Assessment of workplace accident risks in underground collieries by integrating a multi-goal cause-and-effect analysis method with MCDM sensitivity analysis

This study introduces a method using a multi-goal fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) and multi-criteria decision making based on sensitivity analysis to assess the risks associated with working accidents in underground collieries. Safety, stoppage in operation, and operational and capital costs are considered as the main goals during the FCM process with significant emphasis on safety. Workplace accidents data from Kerman underground collieries are statistically evaluated to find the degrees of occurrence probability, severity, and work-disability duration as the main risk factors. The causes and effects of accidents are analyzed using FCM based on three goals and the effects of risk factors. A sensitivity analysis on the weights of the goals is conducted with the aim of increasing the workplace safety in TOPSIS environment after solving the designed multi-goal FCM. Results indicate that “gas poisoning,” “roof fall,” and “debris and destruction” take the first three ranks and impose high risks to the system. By contrast, “collision, hit, and crash” presents the lowest risk among all accidents.     

Input Selection Based on Information Theory for Constructing Predictor Models of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity Indices

Various phenomena with solar origin and their mutual dependence must be studied in order to predict behaviors in solar – terrestrial system. Linear statistical methods prevalent in analyzing natural systems may not be able to detect nonlinear dependencies among solar and geomagnetic processes. When relations, whether linear or nonlinear, between indices and their changes over time are revealed, better predictions can be made through appropriate modeling techniques. Selection of nonredundant input variables to build suitable models for prediction of solar and geomagnetic activity is of utmost importance. Mutual information is a tool that is capable of capturing all dependencies for detecting nonlinear relations and selecting the best subset of input variables by means of an applicable algorithm that maximizes information about the output and minimizes the shared information between inputs. High generalization power and improved interpretability of the selected inputs are the consequences of this analysis.     

Survey efficiency of electrocoagulation on nitrate removal from aqueous solution

Water supply for consumption is one of the crucial objectives of water supply systems. Using of excessive fertilizer is a main source of nitrate content in water. The high amounts of nitrate in water have a determinable effect on the environment which must be removed due to drinking and industrial water standards. The purpose of this study is nitrate removal from aqueous solution by Electrocoagulation process. The applied pilot was comprised of a reservoir, electrode and power supply. In this study pH, electrical potential difference, nitrate initial concentration, total dissolved solid, kind of electrode, electrode connection methods and number of electrode were studied. Moreover, obtained optimum conditions were tested on Kerman water. The results showed that the electrocoagulation process can reach nitrate to less than standard limit. pH, electrical potential difference, total dissolved solids and number of electrodes have direct effect and initial concentration of nitrate has reverse effect on nitrate removal. This study also showed that under optimum condition, nitrate removal from Kerman water distribution system was 89.7 %. According to the results, Electrocoagulation process is suggested as an effective technique in nitrate removal.     

Correlation of production rate of ornamental stone with rock brittleness indexes

The prediction of production rate in ornamental stones sawing is very important in cost estimation and process planning of the rock sawing plants. The main aim of this paper is finding a mathematical correlation between production rate and rock brittleness indexes. The utilized data have been collected from several stone factories in Iran. Seventeen different granite and carbonate rocks have been experienced sawing conditions with large-diameter circular saws. The laboratory tests such as uniaxial compressive strength and tensile strength, were carried out on the rock samples which were collected from these factories. The ratio of compressive strength to tensile strength (B ₁), the ratio of compressive strength minus tensile strength to compressive strength plus tensile strength (B ₂), and the area under the line of compressive strength and the line of tensile strength (B ₃) were used as brittleness indexes in this study. Then, the relationships between these brittleness indexes and production rate were investigated by using a regression analysis. The results show that, there is not a good relationship between the production rate and B ₁ and B ₂. However, the production rate correlates with B ₃ very well. Therefore, there is a reliable prediction for ornamental stones production based on B ₃ as a brittleness indexes.     

Co‐composting of Municipal Solid Waste with Sawdust: Improving Compost Quality

The aim of present study was to improve compost quality as well as to achieve an optimum C/N ratio in compost, reduction in heavy metal content and increased water‐holding capacity of composting piles in arid areas. Four windrow compost piles were prepared by mixing sawdust at various dosages with municipal solid waste (MSW). The sawdust was mixed with MSW at 0% (MSW0), 16% (MSW16), 32% (MSW32), and 70% (MSW70) on dry weight basis. The compost piles were monitored daily by recording the temperature, while, weekly measurement was done on C/N ratio, moisture, pH, and electrical conductivity (EC). The addition of 16% sawdust increased the initial C/N to the optimum level and decreased N loss during the composting process. The MSW16 and MSW32 exhibited better temperature dynamics and their composting period seemed to be shorter than that of MSW0 and MSW70. Moreover, addition of sawdust caused lowering of moisture loss from the composting piles. Sawdust admixtures also produced lowering of pH and EC values and led to lower heavy metal content in final products. The quality of the final compost makes it possible to propose the use of this experimental procedure for building up a novel mass reduction of the initial composted waste mixtures.     

Modeling and Prediction of Habitat Suitability for Ferula gummosa Medicinal Plant in a Mountainous Area

Natural Resources Research - Habitat suitability modeling and mapping are important aspects of long-term strategies for sustaining plant ecosystems. In this study, seven state-of-the-art machine...     

Analysis of Zoning Pattern of Geochemical Indicators for Targeting of Porphyry-Cu Mineralization: A Pixel-Based Mapping Approach

In this paper, a pixel-based mapping of geochemical anomalies is proposed to avoid estimation errors resulting from using interpolation methods in the modeling of anomalies. The pixel-based method is a discrete field modeling of geochemical landscapes for mapping lithogeochemical anomalies. In this method, the influence area of each composite rock sample is the whole area covered by a pixel where the materials of the sample were taken from. In addition to the pixel-based method, because delineation of mineral exploration target areas using geochemical data is a challenging task, the application of metal zoning concept is demonstrated for vectoring into porphyry mineralization systems. In this regard, different geochemical signatures of the deposit-type sought were mapped in a model. Application of the proposed pixel-based method and the metal zoning concept is a powerful tool for targeting areas with potential for porphyry copper deposits.