Abstract: This paper deals with the problem of thermal and
mechanical shocks, which rising during operation, mostly at
interrupted cut. Here will be solved their impact on the cutting edge
tool life, the impact of coating technology on resistance to shocks
and experimental determination of tool life in heating flame.
Resistance of removable cutting edges against thermal and
mechanical shock is an important indicator of quality as well as its
abrasion resistance. Breach of the edge or its crumble may occur due
to cyclic loading. We can observe it not only during the interrupted
cutting (milling, turning areas abandoned hole or slot), but also in
continuous cutting. This is due to the volatility of cutting force on
cutting. Frequency of the volatility in this case depends on the type
of rising chips (chip size element). For difficult-to-machine materials
such as austenitic steel particularly happened at higher cutting speeds
for the localization of plastic deformation in the shear plane and for
the inception of separate elements substantially continuous chips.
This leads to variations of cutting forces substantially greater than for
other types of steel.
Abstract: The Neuro-Fuzzy hybridization scheme has become
of research interest in pattern classification over the past decade. The
present paper proposes a novel Modified Adaptive Fuzzy Inference
Engine (MAFIE) for pattern classification. A modified Apriori
algorithm technique is utilized to reduce a minimal set of decision
rules based on input output data sets. A TSK type fuzzy inference
system is constructed by the automatic generation of membership
functions and rules by the fuzzy c-means clustering and Apriori
algorithm technique, respectively. The generated adaptive fuzzy
inference engine is adjusted by the least-squares fit and a conjugate
gradient descent algorithm towards better performance with a
minimal set of rules. The proposed MAFIE is able to reduce the
number of rules which increases exponentially when more input
variables are involved. The performance of the proposed MAFIE is
compared with other existing applications of pattern classification
schemes using Fisher-s Iris and Wisconsin breast cancer data sets and
shown to be very competitive.
Abstract: In this study, communities of ammonia-oxidizing
archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in nitrifying
activated sludge (NAS) prepared by enriching sludge from a
municipal wastewater treatment plant in three continuous-flow
reactors receiving an inorganic medium containing different
ammonium concentrations of 2, 10, and 30 mM NH4
+-N (NAS2,
NAS10, and NAS30, respectively) were investigated using molecular
analysis. Results suggested that almost all AOA clones from NAS2,
NAS10, and NAS30 fell into the same AOA cluster and AOA
communities in NAS2 and NAS10 were more diverse than those of
NAS30. In contrast to AOA, AOB communities obviously shifted
from the seed sludge to enriched NASs and in each enriched NAS,
communities of AOB varied particularly. The seed sludge contained
members of N. communis cluster and N. oligotropha cluster. After it
was enriched under various ammonium loads, members of N.
communis cluster disappeared from all enriched NASs. AOB with
high affinity to ammonia presented in NAS 2, AOB with low affinity
to ammonia presented in NAS 30, and both types of AOB survived in
NAS 10. These demonstrated that ammonium load significantly
influenced AOB communities, but not AOA communities in enriched
NASs.
Abstract: In the traditional buckling analysis of rectangular
plates the classical thin plate theory is generally applied, so
neglecting the plating shear deformation. It seems quite clear that this
method is not totally appropriate for the analysis of thick plates, so
that in the following the two variable refined plate theory proposed
by Shimpi (2006), that permits to take into account the transverse
shear effects, is applied for the buckling analysis of simply supported
isotropic rectangular plates, compressed in one and two orthogonal
directions.
The relevant results are compared with the classical ones and, for
rectangular plates under uniaxial compression, a new direct
expression, similar to the classical Bryan-s formula, is proposed for
the Euler buckling stress.
As the buckling analysis is a widely diffused topic for a variety of
structures, such as ship ones, some applications for plates uniformly
compressed in one and two orthogonal directions are presented and
the relevant theoretical results are compared with those ones obtained
by a FEM analysis, carried out by ANSYS, to show the feasibility of
the presented method.
Abstract: Supplier appraisal fosters energy in Supply Chain
Management and helps in best optimization of viable business
partners for a company. Many Decision Making techniques have
already been proposed by researchers for supplier-s appraisal.
However, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is assumed to be the
most structured technique to attain near-best solution of the problem.
This paper focuses at implementation of AHP in the procurement
processes. It also suggests that on what factors a Public Sector
Enterprises must focus while dealing with their suppliers and what
should the suppliers do to synchronize their activities with the
strategic objectives of Organization. It also highlights the weak areas
in supplier appraisal process with a view to suggest viable
recommendations.
Abstract: The charnockitic and associated granitic rocks of Akure area were studied for their field and petrographic relationship's. The outcrops locations were plotted in Surfer 8. The granitic rock exhibits a porphyritic texture and outcrops in the north-eastern side of the study area while the charnockitics outcrop in the central/western part. An essentially dark coloured and fine grained intrusive exhibiting xenoliths and xenocrysts (plagioclase phenocrysts) of the granite outcrops between the granitic and charnockitic rocks. Mineralogically, the central rock combines the content of the other two indicating that it is most likely a product of their hybridization. The charnockitic magma is believed to have intruded and assimilated the granite substantially thereby contaminating itself and consequently emplacing the hybrid. The presented model of emplacement elucidates the hybridization proposal. Conclusively, the charnockitics are believed to be (a) younger than the granite, (b) of Pan-African age and (c) of igneous origin.
Abstract: This research focuses on micro-enterprise of
Malaysian Malays that are involved in very small-scaled business
activities. Among them include food stall and burger stall operators,
night market hawkers, grocery store operators as well as construction
and small service activities works. The study seeks to explore why
some micro-entrepreneurs still lag in entrepreneurship and what
needs to be rectified. This quantitative study is conducted on 173
Malay micro-enterprise owners (MEOs) and 58 Malay failed microenterprise
owners (FMEOs) involved in all range of businesses
throughout the state of Perak, Malaysia. The main aims are to
identify the gaps between the failed micro-enterprise owners
(FMEOs) and existing micro-enterprise owners (MEOs) and the
problems faced among FMEOs. The results reveal that the MEOs had
strong motivations and better marketing approaches as compared to
FMEOs. Furthermore, the FMEOs failed in the business ventures
mainly due to lack of management, sales and marketing skills and
poor competitive abilities to keep up with rivals.
Abstract: The cellular network is one of the emerging areas of
communication, in which the mobile nodes act as member for one
base station. The cluster based communication is now an emerging
area of wireless cellular multimedia networks. The cluster renders
fast communication and also a convenient way to work with
connectivity. In our scheme we have proposed an optimization
technique for the fuzzy cluster nodes, by categorizing the group
members into three categories like long refreshable member, medium
refreshable member and short refreshable member. By considering
long refreshable nodes as static nodes, we compute the new
membership values for the other nodes in the cluster. We compare
their previous and present membership value with the threshold value
to categorize them into three different members. By which, we
optimize the nodes in the fuzzy clusters. The simulation results show
that there is reduction in the cluster computational time and
iterational time after optimization.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the
relationship between corporate governance and pricing for initial
public offerings (IPOs). Empirical result finds that the prediction of
pricing of IPOs with corporate governance added can have a rather
higher degree of predicting accuracy than that of non governance
added during the training and testing samples. Therefore, it can be
observed that corporate governance mechanism can affect the pricing
of IPOs
Abstract: Over recent years, the number of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) installations for home systems have been increasing in Malaysia. The paper concerns an analysis - as part of current Research and Development (R&D) efforts - to integrate photovoltaics as an architectural feature of a detached house in the new satellite township of Putrajaya, Malaysia. The analysis was undertaken using calculation and simulation tools to optimize performance of BIPV home system. In this study, a the simulation analysis was undertaken for selected bungalow units based on a long term recorded weather data for city of Kuala Lumpur. The simulation and calculation was done with consideration of a PV panels' tilt and direction, shading effect and economical considerations. A simulation of the performance of a grid connected BIPV house in Kuala Lumpur was undertaken. This case study uses a 60 PV modules with power output of 2.7 kW giving an average of PV electricity output is 255 kWh/month..
Abstract: Two Amphiphilic catalysts, iron (III) dodecylbenzene
sulfonate and nickel (II) dodecylbenzene sulfonate, were synthesized
and used in the catalytic aquathermolysis of heavy crude oil to reduce
its viscosity. The prepared catalysts exhibited good performance in
the aquathermolysis and the viscosity is reduced by ~ 78.9 % for
Egyptian heavy crude oil. The chemical and physical properties of
heavy oil both before and after reaction were investigated by FT-IR,
dynamic viscosity, molecular weight and SARA analysis. The results
indicated that the content of resin, asphaltene, average molecular
weight and sulfur content of heavy oil is reduced after the catalytic
aquathermolysis.
Abstract: The interaction between wakes of bluff body and
airfoil have profound influences on system performance in many
industrial applications, e.g., turbo-machinery and cooling fan. The
present work investigates the effect of configuration include; airfoil-s
angle of attack, transverse and inline spacing of the models, on
frequency behavior of the cylinder-s near-wake. The experiments
carried on under subcritical flow regime, using the hot-wire
anemometry (HWA). The relationship between the Strouhal numbers
and arrangements provide an insight into the global physical
processes of wake interaction and vortex shedding.
Abstract: Many of the compounds present in potato are important because of their beneficial effects on health, therefore, are highly desirable in the human diet. Potato tubers contain significant amounts of anthocyanins. The aim of this research was to determine the content of anthocyanins and its relationship with the colour of organically and conventionally cultivated potato varieties. In the research eight potato samples of three potato varieties were analyzed on anthocyanins, dry matter content and color. Obtained results show that there was no significant influence on amount of anthocyanins between different cultivation environments (p>0.05) while between varieties – significant difference (p
Abstract: In this paper, a set of experimental data has been used to assess the influence of abrasive water jet (AWJ) process parameters in cutting 6063-T6 aluminum alloy. The process variables considered here include nozzle diameter, jet traverse rate, jet pressure and abrasive flow rate. The effects of these input parameters are studied on depth of cut (h); one of most important characteristics of AWJ. The Taguchi method and regression modeling are used in order to establish the relationships between input and output parameters. The adequacy of the model is evaluated using analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique. In the next stage, the proposed model is embedded into a Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm to optimize the AWJ process parameters. The objective is to determine a suitable set of process parameters that can produce a desired depth of cut, considering the ranges of the process parameters. Computational results prove the effectiveness of the proposed model and optimization procedure.
Abstract: Plant growth is affected by the osmotic stress as well as toxicity of salt in leaves. In order to study of salt stress effects on stomatal conductance and growth rate and relationship between them as wells osmotic and Na+-specific effects on these traits, four bread wheat genotypes differing in salt tolerance were selected. Salinity was applied when the leaf 4 was fully expanded. Sodium (Na+) concentrations in flag leaf blade at 3 salinity levels (0, 100 and 200 mM NaCl) were measured. Salt-tolerant genotypes showed higher stomatal conductance and growth rate compared to salt-sensitive ones. After 10 and 20 days exposure to salt, stomatal conductance and relative growth rate were reduced, but the reduction was greater in sensitive genotypes. Growth rate was reduced severely in the first period (1-10 days) of salt commencements and it was due to osmotic effect of salt not Na+ toxicity. In the second period (11-20 days) after salt treatment growth reduced only when salt accumulated to toxic concentrations in the leaves. A positive relationship between stomatal conductance and relative growth rate showed that stomatal conductance can be a reliable indicator of growth rate, and finally can be considered as a sensitive indicator of the osmotic stress. It seems 20 days after salinity, the major effect of salt, especially at low to moderate salinity levels on growth properties was due to the osmotic effect of salt, not to Na+-specific effects within the plant.
Abstract: The paper investigates the relationship between the foreign direct investment (FDI) and the corporate governance or transparency by investigating the country-level FDI flows, FDI inward performance, corporate governance and transparency variables. From the regression analysis with Newey-West estimator of 28 country panel data from 1990- 2002, we find strong positive relationships between corporate governance or transparency level of hosting countries and FDI inward performance within hosting countries. A strong positive relationship is found between anti-director rights level or number of analysts of hosting countries and FDI inward performance within hosting countries. Also, we find a positive relationship between the number of analysts of hosting countries and FDI inflows. The empirical results are consistent with stock market liberalizations and corporate governance explanations of reasons for FDI.
Abstract: Dichotomization of the outcome by a single cut-off point is an important part of various medical studies. Usually the relationship between the resulted dichotomized dependent variable and explanatory variables is analyzed with linear regression, probit regression or logistic regression. However, in many real-life situations, a certain cut-off point dividing the outcome into two groups is unknown and can be specified only approximately, i.e. surrounded by some (small) uncertainty. It means that in order to have any practical meaning the regression model must be robust to this uncertainty. In this paper, we show that neither the beta in the linear regression model, nor its significance level is robust to the small variations in the dichotomization cut-off point. As an alternative robust approach to the problem of uncertain medical categories, we propose to use the linear regression model with the fuzzy membership function as a dependent variable. This fuzzy membership function denotes to what degree the value of the underlying (continuous) outcome falls below or above the dichotomization cut-off point. In the paper, we demonstrate that the linear regression model of the fuzzy dependent variable can be insensitive against the uncertainty in the cut-off point location. In the paper we present the modeling results from the real study of low hemoglobin levels in infants. We systematically test the robustness of the binomial regression model and the linear regression model with the fuzzy dependent variable by changing the boundary for the category Anemia and show that the behavior of the latter model persists over a quite wide interval.
Abstract: Gliding during night without electric power is an efficient method to enhance endurance performance of solar aircrafts. The properties of maximum gliding endurance path are studied in this paper. The problem is formulated as an optimization problem about maximum endurance can be sustained by certain potential energy storage with dynamic equations and aerodynamic parameter constrains. The optimal gliding path is generated based on gauss pseudo-spectral method. In order to analyse relationship between altitude, velocity of solar UAVs and its endurance performance, the lift coefficient in interval of [0.4, 1.2] and flight envelopes between 0~30km are investigated. Results show that broad range of lift coefficient can improve solar aircrafts- long endurance performance, and it is possible for a solar aircraft to achieve the aim of long endurance during whole night just by potential energy storage.
Abstract: The present study examines the mediating effect of
online flow experience on the relationship between extraversionintroversion,
locus of control and loneliness, and depression and
satisfaction with life. The data was obtained using a structured
questionnaire prepared by adapting standardized scales available from
a sample of 102 engineering students from different technical
institutions at Bhubaneswar, India. The results indicate that there is a
positive significant relationship between introversion, external locus
of control, loneliness, depression and online flow experience, and
extraversion, internal locus of control and satisfaction with life. The
results also suggest that online flow experience mediates the
relationship between the aforementioned variables.
Abstract: Promoting critical thinking (CT) in an educational
setting has been appraised in order to enhance learning and
intellectual skills. In this study, a pedagogical course in a vocational
teacher education program in Turkey was designed by integrating CT
skill-based strategies/activities into the course content and CT skills
were means leading to intended course objectives. The purpose of the
study was to evaluate the importance of the course objectives, the
attainment of the objectives, and the effectiveness of teachinglearning
strategies/activities from prospective teachers- points of
view. The results revealed that although the students mostly
considered the course objectives important, they did not feel
competent in the attainment of all objectives especially in those
related to the main topic of Learning and those requiring higher order
thinking skills. On the other hand, the students considered the course
activities effective for learning and for the development of thinking
skills, especially, in interpreting, comparing, questioning,
contrasting, and forming relationships.