarily on the wear situation. It has been the author’s experience that simple and basic wear analyses, conducted in the proper manner, are often adequate in many engineering situations. Integral and fundamental to the wear analysis approach is the treatment of wear and wear behaviour as a system property. As a consequence, wear analysis is not limited to the evaluation of the effects of materials on wear behaviour. Wear analysis often enables the identification of nonmaterial solutions or nonmaterial elements in a solution to wear problems. For example, changes in or recommendations for contact geometry, roughness, tolerance and so on are often the results of a wear analysis.

Originality/value

The value of the work lies in the utility of the results obtained to researchers and users of the EN8, EN9 and EN24 material for their components.

Details

World Journal of Engineering, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1708-5284

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 October 2015

M. P. Jenarthanan, A Ram Prakash and R Jeyapaul

The purpose of this paper is to develop a mathematical model for optimizing the metal removal rate (MRR) through Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The developed model helps us…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a mathematical model for optimizing the metal removal rate (MRR) through Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The developed model helps us to analyze the influence of individual input machining parameters (cutting speed, feed rate, weight percentage) on the responses in machining of Al-TiB2 composite.

Design/methodology/approach

RSM is used to optimize the MRR by developing a mathematical model. Three factors, three-level box Behnken design matrix in RSM is employed to carry out the experimental investigation. The “Design Expert 8.0” software is used for regression and graphical analysis of the data are collected. The optimum values of the selected variables are obtained by solving the regression equation and by analyzing the response surface contour plots. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is applied to check the validity of the model and for finding the significant parameters.

Findings

The response surface model developed, helps to calculate the MRR at different input cutting parameters with the chosen range with more than 95 per cent confidence intervals.

Originality/value

The effect of machining parameters on MRR during machining of Al-TiB2 composites using RSM has not been previously analyzed.

Details

Multidiscipline Modeling in Materials and Structures, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1573-6105

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 4 May 2021

Nadeem Ahmad, Sirajuddin Ahmed, Viola Vambol and Sergij Vambol

All those effluent streams having compromised characteristics pose negative effects on the environment either directly or indirectly. Health care facilities and hospitals also…

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Abstract

Purpose

All those effluent streams having compromised characteristics pose negative effects on the environment either directly or indirectly. Health care facilities and hospitals also generate a large amount of effluent like other industries containing harmful and toxic pharmaceutical residual compounds due to uncontrolled use of drugs, besides others. The occurrence of antibiotic in the environment is of utmost concern due to development of resistant genes. These get mixed up with ground and surface water due to lack of proper treatment of hospital wastewater. The effect of pharmaceutical compounds on human society and ecosystem as a whole is quite obvious. There are no strict laws regarding discharge of hospital effluent in many countries. Contrary to this, the authors do not have appropriate treatment facilities and solution to solve day by day increasing complexity of this problem. Moreover, water discharged from different health facilities having variable concentration often gets mixed with municipal sewage, thus remains partially untreated even after passing from conventional treatment plants. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the occurrences and fate of such harmful compounds, need of proper effluent management system as well as conventionally adopted treatment technologies nowadays all around the globe. This mini-review would introduce the subject, the need of the study, the motivation for the study, aim, objectives of the research and methodology to be adopted for such a study.

Design/methodology/approach

Hospital effluents consisting of pathogens, fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, etc, including phenols, detergents, toxic elements like cyanide and heavy metals such as copper (Cu), iron (Fe), gadolinium (Gd), nickel (Ni), platinum (Pt), among others are commonly detected nowadays. These unwanted compounds along with emerging pollutants are generally not being regulated before getting discharged caused and spread of diseases. Various chemical and biological characteristics of hospital effluents are assessed keeping in the view the threat posed to ecosystem. Several research studies have been done and few are ongoing to explore the different characteristics and compositions of these effluent streams in comparison so as to suggest the suitable conventional treatment techniques and ways to manage the problem. Several antibiotic groups such as ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, sulfa pyridine, trimethoprim, metronidazole and their metabolites are reported in higher concentration in hospital effluent. The aquatic system also receives a high concentration of pharmaceutical residues more than 14,000 μg/L from treatment plants also and other surface water or even drinking water in Indian cities. Many rivers in southern parts of India receives treated water have detected high concentration drugs and its metabolites. As far as global constraints that need to be discussed, there are only selected pharmaceuticals compounds generally analyzed, issue regarding management and detection based on method of sampling, frequency of analysis and observation, spatial as well as temporal concentration of these concerned micropollutants, accuracy in detecting these compounds, reliability of results and predictions, prioritization and the method of treatment in use for such type of wastewater stream. The complexity of management and treatment as well need to be addressed with following issues at priority: composition and characterization of effluent, compatible and efficient treatment technology that needs to be adopted and the environment risk posed by them. The problem of drugs and its residues was not seen to be reported in latter part of 20th century, but it might be reported locally in some part of globe. This paper covers some aspect about the disposal and regulatory standard around the world toward hospital effluent discharge, its managements and treatment technologies that are adopted and best suitable nowadays various industries and monitoring the efficiencies of existing treatment systems. This mini-review would introduce the subject, the need, the motivation and objectives of the study and methodology can be adopted for such a study.

Findings

The compiled review gives a complete view about the types of antibiotics used in different health care facilities, their residue formation, occurrences in different ecosystems, types of regulations or laws available in different counties related to disposal, different type of treatment technologies, innovative combined treatment schemes and future action needed to tackle such type of effluent after its generation. The thesis also highlights the use of certain innovative materials use for the treatment like nanoparticles. It also discusses about the residues impact on the human health as well as their bioaccumulative nature. If the authors relate the past to the current scenario of pharmaceutical compounds (PhACs) in the environment, the authors will certainly notice that many diseases are nowadays not curable by simple previously prescribed Ab. Many research projects have been done in European countries that have shown the risk of such residues like Pills, Sibell, Poseidon, No pills, Neptune, Knappe, Endetech, etc. In the previous section, it was mentioned that there are no stringent laws for hospital wastewater and in many countries, they are mixed with domestic wastewater. Many difficulties are there with this research due to complex analysis, detection of targeted Ab, affecting waterbodies rate of flow, nature of treatment varies with season to season. The way nature is being degraded and harmful effect are being imposed, it is important to take immediate and decisive steps in this area. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) serves as a nursery for antibiotic-resistant systems, hence monitoring with great attention is also needed. Many trials with different treatment process, in combination, were considered. Many countries are paying great attention to this topic by considering the severity of the risk involved in it.

Research limitations/implications

Previous studies by several scientists show that the pharmaceutical residues in the discharged effluent displayed direct toxic effects, and sometimes, detrimental effects in the mixture were also observed. The discharge of untreated effluent from hospitals and pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the natural ecosystem poses a significant threat to human beings. The pharmaceuticals, like antibiotics, in the aquatic environment, accelerate the development of the antibiotic-resistant genes in bacteria, which causes fatal health risks to animals and human beings. Others, like analgesics, are known to affect development in fishes. They also degrade the water quality and may lead to DNA damage, toxicity in lower organisms like daphnia and have the potential to bioaccumulate. A few commonly used nanoadsorbents for water and wastewater treatment along with their specific properties can also be used. The main advantages of them are high adsorption capacity and superior efficiency, their high reusability, synthesis at room temperatures, super magnetism, quantum confinement effect as well as eco-toxicity. This review will focus on the applicability of different nanoscale materials and their uses in treating wastewater polluted by organic and inorganic compounds, heavy metals, bacteria and viruses. Moreover, the use of various nanoadsorbents and nano-based filtration membranes is also examined.

Practical implications

A number of different pharmaceutical residues derived from various activities like production facilities, domestic use and hospitals have been reported earlier to be present in groundwater, effluents and rivers, they include antibiotics, psycho-actives, analgesics, illicit drugs, antihistamine, etc. In past few years environmental scientists are more concerned toward the effluents generated from medical care facilities, community health centers and hospitals. Various chemical and biological characteristics of hospital effluents have been assessed keeping in the view the common threats pose by them to the entire ecosystem. In this study, seven multispecialty hospitals with nonidentical pretreatment were selected for three aspects i.e. conventional wastewater characteristics, high priority pharmaceuticals and microbial analyses. The present work is to evaluate efficacy of advanced wastewater treatment methods with regard to removal of these three aspects from hospital effluents before discharge into a sewage treatment plant (STP). Based on test results, two out of seven treatment technologies, i.e. MBR and CW effectively reducing conventional parameters and pharmaceuticals from secondary and tertiary treatments except regeneration of microbes were observed in tertiary level by these two treatments.

Social implications

This review has aimed to identify the emerging contaminants, including pharmaceutical residues, highly consumed chemicals that are present in the hospital effluent, along with their physicochemical and biological characteristics. In this, the main objective was to review the occurrences and fate of common drugs and antibiotics present in effluents from hospital wastewaters. As far as global constraints that need to be discussed, there are only selected pharmaceuticals compounds generally analyzed, issue regarding management and detection based on method of sampling, frequency of analysis and observation, spatial as well as temporal concentration of these concerned micropollutants, accuracy in detecting these compounds, reliability of results and predictions, prioritization and the method of treatment in use for such type of wastewater stream are among the major issues (Akter et al., 2012; Ashfaq et al., 2016; García-Mateos et al., 2015; Liu et al., 2014; Mubedi et al., 2013; Prabhasankar et al., 2016; Sun et al., 2016; Suriyanon et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2016; Wen et al., 2004). This paper covers some aspect about the disposal and regulatory standard around the world toward hospital effluent discharge, its managements and treatment technologies that are adopted and best suitable nowadays.

Originality/value

This study many multispecialty hospitals with nonidentical pretreatment were selected for three aspects i.e. conventional wastewater characteristics high priority pharmaceuticals and microbial analyses. The present work is to evaluate efficacy of advanced wastewater treatment methods with regard to removal of these three aspects from hospital effluents before discharge into an STP. Based on test results, two out of different treatment effectively reducing conventional parameters and pharmaceuticals from secondary and tertiary treatments except regeneration of microbes were observed in the tertiary level by these two treatments were studies followed by ozonation and ultraviolet-ray treatment.

Details

Frontiers in Engineering and Built Environment, vol. 1 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2634-2499

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 27 October 2016

Elsa Varghese, Meena Galliara and Manjari Srivastava

Social entrepreneurship, Social enterprise.

Abstract

Subject area

Social entrepreneurship, Social enterprise.

Study level/applicability

Masters Programme in Social Entrepreneurship, Social Work, Business Administration; Management Development Programme for Social Entreprenuers.

Case overview

Organisation for Social Change, Awareness and Responsibility (OSCAR) Foundation is a non-profit organisation registered in 2010 under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950. Born and raised in the slum colony of Ambedkar Nagar, Cuffe Parade, Ashok, the founder, grew up seeing his friends becoming a victim to many socially inappropriate behaviours due to dropping out of school. Inspired by the thought of breaking this vicious cycle, Ashok used football as a mechanism to instil essential life skills among children and youth and encouraged them to continue their education. The success of his pilot motivated him to set up OSCAR. Presently, through its various programmes, the organisation has reached out to more than 3,000 marginalised children and 500 youths and aims to reach out to 20,000 children by 2020. The case highlights the struggles of Ashok’s entrepreneurial journey and maps the new challenges in scaling up his enterprise.

Expected learning outcomes

The expected learning outcomes are as follows: to identify the characteristics of a social entrepreneur and ascertain the leadership skills required by a social entrepreneur; to scrutinise the life cycle of a social enterprise and develop insights to examine the unique risks and challenges faced at the start-up phase of the social enterprise; and to enhance the understanding of interrelationship between passion, mission focus and challenges to attain financial sustainability for a social venture.

Supplementary materials

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Subject code

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Details

Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, vol. 6 no. 3
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2045-0621

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 4 July 2013

Arindham Banerjee

The case traces the evolution of the offshore Analytics operations of a large US based bank in India. It recounts the challenges of coupling geographically-disparate…

Abstract

The case traces the evolution of the offshore Analytics operations of a large US based bank in India. It recounts the challenges of coupling geographically-disparate, culturally-alien and, somewhat antagonistic groups of employees within the organization to ensure a productive operation. It touches upon the unique dimensions of organization design in a globally operated organization. Besides all these, the case points to the issues related to work flows and coordination across teams that are operating in different time zones, have skewed capabilities and, do not interact on a person-to-person contact except over the wire. Overall, this case provides exposure into more challenges than solutions for new age global organizations. Given the topical nature of these problems, the case provides ample opportunities for participants to delve into the long term issues of managing such geographically-spaced organizations.

Details

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, vol. no.
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2633-3260
Published by: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 4 June 2020

Sandesh Thapa, Rakshya Bhandari and Anjal Nainabasti

The purpose of this study was to observe the people’s response regarding rooftop farming in one of the rapidly developing area of Kavrepalanchok district, Dhulikhel, as rooftop…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to observe the people’s response regarding rooftop farming in one of the rapidly developing area of Kavrepalanchok district, Dhulikhel, as rooftop farming is aimed in solving food security problem in urban area by providing quality materials for nutritional requirements.

Design/methodology/approach

The research design of this study was random sampling survey with replacement techniques as respondents without concrete roof were not selected for the study. This study was aimed at recording the people’s response in one of the most accessible way, which would be easy for interpretation and analysis.

Findings

The major finding was that all of the respondents found rooftop farming beneficial but not all could practice it because of many constraints associated with rooftop farming. Most of them have fear of roof damage, so they are not adopting it. However, the respondents who are practicing rooftop farming find it difficult to manage because of lack of proper knowledge. Planting materials include plastic bags, crates, polythene and many other non-recyclable components.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first ever conducted in their country. Surveys related to rooftop gardening have not been done in the authors’ country till date. This is one of the present needs to improve the urban farming status, thus survey on rooftop farming and solving its constraints is necessary.

Details

Ecofeminism and Climate Change, vol. 1 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2633-4062

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 December 2020

Suraj Kulkarni, Suhas Suresh Ambekar and Manoj Hudnurkar

Increasing health-care costs are a major concern, especially in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to predict the hospital charges of a patient before being admitted. This will…

Abstract

Purpose

Increasing health-care costs are a major concern, especially in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to predict the hospital charges of a patient before being admitted. This will help a patient who is getting admitted: “electively” can plan his/her finance. Also, this can be used as a tool by payers (insurance companies) to better forecast the amount that a patient might claim.

Design/methodology/approach

This research method involves secondary data collected from New York state’s patient discharges of 2017. A stratified sampling technique is used to sample the data from the population, feature engineering is done on categorical variables. Different regression techniques are being used to predict the target value “total charges.”

Findings

Total cost varies linearly with the length of stay. Among all the machine learning algorithms considered, namely, random forest, stochastic gradient descent (SGD) regressor, K nearest neighbors regressor, extreme gradient boosting regressor and gradient boosting regressor, random forest regressor had the best accuracy with R2 value 0.7753. “Age group” was the most important predictor among all the features.

Practical implications

This model can be helpful for patients who want to compare the cost at different hospitals and can plan their finances accordingly in case of “elective” admission. Insurance companies can predict how much a patient with a particular medical condition might claim by getting admitted to the hospital.

Originality/value

Health care can be a costly affair if not planned properly. This research gives patients and insurance companies a better prediction of the total cost that they might incur.

Details

International Journal of Innovation Science, vol. 13 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-2223

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 July 2020

Santosh B. Rane, Prathamesh Ramkrishana Potdar and Suraj Rane

The purpose of this study is to investigate the best fleet for a new purchase based on multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio (MOORA), reference point and multi-MOORA…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the best fleet for a new purchase based on multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio (MOORA), reference point and multi-MOORA methods. This study further identifies critical parameters for fleet performance monitoring and exploring optimum range of critical parameters using Monte Carlo simulation. At the end of this study, fleet maintenance management and operations have been discussed in the perspectives of risk management.

Design/methodology/approach

Fleet categories and fleet performance monitoring parameters have been identified using the literature survey and Delphi method. Further, real-time data has been analyzed using MOORA, reference point and multi-MOORA methods. Taguchi and full factorial design of experiment (DOE) are used to investigate critical parameters for fleet performance monitoring.

Findings

Fleet performance monitoring is done based on fuel consumption (FC), CO2 emission (CE), coolant temperature (CT), fleet rating, revenue generation (RG), fleet utilization, total weight and ambient temperature. MOORA, reference point and multi-MOORA methods suggested the common best alternative for a particular category of the fleet (compact, hatchback and sedan). FC and RG are the critical parameters for monitoring the fleet performance.

Research limitations/implications

The geographical aspects have not been considered for this study.

Practical implications

A pilot run of 300 fleets shows saving of Rs. 2,611,013/- (US$36,264.065), which comprises total maintenance cost [Rs. 1,749,033/- (US$24,292.125)] and FC cost [Rs. 861,980/- (US$11,971.94)] annually.

Social implications

Reduction in CE (4.83%) creates a positive impact on human health. The reduction in the breakdown maintenance of fleet improves the reliability of fleet services.

Originality/value

This study investigates the most useful parameters for fleet management are FC, CE, CT. Taguchi DOE and full factorial DOE have identified FC and RG as a most critical parameters for fleet health/performance monitoring.

Details

Journal of Modelling in Management, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5664

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 February 2021

Anusha R. Pai, Gopalkrishna Joshi and Suraj Rane

This paper is focused at studying the current state of research involving the four dimensions of defect management strategy, i.e. software defect analysis, software quality…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper is focused at studying the current state of research involving the four dimensions of defect management strategy, i.e. software defect analysis, software quality, software reliability and software development cost/effort.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology developed by Kitchenham (2007) is followed in planning, conducting and reporting of the systematic review. Out of 625 research papers, nearly 100 primary studies related to our research domain are considered. The study attempted to find the various techniques, metrics, data sets and performance validation measures used by researchers.

Findings

The study revealed the need for integrating the four dimensions of defect management and studying its effect on software performance. This integrated approach can lead to optimal use of resources in software development process.

Research limitations/implications

There are many dimensions in defect management studies. The authors have considered only vital few based on the practical experiences of software engineers. Most of the research work cited in this review used public data repositories to validate their methodology and there is a need to apply these research methods on real datasets from industry to realize the actual potential of these techniques.

Originality/value

The authors believe that this paper provides a comprehensive insight into the various aspects of state-of-the-art research in software defect management. The authors feel that this is the only research article that delves into the four facets namely software defect analysis, software quality, software reliability and software development cost/effort.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 38 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2018

Vinod Nistane and Suraj Harsha

In rotary machines, the bearing failure is one of the major causes of the breakdown of machinery. The bearing degradation monitoring is a great anxiety for the prevention of…

Abstract

Purpose

In rotary machines, the bearing failure is one of the major causes of the breakdown of machinery. The bearing degradation monitoring is a great anxiety for the prevention of bearing failures. This paper aims to present a combination of the stationary wavelet decomposition and extra-trees regression (ETR) for the evaluation of bearing degradation.

Design/methodology/approach

The higher order cumulants features are extracted from the bearing vibration signals by using the stationary wavelet decomposition (stationary wavelet transform [SWT]). The extracted features are then subjected to the ETR for obtaining normal and failure state. A dominance level curve build using the dissimilarity data of test object and retained as health degradation indicator for the evaluation of bearing health.

Findings

Experiment conducts to verify and assess the effectiveness of ETR for the evaluation of performance of bearing degradation. To justify the preeminence of recommended approach, it is compared with the performance of random forest regression and multi-layer perceptron regression.

Originality/value

The experimental results indicated that the presently adopted method shows better performance for detecting the degradation more accurately at early stage. Furthermore, the diagnostics and prognostics have been getting much attention in the field of vibration, and it plays a significant role to avoid accidents.

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