Search results for: behavior laws

Authors: Kalyan Kumar Mandal, Damodar Maity

Abstract:

The degradation of concrete due to various hygrochemo- mechanical actions is inevitable for the structures particularly built to store water. Therefore, it is essential to determine the material properties of dam-like structures due to ageing to predict the behavior of such structures after a certain age. The degraded material properties are calculated by introducing isotropic degradation index. The predicted material properties are used to study the behavior of aged dam at different ages. The dam is modeled by finite elements and displacement and is considered as an unknown variable. The parametric study reveals that the displacement is quite larger for comparatively lower design life of the structure because the degradation of elastic properties depends on the design life of the dam. The stresses in dam cam be unexpectedly large at any age with in the design life. The outcomes of the present study indicate the importance of the consideration ageing effect of concrete exposed to water for the safe design of dam throughout its life time.

Keywords: Hygro-chemo-mechanical, isotropic degradation, finite element method, Koyna earthquake.

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Authors: I. V. Kuzminov

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The alternative hypothesis of the physics of gravitation is put forward in this paper. The hypothesis is constructed on the laws of classical physics. The process of expansion of the Universe explains the physics of gravity. The expansion of the Universe induces the resistance of gyroscopic forces of electron’s rotation. The second component of gravity forces is the resistance arising from the second derivative of linear expansion. This hypothesis does not reject the existing foundation of settlement, particularly as it is empirically constructed. The forces of gravitation and inertia share a common nature, which has been recognized before. The presented hypothesis does not criticize existing theories of gravitation; rather, it explores a separate theme. It is important to acknowledge that the expansion of the Universe exhibits isotropic characteristics. The proposed hypothesis provides a fundamental direction for further research. It is worth noting that this article does not aim to encompass all possible aspects of future investigations.

Keywords: Gyroscopic forces, the unity of the micro- and macrocosm, the expansion of the universe, the second derivative of expansion.

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Authors: S. Boughanem, D. A. Jesson, M. J. Mulheron, P.A. Smith C. Eddie, S. Psomas, M. Rimes

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Cements, which are intrinsically brittle materials, can exhibit a degree of pseudo-ductility when reinforced with a sufficient volume fraction of a fibrous phase. This class of materials, called Engineered Cement Composites (ECC) has the potential to be used in future tunneling applications where a level of pseudo-ductility is required to avoid brittle failures. However uncertainties remain regarding mechanical performance. Previous work has focused on comparatively thin specimens; however for future civil engineering applications, it is imperative that the behavior in tension of thicker specimens is understood. In the present work, specimens containing cement powder and admixtures have been manufactured following two different processes and tested in tension. Multiple matrix cracking has been observed during tensile testing, leading to a “strain-hardening" behavior, confirming the possible suitability of ECC material when used as thick sections (greater than 50mm) in tunneling applications.

Keywords: Cement composite, polymeric fibers, pseudoductility, test-geometry.

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Authors: Gayadhar Panda, P. K. Rautraya

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Damping of inter-area electromechanical oscillations is one of the major challenges to the electric power system operators. This paper presents Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) for tuning Static Synchronous Series Compensator (SSSC) based damping controller to improve power system oscillation stability. In the proposed algorithm, the searcher agents are a collection of masses which interact with each other based on the Newtonian gravity and the laws of motion. The effectiveness of the scheme in damping power system oscillations during system faults at different loading conditions is demonstrated through time-domain simulation.

Keywords: FACTS, Damping controller design, Gravitational search algorithm (GSA), Power system oscillations, Single-machine infinite Bus power system, SSSC.

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Authors: Ibrahim F. Jasim, Najah F. Jasim

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The problem of controlling a two link robotic manipulator, consisting of a rotating and a prismatic links, is addressed. The actuations of both links are assumed to have unknown dead zone nonlinearities and friction torques modeled by LuGre friction model. Because of the existence of the unknown dead zone and friction torque at the actuations, unknown parameters and unmeasured states would appear to be part of the overall system dynamics that need for estimation. Unmeasured states observer, unknown parameters estimators, and robust adaptive control laws have been derived such that closed loop global stability is achieved. Simulation results have been performed to show the efficacy of the suggested approach.

Keywords: Adaptive Robust Control, Dead Zone, Friction Torques, Robotic Manipulators.

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Authors: M. H. Arslan, U. K. Sahin, H. Acikgoz-Tufan, I. Gocek, I. Erdem

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Various exterior factors have perpetual effects on textile materials during wear, use and laundering in everyday life. In accordance with their frequency of use, textile materials are required to be laundered at certain intervals. The medium in which the laundering process takes place have inevitable detrimental physical and chemical effects on textile materials caused by the unique parameters of the process inherently existing. Connatural structures of various textile materials result in many different physical, chemical and mechanical characteristics. Because of their specific structures, these materials have different behaviors against several exterior factors. By modeling the behavior of commercial and test textiles as group-wise against laundering process, it is possible to disclose the relation in between these two groups of materials, which will lead to better understanding of their behaviors in terms of similarities and differences against the washing parameters of the laundering. Thus, the goal of the current research is to examine the behavior of two groups of textile materials as commercial textiles and as test textiles towards the main washing machine parameters during laundering process such as temperature, load quantity, mechanical action and level of water amount by concentrating on shrinkage, pilling, sewing defects, collar abrasion, the other defects other than sewing, whitening and overall properties of textiles. In this study, cotton fabrics were preferred as commercial textiles due to the fact that garments made of cotton are the most demanded products in the market by the textile consumers in daily life. Full factorial experimental set-up was used to design the experimental procedure. All profiles always including all of the commercial and the test textiles were laundered for 20 cycles by commercial home laundering machine to investigate the effects of the chosen parameters. For the laundering process, a modified version of ‘‘IEC 60456 Test Method’’ was utilized. The amount of detergent was altered as 0.5% gram per liter depending on varying load quantity levels. Datacolor 650®, EMPA Photographic Standards for Pilling Test and visual examination were utilized to test and characterize the textiles. Furthermore, in the current study the relation in between commercial and test textiles in terms of their performance was deeply investigated by the help of statistical analysis performed by MINITAB® package program modeling their behavior against the parameters of the laundering process. In the experimental work, the behaviors of both groups of textiles towards washing machine parameters were visually and quantitatively assessed in dry state.

Keywords: Behavior against washing machine parameters, performance evaluation of textiles, statistical analysis, commercial and test textiles.

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Authors: Amir Ayazi, Hamde Ahmadi, Soheil Shafaei

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Composite steel shear wall is a lateral load resisting system which consists of a steel plate with concrete wall attached to one or both sides to prevent it from elastic buckling. The composite behavior is ensured by utilizing high-strength bolts. This paper investigates the effect of distance between bolts, and for this purpose 14 one-story one-bay specimens with various bolts spacing were modeled by finite element code which is developed by the authors. To verify the model, numerical results were compared with a valid experiment which illustrate proper agreement. Results depict increasing the distance between bolts would improve the seismic ever, this increase must be limited, because of large distances will cause widespread buckling of the steel plate in free subpanels between bolts and would result in no improvement. By comparing the results in elastic region, it was observed initial stiffness is not affected by changing the distance.

Keywords: Composite steel shear wall, bolt, buckling, finite element.

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Authors: Meng-Cong Zheng, Yu-Sheng Chen

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The meeting behavior is a pervasive kind of interaction, which often occurs between the passenger and the shuttle. However, the meeting point set up at the Taoyuan International Airport is too far from the entry-exit, often causing passengers to stop searching near the entry-exit. When the number of people waiting for the rush hour increases, it often results in chaos in the waiting area. This study tried to find out what is the key factor to promote the rapid finding of each other between the passengers and the pick-ups. Then we implemented several design proposals to improve the meeting behavior of passengers and pick-ups based on behavior mapping and post-occupancy evaluation to enhance their meeting efficiency in unfamiliar environments. The research base is the reception hall of the second terminal of Taoyuan International Airport. Behavioral observation and mapping are implemented on the entry of inbound passengers into the welcome space, including the crowd distribution of the people who rely on the separation wall in the waiting area, the behavior of meeting and the interaction between the inbound passengers and the pick-ups. Then we redesign the space planning and signage design based on post-occupancy evaluation to verify the effectiveness of space plan and signage design. This study found that passengers ignore existing meeting-point designs which are placed on distant pillars at both ends. The position of the screen affects the area where the receiver is stranded, causing the pick-ups to block the passenger's moving line. The pick-ups prefer to wait where it is easy to watch incoming passengers and where it is closest to the mode of transport they take when leaving. Large visitors tend to gather next to landmarks, and smaller groups have a wide waiting area in the lobby. The location of the meeting point chosen by the pick-ups is related to the view of the incoming passenger. Finally, this study proposes an improved design of the meeting point, setting the traffic information in it, so that most passengers can see the traffic information when they enter the country. At the same time, we also redesigned the pick-ups desk to improve the efficiency of passenger meeting.

Keywords: Meeting point design, post-occupancy evaluation, behavioral mapping, international airport.

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Authors: Sevil Yucel, Zafer Omer Ozdemir, Cem Kesgin, Pinar Terzioglu, Simten Unlu, Yagmur Erdogan, Kubra Pusat

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Chitosan is an attractive polysaccharide obtained by deacetylation of an abundant natural biopolymer called chitin. Chitin and chitosan are excellent materials. To improve the potential of chitin and chitosan modification is needed. In the present study, grafting of maleic acid on to chitosan by cerium ammonium nitrate in acetic acid solution was investigated with use of a microwave and reflux system. The grafted chitosan was characterized by using a Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry. The solubility and swelling behavior of grafted chitosans were determined in acetate buffer (pH 3.6), citrophosphate buffer (pH 5.6 and pH 7.0), and boric buffer (pH 9.2) solutions. The sample obtained by microwave system with use of a chitosan/maleic anhydride/ceric ammonium nitrate 0.2/3.922/0.99 gram of raw material within 30 minute showed the maximum swelling ratio (13.6) in boric buffer solution.

Keywords: Chitosan, cytotoxicity, grafted, maleic acid, swell.

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Authors: Cha’o-Kuang Chen, Ching-Chang Cho

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This paper investigates the natural convection heat transfer performance in a complex-wavy-wall cavity filled with power-law fluid. In performing the simulations, the continuity, Cauchy momentum and energy equations are solved subject to the Boussinesq approximation using a finite volume method. The simulations focus specifically on the effects of the flow behavior index in the power-law model and the Rayleigh number on the flow streamlines, isothermal contours and mean Nusselt number within the cavity. The results show that pseudoplastic fluids have a better heat transfer performance than Newtonian or dilatant fluids. Moreover, it is shown that for Rayleigh numbers greater than Ra=10³, the mean Nusselt number has a significantly increase as the flow behavior index is decreased.

Keywords: Non-Newtonian fluid, Power-law fluid, Natural convection, Heat transfer enhancement, Cavity, Wavy wall.

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Authors: F. Stazi, C. Di Perna, C. Filiaci, A. Stazi

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Passive systems were born with the purpose of the greatest exploitation of solar energy in cold climates and high altitudes. They spread themselves until the 80-s all over the world without any attention to the specific climate and the summer behavior; this caused the deactivation of the systems due to a series of problems connected to the summer overheating, the complex management and the rising of the dust. Until today the European regulation limits only the winter consumptions without any attention to the summer behavior but, the recent European EN 15251 underlines the relevance of the indoor comfort, and the necessity of the analytic studies validation by monitoring case studies. In the porpose paper we demonstrate that the solar wall is an efficient system both from thermal comfort and energy saving point of view and it is the most suitable for our temperate climates because it can be used as a passive cooling sistem too. In particular the paper present an experimental and numerical analisys carried out on a case study with nine different solar passive systems in Ancona, Italy. We carried out a detailed study of the lodging provided by the solar wall by the monitoring and the evaluation of the indoor conditions. Analyzing the monitored data, on the base of recognized models of comfort (ISO, ASHRAE, Givoni-s BBCC), is emerged that the solar wall has an optimal behavior in the middle seasons. In winter phase this passive system gives more advantages in terms of energy consumptions than the other systems, because it gives greater heat gain and therefore smaller consumptions. In summer, when outside air temperature return in the mean seasonal value, the indoor comfort is optimal thanks to an efficient transversal ventilation activated from the same wall.

Keywords: Building envelope, energy saving, passive solarwall, thermal comfort.

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Authors: Nikhil Jain, Yang Xu, Bin Yu

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The material behavior of graphene, a single layer of carbon lattice, is extremely sensitive to its dielectric environment. We demonstrate improvement in electronic performance of graphene nanowire interconnects with full encapsulation by lattice-matching, chemically inert, 2D layered insulator hexagonal boron nitride (h- BN). A novel layer-based transfer technique is developed to construct the h-BN/MLG/h-BN heterostructures. The encapsulated graphene wires are characterized and compared with that on SiO2 or h-BN substrate without passivating h-BN layer. Significant improvements in maximum current-carrying density, breakdown threshold, and power density in encapsulated graphene wires are observed. These critical improvements are achieved without compromising the carrier transport characteristics in graphene. Furthermore, graphene wires exhibit electrical behavior less insensitive to ambient conditions, as compared with the non-passivated ones. Overall, h-BN/graphene/h- BN heterostructure presents a robust material platform towards the implementation of high-speed carbon-based interconnects.

Keywords: Two-dimensional nanosheet, graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, heterostructure, interconnects.

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Authors: Ji Hyun Kang, Hwan Su Seo, Hong-Kyu Kim, Hong Sok Kim

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This study was to search for the desirable direction of the sidewalk planning in Korea by establishing the concepts of walking and pedestrian space, and analyzing the advanced precedents in and out of country. Also, based on the precedent studies and relevant laws, regulations, and systems, it aimed for the following sequential process: firstly, to derive design elements from the functions and characteristics of sidewalk and cluster the similar elements by each characteristics, sampling representative characteristics and making them hierarchical; then, to analyze their significances via the first questionnaire survey, and the relative weights and priorities of each elements via the Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP); finally, based on the analysis result, to establish the frame of suggesting the direction of policy to improve the pedestrian environment of sidewalk in urban commercial district for the future planning and design of pedestrian space.

Keywords: Sidewalk, Pedestrian, AHP, Indicator.

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Authors: Tithdanin Chav, Phichhang Ou

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The study is about the e-banking consumer behavior of five major banks in Cambodia. This work aims to examine the relationships among job relevance, trust, mobility, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude toward using, and intention to use of internet banking and apps. Also, the research develops and tests a conceptual model of intention to use internet banking by integrating the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and job relevance, trust, and mobility which were supported by Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The proposed model was tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), which was processed by using SPSS and AMOS with a sample size of 250 e-banking users. The results showed that there is a significant positive relationship among variables and attitudes toward using internet banking, and apps are the most factor influencing consumers’ intention to use internet banking and apps with the importance level in SEM 0.82 accounted by 82%. Significantly, all six hypotheses were accepted.

Keywords: Bank Apps, consumer intention, internet banking, technology acceptance model.

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Authors: Chul Ho Han, Kyoung Hoon Kim

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This paper carries out a performance analysis based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics for heat recovery vapor generator (HRVG) of ammonia-water mixture when the heat source is low-temperature energy in the form of sensible heat. In the analysis, effects of the ammonia mass concentration and mass flow ratio of the binary mixture are investigated on the system performance including the effectiveness of heat transfer, entropy generation, and exergy efficiency. The results show that the ammonia concentration and the mass flow ratio of the mixture have significant effects on the system performance of HRVG.

Keywords: Entropy, exergy, ammonia-water mixture, heat exchanger.

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Authors: T. C. Kuo, Y. J. Huang, B. W. Hong

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This paper proposes an adaptive sliding mode controller which combines adaptive control and sliding mode control to control a nonlinear robotic manipulator with uncertain parameters. We use an adaptive algorithm based on the concept of sliding mode control to alleviate the chattering phenomenon of control input. Adaptive laws are developed to obtain the gain of switching input and the boundary layer parameters. The stability and convergence of the robotic manipulator control system are guaranteed by applying the Lyapunov theorem. Simulation results demonstrate that the chattering of control input can be alleviated effectively. The proposed controller scheme can assure robustness against a large class of uncertainties and achieve good trajectory tracking performance.

Keywords: Robotic manipulators, sliding mode control, adaptive law, Lyapunov theorem, robustness.

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Authors: Ala'eddin A. Saif , Z. A. Z. Jamal, Z. Sauli, P. Poopalan

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The ferroelectric behavior of barium strontium titanate (BST) in thin film form has been investigated in order to study the possibility of using BST for ferroelectric gate-field effect transistor (FeFET) for memory devices application. BST thin films have been fabricated as Al/BST/Pt/SiO2/Si-gate configuration. The variation of the dielectric constant (ε) and tan δ with frequency have been studied to ensure the dielectric quality of the material. The results show that at low frequencies, ε increases as the Ba content increases, whereas at high frequencies, it shows the opposite variation, which is attributed to the dipole dynamics. tan δ shows low values with a peak at the mid-frequency range. The ferroelectric behavior of the Al/BST/Pt/SiO2/Si has been investigated using C-V characteristics. The results show that the strength of the ferroelectric hysteresis loop increases as the Ba content increases; this is attributed to the grain size and dipole dynamics effect.

Keywords: BST thin film, Electrical properties, Ferroelectrichysteresis, Ferroelectric FET.

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Authors: M. V. A. Raju Bahubalendruni, Bibhuti Bhusan Biswal, B. B. V. L. Deepak

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Achieving an appropriate assembly sequence needs deep verification for its physical feasibility. For this purpose, industrial engineers use several assembly predicates; namely, liaison, geometric feasibility, stability and mechanical feasibility. However, testing an assembly sequence for these predicates requires huge assembly information. Extracting such assembly information from an assembled product is a time consuming and highly skillful task with complex reasoning methods. In this paper, computer aided methods are proposed to extract all the necessary assembly information from computer aided design (CAD) environment in order to perform the assembly sequence planning efficiently. These methods use preliminary capabilities of three-dimensional solid modelling and assembly modelling methods used in CAD software considering equilibrium laws of physical bodies.

Keywords: Assembly automation, assembly attributes, assembly sequence generation, computer aided design.

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Authors: Ramesh Rajagopalan, Adam Dahlstrom

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Noise removal techniques play a vital role in the performance of electrocardiographic (ECG) signal processing systems. ECG signals can be corrupted by various kinds of noise such as baseline wander noise, electromyographic interference, and powerline interference. One of the significant challenges in ECG signal processing is the degradation caused by additive 50 or 60 Hz powerline interference. This work investigates the removal of power line interference and suppression of transient response for filtering noise corrupted ECG signals. We demonstrate the effectiveness of infinite impulse response (IIR) notch filter with time varying pole radius for improving the transient behavior. The temporary change in the pole radius of the filter diminishes the transient behavior. Simulation results show that the proposed IIR filter with time varying pole radius outperforms traditional IIR notch filters in terms of mean square error and transient suppression.

Keywords: Notch filter, ECG, transient, pole radius.

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Authors: Gurmeet Kaur, Jyoti Pruthi

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Agile Software development approaches and techniques are being considered as efficient, effective, and popular methods to the development of software. Agile software developments are useful for developing high-quality software that completes client requirements with zero defects, and in short delivery period. In agile software development methodology, quality is related to coding, which means quality, is managed through the use of approaches like refactoring, pair programming, test-driven development, behavior-driven development, acceptance test-driven development, and demand-driven development. The quality of software is measured using metrics like the number of defects during the development and improvement of the software. Usage of the above-mentioned methods or approaches reduces the possibilities of defects in developed software, and hence improves quality. This paper focuses on the study of agile-based quality methods or approaches for software development that ensures improved quality of software as well as reduced cost, and customer satisfaction.

Keywords: Agile software development, ASD, Acceptance test-driven development, ATDD, Behavior-driven development, BDD, Demand-driven development. DDD, Test-driven development, TDD.

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Authors: P. Saleh, G. Challita, R. Hazimeh, K. Khalil

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In this paper 3D FEM analysis was carried out on double lap bonded joint with composite adherents subjected to dynamic shear. The adherents are made of Carbon/Epoxy while the adhesive is epoxy Araldite 2031. The maximum average shear stress and the stress homogeneity in the adhesive layer were examined. Three fibers textures were considered: UD; 2.5D and 3D with same volume fiber then a parametric study based on changing the thickness and the type of fibers texture in 2.5D was accomplished. Moreover, adherents’ dissimilarity was also investigated. It was found that the main parameter influencing the behavior is the longitudinal stiffness of the adherents. An increase in the adherents’ longitudinal stiffness induces an increase in the maximum average shear stress in the adhesive layer and an improvement in the shear stress homogeneity within the joint. No remarkable improvement was observed for dissimilar adherents.

Keywords: Adhesive, Composite adherents, Impact shear, Finite element.

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Authors: Nina Bijedic, Drazena Gaspar, Mirsad Hadzikadic

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Corruption is an influential and widespread problem. One part of it is so-called petty corruption, related to large-scale bribe giving by ordinary citizens trying to influence the works of public administration or public services. As it is with all means of corruption, petty corruption is related to the level of democracy (or administration efficiency) in a society. The developed model captures some of the factors related to corruptive behavior, as well as people’s attitude towards petty corruption. It has four basic elements: user’s perception of corruption in the society of interest, the influence of social interactions, the influence of penalizing mechanism, and influence of campaigns against petty corruption. The model is agent-based, developed in NetLogo, with a lot of random settings that provide a wider scope of responses. Interactions of different settings for variables of elements provide insight into the influence of each element on attitude towards petty corruption, as well as petty corruptive behavior.

Keywords: Agent based model, attitude, influence, petty corruption, society.

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Authors: P. Chitman, N. Charoenpokaraj

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This research aims to study the species, feeding behavior and activity characteristics of birds which reap benefits from the research area in boat touring routes in Klong Kone Sub-district, Muang District, Samut Songkram Province, Thailand from October 2013 – May 2014. The results from the survey of birds on all three routes found that there are 11 families and 22 species. Route 1 (Klong Kone canal) had the most species, 20 species. According to feeding behavior, there were insectivorous, piscivorous and aquatic invertebrate feeder birds. Activity characteristics of birds which reap benefits from the research were finding food, nesting and raise nestlings along boat touring routes.

Keywords: Bird species diversity, boat touring routes, Samut Songkram.

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Authors: Javier Ordorica Villalvazo, Claudia Camargo Wilson, Jesus Everardo Olguin Tiznado

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This paper presents an experimental case using sensory thermography to describe temperatures behavior on median nerve once an activity of repetitive motion was done. Thermography is a noninvasive technique without biological hazard and not harm at all times and has been applied in many experiments to seek for temperature patterns that help to understand diseases like cancer and cumulative trauma disorders (CTD’s). An infrared sensory thermography technology was developed to execute this study. Three women in good shape were selected for the repetitive motion tests for 4 days, two right-handed women and 1 left handed woman, two sensory thermographers were put on both median nerve wrists to get measures. The evaluation time was of 3 hours 30 minutes in a controlled temperature, 20 minutes of stabilization time at the beginning and end of the operation. Temperatures distributions are statistically evaluated and showed similar temperature patterns behavior.

Keywords: Median nerve, temperature, sensory thermography, wrists, CTD’s.

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Authors: Risdiana, D. Suhendar, S. Pratiwi, W. A. Somantri, T. Saragi

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The effect of partially substitution of magnetic impurity Fe for Cu to the magnetic and transport properties in electron-doped superconducting cuprates of Eu1.85+yCe0.15-yCu1-yFeyO4+α-δ (ECCFO) with y = 0, 0.010, 0.020, and 0.050 has been studied, in order to investigate the mechanism of magnetic and transport properties of ECCFO in normal-state. Magnetic properties are investigated by DC magnetic-susceptibility measurements that carried out at low temperatures down to 2 K using a standard SQUID magnetometer in a magnetic field of 5 Oe on field cooling. Transport properties addressed to electron mobility, are extracted from radius of electron localization calculated from temperature dependence of resistivity. For y = 0, temperature dependence of dc magnetic-susceptibility (χ) indicated the change of magnetic behavior from paramagnetic to diamagnetic below 15 K. Above 15 K, all samples show paramagnetic behavior with the values of magnetic moment in every volume unit increased with increasing y. Electron mobility decreased with increasing y.

Keywords: DC magnetic-susceptibility, electron mobility, Eu1.85+yCe0.15-yCu1-yFeyO4+α-δ, normal state.

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Authors: Jito Vanualailai, Bibhya Sharma

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Swarm principles are increasingly being used to design controllers for the coordination of multi-robot systems or, in general, multi-agent systems. This paper proposes a two-dimensional Lagrangian swarm model that enables the planar agents, modeled as point masses, to swarm whilst effectively avoiding each other and obstacles in the environment. A novel method, based on an extended Lyapunov approach, is used to construct the model. Importantly, the Lyapunov method ensures a form of practical stability that guarantees an emergent behavior, namely, a cohesive and wellspaced swarm with a constant arrangement of individuals about the swarm centroid. Computer simulations illustrate this basic feature of collective behavior. As an application, we show how multiple planar mobile unicycle-like robots swarm to eventually form patterns in which their velocities and orientations stabilize.

Keywords: Attractive-repulsive swarm model, individual-based swarm model, Lagrangian swarm model, Lyapunov stability, Lyapunov-like function, practical stability, unicycle.

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Authors: Tiantian Gu, Dezhi Li, Mian Zhang, Ying Jiang

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Considering the characteristics of residents’ participation in the governance of old community renewal (OCR), a theoretical model of the determinant of residents’ intention to participate in the governance of OCR has been built based on the theory of planned behavior. Seven old communities in Nanjing have been chosen as cases to conduct empirical analysis. The result indicates that participation attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control have significant positive effects on residents’ intention to participate in the governance of the OCR. Recognition of the community, cognition of the OCR and perceived behavioral control have indirect positive effects on residents’ intention to participate in the OCR. In addition, the education level and the length of residence have positive effects on their participation intention, while the gender, age, and monthly income have little effect on it. The research result provides suggestions for the improvement of residents’ participation in the OCR.

Keywords: Old community renewal, residents’ participation in governance, intention, theory of planned behavior.

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Authors: Esmat Jalalvandi, Rohah Abd. Majid, Taravat Ghanbari

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Thermoplastic starch, polylactic acid glycerol and maleic anhydride (MA) were compounded with natural montmorillonite (MMT) through a twin screw extruder to investigate the effects of different loading of MMT on structure, thermal and absorption behavior of the nanocomposites. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) showed that sample with MMT loading 4phr exhibited exfoliated structure while sample that contained MMT 8 phr exhibited intercalated structure. FESEM images showed big lump when MMT loading was at 8 phr. The thermal properties were characterized by using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The results showed that MMT increased melting temperature and crystallization temperature of matrix but reduction in glass transition temperature was observed Meanwhile the addition of MMT has improved the water barrier property. The nanosize MMT particle is also able to block a tortuous pathway for water to enter the starch chain, thus reducing the water uptake and improved the physical barrier of nanocomposite.

Keywords: Montmorillonite, Nanocomposite, Polylactic acid, Starch.

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Authors: G. Mattia, A. Di Leo, L. Principato

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The purchase impulsiveness is preceded by a lack of self-control: consequently, it is legitimate to believe that a consumer with a low level of self-control can result in a higher probability of cognitive dissonance. Moreover, the process of purchase is influenced by the pre-existing affective state in a considerable way. With reference to on-line purchases, digital behavior cannot be merely ascribed to the rational sphere, given the speed and ease of transactions and the hedonistic dimension of purchases. To our knowledge, this research is among the first cases of verification of the effect of moderation exerted by the positive affective state in the on-line impulse purchase of products with a high expressive value such as a smartphone on the occurrence of cognitive dissonance. To this aim, a moderation analysis was conducted on a sample of 212 impulsive millennials buyers. Three scales were adopted to measure the constructs of interest: IBTS for impulsivity, PANAS for the affective state, Sweeney for cognitive dissonance. The analysis revealed that positive affective state does not affect the onset of cognitive dissonance.

Keywords: Cognitive dissonance, impulsive buying, online shopping, online consumer behavior.

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Authors: Benalia Kouini, Aicha Serier

Abstract:

This work aims to investigate the structure–property relationship in ternary nanocomposites consisting of polypropylene as the matrix, polyamide 66 as the minor phase and treated nanoclay DELLITE 67G as the reinforcement. All PP/PA66/Nanoclay systems with polypropylene grafted maleic anhydride PP-g-MAH as a compatibilizer were prepared via melt compounding and characterized in terms of nanoclay content. Morphological structure was investigated by scanning electron microscopy. The rheological behavior of the nanocomposites was determined by various methods, viz melt flow index (MFI) and parallel plate rheological measurements. The PP/PP-g-MAH/PA66 nanocomposites showed a homogeneous morphology supporting the compatibility improvement between PP, PA66, and nanoclay. SEM results revealed the formation of nanocomposites as the nanoclay was intercalated and exfoliated. In the ternary nanocomposites, the rheological behavior showed that, the complex viscosity is increased with increasing the nanoclay. The results showed that the use of nanoclay affects the variations of storage modulus (G′), loss modulus (G″) and the melt elasticity.

Keywords: Nanocomposites, polypropylene, polyamide66, modified nanoclay, rheology.

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