A Study of Management Principles Incorporating Corporate Governance and Advocating Ethics to Reduce Fraud at a South African Bank

In today’s world, internal fraud remains one of the most challenging problems within companies worldwide and despite investment in controls and attention given to the problem, the instances of internal fraud has not abated. To the contrary it appears that internal fraud is on the rise especially in the wake of the economic downturn. Leadership within companies believes that the more sophisticated the controls employed the less likely it would be for employees to pilfer. This is a very antiquated view as investment in controls may not be enough to curtail internal fraud; however, ensuring that a company drives the correct culture and behavior within the organization is likely to yield desired results. This research aims to understand how creating a strong ethical culture and embedding the principle of good corporate governance impacts on levels of internal fraud with an organization (a South African Bank).

Some Results on Preconditioned Modified Accelerated Overrelaxation Method

In this paper, we present new preconditioned modified accelerated overrelaxation (MAOR) method for solving linear systems. We compare the spectral radii of the iteration matrices of the preconditioned and the original methods. The comparison results show that the preconditioned MAOR method converges faster than the MAOR method whenever the MAOR method is convergent. Finally, we give one numerical example to confirm our theoretical results.

Exploring the Sources of Innovation in Food Processing SMEs of Kerala

Indian food processing industry is one of the largest in the world in terms of production, consumption, exports and growth opportunities. SMEs play a crucial role within this. Large manufacturing firms largely dominate innovation studies in India. Innovation sources used by SMEs are often different from that of large firms. This paper focuses on exploring various sources of innovation adopted by food processing SMEs in Kerala, South India. Outcome suggests that SMEs use various sources like suppliers, competitors, employees, government/research institutions and customers to get new ideas.

Groundwater Quality Assessment around Nagalkeni Tannery Industrial Belt

The groundwater quality was assessed nearby places of Nagalkeni, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The selected physico-chemical parameters were pH, EC, TDS, total hardness (TH), anions like Ca, Mg, Na and K, and cations like SO4, NO3, Cl2, HCO3, and CO3, and Cr(VI). In order to suit the groundwater for drinking and irrigation purposes, compared the value of selected parameters with the value of selected parameters from BIS drinking water quality standard and irrigation water quality indices. The physico-chemical study of the groundwater systems of selected sites of nearby places of Nagalkeni showed that the groundwater is nearly acidic and mostly oxidizing in nature and hence, water is not suitable for drinking purpose directly. The results of the irrigation indices indicated that the groundwater samples in the study area found to be brackish water, results, groundwater from the study area is also not suitable for irrigation purpose directly, but the groundwater may be used after implementing some suitable treatment techniques.

Modeling and Simulation for 3D Eddy Current Testing in Conducting Materials

The numerical simulation of electromagnetic interactions is still a challenging problem, especially in problems that result in fully three dimensional mathematical models. The goal of this work is to use mathematical modeling to characterize the reliability and capacity of eddy current technique to detect and characterize defects embedded in aeronautical in-service pieces. The finite element method is used for describing the eddy current technique in a mathematical model by the prediction of the eddy current interaction with defects. However, this model is an approximation of the full Maxwell equations. In this study, the analysis of the problem is based on a three dimensional finite element model that computes directly the electromagnetic field distortions due to defects.

Frequent and Systematic Timing Enhancement of Congestion Window in Typical Transmission Control Protocol

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) among the wired and wireless networks, it still has a practical problem; where the congestion control mechanism does not permit the data stream to get complete bandwidth over the existing network links. To solve this problem, many TCP protocols have been introduced with high speed performance. Therefore, an enhanced congestion window (cwnd) for the congestion control mechanism is proposed in this article to improve the performance of TCP by increasing the number of cycles of the new window to improve the transmitted packet number. The proposed algorithm used a new mechanism based on the available bandwidth of the connection to detect the capacity of network path in order to improve the regular clocking of congestion avoidance mechanism. The work in this paper based on using Network Simulator 2 (NS-2) to simulate the proposed algorithm.

Experimental Investigation and Constitutive Modeling of Volume Strain under Uniaxial Strain Rate Jump Test in HDPE

In this work, tensile tests on high density polyethylene have been carried out under various constant strain rate and strain rate jump tests. The dependency of the true stress and specially the variation of volume strain have been investigated, the volume strain due to the phenomena of damage was determined in real time during the tests by an optical extensometer called Videotraction. A modified constitutive equations, including strain rate and damage effects, are proposed, such a model is based on a non-equilibrium thermodynamic approach called (DNLR). The ability of the model to predict the complex nonlinear response of this polymer is examined by comparing the model simulation with the available experimental data, which demonstrate that this model can represent the deformation behavior of the polymer reasonably well.

Organic Contribution on Particles Formed on Pacific Ocean: From Phytoplankton Blooms to Climate

These SOAP project Pacific Ocean measurements reveal that phytoplankton blooms with sunny conditions make possible secondary organic contribution to ultrafine particles size and composition, and thus on cloud formation ability, and finally on climate. This is in agreement with other biologically active region observations about the presence of secondary organics even the exact fraction is also depending on the local marine life (e.g. plankton blooms, seaweeds, corals). An organic contribution is clearly needed to add to CLAW hypothesis.

The Contribution of Sulfate and Oxidized Organics in Climatically Important Ultrafine Particles at a Coral Reef Environment

In order to investigate the properties of coral reef origin secondary aerosol and especially the contribution of secondary organic aerosol, ethanol affinity to atmospheric nucleation mode particles (diameter

Secondary Organic Contribution to Particles Formed on the Ice Melted Arctic Ocean

Due to climate warming and consequently due to ice and snow melting of the Arctic Ocean, the highly biologically active ocean surface area has been expanding quickly making possible longer marine biota growth seasons during polar summers. That increase the probability of the remote marine environment secondary contribution, especially secondary organic contribution, to the particle production and particle growth events and particle properties, consequently effecting on the open ocean, pack ice and ground based regions radiation budget and thus on the feedbacks between arctic biota, particles, clouds, and climate.

Design of a Reduced Order Robust Convex Controller for Flight Control System

In this paper an optimal convex controller is designed to control the angle of attack of a FOXTROT aircraft. Then the order of the system model is reduced to a low-dimensional state space by using Balanced Truncation Model Reduction Technique and finally the robust stability of the reduced model of the system is tested graphically by using Kharitonov rectangle and Zero Exclusion Principle for a particular range of perturbation value. The same robust stability is tested theoretically by using Frequency Sweeping Function for robust stability.

Stability Analysis of Fractional Order Systems with Time Delay

In this paper, we mainly study the stability of linear and interval linear fractional systems with time delay. By applying the characteristic equations, a necessary and sufficient stability condition is obtained firstly, and then some sufficient conditions are deserved. In addition, according to the equivalent relationship of fractional order systems with order 0 < α ≤ 1 and with order 1 ≤ β < 2, one may get more relevant theorems. Finally, two examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our results.

Numerical Study on Improving Indoor Thermal Comfort Using a PCM Wall

A one-dimensional mathematical model was developed in order to analyze and optimize the latent heat storage wall. The governing equations for energy transport were developed by using the enthalpy method and discretized with volume control scheme. The resulting algebraic equations were next solved iteratively by using TDMA algorithm. A series of numerical investigations were conducted in order to examine the effects of the thickness of the PCM layer on the thermal behavior of the proposed heating system. Results are obtained for thermal gain and temperature fluctuation. The charging discharging process was also presented and analyzed.

Some Results on New Preconditioned Generalized Mixed-Type Splitting Iterative Methods

In this paper, we present new preconditioned generalized mixed-type splitting (GMTS) methods for solving weighted linear least square problems. We compare the spectral radii of the iteration matrices of the preconditioned and the original methods. The comparison results show that the preconditioned GMTS methods converge faster than the GMTS method whenever the GMTS method is convergent. Finally, we give a numerical example to confirm our theoretical results.

Crack Opening Investigation in Fiberconcrete

This work had three stages. In the first stage was examined pull-out process for steel fiber was embedded into a concrete by one end and was pulled out of concrete under the angle to pulling out force direction. Angle was varied. On the obtained forcedisplacement diagrams were observed jumps. For such mechanical behavior explanation, fiber channel in concrete surface microscopical experimental investigation, using microscope KEYENCE VHX2000, was performed. At the second stage were obtained diagrams for load- crack opening displacement for breaking homogeneously reinforced and layered fiberconcrete prisms (with dimensions 10x10x40cm) subjected to 4-point bending. After testing was analyzed main crack. At the third stage elaborated prediction model for the fiberconcrete beam, failure under bending, using the following data: a) diagrams for fibers pulling out at different angles; b) experimental data about steel-straight fibers locations in the main crack. Experimental and theoretical (modeling) data were compared.

DSLEP (Data Structure Learning Platform to Aid in Higher Education IT Courses)

The advances in technology in the last five years allowed an improvement in the educational area, as the increasing in the development of educational software. One of the techniques that emerged in this lapse is called Gamification, which is the utilization of video game mechanics outside its bounds. Recent studies involving this technique provided positive results in the application of these concepts in many areas as marketing, health and education. In the last area there are studies that covers from elementary to higher education, with many variations to adequate to the educators methodologies. Among higher education, focusing on IT courses, data structures are an important subject taught in many of these courses, as they are base for many systems. Based on the exposed this paper exposes the development of an interactive web learning environment, called DSLEP (Data Structure Learning Platform), to aid students in higher education IT courses. The system includes basic concepts seen on this subject such as stacks, queues, lists, arrays, trees and was implemented to ease the insertion of new structures. It was also implemented with gamification concepts, such as points, levels, and leader boards, to engage students in the search for knowledge and stimulate self-learning.

Designing an Optimal Safe Layout for a Fuel Storage Tanks Farm: Case Study of Jaipur Oil Depot

Storage tank farms are essential industrial facilities to accumulate oil, petrochemicals and gaseous products. Since tank farms contain huge mass of fuel and hazardous materials, they are always targets of serious accidents such as fire, explosion, spill and toxic release which may cause severe impacts on human health, environmental and properties. Although having a safe layout is not able to prevent initiating accidents, however it effectively controls and reduces the adverse impact of such accidents. The aim of this paper is to determine the optimal layout for a storage tank contains different type of hydrocarbon fuels. A quantitative risk assessment is carried out on a selected tank farm in Jaipur, India, with particular attention given to both the consequence modeling and the overall risk assessment using PHAST Software. Various designs of tank layouts are examined taking into consideration several issues of plant operations and maintenance. In all stages of the work, standard guidelines specified by the industry are considered and recommendations are substantiated with simulation results and risk quantification.

Optimization of Artificial Ageing Time and Temperature on Evaluation of Hardness and Resistivity of Al-Si-Mg (Cu or/& Ni) Alloys

The factors necessary to obtain an optimal heat treatment that influence the hardness and resistivity of Al-6Si-0.5Mg casting alloys with Cu or/and Ni additions were investigated. The alloys were homogenised (24hr at 500oC), solutionized (2hr at 540oC) and artificially ageing at various times and temperatures. The alloys were aged isochronally for 60 minutes at temperatures up to 400oC and isothermally at 150, 175, 200, 225, 250 & 300oC for different periods in the range 15 to 360 minutes. The hardness and electrical resistivity of the alloys were measured for various artificial ageing times and temperatures. From the isochronal ageing treatment, hardness found maximum ageing at 225oC. And from the isothermal ageing treatment, hardness found maximum for 60 minutes at 225oC. So the optimal heat treatment consists of 60 minutes ageing at 225oC.

New Stability Analysis for Neural Networks with Time-Varying Delays

This paper studies the problem of asymptotically stability for neural networks with time-varying delays.By establishing a suitable Lyapunov-Krasovskii function and several novel sufficient conditions are obtained to guarantee the asymptotically stability of the considered system. Finally,two numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed main results.

On the Relationship between Language Output and Second Language Acquisition

Many researchers have been discussing the importance of language input in second language acquisition. The author holds that the bigger problem lies in how to activate language learners' language knowledge and raise their language output consciousness and competence. Analyzing the importance of language output based on theory and reality, this paper mainly explores the essence of language output and its revelation for second language acquisition in order to make second language learners really raise their communicative competence.