Abstract: The end panels of a large rectangular industrial duct,
which experience significant internal pressures, also experience
considerable transverse shear due to transfer of gravity loads to the
supports. The current design practice of such thin plate panels for
shear load is based on methods used for the design of plate girder
webs. The structural arrangements, the loadings and the resulting
behavior associated with the industrial duct end panels are, however,
significantly different from those of the web of a plate girder. The
large aspect ratio of the end panels gives rise to multiple bands of
tension fields, whereas the plate girder web design is based on one
tension field. In addition to shear, the industrial end panels are
subjected to internal pressure which in turn produces significant
membrane action. This paper reports a study which was undertaken
to review the current industrial analysis and design methods and to
propose a comprehensive method of designing industrial duct end
panels for shear resistance. In this investigation, a nonlinear finite element model was
developed to simulate the behavior of industrial duct end panel, along
with the associated edge stiffeners, subjected to transverse shear and
internal pressures. The model considered the geometric imperfections
and constitutive relations for steels. Six scale independent
dimensionless parameters that govern the behavior of such end panel
were identified and were then used in a parametric study. It was
concluded that the plate slenderness dominates the shear strength of
stockier end panels, and whereas, both the plate slenderness and the
aspect ratio influence the shear strength of slender end panels. Based
on these studies, this paper proposes design aids for estimating the
shear strength of rectangular duct end panels.
Abstract: The Haussmannization plan of Cairo in 1867 formed a
regular network of roundabout spaces, though deteriorated at present.
The method of identifying the spatial structure of roundabout Cairo
for conservation matches the voronoi diagram with the space syntax
through their geometrical property of spatial convexity. In this
initiative, the primary convex hull of first-order voronoi adopts the
integral and control measurements of space syntax on Cairo’s
roundabout generators. The functional essence of royal palaces
optimizes the roundabout structure in terms of spatial measurements
and the symbolic voronoi projection of 'Tahrir Roundabout' over the
Giza Nile and Pyramids. Some roundabouts of major public and
commercial landmarks surround the pole of 'Ezbekia Garden' with a
higher control than integral measurements, which filter the new
spatial structure from the adjacent traditional town. Nevertheless, the
least integral and control measures correspond to the voronoi
contents of pollutant workshops and the plateau of old Cairo Citadel
with the visual compensation of new royal landmarks on top.
Meanwhile, the extended suburbs of infinite voronoi polygons
arrange high control generators of chateaux housing in 'garden city'
environs. The point pattern of roundabouts determines the
geometrical characteristics of voronoi polygons. The measured
lengths of voronoi edges alternate between the zoned short range at
the new poles of Cairo and the distributed structure of longer range.
Nevertheless, the shortest range of generator-vertex geometry
concentrates at 'Ezbekia Garden' where the crossways of vast Cairo
intersect, which maximizes the variety of choice at different spatial
resolutions. However, the symbolic 'Hippodrome' which is the largest
public landmark forms exclusive geometrical measurements, while
structuring a most integrative roundabout to parallel the royal syntax.
Overview of the symbolic convex hull of voronoi with space syntax
interconnects Parisian Cairo with the spatial chronology of scattered
monuments to conceive one universal Cairo structure. Accordingly,
the approached methodology of 'voronoi-syntax' prospects the future
conservation of roundabout Cairo at the inferred city-level concept.
Abstract: The article deals with the personality of military
professionals (commanders) and their way of leading and
commanding today and in historical context. The first part focuses on
the leadership skills of Alexander the Great, who introduced strategic
innovations and even from today's perspective; he excelled in
efficient work with people. This paper focuses on the way which he
achieved his goals. Further attention is paid to approaches to
commander´s personality by other great generals. The paper is also
focused on personality traits of military professionals necessary for
successful management and leadership in today's variable and
challenging environment. Finally, attention is paid to the effective
and ineffective ways of behavior of commanders and determining
what styles of leadership is appropriate for a given situation, whether
in peacetime or on deployment.
Abstract: Financial literacy is a widely discussed topic on the
national and international level by governments, organizations and
academia. For this reason, this study analyses financial knowledge,
financial behavior, and financial attitudes of students of finance. The
aim of the paper is to determine whether the financial literacy of
university students studying finance differs from the level of financial
literacy in selected OECD countries. The research was conducted at
Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. The empirical study
comprises questions related to several aspects of financial literacy,
such as financial knowledge, personal finance behavior, or decisionmaking.
The results indicate that improvement in financial literacy of
university students is still required, even though their major is finance
related.
Abstract: Mechanical behavior of 6082T6 aluminum is
investigated at different temperatures. The strain rate sensitivity is
investigated at different temperatures on the grain size variants. The
sensitivity of the measured grain size variants on 3-D grain is
discussed. It is shown that the strain rate sensitivities are negative for
the grain size variants during the deformation of nanostructured
materials. It is also observed that the strain rate sensitivities vary in
different ways with the equivalent radius, semi minor axis radius,
semi major axis radius and major axis radius. From the obtained
results, it is shown that the variation of strain rate sensitivity with
temperature suggests that the strain rate sensitivity at the low and the
high temperature ends of the 6082T6 aluminum range is different.
The obtained results revealed transition at different temperature from
negative strain rate sensitivity as temperature increased on the grain
size variants.
Abstract: Agricultural machinery industry plays an important
role in the industrial development especially the production industry
of the country. There has been continuing development responding to
the higher demand of the production. However, the problem in
agricultural machinery production still exists. Thus, the purpose of
this research is to investigate problems on fundamental factors of
industry based on the entrepreneurs’ point of view. The focus was on
the small and medium size industry receiving factory license type
number 0660 from the Department of Industrial Works. The
investigation was on the comparison between the management of the
small and medium size agricultural industry in 3 provinces in the
central region of Thailand. Population in this study consisted of 189
company managers or managing directors, of which 101 were from
the small size and 88 were from the medium size industry. The data
were analyzed to find percentage, arithmetic mean, and standard
deviation with independent sample T-test at the statistical
significance .05. The results showed that the small and medium size
agricultural machinery manufacturers in the central region of
Thailand reported high problems in every aspect. When compared the
problems on basic factors in running the business, it was found that
there was no statistically difference at .05 in managing of the small
and medium size agricultural machinery manufacturers. However,
there was a statistically significant difference between the small and
medium size agricultural machinery manufacturers on the aspect of
policy and services of the government. The problems reported by the
small and medium size agricultural machinery manufacturers were
the services on public tap water and the problem on politic and
stability of the country.
Abstract: The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is the goal
of regional economic integration by 2015. In the region, tourism is an
activity that is important, especially as a source of foreign currency, a
source of employment creation and a source of income bringing to the
region. Given the complexity of the issues entailing the concept of
sustainable tourism, this paper tries to assess tourism sustainability
with the ASEAN, based on a number of quantitative indicators for all
the ten economies, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia,
Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, and Brunei. The
methodological framework will provide a number of benchmarks of
tourism activities in these countries. They include identification of the
dimensions; for example, economic, socio-ecologic, infrastructure
and indicators, method of scaling, chart representation and evaluation
on Asian countries. This specification shows that a similar level of
tourism activity might introduce different implementation in the
tourism activity and might have different consequences for the socioecological
environment and sustainability. The heterogeneity of
developing countries exposed briefly here would be useful to detect
and prepare for coping with the main problems of each country in
their tourism activities, as well as competitiveness and value creation
of tourism for ASEAN economic community, and will compare with
other parts of the world.
Abstract: Biochar can be produced from the waste matter and its
application has been associated with returning of carbon in large
amounts into the soil. The impacts of this material on physical and
chemical properties of soil have been described. The biggest part of
the research work is dedicated to the hypothesis of this material’s
toxic effects on the soil life regarding its effect on the soil biological
component. At present, it has been worked on methods which could
eliminate these undesirable properties of biochar. One of the
possibilities is to mix biochar with organic material, such as compost,
or focusing on the natural processes acceleration in the soil. In the
experiment has been used as the addition of compost as well as the
elimination of toxic substances by promoting microbial activity in
aerated water environment. Biochar was aerated for 7 days in a
container with a volume of 20 l. This way modified biochar had six
times higher biomass production and reduce mineral nitrogen
leaching. Better results have been achieved by mixing biochar with
compost.
Abstract: Increase of emergency incidents and crisis situations
requires proactive crisis management of authorities and for its
solution. Application Business Continuity Management helps the
crisis management authorities to quickly and responsibly respond to
threats. It also helps effectively and efficiently planning powers and
resources. The main goal of this article is describing Military
Continuity Management System (MCMS) based on the principles of
Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) for dealing with
floods in the territory of the selected municipalities. There are
explained steps of loading, running and evaluating activities in the
software application MCMS. Software MCMS provides complete
control over the tasks, contribute a comprehensive and responsible
approach solutions to solution floods in the municipality.
Abstract: Ensuring of continuity of business is basic strategy of
every company. Continuity of organization activities includes
comprehensive procedures that help in solving unexpected situations
of natural and anthropogenic character (for example flood, blaze,
economic situations). Planning of continuity operations is a process
that helps identify critical processes and implement plans for the
security and recovery of key processes. The aim of this article is to
demonstrate application of system approach to managing business
continuity called business continuity management systems in military
issues. This article describes the life cycle of business continuity
management which is based on the established cycle PDCA (Plan-
Do-Check-Act). After this is carried out by activities which are
making by University of Defence during activation of forces and
means of the integrated rescue system in case of emergencies -
accidents at a nuclear power plant in Czech Republic. Activities of
various stages of deployment earmarked forces and resources are
managed and evaluated by using MCMS application (Military
Continuity Management System).
Abstract: The myocardium is composed of specialized muscle
which relies mainly on fatty acid and sugar metabolism and it is
widely contribute to the heart functioning. The changes of the cardiac
energy-producing system during heart failure have been proved using
autoradiography techniques. This study focused on evaluating sugar
and fatty acid metabolism in myocardium as cardiac energy getting
system using heart-accumulated radiopharmaceuticals. Two sets of
autoradiographs of heart cross sections of Lewis male rats were
analyzed and the time- accumulation curve obtained with use of the
MATLAB image processing software to evaluate fatty acid and sugar
metabolic functions.
Abstract: Now, the use of renewable energy power generation
has been advanced. In this paper, we compared the usable amount of
resource for photovoltaic power generation which was estimated using
the NEDO formula and the expansion support policy of photovoltaic
power generation which was researched using Internet in the
municipality level in Hokkaido and Aichi Prefecture, Japan. This
paper will contribute to grasp the current situation especially about the
policy. As a result, there were municipalities which seemed to be no
consideration of fitting the amount of resources. We think it would
need to consider the suitability between the resources and policies.
Abstract: Job satisfaction and motivation have been given an
important attention in psychology because they are seen as main
instruments in maintaining organizational growth and development;
they are also used to accomplish organizational aims and objectives.
However, it has been observed that some institutions failed in
motivating and stimulating their workers; in contrast, workers may be
motivated but not satisfied with the job and failed to perform
efficiently and effectively. It is hoped that the study of this nature
would be of significance value to all stakeholders in education
specifically, lecturers in higher institutions in Nigeria. Also, it is
hoped that the findings of this study will enhance lecturers’
effectiveness and performance in discharging their duties. In the light
of the above statements, this study investigated whether job
satisfaction and motivation predict lecturers’ effectiveness in Nigeria
Police Academy, Wudil, Kano State. Correlational research method
was adopted for the study, while purposive sampling technique was
used to choose the institution and the sampled lectures (70). Simple
random sampling technique was used to select one hundred cadets
across the academy. Two instruments were used to elicit information
from both lecturers and cadets. These were job satisfaction and
motivation; and lecturers’ effectiveness Questionnaires. The
instruments were subjected to pilot testing and found to have
reliability coefficient of 0.69 and 0.71 respectively. The results of the
study revealed that there was a significance relationship among job
satisfaction, motivation and lecturers effectiveness in Nigeria Police
Academy. There was a significance relationship between job
satisfaction and lecturers’ effectiveness in Nigeria Police Academy
the cal r is 0.21 while the crt r is 0.19. at p
Abstract: Over the past few decades, manufacturing has evolved
from a more labor-intensive set of mechanical processes to a
sophisticated set of information based technology processes. With the
existence of various advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs),
more and more functions or jobs are performed by these machines
instead of human labour. This study was undertaken in order to
research the extent of AMTs adoption in manufacturing companies in
Kenya. In order to investigate a survey was conducted via
questionnaires that were sent to 183 selected AMT manufacturing
companies in Kenya. 92 companies responded positively. All the
surveyed companies were found to have a measure of investment in
at least two of the 14 types of AMTs investigated. In general the
company surveyed showed that the level of AMT adoption in Kenya
is very low with investments levels at a mean of 2.057 and
integration levels at a mean of 1.639 in a scale of 1-5.
Abstract: Present empirical paper investigates the relationship
between FDI and economic growth by 10 selected industries in 10
Central and Eastern European countries from the period 1995 to
2012. Different estimation approaches were used to explore the
connection between FDI and economic growth, for example OLS,
RE, FE with and without time dummies. Obtained empirical results
leads to some main consequences: First, the Central and East
European countries (CEEC) attracted foreign direct investment,
which raised the productivity of industries they entered in. It should
be concluded that the linkage between FDI and output growth by
industries is positive and significant enough to suggest that foreign
firm’s participation enhanced the productivity of the industries they
occupied. There had been an endogeneity problem in the regression
and fixed effects estimation approach was used which partially
corrected the regression analysis in order to make the results less
biased. Second, it should be stressed that the results show that time
has an important role in making FDI operational for enhancing output
growth by industries via total factor productivity. Third, R&D
positively affected economic growth and at the same time, it should
take some time for research and development to influence economic
growth. Fourth, the general trends masked crucial differences at the
country level: over the last 20 years, the analysis of the tables and
figures at the country level show that the main recipients of FDI of
the 11 Central and Eastern European countries were Hungary, Poland
and the Czech Republic. The main reason was that these countries
had more open door policies for attracting the FDI. Fifth, according
to the graphical analysis, while Hungary had the highest FDI inflow
in this region, it was not reflected in the GDP growth as much as in
other Central and Eastern European countries.
Abstract: The goal of this paper is to specify factors influencing
the profitability of selected banks. Next, a model will be created to
help establish variables that have a demonstrable influence on the
development of the selected banks' profitability ratios. Czech banks
and their international parent companies were selected for analyzing
profitability. Banks categorized as large banks (according to the
Czech National Bank's system, which ranks banks according to
balance sheet total) were selected to represent the Czech banks. Two
ratios, the return on assets ratio (ROA) and the return on equity ratio
(ROE) are used to assess bank profitability. Six endogenous and four
external indicators were selected from among other factors that
influence bank profitability. The data analyzed were for 2001–2013.
First, correlation analysis, which was supposed to eliminate
correlated values, was conducted. A large number of correlated
values were established on the basis of this analysis. The strongly
correlated values were omitted. Despite this, the subsequent
regression analysis of profitability for the individual banks that were
selected did not confirm that the selected variables influenced their
profitability. The studied factors' influence on bank profitability was
demonstrated only for Ceskoslovenska Obchodni Banka and Société
Générale using regression analysis. For Československa Obchodni
Banka, it was demonstrated that inflation level and the amount of the
central bank's interest rate influenced the return on assets ratio and
that capital adequacy and market concentration influenced the return
on equity ratio for Société Générale.
Abstract: We regard forecasting of energy consumption by
private production areas of a large industrial facility as well as by the
facility itself. As for production areas, the forecast is made based on
empirical dependencies of the specific energy consumption and the
production output. As for the facility itself, implementation of the
task to minimize the energy consumption forecasting error is based
on adjustment of the facility’s actual energy consumption values
evaluated with the metering device and the total design energy
consumption of separate production areas of the facility. The
suggested procedure of optimal energy consumption was tested based
on the actual data of core product output and energy consumption by
a group of workshops and power plants of the large iron and steel
facility. Test results show that implementation of this procedure gives
the mean accuracy of energy consumption forecasting for winter
2014 of 0.11% for the group of workshops and 0.137% for the power
plants.
Abstract: Gladiolus is an important cash crop and is grown
mainly for its elegant spikes. Traditionally the gladiolus corms are
planted manually which is very tedious, time consuming and labor
intensive operation. So far, there is no planter available for planting
of gladiolus corms. With a view to mechanize the planting operation
of this horticultural crop, a prototype of 4-row gladiolus planter was
developed and its performance was evaluated in-situ condition. Cupchain
type metering device was used to place each single gladiolus
corm in furrow at required spacing while planting. Three levels of
corm spacing viz 15, 20 and 25 cm and four levels of forward speed
viz 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 km/h was taken as evaluation parameter for
the planter. The performance indicators namely corm spacing in each
row, coefficient of uniformity, missing index, multiple index, quality
of feed index, number of corms per meter length, mechanical damage
to the corms etc. were determined during the field test. The data was
statistically analyzed using Completely Randomized Design (CRD)
for testing the significance of the parameters. The result indicated
that planter was able to drop the corms at required nominal spacing
with minor variations. The highest deviation from the mean corm
spacing was observed as 3.53 cm with maximum coefficient of
variation as 13.88%. The highest missing and quality of feed indexes
were observed as 6.33% and 97.45% respectively with no multiples.
The performance of the planter was observed better at lower forward
speed and wider corm spacing. The field capacity of the planter was
found as 0.103 ha/h with an observed field efficiency of 76.57%.
Abstract: Sentiment analysis means to classify a given review
document into positive or negative polar document. Sentiment
analysis research has been increased tremendously in recent times
due to its large number of applications in the industry and academia.
Sentiment analysis models can be used to determine the opinion of
the user towards any entity or product. E-commerce companies can
use sentiment analysis model to improve their products on the basis
of users’ opinion. In this paper, we propose a new One-class Support
Vector Machine (One-class SVM) based sentiment analysis model
for movie review documents. In the proposed approach, we initially
extract features from one class of documents, and further test the
given documents with the one-class SVM model if a given new test
document lies in the model or it is an outlier. Experimental results
show the effectiveness of the proposed sentiment analysis model.
Abstract: In this paper, approach to incoherent signal detection
in multi-element antenna array are researched and modeled. Two
types of useful signals with unknown wavefront were considered:
first one, deterministic (Barker code), and second one, random
(Gaussian distribution). The derivation of the sufficient statistics took
into account the linearity of the antenna array. The performance
characteristics and detecting curves are modeled and compared for
different useful signals parameters and for different number of
elements of the antenna array. Results of researches in case of some
additional conditions can be applied to a digital communications
systems.