Organization as System, Psychic Dynamism as Equilibration: A Conceptualization

Organizations are supposed to be systems and consequently require defining the notion of equilibrium within. However, organizations comprise people and unavoidably entail their irrational aspects. Then, the question is what is the organizational equilibrium and equilibrating mechanisms considering these aspects. Hence, some arguments are provided here to conceptualize human unconsciousness, irrationalities and consequent uncertainties within organizations in the form of a system of psychic dynamism. The assumption is this dynamism maintains the psychic balance of the organization through a psychodynamic point of view. The resultant conceptualization expected to promote the understanding of such aspects in different organizational settings by hypothesizing organizational equilibration from this perspective. As a result, the main expectation is, if it is known that how the organization equilibrates in this sense, we can explain and deal with such irrationalities and unconsciousness by rational and, of course conscious, planning and accomplishing.

Handover Strategies Challenges in Wireless ATM Networks

To support user mobility for a wireless network new mechanisms are needed and are fundamental, such as paging, location updating, routing, and handover. Also an important key feature is mobile QoS offered by the WATM. Several ATM network protocols should be updated to implement mobility management and to maintain the already ATM QoS over wireless ATM networks. A survey of the various schemes and types of handover is provided. Handover procedure allows guarantee the terminal connection reestablishment when it moves between areas covered by different base stations. It is useful to satisfy user radio link transfer without interrupting a connection. However, failure to offer efficient solutions will result in handover important packet loss, severe delays and degradation of QoS offered to the applications. This paper reviews the requirements, characteristics and open issues of wireless ATM, particularly with regard to handover. It introduces key aspects of WATM and mobility extensions, which are added in the fixed ATM network. We propose a flexible approach for handover management that will minimize the QoS deterioration. Functional entities of this flexible approach are discussed in order to achieve minimum impact on the connection quality when a MT crosses the BS.

Simulation and Optimization of Mechanisms made of Micro-molded Components

The Institute of Product Development is dealing with the development, design and dimensioning of micro components and systems as a member of the Collaborative Research Centre 499 “Design, Production and Quality Assurance of Molded micro components made of Metallic and Ceramic Materials". Because of technological restrictions in the miniaturization of conventional manufacturing techniques, shape and material deviations cannot be scaled down in the same proportion as the micro parts, rendering components with relatively wide tolerance fields. Systems that include such components should be designed with this particularity in mind, often requiring large clearance. On the end, the output of such systems results variable and prone to dynamical instability. To save production time and resources, every study of these effects should happen early in the product development process and base on computer simulation to avoid costly prototypes. A suitable method is proposed here and exemplary applied to a micro technology demonstrator developed by the CRC499. It consists of a one stage planetary gear train in a sun-planet-ring configuration, with input through the sun gear and output through the carrier. The simulation procedure relies on ordinary Multi Body Simulation methods and subsequently adds other techniques to further investigate details of the system-s behavior and to predict its response. The selection of the relevant parameters and output functions followed the engineering standards for regular sized gear trains. The first step is to quantify the variability and to reveal the most critical points of the system, performed through a whole-mechanism Sensitivity Analysis. Due to the lack of previous knowledge about the system-s behavior, different DOE methods involving small and large amount of experiments were selected to perform the SA. In this particular case the parameter space can be divided into two well defined groups, one of them containing the gear-s profile information and the other the components- spatial location. This has been exploited to explore the different DOE techniques more promptly. A reduced set of parameters is derived for further investigation and to feed the final optimization process, whether as optimization parameters or as external perturbation collective. The 10 most relevant perturbation factors and 4 to 6 prospective variable parameters are considered in a new, simplified model. All of the parameters are affected by the mentioned production variability. The objective functions of interest are based on scalar output-s variability measures, so the problem becomes an optimization under robustness and reliability constrains. The study shows an initial step on the development path of a method to design and optimize complex micro mechanisms composed of wide tolerated elements accounting for the robustness and reliability of the systems- output.

Multimedia E-Books for Digital Mechanism and Gear Library

This paper presents a digital engineering library – the Digital Mechanism and Gear Library, DMG-Lib – providing a multimedia collection of e-books, pictures, videos and animations in the domain of mechanisms and machines. The specific characteristic about DMG-Lib is the enrichment and cross-linking of the different sources. DMG-Lib e-books not only present pages as pixel images but also selected figures augmented with interactive animations. The presentation of animations in e-books increases the clearness of the information. To present the multimedia e-books and make them available in the DMG-Lib internet portal a special e-book reader called StreamBook was developed for optimal presentation of digitized books and to enable reading the e-books as well as working efficiently and individually with the enriched information. The objective is to support different user tasks ranging from information retrieval to development and design of mechanisms.

Seismic Performance of Masonry Buildings in Algeria

Structural performance and seismic vulnerability of masonry buildings in Algeria are investigated in this paper. Structural classification of such buildings is carried out regarding their structural elements. Seismicity of Algeria is briefly discussed. Then vulnerability of masonry buildings and their failure mechanisms in the Boumerdes earthquake (May, 2003) are examined.

Development of Maximum Entropy Method for Prediction of Droplet-size Distribution in Primary Breakup Region of Spray

Droplet size distributions in the cold spray of a fuel are important in observed combustion behavior. Specification of droplet size and velocity distributions in the immediate downstream of injectors is also essential as boundary conditions for advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and two-phase spray transport calculations. This paper describes the development of a new model to be incorporated into maximum entropy principle (MEP) formalism for prediction of droplet size distribution in droplet formation region. The MEP approach can predict the most likely droplet size and velocity distributions under a set of constraints expressing the available information related to the distribution. In this article, by considering the mechanisms of turbulence generation inside the nozzle and wave growth on jet surface, it is attempted to provide a logical framework coupling the flow inside the nozzle to the resulting atomization process. The purpose of this paper is to describe the formulation of this new model and to incorporate it into the maximum entropy principle (MEP) by coupling sub-models together using source terms of momentum and energy. Comparison between the model prediction and experimental data for a gas turbine swirling nozzle and an annular spray indicate good agreement between model and experiment.

Laser Forming of Titanium and Its Alloys – An Overview

Laser beam forming is a novel technique developed for the joining of metallic components. In this study, an overview of the laser beam forming process, areas of application, the basic mechanisms of the laser beam forming process, some recent research studies and the need to focus more research effort on improving the laser-material interaction of laser beam forming of titanium and its alloys are presented.

Approaches and Schemes for Storing DTD-Independent XML Data in Relational Databases

The volume of XML data exchange is explosively increasing, and the need for efficient mechanisms of XML data management is vital. Many XML storage models have been proposed for storing XML DTD-independent documents in relational database systems. Benchmarking is the best way to highlight pros and cons of different approaches. In this study, we use a common benchmarking scheme, known as XMark to compare the most cited and newly proposed DTD-independent methods in terms of logical reads, physical I/O, CPU time and duration. We show the effect of Label Path, extracting values and storing in another table and type of join needed for each method's query answering.

SIP-Based QoS Management Architecture for IP Multimedia Subsystems over IP Access Networks

True integration of multimedia services over wired or wireless networks increase the productivity and effectiveness in today-s networks. IP Multimedia Subsystems are Next Generation Network architecture to provide the multimedia services over fixed or mobile networks. This paper proposes an extended SIP-based QoS Management architecture for IMS services over underlying IP access networks. To guarantee the end-to-end QoS for IMS services in interconnection backbone, SIP based proxy Modules are introduced to support the QoS provisioning and to reduce the handoff disruption time over IP access networks. In our approach these SIP Modules implement the combination of Diffserv and MPLS QoS mechanisms to assure the guaranteed QoS for real-time multimedia services. To guarantee QoS over access networks, SIP Modules make QoS resource reservations in advance to provide best QoS to IMS users over heterogeneous networks. To obtain more reliable multimedia services, our approach allows the use of SCTP protocol over SIP instead of UDP due to its multi-streaming feature. This architecture enables QoS provisioning for IMS roaming users to differentiate IMS network from other common IP networks for transmission of realtime multimedia services. To validate our approach simulation models are developed on short scale basis. The results show that our approach yields comparable performance for efficient delivery of IMS services over heterogeneous IP access networks.

Transport and Fate of Copper in Soils

The presence of toxic heavy metals in industrial effluents is one of the serious threats to the environment. Heavy metals such as Cadmium, Chromium, Lead, Nickel, Zinc, Mercury, Copper, Arsenic are found in the effluents of industries such as foundries, electroplating, petrochemical, battery manufacturing, tanneries, fertilizer, dying, textiles, metallurgical and metal finishing. Tremendous increase of industrial copper usage and its presence in industrial effluents has lead to a growing concern about the fate and effects of Copper in the environment. Percolation of industrial effluents through soils leads to contamination of ground water and soils. The transport of heavy metals and their diffusion into the soils has therefore, drawn the attention of the researchers. In this study, an attempt has been made to delineate the mechanisms of transport and fate of copper in terrestrial environment. Column studies were conducted using perplex glass square column of dimension side 15 cm and 1.35 m long. The soil samples were collected from a natural drain near Mohali (India). The soil was characterized to be poorly graded sandy loam. The soil was compacted to the field dry density level of about 1.6 g/cm3. Break through curves for different depths of the column were plotted. The results of the column study indicated that the copper has high tendency to flow in the soils and fewer tendencies to get absorbed on the soil particles. The t1/2 estimates obtained from the studies can be used for design copper laden wastewater disposal systems.

An Investigation to Effective Parameters on the Damage of Dual Phase Steels by Acoustic Emission Using Energy Ratio

Dual phase steels (DPS)s have a microstructure consisting of a hard second phase called Martensite in the soft Ferrite matrix. In recent years, there has been interest in dual-phase steels, because the application of these materials has made significant usage; particularly in the automotive sector Composite microstructure of (DPS)s exhibit interesting characteristic mechanical properties such as continuous yielding, low yield stress to tensile strength ratios(YS/UTS), and relatively high formability; which offer advantages compared with conventional high strength low alloy steels(HSLAS). The research dealt with the characterization of damage in (DPS)s. In this study by review the mechanisms of failure due to volume fraction of martensite second phase; a new method is introduced to identifying the mechanisms of failure in the various phases of these types of steels. In this method the acoustic emission (AE) technique was used to detect damage progression. These failure mechanisms consist of Ferrite-Martensite interface decohesion and/or martensite phase fracture. For this aim, dual phase steels with different volume fraction of martensite second phase has provided by various heat treatment methods on a low carbon steel (0.1% C), and then AE monitoring is used during tensile test of these DPSs. From AE measurements and an energy ratio curve elaborated from the value of AE energy (it was obtained as the ratio between the strain energy to the acoustic energy), that allows detecting important events, corresponding to the sudden drops. These AE signals events associated with various failure mechanisms are classified for ferrite and (DPS)s with various amount of Vm and different martensite morphology. It is found that AE energy increase with increasing Vm. This increasing of AE energy is because of more contribution of martensite fracture in the failure of samples with higher Vm. Final results show a good relationship between the AE signals and the mechanisms of failure.

Simulation of Online Communities Using MAS Social and Spatial Organisations

Online Communities are an example of sociallyaware, self-organising, complex adaptive computing systems. The multi-agent systems (MAS) paradigm coordinated by self-organisation mechanisms has been used as an effective way for the simulation and modeling of such systems. In this paper, we propose a model for simulating an online health community using a situated multi-agent system approach, governed by the co-evolution of the social and spatial organisations of the agents.

Enhanced QoS Mechanisms for IEEE 802.11e Wireless Networks

The quality-of-service (QoS) support for wireless LANs has been a hot research topic during the past few years. In this paper, two QoS provisioning mechanisms are proposed for the employment in 802.11e EDCA MAC scheme. First, the proposed call admission control mechanism can not only guarantee the QoS for the higher priority existing connections but also provide the minimum reserved bandwidth for traffic flows with lower priority. In addition, the adaptive contention window adjustment mechanism can adjust the maximum and minimum contention window size dynamically according to the existing connection number of each AC. The collision probability as well as the packet delay will thus be reduced effectively. Performance results via simulations have revealed the enhanced QoS property achieved by employing these two mechanisms.

Wear Mechanisms in High Speed Steel Gear Cutting Tools

In this paper, the wear of high speed steel hobs during hobbing has been studied. The wear mechanisms are strongly influenced by the choice of cutting speed. At moderate and high cutting speeds three major wear mechanisms were identified: abrasion, mild adhesive and severe adhesive. The microstructure and wear behavior of two high speed steel grades (M2 and ASP30) has been compared. In contrast, a variation in chemical composition or microstructure of HSS tool material generally did not change the dominant wear mechanism. However, the tool material properties determine the resistance against the operating wear mechanism and consequently the tool life. The metallographic analysis and wear measurement at the tip of hob teeth included scanning electron microscopy and stereoscope microscopy. Roughness profilometery is used for measuring the gear surface roughness.

Smart Motion

Austenite and Martensite indicate the phases of solids undergoing phase transformation which we usually associate with materials and not with living organisms. This article provides an overview of bacterial proteins and structures that are undergoing phase transformation and suggests its probable effect on mechanical behavior. The context is mainly within the role of phase transformations occurring in the flagellum of bacteria. The current knowledge of molecular mechanism leading to phase variation in living organisms is reviewed. Since in bacteria, each flagellum is driven by a separate motor, similarity to a Differential drive in case of four-wheeled vehicles is suggested. It also suggests the application of the mechanism in which bacteria changes its direction of movement to facilitate single point turning of a multi-wheeled vehicle. Finally, examples are presented to illustrate that the motion due to phase transformation of flagella in bacteria can start a whole new research on motion mechanisms.

The Micro Ecosystem Restoration Mechanism Applied for Feasible Research of Lakes Eutrophication Enhancement

The technique of inducing micro ecosystem restoration is one of aquatic ecology engineering methods used to retrieve the polluted water. Batch scale study, pilot plant study, and field study were carried out to observe the eutrophication using the Inducing Ecology Restorative Symbiosis Agent (IERSA) consisting mainly degraded products by using lactobacillus, saccharomycete, and phycomycete. The results obtained from the experiments of the batch scale and pilot plant study allowed us to development the parameters for the field study. A pond, 5 m to the outlet of a lake, with an area of 500 m2 and depth of 0.6-1.2 m containing about 500 tons of water was selected as a model. After the treatment with 10 mg IERSA/L water twice a week for 70 days, the micro restoration mechanisms consisted of three stages (i.e., restoration, impact maintenance, and ecology recovery experiment after impact). The COD, TN, TKN, and chlorophyll a were reduced significantly in the first week. Although the unexpected heavy rain and contaminate from sewage system might slow the ecology restoration. However, the self-cleaning function continued and the chlorophyll a reduced for 50% in one month. In the 4th week, amoeba, paramecium, rotifer, and red wriggle worm reappeared, and the number of fish flies appeared up to1000 fish fries/m3. Those results proved that inducing restorative mechanism can be applied to improve the eutrophication and to control the growth of algae in the lakes by gaining the selfcleaning through inducing and competition of microbes. The situation for growth of fishes also can reach an excellent result due to the improvement of water quality.

A Study on the Quality of Hexapod Machine Tool's Workspace

One of the main concerns about parallel mechanisms is the presence of singular points within their workspaces. In singular positions the mechanism gains or loses one or several degrees of freedom. It is impossible to control the mechanism in singular positions. Therefore, these positions have to be avoided. This is a vital need especially in computer controlled machine tools designed and manufactured on the basis of parallel mechanisms. This need has to be taken into consideration when selecting design parameters. A prerequisite to this is a thorough knowledge about the effect of design parameters and constraints on singularity. In this paper, quality condition index was introduced as a criterion for evaluating singularities of different configurations of a hexapod mechanism obtainable by different design parameters. It was illustrated that this method can effectively be employed to obtain the optimum configuration of hexapod mechanism with the aim of avoiding singularity within the workspace. This method was then employed to design the hexapod table of a CNC milling machine.

Pathology of Explanted Transvaginal Meshes

The use of polypropylene mesh devices for Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP) spread rapidly during the last decade, yet our knowledge of the mesh-tissue interaction is far from complete. We aimed to perform a thorough pathological examination of explanted POP meshes and describe findings that may explain mechanisms of complications resulting in product excision. We report a spectrum of important findings, including nerve ingrowth, mesh deformation, involvement of detrusor muscle with neural ganglia, and polypropylene degradation. Analysis of these findings may improve and guide future treatment strategies.

Security Management System of Cellular Communication: Case Study

Cellular communication is being widely used by all over the world. The users of handsets are increasing due to the request from marketing sector. The important aspect that has to be touch in this paper is about the security system of cellular communication. It is important to provide users with a secure channel for communication. A brief description of the new GSM cellular network architecture will be provided. Limitations of cellular networks, their security issues and the different types of attacks will be discussed. The paper will go over some new security mechanisms that have been proposed by researchers. Overall, this paper clarifies the security system or services of cellular communication using GSM. Three Malaysian Communication Companies were taken as Case study in this paper.

Patents Analysis and Design Suggestions for the Mandibular Advancement Devices

Snoring is prevalent and is the most significant feature of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). Ignore the therapies of SDB will lead to serious problems in health. Based on the research of mechanisms, diagnosis, and treatments of snoring, oral appliances are ensured in therapeutic effect and compliance, especially the mandibular advancement devices (MADs). Market survey includes commercial product reviews and patent analyses. Due to pay more attention to the sleep medicine, the oral appliances are considered as a standard treatment of snoring that promoted by American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). There are more and more adjustable MADs developed since 1995. According to the patent analyses, there are many drawbacks existed in the present design, such as uncomfortable, high cost, bulky volume, and complex adjustment. In this study, several new designs of the MAD are proposed.