Reduction of noise levels in vaccum cleaners

The work described in this thesis is directed towards the reduction of noise levels in the Hoover Turbopower upright vacuum cleaner. The experimental work embodies a study of such factors as the application of noise source identification techniques, investigation of the noise generating principles for each major source and evaluation of the noise reducing treatments. It was found that the design of the vacuum cleaner had not been optimised from the standpoint of noise emission. Important factors such as noise `windows', isolation of vibration at the source, panel rattle, resonances and critical speeds had not been considered. Therefore, a number of experimentally validated treatments are proposed. Their noise reduction benefit together with material and tooling costs are presented. The solutions to the noise problems were evaluated on a standard Turbopower and the sound power level of the cleaner was reduced from 87.5 dB(A) to 80.4 db(A) at a cost of 93.6 pence per cleaner.The designers' lack of experience in noise reduction was identified as one of the factors for the low priority given to noise during design of the cleaner. Consequently, the fundamentals of acoustics, principles of noise prediction and absorption and guidelines for good acoustical design were collated into a Handbook and circulated at Hoover plc.Mechanical variations during production of the motor and the cleaner were found to be important. These caused a vast spread in the noise levels of the cleaners. Subsequently, the manufacturing processes were briefly studied to identify their source and recommendations for improvement are made.Noise of a product is quality related and a high level of noise is considered to be a bad feature. This project suggested that the noise level be used constructively both as a test on the production line to identify cleaners above a certain noise level and also to promote the product by `designing' the characteristics of the sound so that the appliance is pleasant to the user. This project showed that good noise control principles should be implemented early in the design stage.As yet there are no mandatory noise limits or noise-labelling requirements for household appliances. However, the literature suggests that noise-labelling is likely in the near future and the requirement will be to display the A-weighted sound power level. However, the `noys' scale of perceived noisiness was found more appropriate to the rating of appliance noise both as it is linear and therefore, a sound level that seems twice as loud is twice the value in noys and also takes into consideration the presence of pure tones, which even in the absence of a high noise level can lead to annoyance.

Cost and time control of construction project: inhibiting factors and mitigating measures in practice

Despite the availability of various control techniques and project control software many construction projects still do not achieve their cost and time objectives. Research in this area so far has mainly been devoted to identifying causes of cost and time overruns. There is limited research geared towards studying factors inhibiting the ability of practitioners to effectively control their projects. To fill this gap, a survey was conducted on 250 construction project organizations in the UK, which was followed by face-to-face interviews with experienced practitioners from 15 of these organizations. The common factors that inhibit both time and cost control during construction projects were first identified. Subsequently 90 mitigating measures have been developed for the top five leading inhibiting factors—design changes, risks/uncertainties, inaccurate evaluation of project time/duration, complexities and non-performance of subcontractors were recommended. These mitigating measures were classified as: preventive, predictive, corrective and organizational measures. They can be used as a checklist of good practice and help project managers to improve the effectiveness of control of their projects.

Business information systems:technology, development and management in the E-business

Information technology is at the centre of today’s business environment. The increasing importance of e-commerce and the integration of information systems in all areas of a business means it is crucial for managers to understand and implement IS (information systems). This major text, now in its second edition, provides the skills and knowledge necessary to choose the right systems, and to develop and manage them effectively. Business Information Systems: Technology, Development and Management assumes no prior knowledge of IS or IT, and emphasises the importance of IS to management decision making. It takes a 3 part structure: Part One covers hardware and software technologies; Part Two looks at information systems analysis and design; and Part Three describes the strategic management of IS. This successful format allows each section to be studied alongside individual modules, and enables students to focus clearly on specific areas and use the book for more than one course. This book is suitable for college students, undergraduate degree and postgraduate students taking courses with modules in the practical IT skills of selection, implementation, management and use of BIS. The practical sections are also of use to managers in industry involved in the development and use of IS.

Knowledge management for more sustainable water systems

The management and sharing of complex data, information and knowledge is a fundamental and growing concern in the Water and other Industries for a variety of reasons. For example, risks and uncertainties associated with climate, and other changes require knowledge to prepare for a range of future scenarios and potential extreme events. Formal ways in which knowledge can be established and managed can help deliver efficiencies on acquisition, structuring and filtering to provide only the essential aspects of the knowledge really needed. Ontologies are a key technology for this knowledge management. The construction of ontologies is a considerable overhead on any knowledge management programme. Hence current computer science research is investigating generating ontologies automatically from documents using text mining and natural language techniques. As an example of this, results from application of the Text2Onto tool to stakeholder documents for a project on sustainable water cycle management in new developments are presented. It is concluded that by adopting ontological representations sooner, rather than later in an analytical process, decision makers will be able to make better use of highly knowledgeable systems containing automated services to ensure that sustainability considerations are included.

Nonlinearity management in fiber transmission systems with hybrid amplification

Nonlinearity management in transmission lines with periodic dispersion compensation and hybrid Raman-Erbium doped fiber amplification is studied both analytically and numerically. Different transmission/compensating fiber pairs are considered, with particular focus on the SMF/DCF case. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

"Customer" knowledge management in healthcare

This paper reports on a work-in-progress project on the management of patient knowledge in a UK general hospital. Greater involvement of patients is generally seen as crucial to the effective provision of healthcare in the future. However, this presents many challenges, especially in the light of the ageing population in most developed countries and the consequent increasing demand for healthcare. In the UK, there have been many attempts to increase patient involvement by the systematisation of patient feedback, but typically they have not been open to academic scrutiny or formal evaluation, nor have they used any knowledge management principles. The theoretical foundations for this project come first from service management and thence from customer knowledge management. Service management stresses the importance of the customer perspective. Healthcare clearly meets the definitions of a service even though it may also include some tangible elements such as surgery and provision of medication. Although regarding hospital patients purely as "customers" is a viewpoint that needs to be used with care, application of the theory offers potential benefits in healthcare. The two main elements we propose to use from the theory are the type of customer knowledge and its relationship to attributes of the quality of the service provided. The project is concerned with investigating various knowledge management systems (KMS) that are currently in use (or proposed) to systematise patient feedback in an NHS Trust hospital, to manage knowledge from and to a lesser extent about patients. The study is a mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) action research investigation intended to answer the following three research questions: • How can a KMS be used as a mechanism to capture and evaluate patient experiences to provoke patient service change • How can the KMS assist in providing a mechanism for systematising patient engagement? • How can patient feedback be used to stimulate improvements in care, quality and safety?

Grading and disease management in national screening for diabetic retinopathy in England and Wales

Aims - A National Screening Programme for diabetic eye disease in the UK is in development. We propose a grading and early disease management protocol to detect sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy and any retinopathy, which will allow precise quality assurance at all steps while minimizing false-positive referral to the hospital eye service. Methods - Expert panel structured discussions between 2000 and 2002 with review of existing evidence and grading classifications. Proposals - Principles of the protocol include: separate grading of retinopathy and maculopathy, minimum number of steps, compatible with central monitoring, expandable for established more complex systems and for research, no lesion counting, no ‘questionable’ lesions, attempt to detect focal exudative, diffuse and ischaemic maculopathy and fast track referral from primary or secondary graders. Sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy is defined as: preproliferative retinopathy or worse, sight-threatening maculopathy and/or the presence of photocoagulation. In the centrally reported minimum data set retinopathy is graded into four levels: none (R0), background (R1), preproliferative (R2), proliferative (R3). Maculopathy and photocoagulation are graded as absent (M0, P0) or present (M1, P1). Discussion - The protocol developed by the Diabetic Retinopathy Grading and Disease Management Working Party represents a new consensus upon which national guidelines can be based leading to the introduction of quality-assured screening for people with diabetes.

Noise suppression in a harmonically mode-locked fibre ring laser

A simple and efficient method to stabilise harmonically mode-locked fibre ring laser is proposed. In this method, a linear optical filter and a nonlinear Fabry-Perot filter are introduced into the laser cavity. Stable harmonically mode-locked pulses with supermode noise suppression ratio more than 55dB was demonstrated.

A solution for information management in logistics operations of modern manufacturing chains

One dominant feature of the modern manufacturing chains is the movement of goods. Manufacturing companies would remain an unprofitable investment if the supplies/logistics of raw materials, semi-finished products or final goods are not handled in an effective way. Both levels of a modern manufacturing chain-actual production and logistics-are characterized by continuous data creation at a much faster rate than they can be meaningfully analyzed and acted upon manually. Often, instant and reliable decisions need to be taken based on huge, previously inconceivable amounts of heterogeneous, contradictory or incomplete data. The paper will highlight aspects of information flows related to business process data visibility and observability in modern manufacturing networks. An information management platform developed in the framework of the EU FP7 project ADVANCE will be presented.