Optimizing The Functional Performance of Road Network using Vulnerability Assessment to Cope with Unforeseen Road Incidents

An Urban Road network is often used for multipurpose trips, due to their transportation functions, such as attractiveness and orientation, as well as social, ecological, and economic features. In Indonesia, road incidents have reportedly increased during the last decade because of a higher frequency of natural hazards, accidents, and on-street mass demonstrations. These incidents are found to degrade or terminate road access, forcing users to utilize alternative routes and decreasing the service performance in adjacent directions. Due to the unexpected occurrences at any location and time, there is a need to investigate the impact of random incidents on road performances. Several accessibility indexes have also been used to evaluate the vulnerability of road networks. However, this is less practical in Indonesia, with the road authority using functional performances as the indicator. This indicates the need for an index to be developed based on road performance parameters. Therefore, this study aims to develop a road performance-based vulnerability index known as the RCI (Road Criticality Index). Combined with a traffic simulation tool, this system is used as an alternative index to assess vulnerabilities, by identifying the road(s) providing worse consequences due to unforeseen incidents. This simulation was conducted by using the PTV Visum, assuming a road section is closed due to the worst incident scenarios. The result showed that the RCI offered a more comprehensive assessment than the existing indicator (volume capacity ratio). The RCI included travel speed and mobility components for evaluating both local and global road performances. With the knowledge of the most vulnerable locations and their consequences, road authorities can prioritize maintenance and development strategies based on the criticality index. Also, preventive measures should be conducted to mitigate risk under a constrained budget. This methodology can be applied to sustainably enhance the resilience of urban road networks.

Identification and Assessment of Obsolescence in the Early Stages of System Design

Obsolescence is the fact that an entity (physical or logical) is becoming outdated or no longer possesses the required level of performance. The objectives of this article are twofold. First, it is intended to contribute to the understanding of obsolescence propagation. Secondly, two supporting approaches for the Identification and Assessment phases are proposed: the House of Obsolescence and the System Obsolescence Criticality Analysis. The former allows the mapping of obsolescence propagation via dependencies, whether imposed changes are desired or imposed, by external actors to the system architecture. Whereas, the objective of the latter is to assign an obsolescence criticality index to the identified risks in order to prioritize them for solution or mitigation determination during the analysis phase. The tools make extensive use of the modeled system knowledge through the application of Systems Engineering. The application of these approaches is presented through an illustrative study.

Daya Dukung Sumberdaya Air dan Indeks Kekritisan Air Sub DAS Cisokan Hulu

Upper Cisokan sub-watershed is a natural ecosystem of water resource providers that can be used directly or indirectly by the community in it. The population rate and sectoral needs in a sub-watershed area are estimated have put pressure to the water resources balance. The value of the carrying capacity and the water criticality index in the existing condition and its projections for the next 10 years are known from the water balance analysis. The availability of water resources (Wn) was determined based on the flow rate probability (Q80) of Weibull Method, the value of groundwater estimation, springs and wells, and also the raw water supply of local water company. Water demand (qpt) was estimated based on Statistic data of Upper Cisokan sub-Watershed 2020 and the projection for 2030, industrial data, agricultural area data, livestock production data, and fishery area data. The water resources carrying capacity (Cw) of the Upper Cisokan sub-watershed is generally still adequate (High), but at the peak of the dry season, namely June to November, the water carrying capacity status shows a value of 1.84 (Critical) to 0.24 (Deficit). In general, the water criticality index is still safe (Not Critical), but in the dry period, especially in July, August and November, it shows a value of 125% to 421% (Very Critical). To anticipate the water crisis, all stakeholders should allocate water efficiently according to its availability. So that the sub-watershed ecosystem is sustainably provide ecosystem services for providing water resources to the community. Key words: Ecosystem Services, Water Supply, Water Demand, Water Balance, Water Resources Carrying Capacity, Water Criticality Index, Upper Cisokan Sub Watershed

Evaluation of the antimicrobial susceptibility testing process in clinical microbiology laboratories at Niamey, Niger

Background: Risk assessment is the means of identifying and evaluating potential errors or problems that may occur in testing process. The aim of this study was to perform risk assessment of antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) process in clinical microbiology laboratories of Niamey, Niger Republic.Methodology: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study from October 1 to December 31, 2019, to evaluate AST performance in seven clinical microbiology laboratories at Niamey, the capital city of Niger republic. The evaluation focused on the determination of the criticality index (CI) of each critical point (frequency of occurrence of anomalies, severity of the process anomaly, and detectability of the anomaly during the process) in the AST process and the performance of the AST through an observation sheet using two reference strains; Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213.Results: The criticality index (CI) was greater than 6 for most of the critical points related to material, medium, equipment, method and labour for the AST process in all the laboratories. A range of 18-100% errors on the inhibition zone diameters of the reference strains were observed. Major and/or minor categorization (Sensitive S, Intermediate I and Resistance R) discrepancies were found at all the laboratories for either one or both reference strains. The antibiotics most affected by the S/I/R discrepancies were trimethoprim (100%), vancomycin (100%), amoxicillin (80%) and amoxicillin + clavulanic acid (70%).Conclusion: This study showed a deficiency in the control of critical control points that impacts the performance of the AST reported by the laboratories in Niger. Corrective actions are needed to improve the performance of AST in clinical microbiology laboratories in Niger. French title: Evaluation du processus de réalisation de l’antibiogramme dans les laboratoires d’analyses de biologie médicale de la ville de Niamey, Niger Contexte: L'évaluation des risques est le moyen d'identifier et d'évaluer les erreurs ou les problèmes potentiels qui peuvent survenir dans le processus de test. L'objectif de cette étude était de réaliser une évaluation des risques du processus d'antibiogramme (ABG) dans les laboratoires de microbiologie clinique de Niamey, en République du Niger.Méthodologie: Nous avons mené une étude transversale descriptive du 1er octobre au 31 décembre 2019 pour évaluer la performance des ABG dans sept laboratoires de microbiologie clinique à Niamey, capitale de la république du Niger. L'évaluation a porté sur la détermination de l'indice de criticité (IC) de chaque point critique (fréquence d'apparition des anomalies, gravité de l'anomalie du processus et détectabilité de l'anomalie au cours du processus) dans le processus et la performance des AGB à travers une fiche d'observation en utilisant deux souches de référence; Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 et Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213.Résultats: L'indice de criticité était supérieur à 6 pour la plupart des points critiques liés au matériel, au milieu, à l'équipement, à la méthode et à la main-d'oeuvre pour le processus AST dans tous les laboratoires. Une fourchette d'erreurs de 18 à 100% sur les diamètres des zones d'inhibition des souches de référence a été observée. Des écarts de catégorisation majeurs et/ou mineurs (Sensible: S, Intermédiaire: I et Résistance: R) ont été constatés dans tous les laboratoires pour l'une ou les deux souches de référence. Les antibiotiques les plus touchés par les écarts S/I/R étaient la triméthoprime (100%), la vancomycine (100%), l'amoxicilline (80%) et l'amoxicilline + acide clavulanique (70%).Conclusion: Cette étude a montré une déficience dans le contrôle des points de contrôle critiques qui a un impact sur la performance de l'antibiogramme rapportée par les laboratoires au Niger. Des actions correctives sont nécessaires pour améliorer la performance des ABG dans les laboratoires de microbiologie clinique au Niger.

Criticality Analysis and Maintenance of Solar Tower Power Plants by Integrating the Artificial Intelligence Approach

Maintenance of solar tower power plants (STPP) is very important to ensure production continuity. However, random and non-optimal maintenance can increase the intervention cost. In this paper, a new procedure, based on the criticality analysis, was proposed to improve the maintenance of the STPP. This procedure is the combination of three methods, which are failure mode effects and criticality analysis (FMECA), Bayesian network and artificial intelligence. The FMECA is used to estimate the criticality index of the different elements of STPP. Moreover, corrections and improvements were introduced on the criticality index values based on the expert advice method. The modeling and the simulation of the FMECA estimations incorporating the expert advice method corrections were performed using the Bayesian network. The artificial neural network is used to predicate the criticality index of the STPP exploiting the database obtained from the Bayesian network simulations. The results showed a good agreement comparing predicted and actual criticality index values. In order to reduce the criticality index value of the critical elements of STPP, some maintenance recommendations were suggested.

Flight flexibility in strategic traffic planning: visualisation and mitigation use case

The concept of strategic traffic planning that takes into account changing airspace configurations, their capacity, and allows the quantification of flight flexibility is presented in this paper: the visualization of the results and an example of possible use. The concept is implemented through two deterministic optimization models. Here, we focus on the output of the models, which identifies the departure times, trajectories, flight flexibility and the list of saturated sector-hours throughout the day, based on the configurations used during the day. In order to make the output understandable to various stakeholders, we use a visualization tool and a set of performance indicators. The information on the saturated sectors, and their impact on flexibility (criticality index) is taken as an input in the example of mitigation action application by Air Navigation Service Providers, aimed at improving the situation. A mitigation strategy of increasing capacity of saturated airspace is implemented, and results show that the improvements in flexibility can be achieved.

Analisis Analisis Neraca Air di Pulau Jawa-Bali sebagai Upaya Antisipasi Krisis Air

Water is one of the basic necessities used by living things on this earth. Along with the population growth with climate change, there are several cases of water crisis in Java and Bali, especially in the dry season. The purpose of this research is to project water demand and availability based on climate change scenarios, develop an analysis model for the impact of climate change on the water sector based on the water balance, and calculate environmental economic losses resulting from water deficit losses. The type of scenario used in climate analysis is RCP (Representative Carbon Pathway) 4.5 with two types of models. Provinces experiencing very critical water conditions in the 2021-2050 period using the CSIRO model are DKI Jakarta, East Java and Bali, with water criticality indexes of 296.25%, 113.88% and 123.64%, with a water deficit loss of IDR 1.2 billion, IDR 7.93 billion and IDR 0.87 billion. Whereas with the MIROC model, the areas that have very critical water conditions are DKI Jakarta Province with a water criticality index of 220.36%, with a water deficit loss of IDR 0.42 billion.

Selection of appropriate maintenance strategy using fuzzy VIKOR technique: application in paper industry

PurposeThe industry is relying on the preventive maintenance techniques that can minimize failures and provide industrial plants with effective equipment, but in many companies the maintenance tasks are performed very frequently and not as per plan and do not take into consideration the conditions of the plant and equipments. The failure of each and every component needs to be studied in order to choose the best maintenance strategy. This paper presents a fuzzy VIKOR (Multicriteria Optimization and Compromise Solution) technique which is used in developing a comprehensive approach for maintenance strategy selection in the Deinking plant of the paper industry to choose the appropriate maintenance strategy thereby reducing the unnecessary cost incurred on the maintenance.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the Fuzzy VIKOR based methodology was applied for determining the maintenance criticality index of the deinking plant of the paper industry. The effect of failure of components were evaluated by three maintenance experts on five performance criteria that is chance of failure, chance of non-detection, downtime length, severity, spare part criticality. The components were ranked according to the maintenance criticality index and thereby implementing the appropriate maintenance strategy.FindingsThe Fuzzy VIKOR technique was applied to calculate the ranking of various components of paper industry based on the views and judgment of three maintenance experts. The proposed technique suggested the appropriate maintenance strategy for various components taking into consideration the maintenance criticality index of the components.Originality/valueThe proposed technique will help the maintenance managers to solve a discrete problem with non-commensurable and conflicting criteria. The study will help the industries to reduce the unnecessary maintenance tasks and thereby reduce the maintenance cost. This will help the maintenance practitioners in choosing the best and most effective strategy for the organization with regard to the market and company situation especially in the changing business requirement of Industry 4.0.