Abstract: Manufacturing companies invest a significant amount of sales into material resources for production. In our sample, 58% of sales is used for manufacturing inputs, while only 24% of sales is used for salaries. This means that if a company is looking to reduce costs, the greater potential is in reduction of material costs than downsizing. This research shows that manufacturing companies in Croatia did realize material savings in last three years. It is also shown by which technologies they achieved materials cost savings. Through literature research, we found research gap as to which technologies reduce material consumption. As methodology of research four regression analyses are used to prove our findings.
Abstract: In this study, nickel aluminide coatings were deposited onto CMSX-4 single crystal superalloy and pure Ni substrates by using in-situ chemical vapour deposition (CVD) technique. The microstructural evolutions and coating thickness (CT) were studied upon the variation of processing conditions i.e. time and temperature. The results demonstrated (under identical conditions) that coating formed on pure Ni contains no substrate entrapments and have lower CT in comparison to one deposited on the CMSX-4 counterpart. In addition, the interdiffusion zone (IDZ) of Ni substrate is a γ’-Ni3Al in comparison to the CMSX-4 alloy that is βNiAl phase. The higher CT on CMSX-4 superalloy is attributed to presence of γ-Ni/γ’-Ni3Al structure which contains ~ 15 at.% Al before deposition (that is already present in superalloy). Two main deposition parameters (time and temperature) of the coatings were also studied in addition to standard comparison of substrate effects. The coating formation time was found to exhibit profound effect on CT, whilst temperature was found to change coating activities. In addition, the CT showed linear trend from 800 to 1000 °C, thereafter reduction was observed. This was attributed to the change in coating activities.
Abstract: The operational life of rotating machines has to be extended using a predictive condition maintenance tool. Among various condition monitoring techniques, vibration analysis is most widely used technique in industry. Signals are extracted for evaluating the condition of machine; further diagnostics is carried out with detected signals to extend the life of machine. With help of detected signals, further interpretations are done to predict the occurrence of defects. To study the problem of defects, a test rig with various possibilities of defects is constructed and experiments are performed considering the unbalanced condition. Further, this paper presents an approach for fault diagnosis of unbalance condition using Elman neural network and frequency-domain vibration analysis. Amplitudes with variation in acceleration are fed to Elman neural network to classify fault or no-fault condition. The Elman network is trained, validated and tested with experimental readings. Results illustrate the effectiveness of Elman network in rotor-bearing system.
Abstract: In recent years, focus-group discussions, as a resources of qualitative facts collection, have gained popularity amongst practices within social science studies. Despite this popularity, studying qualitative information, particularly focus-group meetings, creates a challenge to most practitioner inspectors. The Mons, also known as Raman is considered to be one of the earliest peoples in mainland South-East Asia and to be found in scattered communities in Thailand, around the central valley and even in Bangkok. The present project responds to the needs identified traditional Mon set menus based on the participation of Bang Kadi community in Bangkok, Thailand. The aim of this study was to generate Mon food set menus based on the participation of the community and to study Mon food in set menus of Bang Kadi population by focus-group interviews and discussions during May to October 2015 of Bang Kadi community in Bangkok, Thailand. Data were collected using (1) focus group discussion between the researcher and 147 people in the community, including community leaders, women of the community and the elderly of the community (2) cooking between the researcher and 22 residents of the community. After the focus group discussion, the results found that Mon set menus of Bang Kadi residents involved of Kang Neng Kua-dit, Kang Luk-yom, Kang Som-Kajaeb, Kangleng Puk-pung, Yum Cha-cam, Pik-pa, Kao-new dek-ha and Num Ma-toom and the ingredients used in cooking are mainly found in local and seasonal regime. Most of foods in set menus are consequent from local wisdom.
Abstract: The present study investigated various forms of disciplinary procedures or punishment used by teachers in secondary schools in Calabar Municipality, Nigera. There are agitations amongst parents and educators on the use of corporal punishment as a disciplinary measure against children. Those against the use of corporal punishment argue that this form of punishment does not teach, it only terminates behaviour temporarily and inculcates violence. Those in support are of the view that corporal punishment serves as a deterrent to others. This study sought to find out the most common measure of discipline employed by teachers in private and public schools. The study had three objectives, three research questions and two hypotheses. The design of the present study was the ex-post facto descriptive survey, since variables under study were not manipulated by the researcher. Teachers in Calabar Municipal Secondary Schools formed the population. A sample of 160 teachers was used for the study. The data collection instrument was a facts finding questionnaire titled Disciplinary Procedures Inventory. Data collected were analyzed using simple percentages and chi-square. The major findings were that physical measures such as flogging, exercise/drills, and painful postures were commonly used by teachers in secondary schools. It was also found that these measures were more often used in public schools. It was recommended that teachers should rather employ non-violent techniques of discipline than physical punishment.
Abstract: Structural vibration means repetitive motion that causes fatigue and reduction of the performance of a structure. An earthquake may release high amount of energy that can have adverse effect on all components of a structure. Therefore, decreasing of vibration or maintaining performance of structures such as bridges, dams, roads and buildings is important for life safety and reducing economic loss. When earthquake or any vibration happens, investigation on parts of a structure which sustain the seismic loads is mandatory to provide a safe condition for the occupants. One of the solutions for reducing the earthquake vibration in a structure is using of vibration control devices such as dampers and base isolators. The objective of this study is to investigate the optimal positions of friction dampers and base isolators for better seismic response of 2D frame. For this purpose, a two bay and six story frame with different distribution formats was modeled and some of their responses to earthquake such as inter-story drift, max joint displacement, max axial force and max bending moment were determined and compared using non-linear dynamic analysis.
Abstract: Structures such as buildings, bridges, dams, wind turbines etc. need to be maintained against various factors such as deterioration, excessive loads, environment, temperature, etc. Choosing an appropriate monitoring system is important for determining any critical damage to a structure and address that to avoid any adverse consequence. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has emerged as an effective technique to monitor the health of the structures. SHM refers to an ongoing structural performance assessment using different kinds of sensors attached to or embedded in the structures to evaluate their integrity and safety to help engineers decide on rehabilitation measures. Ability of SHM in identifying the location and severity of structural damages by considering any changes in characteristics of the structures such as their frequency, stiffness and mode shapes helps engineers to monitor the structures and take the most effective corrective actions to maintain their safety and extend their service life. The main objective of this study is to review the overall SHM process specifically determining the natural frequency of an instrumented simply-supported concrete beam using modal testing and finite element model updating.
Abstract: This paper presents a computationally efficient method
for the modeling of robot manipulators with flexible links and
joints. This approach combines the Discrete Time Transfer Matrix
Method with the Finite Segment Method, in which the flexible
links are discretized by a number of rigid segments connected by
torsion springs; and the flexibility of joints are modeled by torsion
springs. The proposed method avoids the global dynamics and has the
advantage of modeling non-uniform manipulators. Experiments and
simulations of a single-link flexible manipulator are conducted for
verifying the proposed methodologies. The simulations of a three-link
robot arm with links and joints flexibility are also performed.
Abstract: Education systems are complex and involve interactions between humans (teachers and students); media based technologies, lectures, classrooms, etc. to provide educational services. The education system performance is characterized by how well students learn, which is measured using student grades on exams and quizzes, achievements on standardized tests, among others. Advances in portable communications technologies, such as mobile phones, tablets, and laptops, created a different type of classroom, where students seem to engage in more than just the intended learning activities. The performance of more than one task in parallel or in rapid transition is commonly known as multitasking. Several operations in educational systems are performed simultaneously, resulting in a multitasking education environment. This paper surveys existing research on multitasking in educational settings, summarizes literature findings, provides a synthesis of the impact of multitasking on performance, and identifies directions of future research.
Abstract: This paper deals with the problem of two-dimensional (2-D) recursive doubly complementary (DC) digital filter design. We present a structure of 2-D recursive DC filters by using 2-D symmetric half-plane (SHP) recursive digital all-pass lattice filters (DALFs). The novelty of using 2-D SHP recursive DALFs to construct a 2-D recursive DC digital lattice filter is that the resulting 2-D SHP recursive DC digital lattice filter provides better performance than the existing 2-D SHP recursive DC digital filter. Moreover, the proposed structure possesses a favorable 2-D DC half-band (DC-HB) property that allows about half of the 2-D SHP recursive DALF’s coefficients to be zero. This leads to considerable savings in computational burden for implementation. To ensure the stability of a designed 2-D SHP recursive DC digital lattice filter, some necessary constraints on the phase of the 2-D SHP recursive DALF during the design process are presented. Design of a 2-D diamond-shape decimation/interpolation filter is presented for illustration and comparison.
Abstract: Past earthquakes have shown that seismic events may incur large economic losses in buildings. FEMA P-58 provides engineers a practical tool for the performance seismic assessment of buildings. In this study, FEMA P-58 is applied to two typical Italian pre-1970 reinforced concrete frame buildings, characterized by plain rebars as steel reinforcement and masonry infills and partitions. Given that suitable tools for these buildings are missing in FEMA P- 58, specific fragility curves and loss functions are first developed. Next, building performance is evaluated following a time-based assessment approach. Finally, expected annual losses for the selected buildings are derived and compared with past applications to old RC frame buildings representative of the US building stock.
Abstract: In addition to the fact that mental health bears great significance to a particular individual, it can also be regarded as an organizational, community and societal resource. Within the Szeged Health Promotion Research Group, we conducted mental health surveys on two levels: The inhabitants of a medium-sized Hungarian town and students of a Hungarian university with a relatively big headcount were requested to participate in surveys whose goals were to define local government priorities and organization-level health promotion programmes, respectively. To facilitate professional decision-making, we defined three, pragmatically relevant, groups of the target population: the mentally healthy, the vulnerable and the endangered. In order to determine which group a person actually belongs to, we designed a simple and quick measurement tool, which could even be utilised as a smoothing method, the Mental State Questionnaire validity of the above three categories was verified by analysis of variance against psychological quality of life variables. We demonstrate the pragmatic significance of our method via the analyses of the scores of our two mental health surveys. On town level, during our representative survey in Hódmezővásárhely (N=1839), we found that 38.7% of the participants was mentally healthy, 35.3% was vulnerable, while 16.3% was considered as endangered. We were able to identify groups that were in a dramatic state in terms of mental health. For example, such a group consisted of men aged 45 to 64 with only primary education qualification and the ratios of the mentally healthy, vulnerable and endangered were 4.5, 45.5 and 50%, respectively. It was also astonishing to see to what a little extent qualification prevailed as a protective factor in the case of women. Based on our data, the female group aged 18 to 44 with primary education—of whom 20.3% was mentally healthy, 42.4% vulnerable and 37.3% was endangered—as well as the female group aged 45 to 64 with university or college degree—of whom 25% was mentally healthy, 51.3 vulnerable and 23.8% endangered—are to be handled as priority intervention target groups in a similarly difficult position. On organizational level, our survey involving the students of the University of Szeged, N=1565, provided data to prepare a strategy of mental health promotion for a university with a headcount exceeding 20,000. When developing an organizational strategy, it was important to gather information to estimate the proportions of target groups in which mental health promotion methods; for example, life management skills development, detection, psychological consultancy, psychotherapy, would be applied. Our scores show that 46.8% of the student participants were mentally healthy, 42.1% were vulnerable and 11.1% were endangered. These data convey relevant information as to the allocation of organizational resources within a university with a considerable headcount. In conclusion, The Mental State Questionnaire, as a valid smoothing method, is adequate to describe a community in a plain and informative way in the terms of mental health. The application of the method can promote the preparation, design and implementation of mental health promotion interventions.
Abstract: A recently developed one-equation turbulence model
has been successfully applied to simulate turbulent flows with
various complexities. The model, which is based on the
transformation of the k-ε closure, is wall-distance free and equipped
with lagging destruction/dissipation terms. Test cases included shockboundary-
layer interaction flows over the NACA 0012 airfoil, an
axisymmetric bump, and the ONERA M6 wing. The capability of the
model to operate in a Scale Resolved Simulation (SRS) mode is
demonstrated through the simulation of a massive flow separation
over a circular cylinder at Re= 1.2 x106. An assessment of the results
against available experiments Menter (k-ε)1Eq and the Spalart-
Allmaras model that belongs to the single equation closure family is
made.
Abstract: Since Google launched Google Glass in 2012, numbers of commercial wearable devices were released, such as smart belt, smart band, smart shoes, smart clothes ... etc. However, most of these devices perform as sensors to show the readings of measurements and few of them provide the interactive feedback to the user. Furthermore, these devices are single task devices which are not able to communicate with each other. In this paper a new health promotion system, Ubiquitous Life People Informatics Engine (U-Life PIE), will be presented. This engine consists of People Informatics Engine (PIE) and the interactive user interface. PIE collects all the data from the compatible devices, analyzes this data comprehensively and communicates between devices via various application programming interfaces. All the data and informations are stored on the PIE unit, therefore, the user is able to view the instant and historical data on their mobile devices any time. It also provides the real-time hands-free feedback and instructions through the user interface visually, acoustically and tactilely. These feedback and instructions suggest the user to adjust their posture or habits in order to avoid the physical injuries and prevent illness.
Abstract: Superstructures like offshore platforms, tall buildings, transition towers, skyscrapers and bridges are normally designed to resist compression, uplift and lateral forces from wind waves, negative skin friction, ship impact and other applied loads. Better understanding and the precise simulation of the response of batter piles under the action of independent uplift loads is a vital topic and an area of active research in the field of geotechnical engineering. This paper investigates the use of finite element code (FEC) to examine the behaviour of model batter piles penetrated in dense sand, subjected to pull-out pressure by means of numerical modelling. The concept of the Winkler Model (beam on elastic foundation) has been used in which the interaction between the pile embedded depth and adjacent soil in the bearing zone is simulated by nonlinear p-y curves. The analysis was conducted on different pile slenderness ratios (lc⁄d) ranging from 7.5, 15.22 and 30 respectively. In addition, the optimum batter angle for a model steel pile penetrated in dense sand has been chosen to be 20° as this is the best angle for this simulation as demonstrated by other researcher published in literature. In this numerical analysis, the soil response is idealized as elasto-plastic and the model piles are described as elastic materials for the purpose of simulation. The results revealed that the applied loads affect the pullout pile capacity as well as the lateral pile response for dense sand together with varying shear strength parameters linked to the pile critical depth. Furthermore, the pile pull-out capacity increases with increasing the pile aspect ratios.
Abstract: Within Vietnam's system of higher education, its
schools of business play a vital role in supporting the country’s
economic objectives. However, the crucial contribution of soft skills
for maximal success within the business sector has to date not been
adequately recognized by its business schools. This being so, the
development of the business school curriculum in Vietnam has not
been able to 'catch up', so to say, with the burgeoning need of
students for a comprehensive soft skills program designed to meet the
national and global business objectives of their potential employers.
The burden of the present paper is first to reveal the results of our
survey in Vietnam which make explicit the extent to which major
Vietnamese industrial employers’ value the potential role that soft
skill competencies can play in maximizing business success. Our
final task will be to determine which soft skills employers discern as
best serving to maximize the economic interests of Vietnam within
the global marketplace. Semi-structured telephone interviews have
been conducted with the 15 representative Head Employers of
Vietnam's reputedly largest and most successful of the diverse
business enterprises across Vietnam. The findings of the study
indicate that all respondents highly value the increasing importance
of soft skills in business success. Our critical analysis of respondent
data reveals that 19 essential soft skills are deemed by employers as
integral to business workplace efficacy and should thus be integrated
into the formal business curriculum. We are confident that our study
represents the first comprehensive and specific survey yet undertaken
within the business sector in Vietnam which accesses and analyses
the opinions of representative employers from major companies
across the country in regard to the growing importance of 19 specific
soft skills essential for maximizing overall business success. Our
research findings also reveal that the integration into business school
curriculums nationwide of the soft skills we have identified is of
paramount importance to advance the national and global economic
interests of Vietnam.
Abstract: The technological paradigm of the disaster
management field, especially in the case of governmental
intervention strategies, is generally based on rapid and flexible
accommodation solutions. From various technical solution patterns
used to address the immediate housing needs of disaster victims, the
adaptive re-use of existing buildings can be considered to be both
low-cost and practical. However, there is a scarcity of analytical
methods to screen, select and adapt buildings to help decision makers
in cases of emergency. Following an extensive literature review, this
paper aims to highlight key points and problem areas associated with
the adaptive re-use of buildings within the disaster management
context. In other disciplines such as real estate management, the
adaptive re-use potential (ARP) of existing buildings is typically
based on the prioritization of a set of technical and non-technical
criteria which are then weighted to arrive at an economically viable
investment decision. After a disaster, however, the assessment of the
ARP of buildings requires consideration of different/additional layers
of analysis which stem from general disaster management principles
and the peculiarities of different types of disasters, as well as of their
victims. In this paper, a discussion of the development of an adaptive
re-use potential (ARP) assessment model is presented. It is thought
that governmental and non-governmental decision makers who are
required to take quick decisions to accommodate displaced masses
following disasters are likely to benefit from the implementation of
such a model.
Abstract: Classification is an important data mining technique
and could be used as data filtering in artificial intelligence. The
broad application of classification for all kind of data leads to be
used in nearly every field of our modern life. Classification helps us
to put together different items according to the feature items decided
as interesting and useful. In this paper, we compare two
classification methods Naïve Bayes and ADTree use to detect spam
e-mail. This choice is motivated by the fact that Naive Bayes
algorithm is based on probability calculus while ADTree algorithm is
based on decision tree. The parameter settings of the above
classifiers use the maximization of true positive rate and
minimization of false positive rate. The experiment results present
classification accuracy and cost analysis in view of optimal classifier
choice for Spam Detection. It is point out the number of attributes to
obtain a tradeoff between number of them and the classification
accuracy.
Abstract: Imazu Bay plays an important role for endangered
species such as horseshoe crabs and black-faced spoonbills that stay in
the bay for spawning or the passing of winter. However, this bay is
semi-enclosed with slow water exchange, which could lead to
eutrophication under the condition of excess nutrient inflow to the bay.
Therefore, quantification of nutrient inflow is of great importance.
Generally, analysis of nutrient inflow to the bays takes into
consideration nutrient inflow from only the river, but that from
groundwater should not be ignored for more accurate results. The main
objective of this study is to estimate the amounts of nutrient inflow
from river and groundwater to Imazu Bay by analyzing water budget
in Zuibaiji River Basin and loads of T-N, T-P, NO3-N and NH4-N. The
water budget computation in the basin is performed using groundwater
recharge model and quasi three-dimensional two-phase groundwater
flow model, and the multiplication of the measured amount of nutrient
inflow with the computed discharge gives the total amount of nutrient
inflow to the bay. In addition, in order to evaluate nutrient inflow to the
bay, the result is compared with nutrient inflow from geologically
similar river basins. The result shows that the discharge is 3.50×107
m3/year from the river and 1.04×107 m3/year from groundwater. The
submarine groundwater discharge accounts for approximately 23 % of
the total discharge, which is large compared to the other river basins. It
is also revealed that the total nutrient inflow is not particularly large.
The sum of NO3-N and NH4-N loadings from groundwater is less than
10 % of that from the river because of denitrification in groundwater.
The Shin Seibu Sewage Treatment Plant located below the observation
points discharges treated water of 15,400 m3/day and plans to increase
it. However, the loads of T-N and T-P from the treatment plant are 3.9
mg/L and 0.19 mg/L, so that it does not contribute a lot to
eutrophication.
Abstract: This study was designed to evaluate whether carvacrol
(CAR) could provide protection against lung injury by acute
pancreatitis development. The rats were randomized into groups to
receive (I) no therapy; (II) 50 μg/kg cerulein at 1h intervals by four
intraperitoneal injections (i.p.); (III) 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg CAR by
one i.p.; and (IV) cerulein+CAR after 2h of cerulein injection. 12h
later, serum samples were obtained to assess pancreatic function the
lipase and amylase values. The animals were euthanized and lung
samples were excised. The specimens were stained with
hematoxylin-eosin (H&E), periodic acid–Schif (PAS), Mallory's
trichrome and amyloid. Additionally, oxidative DNA damage was
determined by measuring as increases in 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine
(8-OH-dG) adducts. The results showed that the serum activity of
lipase and amylase in AP rats were significantly reduced after the
therapy (p