Search results for: turning points

Authors: Elisa Bertagna

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The aim of the research is to study diversity issues and gender equality in the Finnish and Italian oil and gas companies. Particular attention is given to the effects on the organization’s and employees’ interactions resulting from intersecting social categories. The study is aimed to be settled in companies where social inequalities and diversity management problematics are present. Consequently, ten semi-structured interviews with key managers from the companies and four focus groups composed of culturally diverse employees aim to depict and analyze the situation from both points of view. Social discourse and intersectionality are employed as the analysis methods. Trainings, workshops, and suggestions are to be offered in the required situations.

Keywords: diversity, gender, intersectionality, oil and gas companies, social constructionism

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Authors: Muhammad Umar Kiani, Waseem Sakawat

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This study presents the development of FEM code using Quadrilateral 4-Node (Q4) and Triangular 3-Node (T3) elements. Code is formulated using MATLAB language. Instead of using both elements in the same code, two separate codes are written. Quadrilateral element is difficult to handle directly, that is why natural coordinates (eta, ksi) are used. Due to this, Q4 code includes numerical integration (Gauss quadrature). In this case, complete numerical integration is performed using 2 points. On the other hand, T3 element can be modeled directly, by using direct stiffness approach. Axially loaded element, cantilever (special constraints) and Patch test cases were analyzed using both codes and the results were verified by using Ansys.

Keywords: FEM code, MATLAB, numerical integration, ANSYS

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Authors: S. Flynn

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This paper offers a focused commentary on the impact of the current economic downturn on children with ID (intellectual disability), and their families, in the Republic of Ireland. It will examine the practical challenges, serious concerns, and trends in the field of disability with specific regard to the impact of the economic downturn in the Irish context. This includes the impact of cutbacks to services and supports, and the erosion of possibilities for life progression for children with ID as evident within the existing body of research. This focused commentary on core and seminal literature, policy and research will then be used to provide a discussion on what are the core points of learning for policy makers, researchers, practitioners and society as whole.

Keywords: children, disability, economic, recession

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Authors: Abhishek Srivastava, Jeevesh Nandan, Manish Kumar

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The study was taken to analyse the alternative source of traffic system for effective and more convenient traffic flow by reducing points of conflicts as well as angle of conflict and keeping in view to minimize the problem of unnecessarily long waiting time, delays, congestion, traffic jam and geometric delays due to intersection between circular and straight lanes. It is a twin kidney-spine type structure system with special allowance for Highway users for quicker passes. Thus reduction in number and intensity of accidents, significance reduction in traffic jam, conservation of valuable time.

Keywords: traffic system, collision reduction of vehicles, smooth flow of vehicles, traffic jam

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Authors: Diya Sarkar, Prafulla C. Mishra

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In a parliamentary system, party discipline is the impulse; when it falls short, the government usually falls. Conceivably, the platform of Indian politics suffers with innumerous practical disorders. The politics of defection is one such specie entailing gross miscarriage of fair conduct turning politics into a game of thrones (powers). This practice of political nomaditude can trace its seed in the womb of British House of Commons. Therein, if a legislator was found to cross the floor, the party considered him disloyal. In other words, the legislator lost his allegiance to his former party by joining another party. This very phenomenon, in practice has a two way traffic i.e. ruling party to the opposition party or vice versa. The democracies like USA, Australia and Canada were also aware of this fashion of swapping loyalties. There have been several instances of great politicians changing party allegiance, for example Winston Churchill, Ramsay McDonald, William Gladstone etc. Nevertheless, it is interesting to cite that irrespective of such practice of changing party allegiance, none of the democracies in the west ever desired or felt the need to legislatively ban defections. But, exceptionally India can be traced to have passed anti-defection laws. The politics of defection had been a unique popular phenomenon on the floor of Indian Parliamentary system gradually gulping the democratic essence and synchronization of the Federation. This study is both analytical and doctrinal, which tries to examine whether representative democracy has lost its essence due to political nomadism. The present study also analyzes the classical as well as contemporary pulse of floor crossing amidst dynastic politics in a representative democracy. It will briefly discuss the panorama of defections under the Indian federal structure in the light of the anti-defection law and an attempt has been made to add valuable suggestions to streamline remedy for the still prevalent political defections.

Keywords: constitutional law, defection, democracy, polarization, political anti-trust

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Authors: Luciana P. Mazur, Tatiana A. Pozdniakova, Rui A. R. Boaventura, Vitor J. P. Vilar

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The electroplating industry requires a lot of process water, which generates a large volume of wastewater loaded with heavy metals. Two different wastewaters were collected in a company’s wastewater treatment plant, one after the use of zinc in the metal plating process and the other after the use of chromium. The main characteristics of the Zn(II) and Cr(VI) wastewaters are: pH = 6.7/5.9; chemical oxygen demand = 55/<5 mg/L; sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium ions concentrations of 326/28, 4/28, 11/7 and 46/37 mg/L, respectively; zinc(II) = 11 mg/L and Cr(VI) = 39 mg/L. Batch studies showed that L. hyperborea can be established as a natural cation exchanger for heavy metals uptake mainly due to the presence of negatively charged functional groups in the surface of the biomass. Beyond that, L. hyperborea can be used as a natural electron donor for hexavalent chromium reduction to trivalent chromium at acidic medium through the oxidation of the biomass, and Cr(III) can be further bound to the negatively charged functional groups. The uptake capacity of Cr(III) by the oxidized biomass after Cr(VI) reduction was higher than by the algae in its original form. This can be attributed to the oxidation of the biomass during Cr(VI) reduction, turning other active sites available for Cr(III) binding. The brown macroalgae Laminaria hyperborea was packed in a fixed-bed column in order to evaluate the feasibility of the system for the continuous treatment of the two galvanization wastewaters. The column, with an internal diameter of 4.8 cm, was packed with 59 g of algae up to a bed height of 27 cm. The operation strategy adopted for the treatment of the two wastewaters consisted in: i) treatment of the Zn(II) wastewater in the first sorption cycle; ii) desorption of pre-loaded Zn(II) using an 1.0 M HCl solution; iii) treatment of the Cr(VI) wastewater, taking advantage of the acidic conditions of the column after the desorption cycle, for the reduction of the Cr(VI) to Cr(III), in the presence of the electrons resulting from the biomass oxidation. This cycle ends when all the oxidizing groups are used.

Keywords: biosorption, brown marine macroalgae, zinc, chromium

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Authors: Bruno Cossu, Elio Carlo

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The invention (patent pending) relates to the field of devices aimed to harness wave energy (WEC) especially for artificial upwelling, forced downwelling, production of compressed air. In its basic form, the pump consists of a hydro-pneumatic machine, driven by wave energy, characterised by the fact that it has no moving mechanical parts, and is made up of only two structural components: an hollow body, which is open at the bottom to the sea and partially immersed in sea water, and a tube, both joined together to form a single body. The shape of the hollow body is like a mushroom whose cap and stem are hollow; the stem is open at both ends and the lower part of its surface is crossed by holes; the tube is external and coaxial to the stem and is joined to it so as to form a single body. This shape of the hollow body and the type of connection to the tube allows the pump to operate simultaneously as an air compressor (OWC) on the cap side, and as an airlift on the stem side. The pump can be implemented in four versions, each of which provides different variants and methods of implementation: 1) firstly, for the artificial upwelling of cold, deep ocean water; 2) secondly, for the lifting and transfer of these waters to the place of use (above all, fish farming plants), even if kilometres away; 3) thirdly, for the forced downwelling of surface sea water; 4) fourthly, for the forced downwelling of surface water, its oxygenation, and the simultaneous production of compressed air. The transfer of the deep water or the downwelling of the raised surface water (as for pump versions indicated in points 2 and 3 above), is obtained by making the water raised by the airlift flow into the upper inlet of another pipe, internal or adjoined to the airlift; the downwelling of raised surface water, oxygenation, and the simultaneous production of compressed air (as for the pump version indicated in point 4), is obtained by installing a venturi tube on the upper end of the pipe, whose restricted section is connected to the external atmosphere, so that it also operates like a hydraulic air compressor (trompe). Furthermore, by combining one or more pumps for the upwelling of cold, deep water, with one or more pumps for the downwelling of the warm surface water, the system can be used in an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion plant to supply the cold and the warm water required for the operation of the same, thus allowing to use, without increased costs, in addition to the mechanical energy of the waves, for the purposes indicated in points 1 to 4, the thermal one of the marine water treated in the process.

Keywords: air lifted upwelling, fish farming plant, hydraulic air compressor, wave energy converter

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Authors: Koyar Rane

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Nano- to submicron size particles of narrow particle size distribution of semi-conducting TiO₂, ZnO, NiO, CuO, Fe₂O₃ have been synthesized by novel hydrazine method and tested for their gas sensing, photocatalytic and bactericidal activities and the behavior found to be enhanced when the oxides in the thin film forms, that obtained in a specially built spray pyrolysis reactor. Hydrazine method is novel in the sense, say, the UV absorption edge of the white pigment grade wide band gap (~3.2eV) TiO₂ and ZnO shifted to the visible region turning into yellowish particles, indicating modification occurring the band structure. The absorption in the visible region makes these oxides visible light sensitive photocatalysis in degrading pollutants, especially the organic dyes which otherwise increase the chemical oxygen demand of the drinking water, enabling the process feasible not under the harsh energetic UV radiation regime. The electromagnetic radiations on irradiation produce electron-hole pairs Semiconductor + hν → e⁻ + h⁺ The electron-hole pairs thus produced form Reactive Oxygen Species, ROS, on the surface of the semiconductors, O₂(adsorbed)+e⁻ → O₂• - superoxide ion OH-(surface)+h⁺ →•OH - Hydroxyl radical The ROS attack the organic material and micro-organisms. Our antibacterial studies indicate the metal oxides control the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) of drinking water which had beyond the safe level normally found in the municipal supply. Metal oxides in the thin film form show overall enhanced properties and the films are reusable. The results of the photodegradation and antibactericidal studies are discussed. Gas sensing studies too have been done to find the versatility of the multifunctional metal oxides.

Keywords: hydrazine method, visible light sensitive, photo-degradation of dyes, water/airborne pollutant

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Authors: Lívia B. Meirelles, Erika C. A. N. Chrisman, Flávia B. de Andrade, Lilian C. M. de Oliveira

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True Boiling Point distillation (TBP) is one of the most common experimental techniques for the determination of petroleum properties. This curve provides information about the performance of petroleum in terms of its cuts. The experiment is performed in a few days. Techniques are used to determine the properties faster with a software that calculates the distillation curve when a little information about crude oil is known. In order to evaluate the accuracy of distillation curve prediction, eight points of the TBP curve and specific gravity curve (348 K and 523 K) were inserted into the HYSYS Oil Manager, and the extended curve was evaluated up to 748 K. The methods were able to predict the curve with the accuracy of 0.6%-9.2% error (Software X ASTM), 0.2%-5.1% error (Software X Spaltrohr).

Keywords: distillation curve, petroleum distillation, simulation, true boiling point curve

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Authors: Hisham Mortada

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For thousands of years mud houses have represented the practical wisdom and spirituality of people, particularly those of desert regions, who learned how to use local materials to build homes that fitted the environmental and cultural conditions which they lived in. As a case study, the central region of Saudi Arabia exhibits a tradition of earth architecture that is unique in style, culture and sustainability. Aiming to contribute towards the local debate of the suitability of the traditional mud architecture for today’s lifestyle of Saudis, this paper explores the sustainable nature of the traditional adobe architecture of this hot arid region from environmental, social and technical points of view.

Keywords: desert architecture, alternative materials, Saudi Arabia, arid climate, green architecture

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Authors: Min-Tao Hsu

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This study aims to explore the lived experiences of women with breast cancer, including their life world of illness and their adaptation to breast cancer. Breast cancer is not only a potentially lethal disease, but also a disease that may lead to many irreversible changes for female patients. Especially, in a culture where the wholeness is pursuit as an essential value, the sickness and/or broken body bring great challenge of life. Based on holism and symbolic interactionism, this study used interpretive ethnography including in-depth interviews and participant observations to collect the narrative of women with breast cancer concerning their illness experience. In addition, this study used Agar’s hermeneutic cycle to analyze data. The average age of 35 participants was 54.2. A total of 15 patients were within 2 years of onset, 5 patients were within 2-5 years of the treatment observation period, and 15 patients suffered from breast cancer for more than 5 years. The average age of onset was 50.4. Result: The main storyline of the life world of illness is ‘breast cancer is a turning point of life.’ Loss of breast was in terms of ‘no more a woman’ in Taiwanese culture. Two young women, one in her newly wedded and another right before marry, were divorced and cancelled wedding right after being diagnosed. All of them addressed that they have a ‘broken body.’ Single women accounted that they won’t marry for not being humiliated and most of married women said they never show female body in front of her husband or partner even in intimacy encounter. Three common themes were discovered: 1) new self and new identity; 2) new social relationships and new me; 3) new body and new life. The intertwining bodies, illness, selves, suffering, and medical treatments of female patients were observed. More, the recovery, of cause, was happened when new self, relationship, and new body were generated. Their identity to be a woman and a wife is shattered and their life is urged into another facet. For helping them to recovery from such situation, building a new identity and new social fabric on the new body need to be included in nursing care plan.

Keywords: breast cancer, illness narrative, world of illness, self-healing, interpretive ethnography

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Authors: Tingting Zou

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This paper firstly presents an overview of the situation of Xinjiang and Hotan, and describes the current status and features of Uyghur students’ English education. Then it summarizes the research on the theories of Third Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning Motivation at home and abroad. Further, through the data collected by the questionnaire, the paper points out the three main problems and causes of Uyghur students’ English learning in Hotan, Xinjiang. Finally, the paper draws a conclusion and puts forward some suggestions on how to improve their English learning quality based on the theory of Foreign Language Learning Motivation.

Keywords: countermeasures and difficulties, English learning, Hotan Xinjiang, Uyghur students

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Authors: Matthew Montebello

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Student engagement within a virtual learning environment generates masses of data points that can significantly contribute to the learning analytics that lead to decision support. Ideally, similar data is collected during student interaction with a physical learning space, and as a consequence, data is present at a large scale, even in relatively small classes. In this paper, we report of such an occurrence during classes held in a HiFlex modality as we investigate the advantages of adopting such a methodology. We plan to take full advantage of the learner-generated data in an attempt to further enhance the effectiveness of the adopted learning environment. This could shed crucial light on operating modalities that higher education institutions around the world will switch to in a post-COVID era.

Keywords: HiFlex, big data in higher education, learning analytics, virtual learning environment

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Authors: Ahmed Elaksher

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Over the last few years, significant progresses have been made and new approaches have been proposed for efficient collection of 3D spatial data from Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with reduced costs compared to imagery from satellite or manned aircraft. In these systems, a low-cost GPS unit provides the position, velocity of the vehicle, a low-quality inertial measurement unit (IMU) determines its orientation, and off-the-shelf cameras capture the images. Structure from Motion (SfM) and photogrammetry are the main tools for 3D surface reconstruction from images collected by these systems. Unlike traditional techniques, SfM allows the computation of calibration parameters using point correspondences across images without performing a rigorous laboratory or field calibration process and it is more flexible in that it does not require consistent image overlap or same rotation angles between successive photos. These benefits make SfM ideal for UAVs aerial mapping. In this paper, a direct comparison between SfM Digital Elevation Models (DEM) and those generated through traditional photogrammetric techniques was performed. Data was collected by a 3DR IRIS+ Quadcopter with a Canon PowerShot S100 digital camera. Twenty ground control points were randomly distributed on the ground and surveyed with a total station in a local coordinate system. Images were collected from an altitude of 30 meters with a ground resolution of nine mm/pixel. Data was processed with PhotoScan, VisualSFM, Imagine Photogrammetry, and a photogrammetric algorithm developed by the author. The algorithm starts with performing a laboratory camera calibration then the acquired imagery undergoes an orientation procedure to determine the cameras’ positions and orientations. After the orientation is attained, correlation based image matching is conducted to automatically generate three-dimensional surface models followed by a refining step using sub-pixel image information for high matching accuracy. Tests with different number and configurations of the control points were conducted. Camera calibration parameters estimated from commercial software and those obtained with laboratory procedures were comparable. Exposure station positions were within less than few centimeters and insignificant differences, within less than three seconds, among orientation angles were found. DEM differencing was performed between generated DEMs and few centimeters vertical shifts were found.

Keywords: UAV, photogrammetry, SfM, DEM

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Authors: Hesheng Wang, Haoyu Wang, Chungang Zhuang

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Estimating the 6D pose of objects is a core step for robot bin-picking tasks. The problem is that various objects are usually randomly stacked with heavy occlusion in real applications. In this work, we propose a method to regress 6D poses by predicting three points for each object in the 3D point cloud through deep learning. To solve the ambiguity of symmetric pose, we propose a labeling method to help the network converge better. Based on the predicted pose, an iterative method is employed for pose optimization. In real-world experiments, our method outperforms the classical approach in both precision and recall.

Keywords: pose estimation, deep learning, point cloud, bin-picking, 3D computer vision

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Authors: Sanaa I. Abu Alasal, Madleen M. Esbeih, Eman R. Fayyad, Rami S. Gharaibeh, Mostafa Z. Ali, Ahmed A. Freewan, Monther M. Jamhawi

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This research proposes a novel reconstruction protocol for restoring missing surfaces and low-quality edges and shapes in photos of artifacts at historical sites. The protocol starts with the extraction of a cloud of points. This extraction process is based on four subordinate algorithms, which differ in the robustness and amount of resultant. Moreover, they use different -but complementary- accuracy to some related features and to the way they build a quality mesh. The performance of our proposed protocol is compared with other state-of-the-art algorithms and toolkits. The statistical analysis shows that our algorithm significantly outperforms its rivals in the resultant quality of its object files used to reconstruct the desired model.

Keywords: meshes, point clouds, surface reconstruction protocols, 3D reconstruction

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Authors: Mehrnoosh Askarizadeh

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To meet the challenges of the new global environment, companies have started paying great attention towards quality management as an integral part of their strategic business plans. The purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between total quality management (TQM) and knowledge management (KM). Successful total quality management implementation throughout the organizations requires major changes in the main four aspects of knowledge management, namely: Creating, storage, sharing and application. Skill, knowledge and productivity are important factors in organization’s success and have important role. Therefore, TQM management system pays special attention to it. However, knowledge as the source is essential for organization’s survival. Our study points out how the quality management and knowledge management have been incorporated into each other for the development of the quality culture within the organization.

Keywords: knowledge management (KM), total quality management (TQM), organizational performance (OP), deming cycle

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Authors: A. de Folly d’Auris, R. Bagatin, P. Filtri

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This paper discusses the importance of having a good initial characterization of soil samples when thermal desorption has to be applied to polluted soils for the removal of contaminants. Particular attention has to be devoted on the desorption kinetics of the samples to identify the gases evolved during the heating, and contaminant degradation pathways. In this study, two samples coming from different points of the same contaminated site were considered. The samples are much different from each other. Moreover, the presence of high initial quantity of heavy hydrocarbons strongly affected the performance of thermal desorption, resulting in formation of dangerous intermediates. Analytical techniques such TGA (Thermogravimetric Analysis), DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) and GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass) provided a good support to give correct indication for field application.

Keywords: desorption kinetics, hydrocarbons, thermal desorption, thermogravimetric measurements

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Authors: Setareh Gorji Ghalamestani, Lieven Vandevelde, Jan Melkebeek

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In this work, an experimental technique is applied for the measurements of the vibrations and deformation of a test transformer core. Since the grid voltage contains some higher harmonics, in addition to a purely sinusoidal magnetisation of the core the presence of third harmonic is also studied. The vibrations of the transformer core for points as well as the surface scan of the leg show more deformation in the corners of the leg than the middle of the leg. The influence of the higher harmonic of the magnetisation on the core deformation is also more significant in the corners of the leg. The core deformation shape under a sinusoidal magnetisation with a higher harmonic is more wavy and fluctuating than that under a purely sinusoidal magnetisation.

Keywords: vibrations and noise, transformer, vibration measurements, laser vibrometer, higher harmonic

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Authors: Martha Pastorek Gripson, Anna Lindqvist

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The research project points at, and discusses, strategies, problems and possibilities when preschool teachers describe their work with dance in two Swedish preschools. The use of dance itself is a strategy for a more inclusive preschool practice and the use of so-called “dance skirts” is regarded as central for facilitating both dance qualities and to promote gender equality. The research is carried out in an action research project, involving two preschools with specific focus on gender equality work. The result problematizes the use of so-called “dance skirts”, as those can be both a tool for appreciation of aesthetics associated with femininity but at the same time create dance mainly as ballet related activity.

Keywords: dance, body, education, preschool, gender

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Authors: Young Hee Geum

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In this paper,we develop the complex dynamics of a family of optimal fourth-order multiple-root solvers and plot their basins of attraction. Mobius conjugacy maps and extraneous fixed points applied to a prototype quadratic polynomial raised to the power of the known integer multiplicity m are investigated. A 300 x 300 uniform grid centered at the origin covering 3 x 3 square region is chosen to visualize the initial values on each basin of attraction in accordance with a coloring scheme based on their dynamical behavior. The illustrative basins of attractions applied to various test polynomials and the corresponding statistical data for convergence are shown to confirm the theoretical convergence.

Keywords: basin of attraction, conjugacy, fourth-order, multiple-root finder

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Authors: Irina Peterburgsky

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We have been working on finding internship positions for our math and computer science majors. Among many other positive outcomes of internship for students majoring in mathematics, there are: students see new applications of mathematics to real life and see new scientific problems; they learn new methods, tools, etc. that they have not seen in their classes; they appreciate the power of mathematics that increases their interest in learning mathematics; they make decisions to take more advanced math courses; students understand better what their potentials, strong points, and limitations are; learn what work ethic is; learn how to work as a member of a team at a workplace; understand better how to offer their help and how to ask for help; start building their professional relationship; build self-confidence as young professionals, and what is the most important - they get a better understanding of their goals in their future professional careers.

Keywords: internship, mathematics, positive outcoms for students, workplace

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Authors: R. B. Mishra, Sudhakar Tripathi

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In this paper, the cable model of dendrites have been considered. The dendrites are cylindrical cables of various segments having variable length and reducing radius from start point at synapse and end points. For a particular event signal being received by a neuron in response only some dendrite are active at a particular instance. Initial current signals with different current flows in dendrite are assumed. Due to overlapping and coupling of active dendrite, they induce currents in the dendrite segments of each other at a particular instance. But how these currents are induced in the various segments of active dendrites due to coupling between these dendrites, It is not presented in the literature. Here the paper presents a model for induced currents in active dendrite segments due to mutual coupling at the starting instance of an activity in dendrite. The model is as discussed further.

Keywords: currents, dendrites, induction, simulation

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Authors: Abel Olayinka Ogbungbemi, I. A. Omunagbe, O. R. King, O. H. Akingbade

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This study examined the influence of environmental factors on the academic performance of students in Lagos State Polytechnic. One hundred and thirty-eight students (138) questionnaire was randomly administered among 2,600 students in the 6 departments in the school of environmental studies, Lagos state Polytechnic. The result of the study established that the school environment affects learning. Hence, improper maintenance of fixtures led to lower than average student’s performance. Based on this, the school should endeavour to sustain the school facilities and dull colour points should not be used for painting, interactions between teachers and students should be encouraged, and teachers should relate to all the students irrespective of their age, level of study, department of study and gender.

Keywords: environment, learning, responsiveness, school effect

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Authors: Sherif Keddis, Rafik Mitry, Norbert Schwesinger

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Intelligent networking of devices has rapidly been gaining importance over the past years and with recent advances in the fields of microcontrollers, integrated circuits and wireless communication, low power applications have emerged, enabling this trend even more. Connected devices provide a much larger database thus enabling highly intelligent and accurate systems. Ensuring safe drinking water is one of the fields that require constant monitoring and can benefit from an increased accuracy. Monitoring is mainly achieved either through complex measures, such as collecting samples from the points of use, or through metering systems typically distant to the points of use which deliver less accurate assessments of the quality of water. Constant metering near the points of use is complicated due to their inaccessibility; e.g. buried water pipes, locked spaces, which makes system maintenance extremely difficult and often unviable. The research presented here attempts to overcome this challenge by providing these systems with enough energy through a flow harvester inside the pipe thus eliminating the maintenance requirements in terms of battery replacements or containment of leakage resulting from wiring such systems. The proposed flow harvester exploits the piezoelectric properties of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) films to convert turbulence induced oscillations into electrical energy. It is intended to be used in standard water pipes with diameters between 0.5 and 1 inch. The working principle of the harvester uses a ring shaped bluff body inside the pipe to induce pressure fluctuations. Additionally the bluff body houses electronic components such as storage, circuitry and RF-unit. Placing the piezoelectric films downstream of that bluff body causes their oscillation which generates electrical charge. The PVDF-film is placed as a multilayered wrap fixed to the pipe wall leaving the top part to oscillate freely inside the flow. The warp, which allows for a larger active, consists of two layers of 30µm thick and 12mm wide PVDF layered alternately with two centered 6µm thick and 8mm wide aluminum foil electrodes. The length of the layers depends on the number of windings and is part of the investigation. Sealing the harvester against liquid penetration is achieved by wrapping it in a ring-shaped LDPE-film and welding the open ends. The fabrication of the PVDF-wraps is done by hand. After validating the working principle using a wind tunnel, experiments have been conducted in water, placing the harvester inside a 1 inch pipe at water velocities of 0.74m/s. To find a suitable placement of the wrap inside the pipe, two forms of fixation were compared regarding their power output. Further investigations regarding the number of windings required for efficient transduction were made. Best results were achieved using a wrap with 3 windings of the active layers which delivers a constant power output of 0.53µW at a 2.3MΩ load and an effective voltage of 1.1V. Considering the extremely low power requirements of sensor applications, these initial results are promising. For further investigations and optimization, machine designs are currently being developed to automate the fabrication and decrease tolerance of the prototypes.

Keywords: maintenance-free sensors, measurements at point of use, piezoelectric flow harvesting, universal micro generator, wireless metering systems

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Authors: A. G. Matveev

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The copyrights system is a combination of different elements. The number, content and the correlation of these elements are different for different legal orders. The models of copyrights systems display this system in terms of the interaction of economic and author's moral rights. Monistic and dualistic models are the most popular ones. The article deals with different points of view on the monism and dualism in copyright system. A specific model of the copyright in Switzerland in the XXth century is analyzed. The evolution of a French dualistic model of copyright is shown. The author believes that one should talk not about one, but rather about a number of dualism forms of copyright system.

Keywords: copyright, exclusive copyright, economic rights, author's moral rights, rights of personality, monistic model, dualistic model

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Authors: Nasrollah Sekhavaty

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This topic has many points, one of which could be "the relationship between Islam and democracy". In this paper we discuss the relationship between them. The logic has taught us that there is only one relationship between an object and itself. But if we have two things, there is one of the four relations between them; contradiction, equivalence, absolute generality & peculiarity or generality & peculiarity in some respect. To clarify the relationship between Islam and democracy, at first we must examine the meaning of Islam and Democracy. Islam is a religion which has ideas about politics and governance. The politics in Islam includes both individual and social affairs, to achieve worldly and heavenly blessings. With this assumption, Islam and democracy are not the same, or contrast, nor the absolute generality & peculiarity; but, the relationship between these two concepts is the generality & peculiarity in some respect. Conclusion: If one considers democracy as content, it does not accumulate with Islam which is content. But if democracy means a structure and style of governing, then its content could be Islam.

Keywords: Islam, democracy, contradiction, equivalence, absolute generality, generality & peculiarity

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Authors: Zakiullah Kalwar, Shabeer Abbassi

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This research encompasses the study of structural styles and evaluation of the hydrocarbon potential of Kotrum and Drigri anticlines located in Rajanpur Area, Midddle Indus Basin of Pakistan with the approach of geophysical data integration. The study area is situated between the Sulaiman Foldbelt on the west and Indus River in the east. It is an anticlinal fold, located to the southeast of Sakhi Sarwar anticline and separated from a prominent syncline. The structure has a narrow elongated crest, with the axis running in SSW-NNE direction. In the east, the structure is bounded by a gentle syncline. Structural Styles are trending East-West and perpendicular to tectonic transport and stress direction and the base of the structures gradually dipping Eastward beneath the deformation frontal part in Eastern Sulaiman Fold Belt. Middle Indus Basin can be divided into Foreland, Sulaiman fold belt and a broad foredeep. Sulaiman represents a blind thrust front, which suggests that all frontal folds of the fold belt are cored by blind thrust. The deformation of frontal part of Sulaiman Lobe represents the passive roof duplex stacked beneath the frontal passive roof thrust. The passive roof thrust, which has a back thrust sense of motion and extends into the interior of Fold belt. Left lateral Kingri Fault separates Eastern and Central Sulaiman fold belt. In Central Sulaiman fold belt the deformation front moved further towards fore deep as compared to Eastern Sulaiman. Two wells (Kotrum-01, Drigri-01) have been drilled in the study area with the objective to determine the potential of oil and gas in Habib Rahi Limestone of Eocene age, Dunghan Limestone of Paleocene age and Pab Sandstone of cretaceous age and role of structural styles in hydrocarbon potential of study area. Kotrum-01 well was drilled to its T.D of 4798m. Besides fishing and side tracking, tight whole conditions, high pressure, and losses of circulation were also encountered. During production, testing Pab sandstone were tested but abandoned found. Drigri-01 well was drilled to its T.D 3250 m. RFT was carried out at different points, but all points showed no pressure / seal failure and the well was plugged and declared abandoned.

Keywords: hydrocarbon potential, structural style, reserve calculation, enhance production

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Authors: Nicole V. Shifrin

Abstract:

Scheduling flexibility is becoming an increasingly available option for employees struggling to balance their work and life responsibilities, allowing employees to coordinate work schedules with their additional roles. The goal of such opportunities is to help employees manage the demands they face across domains of life by allowing employees to work from home, design their own work hours, take time off when necessary, along with various other scheduling accommodations. Organizations are also turning to utilizing scheduling flexibility to facilitate employee health and wellbeing through the reduction of stress and maximization of efficiency. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effects of scheduling flexibility on employee health-related behaviors and outcomes through a synthesis of research. The current meta-analytic review of 19 samples within 16 studies with a total sample size of 20,707 employees examines the relationship between the degree of scheduling flexibility available to employees and the resulting health outcomes and exercise habits. The results demonstrate that reduced scheduling flexibility is associated with poorer health status, suggesting that schedule inflexibility can hinder employees’ ability to maintain and support their health. These findings hold practical implications for developing work schedules to promote employee health and health-related behaviors, such as eating well and exercising. Additionally, there was a positive association between increased scheduling flexibility and engagement in exercise, suggesting that employees with more flexible schedules exercise more frequently than those with less flexible schedules. A potential explanation for the resulting relationship is that flexible schedules leave employees more time due to shorter work days, shorter or eliminated commutes, etc. with which they can use to engage in healthy behaviors. These findings stress the importance of promoting job designs that facilitate employee engagement in healthy behaviors, which directly impact their overall health status. Implications for practice are discussed as well as future directions in examining the link between job design and employee health and well-being.

Keywords: exercise, health, meta-analysis, job design, scheduling flexibility

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Authors: K. Prasanth, S. Hafeezullah Khan, B. Haribalakrishnan, D. Arun, S. Jayapriya, S. Dhivya, N. Vijayarangan

Abstract:

The main goal of our approach is to find the optimum positions for the sensor nodes, reinforcing the communications in points where certain lack of connectivity is found. Routing is the major problem in sensor network’s data transfer between nodes. We are going to provide an efficient routing technique to make data signal transfer to reach the base station soon without any interruption. Clustering and routing are the two important key factors to be considered in case of WSN. To carry out the communication from the nodes to their cluster head, we propose a parameterizable protocol so that the developer can indicate if the routing has to be sensitive to either the link quality of the nodes or the their battery levels.

Keywords: clusters, routing, wireless sensor networks, three phases, sensor networks

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