Abstract: Polymeric micro-cantilevers (Cs) are rapidly
becoming popular for MEMS applications such as chemo- and biosensing
as well as purely electromechanical applications such as
microrelays. Polymer materials present suitable physical and
chemical properties combined with low-cost mass production. Hence,
micro-cantilevers made of polymers indicate much more
biocompatibility and adaptability of rapid prototyping along with
mechanical properties. This research studies the effects of three
process and one size factors on the filling behaviour in micro cavity,
and the role of each in the replication of micro parts using different
polymer materials i.e. polypropylene (PP) SABIC 56M10 and
acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) Magnum 8434 . In particular,
the following factors are considered: barrel temperature, mould
temperature, injection speed and the thickness of micro features. The
study revealed that the barrel temperature and the injection speed are
the key factors affecting the flow length of micro features replicated
in PP and ABS. For both materials, an increase of feature sizes
improves the melt flow. However, the melt fill of micro features does
not increase linearly with the increase of their thickness.
Abstract: Sweden has succeeded to maintain a high level of
growth and development and has managed to sustain highly ranked
position among the world’s developed countries. In this regard,
Swedish universities are playing a vital role in supporting innovation
and entrepreneurship at all levels and developing Swedish knowledge
economy. This paper is aiming to draw on the experiences of two leading
Swedish universities, addressing their transformation approach to
create entrepreneurial universities and fulfilling their objectives in the
era of knowledge economy. The objectives of the paper include: 1) Introducing the Swedish
higher education and its characteristics. 2) Examining the
infrastructure elements for innovation and Entrepreneurship at two of
the Swedish entrepreneurial universities. 3) Addressing the key
aspects of support systems in the initiatives of both Chalmers and
Gothenburg universities to support innovation and advance
entrepreneurial practices. The paper will contribute to two discourses: 1) Examining the
relationship between support systems for innovation and
entrepreneurship and the Universities’ policies and practices. 2)
Lessons for University leaders to assist the development and
implementation of effective innovation and entrepreneurship policies
and practices.
Abstract: Hollow section for bridge columns has some
advantages. However, current seismic design codes do not provide
design regulations for hollow bridge piers. There have been many
experimental studied for hollow reinforced concrete piers in the world.
But, Study for hollow section for bridge piers in Korea has been begun
with approximately 2000s. There has been conducted experimental
study for hollow piers of flexural controlled sections by Yeungnam
University, Sung kyunkwan University, Korea Expressway
Corporation in 2009. This study concluded that flexural controlled
sections for hollow piers showed the similar behavior to solid sections.
And there have been conducted experimental study for hollow piers of
compression controlled sections by Yeungnam University, Korea
Institute of Construction Technology in 2012. This study concluded
that compression controlled sections for hollow piers showed
compression fracture of concrete in inside wall face. Samsung
Construction & Trading Corporation has been conducted study with
Yeungnam University for reduce the quantity of reinforcement details
about hollow piers. Reduce the quantity of reinforcement details are
triangular cross tie. This study concluded that triangular reinforcement
details showed the similar behavior as compared with existing
reinforcement details.
Abstract: This study aims to increase understanding of the
transition of business models in servitization. The significance of
service in all business has increased dramatically during the past
decades. Service-dominant logic (SDL) describes this change in the
economy and questions the goods-dominant logic on which business
has primarily been based in the past. A business model canvas is one
of the most cited and used tools in defining end developing business
models. The starting point of this paper lies in the notion that the
traditional business model canvas is inherently goods-oriented and
best suits for product-based business. However, the basic differences
between goods and services necessitate changes in business model
representations when proceeding in servitization. Therefore, new
knowledge is needed on how the conception of business model and
the business model canvas as its representation should be altered in
servitized firms in order to better serve business developers and interfirm
co-creation. That is to say, compared to products, services are
intangible and they are co-produced between the supplier and the
customer. Value is always co-created in interaction between a
supplier and a customer, and customer experience primarily depends
on how well the interaction succeeds between the actors. The role of
service experience is even stronger in service business compared to
product business, as services are co-produced with the customer. This paper provides business model developers with a service
business model canvas, which takes into account the intangible,
interactive, and relational nature of service. The study employs a
design science approach that contributes to theory development via
design artifacts. This study utilizes qualitative data gathered in
workshops with ten companies from various industries. In particular,
key differences between Goods-dominant logic (GDL) and SDLbased
business models are identified when an industrial firm
proceeds in servitization. As the result of the study, an updated version of the business
model canvas is provided based on service-dominant logic. The
service business model canvas ensures a stronger customer focus and
includes aspects salient for services, such as interaction between
companies, service co-production, and customer experience. It can be
used for the analysis and development of a current service business
model of a company or for designing a new business model. It
facilitates customer-focused new service design and service
development. It aids in the identification of development needs, and
facilitates the creation of a common view of the business model.
Therefore, the service business model canvas can be regarded as a
boundary object, which facilitates the creation of a common
understanding of the business model between several actors involved.
The study contributes to the business model and service business
development disciplines by providing a managerial tool for
practitioners in service development. It also provides research insight
into how servitization challenges companies’ business models.
Abstract: This paper aims to study the heat transfer and fluid
flow characteristics of nanofluids used in spray cooling systems. The
effect of spray height, type of nanofluids and concentration of
nanofluids are numerically investigated. Five different nanofluids
such as AgH2O, Al2O3, CuO, SiO2 and TiO2 with volume fraction
range of 0.5% to 2.5% are used. The results revealed that the heat
transfer performance decreases as spray height increases. It is found
that TiO2 has the highest transfer coefficient among other nanofluids.
In dilute spray conditions, low concentration of nanofluids is
observed to be more effective in heat removal in a spray cooling
system.
Abstract: This paper will discuss how we optimize our physical
verification flow in our IC Design Department having various rule
decks from multiple foundries. Our ultimate goal is to achieve faster
time to tape-out and avoid schedule delay. Currently the physical
verification runtimes and memory usage have drastically increased
with the increasing number of design rules, design complexity, and
the size of the chips to be verified. To manage design violations, we
use a number of solutions to reduce the amount of violations needed
to be checked by physical verification engineers. The most important
functions in physical verifications are DRC (design rule check), LVS
(layout vs. schematic), and XRC (extraction). Since we have a
multiple number of foundries for our design tape-outs, we need a
flow that improve the overall turnaround time and ease of use of the
physical verification process. The demand for fast turnaround time is
even more critical since the physical design is the last stage before
sending the layout to the foundries.
Abstract: Elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem(ECDLP) is
one of problems on which the security of pairing-based cryptography
is based. This paper considers Pollard’s rho method to evaluate
the security of ECDLP on Barreto-Naehrig(BN) curve that is an
efficient pairing-friendly curve. Some techniques are proposed to
make the rho method efficient. Especially, the group structure on
BN curve, distinguished point method, and Montgomery trick are
well-known techniques. This paper applies these techniques and
shows its optimization. According to the experimental results for
which a large-scale parallel system with MySQL is applied, 94-bit
ECDLP was solved about 28 hours by parallelizing 71 computers.
Abstract: In most existing buildings in hot climate, cooling
loads lead to high primary energy consumption and consequently
high CO2 emissions. These can be substantially decreased with
integrated renewable energy systems. Kuwait is characterized by its
dry hot long summer and short warm winter. Kuwait receives annual
total radiation more than 5280 MJ/m2 with approximately 3347 h of
sunshine. Solar energy systems consist of PV modules and parabolic
trough collectors are considered to satisfy electricity consumption,
domestic water heating, and cooling loads of an existing building.
This paper presents the results of an extensive program of energy
conservation and energy generation using integrated photovoltaic
(PV) modules and Parabolic Trough Collectors (PTC). The program
conducted on an existing institutional building intending to convert it
into a Net-Zero Energy Building (NZEB) or near net Zero Energy
Building (nNZEB). The program consists of two phases; the first
phase is concerned with energy auditing and energy conservation
measures at minimum cost and the second phase considers the
installation of photovoltaic modules and parabolic trough collectors.
The 2-storey building under consideration is the Applied Sciences
Department at the College of Technological Studies, Kuwait. Single
effect lithium bromide water absorption chillers are implemented to
provide air conditioning load to the building. A numerical model is
developed to evaluate the performance of parabolic trough collectors
in Kuwait climate. Transient simulation program (TRNSYS) is
adapted to simulate the performance of different solar system
components. In addition, a numerical model is developed to assess
the environmental impacts of building integrated renewable energy
systems. Results indicate that efficient energy conservation can play
an important role in converting the existing buildings into NZEBs as
it saves a significant portion of annual energy consumption of the
building. The first phase results in an energy conservation of about
28% of the building consumption. In the second phase, the integrated
PV completely covers the lighting and equipment loads of the
building. On the other hand, parabolic trough collectors of optimum
area of 765 m2 can satisfy a significant portion of the cooling load,
i.e about73% of the total building cooling load. The annual avoided
CO2 emission is evaluated at the optimum conditions to assess the
environmental impacts of renewable energy systems. The total annual
avoided CO2 emission is about 680 metric ton/year which confirms
the environmental impacts of these systems in Kuwait.
Abstract: When high strength reinforced concrete is exposed to
high temperature due to a fire, deteriorations occur such as loss in
strength and elastic modulus, cracking and spalling of the concrete.
Therefore, it is important to understand risk of structural safety in
building structures by studying structural behaviors and rehabilitation
of fire damaged high strength concrete structures. This paper aims at
investigating rehabilitation effect on fire damaged high strength
concrete beams using experimental and analytical methods. In the
experiments, flexural specimens with high strength concrete are
exposed to high temperatures according to ISO 834 standard time
temperature curve. From four-point loading test, results show that
maximum loads of the rehabilitated beams are similar to or higher than
those of the non-fire damaged RC beam. In addition, structural
analyses are performed using ABAQUS 6.10-3 with same conditions
as experiments to provide accurate predictions on structural and
mechanical behaviors of rehabilitated RC beams. The parameters are
the fire cover thickness and strengths of repairing mortar. Analytical
results show good rehabilitation effects, when the results predicted
from the rehabilitated models are compared to structural behaviors of
the non-damaged RC beams. In this study, fire damaged high strength concrete beams are
rehabilitated using polymeric cement mortar. The predictions from the
finite element (FE) models show good agreements with the
experimental results and the modeling approaches can be used to
investigate applicability of various rehabilitation methods for further
study.
Abstract: Present study was aimed to develop a discharge
measuring device for irrigation and laboratory channels. Experiments
were conducted on sharp edged constricted flow meters having four
types of width constrictions namely 2:1, 1.5:1, 1:1 and 90o in the
direction of flow. These devices were made of MS sheets and
installed separately in a rectangular flume. All these four devices
were tested under free and submerged flow conditions. Eight
different discharges varying from 2 lit/sec to 30 lit/sec were passed
through each device. In total around 500 observations of upstream
and downstream depths were taken in the present work. For each
discharge, free submerged and critical submergence under different
flow conditions were noted and plotted. Once the upstream and
downstream depths of flow over any of the device are known, the
discharge can be easily calculated with the help of the curves
developed for free and submerged flow conditions. The device
having contraction 2:1 is the most efficient one as it allows maximum
critical submergence.
Abstract: This study presents a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm
to obtain optimum designs for steel space buildings. The optimum
design problem of three-dimensional steel frames is mathematically
formulated according to provisions of LRFD-AISC (Load and
Resistance factor design of American Institute of Steel Construction).
Design constraints such as the strength requirements of structural
members, the displacement limitations, the inter-story drift and the
other structural constraints are derived from LRFD-AISC
specification. In this study, a hybrid algorithm by using teachinglearning
based optimization (TLBO) and harmony search (HS)
algorithms is employed to solve the stated optimum design problem.
These algorithms are two of the recent additions to metaheuristic
techniques of numerical optimization and have been an efficient tool
for solving discrete programming problems. Using these two
algorithms in collaboration creates a more powerful tool and
mitigates each other’s weaknesses. To demonstrate the powerful
performance of presented hybrid algorithm, the optimum design of a
large scale steel building is presented and the results are compared to
the previously obtained results available in the literature.
Abstract: Regions with extreme climate conditions such as
Astana city require energy saving measures to increase energy
performance of buildings which are responsible for more than 40% of
total energy consumption. Identification of optimal building
geometry is one of key factors to be considered. Architectural form of
a building has impact on space heating and cooling energy use,
however the interrelationship between the geometry and resultant
energy use is not always readily apparent. This paper presents a
comparative case study of two prototypical buildings with compact
building shape to assess its impact on energy performance.
Abstract: Main purpose of this study is to identify the impact of
government expenditure on economic growth in Asian Countries.
Consequently, main objective is to analyze whether government
expenditure causes economic growth in Asian countries vice versa
and then scrutinizing long-run equilibrium relationship exists
between them. The study completely based on secondary data. The
methodology being quantitative that includes econometrical
techniques of cointegration, panel fixed effects model and granger
causality in the context of panel data of Asian countries; Singapore,
Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, China, Sri Lanka, India and
Bhutan with 44 observations in each country, totaling to 396
observations from 1970 to 2013. The model used is the random
effects panel OLS model. As with the above methodology, the study
found the fascinating outcome. At first, empirical findings exhibit a
momentous positive impact of government expenditure on Gross
Domestic Production in Asian region. Secondly, government
expenditure and economic growth indicate a long-run relationship in
Asian countries. In conclusion, there is a unidirectional causality
from economic growth to government expenditure and government
expenditure to economic growth in Asian countries. Hence the study
is validated that it is in line with the Keynesian theory and Wagner’s
law as well. Consequently, it can be concluded that role of
government would play a vital role in economic growth of Asian
Countries. However; if government expenditure did not figure out
with the economy’s needs it might be considerably inspiration the
economy in a negative way so that society bears the costs.
Abstract: The aims of study were investigation on chemical
composition essential oil and the effect of extract of Coronilla varia
on antimicrobial and cytotoxicity activity. The essential oils of
Coronilla varia is obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by
(GC/MS) for determining their chemical composition and
identification of their components. Antibacterial activity of plant
extract was determined by disc diffusion method and anticancer
activity measured by MTT assay. The major components in essential
oil were Caryophyllene Oxide (60.19%), Alphacadinol (4.13%) and
Homoadantaneca Robexylic Acid (3.31%). The extracts from
Coronilla varia had interesting activity against Proteus mirabilis in
the concentration of 700 μg/disc and did not show any activity
against Staphylococus aureus, Bacillus subtillis, Klebsiella
pneumonia and Entrobacter cloacae. The positive control,
Ampicillin, Chloramphenicol and Cenphalothin had shown zone of
inhibition resistant all bacteria. The ethanol extract of Corohilla varia
inhibited on MCF7 cell lines. IC50 0.6(mg/ml) was the optimum
concentration of extract from Coronilla varia inhibition of cell line
growth. The MCF7 cancer cell line and Proteus mirabilis were more
sensitive to Coronilla varia ethanol extract.
Abstract: In this paper, we study the optical nonlinearities of
Silver sulfide (Ag2S) nanostructures dispersed in the Dimethyl
sulfoxide (DMSO) under exposure to 532 nm, 15 nanosecond (ns)
pulsed laser irradiation. Ultraviolet–visible absorption spectrometry
(UV-Vis), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron
microscopy (TEM) are used to characterize the obtained nanocrystal
samples. The band gap energy of colloid is determined by analyzing
the UV–Vis absorption spectra of the Ag2S NPs using the band
theory of semiconductors. Z-scan technique is used to characterize
the optical nonlinear properties of the Ag2S nanoparticles (NPs).
Large enhancement of two photon absorption effect is observed with
increase in concentration of the Ag2S nanoparticles using open Zscan
measurements in the ns laser regime. The values of the nonlinear
absorption coefficients are determined based on the local nonlinear
responses including two photon absorption. The observed aperture
dependence of the Ag2S NP limiting performance indicates that the
nonlinear scattering plays an important role in the limiting action of
the sample. The concentration dependence of the optical liming is
also investigated. Our results demonstrate that the optical limiting
threshold decreases with increasing the silver sulfide NPs in DMSO.
Abstract: In many countries, governments have been promoting the involvement of private sector entities to enter into long-term agreements for the development and delivery of large infrastructure projects, with a focus on overcoming the limitations upon public fund of the traditional approach. The involvement of private sector through public private partnerships (PPP) brings in new capital investments, value for money and additional risks to handle. Worldwide research studies have shown that an objective, systematic, reliable and useroriented risk assessment process and an optimal allocation mechanism among different stakeholders is crucial to the successful completion. In this framework, this paper, which is the first stage of a research study, aims to identify the main risks for the delivery of PPP projects. A review of cross-countries research projects and case studies was performed to map the key risks affecting PPP infrastructure delivery. The matrix of mapping offers a summary of the frequency of factors, clustered in eleven categories: construction, design, economic, legal, market, natural, operation, political, project finance, project selection and relationship. Results will highlight the most critical risk factors, and will hopefully assist the project managers in directing the managerial attention in the further stages of risk allocation.
Abstract: Tamil handwritten document is taken as a key source of data to identify the writer. Tamil is a classical language which has 247 characters include compound characters, consonants, vowels and special character. Most characters of Tamil are multifaceted in nature. Handwriting is a unique feature of an individual. Writer may change their handwritings according to their frame of mind and this place a risky challenge in identifying the writer. A new discriminative model with pooled features of handwriting is proposed and implemented using support vector machine. It has been reported on 100% of prediction accuracy by RBF and polynomial kernel based classification model.
Abstract: Water resource systems modeling has constantly been
a challenge through history for human beings. As the innovative
methodological development is evolving alongside computer sciences
on one hand, researches are likely to confront more complex and
larger water resources systems due to new challenges regarding
increased water demands, climate change and human interventions,
socio-economic concerns, and environment protection and
sustainability. In this research, an automatic calibration scheme has
been applied on the Gilan’s large-scale water resource model using
mathematical programming. The water resource model’s calibration
is developed in order to attune unknown water return flows from
demand sites in the complex Sefidroud irrigation network and other
related areas. The calibration procedure is validated by comparing
several gauged river outflows from the system in the past with model
results. The calibration results are pleasantly reasonable presenting a
rational insight of the system. Subsequently, the unknown optimized
parameters were used in a basin-scale linear optimization model with
the ability to evaluate the system’s performance against a reduced
inflow scenario in future. Results showed an acceptable match
between predicted and observed outflows from the system at selected
hydrometric stations. Moreover, an efficient operating policy was
determined for Sefidroud dam leading to a minimum water shortage
in the reduced inflow scenario.
Abstract: In this paper we studied sono catalytic oxidative desulfurization of oil and diesel fraction from “Zhanazhol” oil deposits. We have established that the combined effect of the ultrasonic field and oxidant (ozone-air mixture) in the presence of the catalyst on the oil is potentially very effective method of desulfurization of oil and oil products. This method allows increasing the degree of desulfurization of oil by 62%.
Abstract: This study investigated the impact of inflectional and derivational morphemic analysis awareness on ESL secondary school students’ vocabulary learning strategy. The quasi-experimental study was conducted with 106 low proficiency secondary school students in two experimental groups (inflectional and derivational) and one control group. The students’ vocabulary acquisition was assessed through two measures: Morphemic Analysis Test and Vocabulary- Morphemic Test in the pretest and posttest before and after an intervention programme. Results of ANCOVA revealed that both the experimental groups achieved a significant score in Morphemic Analysis Test and Vocabulary-Morphemic Test. However, the inflectional group obtained a fairly higher score than the derivational group. Thus, the results indicated that ESL low proficiency secondary school students performed better on inflectional morphemic awareness as compared to derivatives. The results also showed that the awareness of inflectional morphology contributed more on the vocabulary acquisition. Importantly, learning inflectional morphology can help ESL low proficiency secondary school students to develop both morphemic awareness and vocabulary gain. Theoretically, these findings show that not all morphemes are equally useful to students for their language development. Practically, these findings indicate that morphological instruction should at least be included in remediation and instructional efforts with struggling learners across all grade levels, allowing them to focus on meaning within the word before they attempt the text in large for better comprehension. Also, by methodologically, by conducting individualized intervention and assessment this study provided fresh empirical evidence to support the existing literature on morphemic analysis awareness and vocabulary learning strategy. Thus, a major pedagogical implication of the study is that morphemic analysis awareness strategy is a definite boon for ESL secondary school students in learning English vocabulary.