Showing papers by "YMCA University of Science and Technology published in 2015"

Application of preference selection index method for decision making over the design stage of production system life cycle

Abstract: The life cycle of production system shows the progress of production system from the inception to the termination of the system. During each stage, mainly in the design stage, certain strategic decisions have to be taken. These decisions are more complex as the decision makers have to assess a wide range of alternatives based on a set of conflicting criteria. As the decision making process is found to be unstructured, characterized by domain dependent knowledge, there is a need to apply an efficient multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) tool to help the decision makers in making correct decisions. This paper explores the application of a novel MCDM method i.e. Preference selection index (PSI) method to solve various decision-making problems that are generally encountered in the design stage of production system life cycle. To prove the potentiality, applicability and accuracy of PSI method in solving decision making problem during the design stage of production system life cycle, five examples are cited from the literature and are compared with the results obtained by the past researchers.

Modeling and analysis of FMS flexibility factors by TISM and fuzzy MICMAC

Abstract: To increase the manufacturing flexibility, manufacturing organizations are looking at flexible manufacturing system (FMS) as a viable alternative to enhance their competitive edge. There are, however, some factors which affect the flexibility of FMS. Fifteen factors are identified from the literature and found their evaluation by interpretive structural modeling (ISM), exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and graph theory matrix approach. But, Interpretation of the mutual relationship of factors is comparatively weak in ISM. Thus, an upgraded version of ISM i.e. Total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) methodology is used to develop the model and the mutual relationship of factors is identified in the TISM. This paper is an application of TISM to interpret the mutual relationship with the ISM using the tool of interpretive matrix and leads to evolving the framework and find out driving and the dependence power of factors, using fuzzy MICMAC analysis. The result shows that use of reconfigurable machine tool, automation and flexible fixturing have strong driving power and weak dependence power and are at the lowest levels in hierarchy in the TISM model. Hence, superior performance of FMS can be achieved by improving the driving factors of flexibility.

Applications of Nickel-Titanium Alloy

Abstract: Nitinol exists in equiatomic phase of nickel-titanium (Ni-Ti). Nitinol has various applications in biomedical, automotive actuators, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMSs) and aero-space industries due to its distinctive properties of pseudo-elasticity, bio-compatibility, corrosion resistance and shape memory effect. This paper presents the applications of nickel-titanium alloy in various field of engineering, medical and other area. The attractive properties of NiTi alloy has also been discussed that makes it most influential material for various applications.

An experimental analysis and optimization of machining rate and surface characteristics in wedm of monel-400 using rsm and desirability approach

Abstract: In the present work, an experimental investigation on wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) of Monel-400 has been presented. Monel-400 is a nickel–copper-based alloy, mostly employed in ships and corrosion-resisting applications. Four input WEDM parameters namely discharge current (Ip), pulse-on time (Ton), pulse-off time (Toff) and servo voltage (SV) have been investigated and modeled for two performance characteristics namely machining rate (MR) and surface roughness (SR). Effect of WEDM parameters has been discussed using response surface graphs. Using analysis of variance, quadratic model is found significant for MR while two factors interaction (2FI) model has been suggested for SR. To optimize multi-performance characteristics, desirability function has been employed. Corresponding to highest desirability, the optimal combination of discharge parameters is Ip: 103 A; Ton: 113 μs; Toff: 37 μs and SV: 50 V. The effect of discharge energy on surface morphology has also been examined. High discharge energy increases the extent of surface damage and results in large size and overlapped craters on machined surface. Low discharge energy and high value of Toff result in minimum defects on machined surface. Trim cutting operations were performed at low discharge energy using different wire offset values. Result shows that surface finish can be improved significantly after a single trim cut irrespective of high discharge energy in rough cut.

Performance modeling of the skim milk powder production system of a dairy plant using RAMD analysis

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a method to compute RAMD indices to measure and improve the performance of skim milk powder production system of a dairy plant under real working conditions. Design/methodology/approach – The present work is carried out by developing performance model based on Markov birth-death process. The skim milk powder production system consists of six units. The first order governing differential equations are derived using the mnemonic rule and further solved to calculate RAMD indices i.e. reliability, availability, maintainability, dependability, MTBF, MTTR and dependability ratio for each subsystem of the system. Findings – The subsystem SS1 comprising of chiller and cream separator is the most critical from maintenance point of view, as the reliability, availability, maintainability, dependability, MTBF and dependability ratio indices are low as compared to those of other subsystems of skim milk powder production system of the dairy plant. Originality/value – Th...

Markov modeling and reliability analysis of urea synthesis system of a fertilizer plant

Abstract: This paper deals with the Markov modeling and reliability analysis of urea synthesis system of a fertilizer plant. This system was modeled using Markov birth-death process with the assumption that the failure and repair rates of each subsystem follow exponential distribution. The first-order Chapman-Kolmogorov differential equations are developed with the use of mnemonic rule and these equations are solved with Runga-Kutta fourth-order method. The long-run availability, reliability and mean time between failures are computed for various choices of failure and repair rates of subsystems of the system. The findings of the paper are discussed with the plant personnel to adopt and practice suitable maintenance policies/strate- gies to enhance the performance of the urea synthesis system of the fertilizer plant.

The anatomy of web crawlers

Abstract: World Wide Web (www) is the gigantic and richest source of information. To retrieve the information from this imperative resource, Search Engines are generally used. For this purpose these Search engines rely on massive collections of web pages that have been downloaded by web crawlers. A Web crawler is a program that traverses the web by following the ever changing, dense and distributed hyperlinked structure and thereafter storing downloaded pages in a large repository which is later indexed for efficient execution of user queries. Thus, web crawlers are becoming increasingly important. Various web crawling architectures have been proposed in recent years. In this paper a survey of different architectures of web crawlers along with their comparisons has been carried out that takes into account various important features like scalability, manageability, page refresh policy, politeness policy etc.

A hybrid approach using ISM and modified TOPSIS for the evaluation of flexibility in FMS

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to evaluate the flexibility in flexible manufacturing system (FMS). Two distinct modelling approaches have been employed. Flexibility and factors are identified through literature review, and a relationship is established in the opinion of experts from industries and academia. In this study, a hybrid model which employs interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and modified technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) together, are proposed. ISM has been used to develop a hierarchical structure of flexibility. Modified TOPSIS has been used to evaluate the flexibility based on some factors. ISM model concluded that production flexibility has the more driving power than other flexibilities. Modified TOPSIS also evaluated that production flexibility is the most important flexibility in the FMS. The criteria weights are calculated by using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP).

A comparative study of multi criteria decision making approaches for risks assessment in supply chain

Abstract: Risk is inherent in almost every movement of supply chain partners. With the ever-increasing push for efficiency, supply chains today are getting more and more risky. Companies need to be vigilant with the increasing risks that can harm the short-term operations as well as the long-term sustainability of their supply chain. Academic interests appear to focus mostly on the risks associated with operation of supply chain. This paper highlights four areas of supply chain-related risks, i.e., transportation risks, operations risks, supplier related risks and market related risks. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework to proactively manage supply chain risks. This study is an effort for risks assessment in supply chain and to find out the best alternatives. For this purpose, comparative study of multi criteria decision making approaches, analytical network process (ANP) and a multi-objective optimisation by ratio analysis (MOORA) technique for order preference are used. It also addresses the insinuations for supply chain managers as they balance a concern for risks with their efforts to search for, select, develop, and manage their set of supply chain partners.

DDoS tools: Classification, analysis and comparison

Abstract: Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are the major concern for the security experts. DDoS attack presents a serious risk to the internet. In this type of attack a huge number of accommodated targets send a request at the victim's site simultaneously, to exhaust the resources (whether computing or communication resources) within very less time. In the last few years, it is recognised that DDoS attack tools and techniques are emerging as effective, refined, and complex to indicate the actual attackers. Due to the seriousness of the problem many detection and prevention methods have been recommended to deal with these types of attacks. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the existing tools, methods and attack mechanism. In this paper, we commenced a detailed study of various DDoS tools. This paper can be useful for researchers and readers to provide the better understanding of DDoS tools in present times.

Tool based implementation of SQL injection for penetration testing

Abstract: Web applications are a fundamental pillar of today's world. Society depends on them for business and day to day tasks. Because of their extensive use, web applications are under constant attack by hackers that exploit their vulnerabilities to disrupt business and access confidential information. SQL Injection and Remote File Inclusion are the two most frequently used exploits and hackers prefer easier rather than complicated attack techniques. Every day as number of internet users are increasing, the vulnerabilities of a system being attacked is becoming easier. Sql Injection is one of the most common attack method that is being used these days. Havij is one of the tools used to implement SQL Injection which will be discussed in this paper. Our research objective is to analyse the use of Havij in penetration testing in IT industry and to compare various SQL Injection tools available in the market.

Plant location selection of a manufacturing industry using analytic hierarchy process approach

Abstract: Selection of plant location is a multi-person and multi-criteria decision problem. Location selection is a strategic decision that cannot be changed overnight. Even if the location decision is changed at all, a considerable loss is bound to be incurred. Without sound location planning in the beginning, the new facility may pose continuous operating disadvantages for the future operations. In this paper, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach is used to arrive at consensus decision. The AHP model is formulated and applied to a real case study to examine its feasibility in selecting the plant location for a manufacturing industry. Different factors were identified affecting the plant location on the five locations (Delhi, Manesar, Chandigarh, Mumbai and Baddi) suggested by a particular manufacturing industry and then AHP technique was implemented to select the best location out of these five locations. After analysis, Baddi is found to be the best location to setup their new plant. AHP is a powerful and flexible tool for tackling the complex decision problem into a simple concept of hierarchy, which incorporates both financial and non-financial factors influencing the decision alternatives in a systematic way.

Priority based congestion control in WBAN

Abstract: Wireless technology has earned many accolades from the very beginning. The unveiling of WBAN amazed researchers around the globe with its marvelous prospects. Since its birth in the last few years, researchers are busy digging out this field and finding different solutions to various issues present in the layered architecture of WBAN, congestion being one of the serious problems in the transport layer. In this paper, a protocol is proposed based on queue occupancy with packet loss for controlling congestion so that its effect could be minimized or totally vaporized. On comparing it with the conventional TCP's congestion control algorithms, the simulation results show that the overall throughput of the proposed protocol is better.

Evaluating the intensity of variables affecting flexibility in FMS by graph theory and matrix approach

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intensity of variables of the flexible manufacturing system (FMS) which affect flexibility in FMS. The study was performed by conducting a cross–sectional survey within manufacturing firms in India through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and graph theory and matrix approach (GTMA). By performing EFA, factor structure is identified whereas GTMA quantified the factor structure of a set of observed variables. GTMA is a multiple attribute decision making (MADM) methodology used to find the intensity of variables in an organisation. In this paper, EFA is applied to extract the factors in FMS by The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 20) software and evaluation of intensity of variables affecting flexibility in FMS by GTMA. Fifteen variables are identified through literature, and four factors extracted, which involves the flexibility of FMS in production flexibility, machine flexibility, product flexibility, and volume flexibility.

Fuzzy control of passenger ride performance using MR shock absorber suspension in quarter car model

Abstract: This paper presents vibration control performance of quarter car model with three-degrees-of-freedom having Magneto- Rheological (MR) suspension system. Experimental work is performed on an MR shock absorber prototype under various cyclic excitation conditions. A polynomial model is selected to characterize the test results of MR shock absorber. The designed forward fuzzy logic controller (FFLC) and inverse fuzzy logic controller (IFLC) are assembled in the secondary suspension system of quarter car model. The response plots in time domain due to bump road disturbance related to passenger seat are obtained for uncontrolled and controlled quarter car models. Simulation results are compared for selection of best option which can provide maximum ride comfort to travelling passengers. Simulation results demonstrate that semi-active quarter car system provides improved overall performance in terms of passenger ride comfort and safety compared to uncontrolled system.

Natural radioactivity in indian vegetation samples

Abstract: Background: Vegeta on (food stuff) is grown in soil that contains many radioac ve elements such as 238 U (uranium), 232 Th (thorium) and 40 K (potassium), which may get deposited either due to radioac ve fallout or/and by absorp on from the soil and can pose serious health hazards. Materials and Methods: Natural radioac vity, radiological hazards and annual effec ve dose assessment was carried out in vegeta on samples (vegetables, cereals and fruits) collected from fields and market. Gamma spectrometry using HPGe detector was used. Results: The measured specific ac vity concentra on of 238 U (uranium), 232 Th (thorium) and 40 K (potassium) varied from 10.25 ± 0.94 Bq/kg to 29.13 ± 0.69 Bq/kg, 22.20 ± 2.46 Bq/kg to 58.21 ± 1.15 Bq/kg, and 1158.4 ± 26.05 Bq/kg to 1962.2 ± 18.17 Bq/kg respec vely in various vegetable and cereal samples and varied from 2.5 ± 0.16 Bq/kg to 9.8 ± 0.15 Bq/kg, 7.4 ± 1.24 Bq/kg to 18.4 ± 1.39 Bq/kg, and 287.13 ± 11.23 Bq/kg to 815.72 ± 12.50 Bq/kg respec vely in various fruit samples studied in the present work. From these values, hazard indices, the minimum and maximum values of absorbed dose and indoor and outdoor annual effec ve doses were calculated for various samples used in the present inves ga on. Conclusion: The various values obtained were found to be within the recommended limits. The absorbed dose and annual effec ve dose for the vegetable and cereal samples in which fer lizers were used to enhance the crop yield were higher than that in fruit samples.

Multi-objective optimization of solar powered ericsson cycle using genetic algorithm and fuzzy decision making

Abstract: Solar driven Ericsson heat engine has been considered for multi-objective thermodynamic optimization. Multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) and finite time thermodynamic (FTT) approaches are implemented for optimization of power output and thermal efficiency which are considered as objectives in the study. Simultaneous optimization of power output and thermal efficiency are achieved using evolutionary algorithm based on MOGA. Various effectiveness of heat exchangers and temperatures of source and sink side working fluid are considered as decision variables. Pareto front between dual objectives is found in MATLAB 7.8. Further, Fuzzy Bellman-Zadeh decision making method is used to extract best optimal values of dual objective. Simultaneous optimization of power output and thermal efficiency of proposed model is obtained at optimal values of source side heat exchanger effectiveness, sink side heat exchanger effectiveness, regenerator side heat exchanger effectiveness, and source side working fluid and sink side working fluid as 0.79, 0.79, 0.88, 901 K and 436 K respectively.

Reliable delay sensitive loss recovery protocol for critical health data transmission system

Abstract: Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is a special kind of sensor network deployed with low power, intelligent sensors, which are placed on the human body to collect human's vital signs, while monitoring body functions and the surrounding environment. Many applications of WBAN demand Reliable communication service; since the majority of these applications are responsible for handling time-critical data. Such an application area is a healthcare system, which offers flexibility and mobility to patients through the internet. Due to the long propagation delay and high loss rate in the WBAN, it is very tough to provide reliable data transfer for time-critical applications. In this paper, we analyze all these issues and design an efficient Reliable Delay Sensitive Loss Recovery protocol (RDSLR) for handling critical and non-critical data in WBAN. We emphasize on arrival of heterogeneous data (i.e. traffic flow) within the expected time for the analysis of actual health conditions of a patient. Reliable and loss-free data transmission requirements in a healthcare system desire arrival of data within the predefined critical time interval. Thereby, we enhance the loss recovery and delay module considering critical time parameters as an account. We evaluate the performance of the proposed approach by taking packet loss rate, elapse time, loss error time, and reliability time as key metrics.

CATCH: Comparison and analysis of tools covering honeypots

Abstract: Honeypots act as security resources that are used to catch malign activities, so they may be anatomized and watched. During the past few years, they are called as a safeguard of assets of an organization. They are used to acquire information on interrupters in a network. This paper gives an introduction to the honeypots, their classification, detailed study of commercial as well as open source honeypots tools and comparison between them. This paper may be helpful for readers to secure their resources from intruders by using the freely available honeypots tools.

Production system life cycle: an inside story

Abstract: The life cycle of production system depicts the progress of production system from the inception to the termination of system. This paper explores the different stages of production system life cycle with the view to introspect the decisions made in each stage along with their key consideration. Besides this, quality enabled factors have been identified in each stage of the production system life cycle, which will help in making the accurate decision in different stages of the production system life cycle. In each sub–system of production system, identification of major activities/sub–activities along with role of concerned department would help to analyse and manage the stages of production system in a better way.

Framework for Distributed Semantic Web Crawler

Abstract: Relevant information retrieval from the www mainly depends on the technique and efficiency of a crawler. So crawlers must be capable enough to understand the text and context of a link which they are going to crawl. Anchor text contains a very useful information to know about the target web page. Because knowledge about the target web page content helps the crawlers to decide their preferences of crawling the particular page. In this paper we have presented a design of distributed semantic web crawler capable of crawling both HTML and semantic web pages written using owl/RDf. In our crawler a component called page analyser is used to understand the theme of content of page and context of anchor tag in the page. The output of the page analyser is used to make crawling decisions. Our approach have revealed the great improvement in extracting the information from the links and guide the crawler for more relevant domain specific crawling.

Weighted-ISM technique for analysing the competitiveness of uncertainty and risk measures in supply chain

Abstract: This paper mainly deals with the uncertainty and risks management in the supply chain. Uncertainty and risk management plays a vital role for the competitiveness and the growth of industries. In this regard, ten uncertainty and risk measures have been identified through the literature review and expert opinion, they are further analysed by using weighted interpretive structural modelling (W-ISM) technique. ISM approach is used to develop a structural modelling between these measures and a method of competitiveness index (CI) is used to identify the key measures. The competitiveness index evaluated in this paper will help the industries to benchmark their performance by managing uncertainty and risk measures reported in this study.

Managing uncertainty of story-points in Agile software

Abstract: Agile methodologies for software development take a novel, lightweight approach to most aspects of designing and producing applications. Agile software development is an iterative development method. Its basic concept is people - centered and it acknowledges that requirements can change. Due to changing nature of Agile size of user-story is not certain and also new user-stories can be added or existing user-stories can be removed. This creates uncertainty in agile project that leads to poor estimation of time and cost. The proposed technique of managing uncertainty in agile reduces uncertainty by reducing the size of the user-story to be estimated.

Reliability and availability analysis of the serial processes in skim milk powder system of a dairy plant: a case study

Abstract: In this paper, a numerical method is proposed to compute the long run availability and reliability with mean time between failures (MTBF) for skim milk powder system of a dairy plant. It is a complex system and comprises of six repairable subsystems viz. chiller, cream separator, pasteuriser, evaporator, drying chamber and packaging sub-systems arranged in series or parallel configurations. This analysis is based on Markov birth-death process and by assuming that the failure and repair rate of each subsystem follows exponential distribution. Mathematical formulation of the system is carried out and Chapman-Kolmogorov differential equations are derived, a numerical method, i.e., Runge-Kutta fourth order method is used to solve these differential equations. The results are presented and discussed with the plant personnel to adopt and practice suitable maintenance policies/strategies to enhance the productivity of skim milk powder system.

A coupling effect based test case prioritization technique

Abstract: Regression testing is a process that executes subset of tests that have already been conducted to ensure that changes have not propagated unintended side effects. Test case prioritization aims at reordering the regression test suit based on certain criteria, so that the test cases with higher priority can be executed first rather than those with lower priority. In this paper, a new approach for test case prioritization has been proposed which is based on a module-coupling effect that considers the module-coupling value for the purpose of prioritizing the modules in the software so that critical modules can be identified which in turn will find the prioritized set of test cases. In this way there will be high percentage of detecting critical errors that have been propagated to other modules due to any change in a module. The proposed approach has been evaluated with the case study of software consisting of ten modules.

A Novel Architecture of Perception Oriented Web Search Engine Based on Decision Theory

Abstract: The number of active web pages increases exponentially. According to the survey, the web has 14.3 trillion active web pages. The problem faced by present search engines is difficulty in returning relevant information. The current search engines do not perform semantic search and are not capable to return results based on user's perception. In this paper a perception based search engine is proposed that returns results as per the user point of view. To achieve semantic searching, a knowledge base is constructed which stores knowledge in the form of predicates. To extract knowledge from knowledge base, decision theory is used that does not restrict to any specific domain.

Risk mitigations strategy in supply chain planning and control: an ANP approach

Abstract: This paper mainly deals with risks management in supply chain planning and control. The primary objective of this paper is to illustrate how the industries can analyse and assess the risks associated with supply chain planning and control. To fulfil customer requirements organisations need to improve their supply chain system by eliminating risks associated to it by using appropriate tools and techniques. For the successful supply chain management, industries must focus on risks as a tool to achieve their goals. A comparative analysis of various risks mitigations reduces the chance of occurrence of failures in determinants i.e., disruption, deviation and disasters has been analysed in this study. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the risk mitigations and find out the best alternative in traditional, agile and green supply chain by the application of analytical network process (ANP) by comparing the results with analytical hierarchy process (AHP).