Search results for: annular and circular sector ducts

Authors: Ahmed Barakat, Nourhan A. Saad, Mahmoud Hammad

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Tracking and monitoring agricultural products, cold chain activities, and transportation in real-time can effectively ensure both the quality and safety of agricultural products, as well as reduce overall logistics costs. Effective supply chain practices are one of the main requirements for enhancing agricultural business in Egypt. Cold chain is among the best practices for the storage and transportation of perishable goods and has potential within the agricultural sector in Egypt. This practice has the scope of reducing the wastage of food and increasing the profitability with a reduction in costs. Even though it has several implementation challenges for the farmers, traders, and people involved in the entire supply chain, it has highlighted better benefits for all and for the export of goods for the economic progression for Egypt. The aim of this paper is to explore cold supply chain practices for the agriculture sector in Egypt, to enhance the export performance of fresh goods. In this context, this study attempts to explore those aspects of the performance of cold supply chain practices that can enhance the functioning of the agriculture sector in Egypt from the perspective of export companies (traders) and farmers. Based on the empirical results obtained by data collection from the farmers and traders, the study argues that there is a significant association between cold supply chain practices and enhancement of the agriculture value chain. The paper thus highlights the contribution of the study with final conclusions and limitations with scope for future research.

Keywords: Agriculture sector, cold chain management, export companies, non-traded goods, supply chain management.

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Authors: S. D. El Wakil, J. Rice

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The aim of the current work was to employ the finite element method to model a slab, with a small hole across its width, undergoing plastic plane strain deformation. The computational model had, however, to be validated by comparing its results with those obtained experimentally. Since they were in good agreement, the finite element method can therefore be considered a reliable tool that can help gain better understanding of the mechanism of ductile failure in structural members having stress raisers. The finite element software used was ANSYS, and the PLANE183 element was utilized. It is a higher order 2-D, 8-node or 6-node element with quadratic displacement behavior. A bilinear stress-strain relationship was used to define the material properties, with constants similar to those of the material used in the experimental study. The model was run for several tensile loads in order to observe the progression of the plastic deformation region, and the stress concentration factor was determined in each case. The experimental study involved employing the visioplasticity technique, where a circular mesh (each circle was 0.5 mm in diameter, with 0.05 mm line thickness) was initially printed on the side of an aluminum slab having a small hole across its width. Tensile loading was then applied to produce a small increment of plastic deformation. Circles in the plastic region became ellipses, where the directions of the principal strains and stresses coincided with the major and minor axes of the ellipses. Next, we were able to determine the directions of the maximum and minimum shear stresses at the center of each ellipse, and the slip-line field was then constructed. We were then able to determine the stress at any point in the plastic deformation zone, and hence the stress concentration factor. The experimental results were found to be in good agreement with the analytical ones.

Keywords: Finite element method to model a slab, slab undergoing plastic deformation, stress distribution around a circular hole, visioplasticity.

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Authors: H. Y. Jung, Ju H. Park, S. M. Lee

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Sampled-data controller is presented for solid oxide fuel cell systems which is expressed by a sector bounded nonlinear model. The proposed control law is obtained by solving a convex problem satisfying several linear matrix inequalities. Simulation results are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed design method.

Keywords: Sampled-data control, Sector bound, Solid oxide fuel cell, Time-delay.

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Authors: P.Cordero, R.Poler, R.Sanchis

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The environmental impacts caused by the current production and consumption models, together with the impact that the current economic crisis, bring necessary changes in the European industry toward new business models based on sustainability issues that could allow them to innovate and improve their competitiveness. This paper analyzes the key environmental issues and the current and future market trends in one of the most important industrial sectors in Spain, the furniture sector. It also proposes new decision support tools -diagnostic kit, roadmap and guidelines- to guide companies to implement sustainability criteria into their organizations, including eco-design strategies and other economical and social strategies in accordance with the sustainability definition, and other available tools such as eco-labels, environmental management systems, etc., and to use and combine them to obtain the results the company expects to help improve its competitiveness.

Keywords: Furniture sector, eco-design, sustainability, economical crisis, market trends, roadmap

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Authors: Areej Azhar, Peter Duncan, David Edgar

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Due to a high unemployment rate among local people and a high reliance on expatriate workers, the governments in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries have been implementing programmes of localisation (replacing foreign workers with GCC nationals). These programmes have been successful in the public sector but much less so in the private sector. However, there are now insufficient jobs for locals in the public sector and the onus to provide employment has fallen on the private sector. This paper is concerned with a study, which is a work in progress (certain elements are complete but not the whole study), investigating the effective implementation of localisation policies in four- and five-star hotels in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The purpose of the paper is to identify the research gap, and to present the need for the research. Further, it will explain how this research was conducted. Studies of localisation in the GCC countries are under-represented in scholarly literature. Currently, the hotel sectors in KSA and UAE play an important part in the countries’ economies. However, the total proportion of Saudis working in the hotel sector in KSA is slightly under 8%, and in the UAE, the hotel sector remains highly reliant on expatriates. There is therefore a need for research on strategies to enhance the implementation of the localisation policies in general and in the hotel sector in particular. Further, despite the importance of the hotel sector to their economies, there remains a dearth of research into the implementation of localisation policies in this sector. Indeed, as far as the researchers are aware, there is no study examining localisation in the hotel sector in KSA, and few in the UAE. This represents a considerable research gap. Regarding how the research was carried out, a multiple case study strategy was used. The four- and five-star hotel sector in KSA is one of the cases, while the four- and five-star hotel sector in the UAE is the other case. Four- and five-star hotels in KSA and the UAE were chosen as these countries have the longest established localisation policies of all the GCC states and there are more hotels of these classifications in these countries than in any of the other Gulf countries. A literature review was carried out to underpin the research. The empirical data were gathered in three phases. In order to gain a pre-understanding of the issues pertaining to the research context, Phase I involved eight unstructured interviews with officials from the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (three interviewees); the Saudi Human Resources Development Fund (one); the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (three); and the Abu Dhabi Development Fund (one).

In Phase II, a questionnaire was administered to 24 managers and 24 employees in four- and five-star hotels in each country to obtain their beliefs, attitudes, opinions, preferences and practices concerning localisation. Unstructured interviews were carried out in Phase III with six managers in each country in order to allow them to express opinions that may not have been explored in sufficient depth in the questionnaire. The interviews in Phases I and III were analysed using thematic analysis and SPSS will be used to analyse the questionnaire data. It is recommended that future research be undertaken on a larger scale, with a larger sample taken from all over KSA and the UAE rather than from only four cities (i.e., Riyadh and Jeddah in KSA and Abu Dhabi and Sharjah in the UAE), as was the case in this research.

Keywords: KSA, UAE, localisation, hotels, Human Resource Management.

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Authors: T. Li, J.Y. Zhang, W.H. Zhang, M.H. Zhu

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A numerical simulation of vortex-induced vibration of a 2-dimensional elastic circular cylinder with two degree of freedom under the uniform flow is calculated when Reynolds is 200. 2-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved with the space-time finite element method, the equation of the cylinder motion is solved with the new explicit integral method and the mesh renew is achieved by the spring moving mesh technology. Considering vortex-induced vibration with the low reduced damping parameter, the variety trends of the lift coefficient, the drag coefficient, the displacement of cylinder are analyzed under different oscillating frequencies of cylinder. The phenomena of locked-in, beat and phases-witch were captured successfully. The evolution of vortex shedding from the cylinder with time is discussed. There are very similar trends in characteristics between the results of the one degree of freedom cylinder model and that of the two degree of freedom cylinder model. The streamwise vibrations have a certain effect on the lateral vibrations and their characteristics.

Keywords: Fluid-structure interaction, Navier-Stokes equation, Space-time finite element method, vortex-induced vibration.

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Authors: Peter Burggräf, Moritz Krunke, Hanno Voet

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Due to shortening product and technology lifecycles, many companies use standardization approaches in product development and factory planning to reduce costs and time to market. Unlike large companies, where modular systems are already widely used, small and medium-sized companies often show a much lower degree of standardization due to lower scale effects and missing capacities for the development of these standards. To overcome these challenges, the development of industry sector specific standards in cooperations or by third parties is an interesting approach. This paper analyzes which branches that are mainly dominated by small or medium-sized companies might be especially interesting for the development of factory standards using the example of the German industry. For this, a key performance indicator based approach was developed that will be presented in detail with its specific results for the German industry structure.

Keywords: Factory planning, factory standards, industry sector specific standardization, production planning.

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Authors: Ngoc Dang Khoa Nguyen, Imran Ali

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The cloud customer relationship management (CRM) has emerged as an innovative tool to augment the customer satisfaction and performance of banking systems. Cloud CRM allows to collect, analyze and utilize customer-associated information and update the systems, thereby offer superior customer service. Cloud technologies have invaluable potential to ensure innovative customer experiences, successful collaboration, enhanced speed to marketplace and IT effectiveness. As such, many leading banks have been attracted towards adoption of such innovative and customer-driver solutions to revolutionize their existing business models. Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are already implemented or in the process of implementation of cloud CRM. However, many organizations are still reluctant to take such initiative due to the lack of information on the factors influencing its implementation. This paper, therefore, aims to delve into the strategies, benefits and challenges intertwined in the implementation of cloud CRM in banking sector and provide reliable solutions.

Keywords: Banking sector, cloud computing, cloud CRM, strategy.

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Authors: A. Badalyan, R. Hovsepyan, V. Mekhitaryan, P. Mantashyan, R. Drampyan

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In this paper we report the technique of optical induction of 2 and 3-dimensional (2D and 3D) photonic lattices in photorefractive materials based on diffraction grating self replication -Talbot effect. 1D and 2D different rotational symmery diffraction masks with the periods of few tens micrometers and 532 nm cw laser beam were used in the experiments to form an intensity modulated light beam profile. A few hundred micrometric scale replications of mask generated intensity structures along the beam propagation axis were observed. Up to 20 high contrast replications were detected for 1D annular mask with 30

Keywords: Diffraction gratings, laser, photonic lattice, Talbot effect.

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Authors: Masoud Mahdavi

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Today, developed and industrial cities have all kinds of sewage and water transfer canals, subway tunnels, infrastructure facilities, etc., which have caused underground cavities to be created under the buildings. The presence of these cavities causes behavioral changes in the structural behavior that must be fully evaluated. In the present study, using Abaqus finite element software, the effect of cavities with 0.5 and 1.5 meters in diameter at a depth of 2.5 meters from the earth's surface (with a circular cross-section) on the performance of the foundation and the ground (soil) has been evaluated. For this purpose, the Kobe earthquake was applied to the models for 10 seconds. Also, pore water pressure and weight were considered on the models to get complete results. The results showed that by creating and increasing the diameter of circular cavities in the soil, three indicators; 1) von Mises stress, 2) displacement and 3) plastic strain have had oscillating, ascending and ascending processes, respectively, which shows the relationship between increasing the diameter index of underground cavities and structural indicators of structure-foundation-soil.

Keywords: Underground excavations, foundation, structural substrates, Abaqus software, Kobe earthquake, time history analysis.

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Authors: R. Blythman, N. Jeffers, T. Persoons, D. B. Murray

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The exploitation of flow pulsation in micro- and mini-channels is a potentially useful technique for enhancing cooling of high-end photonics and electronics systems. It is thought that pulsation alters the thickness of the hydrodynamic and thermal boundary layers, and hence affects the overall thermal resistance of the heat sink. Although the fluid mechanics and heat transfer are inextricably linked, it can be useful to decouple the parameters to better understand the mechanisms underlying any heat transfer enhancement. Using two-dimensional, two-component particle image velocimetry, the current work intends to characterize the heat transfer mechanisms in pulsating flow with a mean Reynolds number of 48 by experimentally quantifying the hydrodynamics of a generic liquid-cooled channel geometry. Flows circulated through the test section by a gear pump are modulated using a controller to achieve sinusoidal flow pulsations with Womersley numbers of 7.45 and 2.36 and an amplitude ratio of 0.75. It is found that the transient characteristics of the measured velocity profiles are dependent on the speed of oscillation, in accordance with the analytical solution for flow in a rectangular channel. A large velocity overshoot is observed close to the wall at high frequencies, resulting from the interaction of near-wall viscous stresses and inertial effects of the main fluid body. The steep velocity gradients at the wall are indicative of augmented heat transfer, although the local flow reversal may reduce the upstream temperature difference in heat transfer applications. While unsteady effects remain evident at the lower frequency, the annular effect subsides and retreats from the wall. The shear rate at the wall is increased during the accelerating half-cycle and decreased during deceleration compared to steady flow, suggesting that the flow may experience both enhanced and diminished heat transfer during a single period. Hence, the thickness of the hydrodynamic boundary layer is reduced for positively moving flow during one half of the pulsation cycle at the investigated frequencies. It is expected that the size of the thermal boundary layer is similarly reduced during the cycle, leading to intervals of heat transfer enhancement.

Keywords: Heat transfer enhancement, particle image velocimetry, localized and time-resolved velocity, photonics and electronics cooling, pulsating flow, Richardson’s annular effect.

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Authors: Karolina Patora

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This article investigates liquidity risk management by banks, which has gained significant importance since the global financial crisis of 2008. The issue is of particular interest for countries like Poland, in which foreign capital plays a dominant role. Such an ownership structure poses certain risks to the local banking sector, which faces an increased probability of the withdrawal of funding or assets’ transfers abroad in case of a crisis. Both these factors can have a detrimental influence on the liquidity position of foreign-owned banks and hence negatively affect the financial stability of the whole banking sector. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of a dominating share of foreign investors in the Polish banking sector on the liquidity position of commercial banks. The study hypothesizes that the ownership structure of the Polish banking sector, in which there are banks predominantly controlled by foreign investors, does not pose a threat to the liquidity position of Polish banks. A supplementary research hypothesis is that the liquidity risk profile of foreign-owned banks differs from that of domestic banks. The sample consists of 14 foreign-owned banks and 5 domestic banks owned by local investors, which together constitute approximately 87% of the banking sector’s assets. The data covers the period of 2004–2014. The results of the regression models show no evidence of significant differences in terms of the dynamics of changes of the liquidity buffers between the foreign-owned and domestic banks, although the signs of the coefficients might suggest that the foreign-owned banks were decreasing the holdings of liquid assets at a slower pace over the examined period, compared to the domestic banks. However, no proof of the statistical significance of these findings has been found. The supplementary research hypothesis that the liquidity risk profile of foreign-controlled banks differs from that of domestic banks was rejected.

Keywords: Financial stability, foreign-owned banks, liquidity position, liquidity risk.

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Authors: Yue-Tzu Yang, Hsiang-Wen Tang, Jian-Zhang Yin, Chao-Han Wu

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Three-dimensional incompressible turbulent fluid flow and heat transfer of pin fin heat sinks using air as a cooling fluid are numerically studied in this study. Two different kinds of pin fins are compared in the thermal performance, including circular and square cross sections, both are in-line and staggered arrangements. The turbulent governing equations are solved using a control-volume- based finite-difference method. Subsequently, numerical computations are performed with the realizable k - ԑ turbulence for the parameters studied, the fin height H, fin diameter D, and Reynolds number (Re) in the range of 7 ≤ H ≤ 10, 0.75 ≤ D ≤ 2, 2000 ≤ Re ≤ 126000 respectively. The numerical results are validated with available experimental data in the literature and good agreement has been found. It indicates that circular pin fins are streamlined in comparing with the square pin fins, the pressure drop is small than that of square pin fins, and heat transfer is not as good as the square pin fins. The thermal performance of the staggered pin fins is better than that of in-line pin fins because the staggered arrangements produce large disturbance. Both in-line and staggered arrangements show the same behavior for thermal resistance, pressure drop, and the entropy generation.

Keywords: Pin-fin, heat sinks, simulations, turbulent flow.

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Authors: Mohd Tarmizi Ali, Mohd Khairul Mohd Salleh, Md. Mahfudz Md. Zan

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Dielectric sheet perturbation to the dominant TE111 mode resonant frequency of a circular cavity is studied and presented in this paper. The dielectric sheet, placed at the middle of the airfilled cavity, introduces discontinuities and disturbs the configuration of electromagnetic fields in the cavity. For fixed dimensions of cavity and fixed thickness of the loading dielectric, the dominant resonant frequency varies quite linearly with the permittivity of the dielectric. This quasi-linear relationship is plotted using Maple software and verified using 3D electromagnetic simulations. Two probes are used in the simulation for wave excitation into and from the cavity. The best length of probe is found to be 3 mm, giving the closest resonant frequency to the one calculated using Maple. A total of fourteen different dielectrics of permittivity ranging from 1 to 12.9 are tested one by one in the simulation. The works show very close agreement between the results from Maple and the simulation. A constant difference of 0.04 GHz is found between the resonant frequencies collected during simulation and the ones from Maple. The success of this project may lead to the possibility of using the middle loaded cavity at TE111 mode as a microwave non-destructive testing of solid materials.

Keywords: Middle-loaded cavity, dielectric sheet perturbation.

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Authors: Yih-Ferng Peng

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In this paper, the local grid refinement is focused by using a nested grid technique. The Cartesian grid numerical method is developed for simulating unsteady, viscous, incompressible flows with complex immersed boundaries. A finite volume method is used in conjunction with a two-step fractional-step procedure. The key aspects that need to be considered in developing such a nested grid solver are imposition of interface conditions on the inter-block and accurate discretization of the governing equation in cells that are with the inter-block as a control surface. A new interpolation procedure is presented which allows systematic development of a spatial discretization scheme that preserves the spatial accuracy of the underlying solver. The present nested grid method has been tested by two numerical examples to examine its performance in the two dimensional problems. The numerical examples include flow past a circular cylinder symmetrically installed in a Channel and flow past two circular cylinders with different diameters. From the numerical experiments, the ability of the solver to simulate flows with complicated immersed boundaries is demonstrated and the nested grid approach can efficiently speed up the numerical solutions.

Keywords: local grid refinement, Cartesian grid, nested grid, fractional-step method.

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Authors: Ilkay Turk Cakir, Murat Altinli, Zekeriya Uysal, Abdulkadir Senol, Olcay Bolukbasi Yalcinkaya, Ali Yilmaz

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The Higgs boson was discovered by the ATLAS and CMS experimental groups in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Production and decay properties of the Higgs boson, Standard Model (SM) couplings, and limits on effective scale of the Higgs boson’s couplings with other bosons are investigated at particle colliders. Deviations from SM estimates are parametrized by effective Lagrangian terms to investigate Higgs couplings. This is a model-independent method for describing the new physics. In this study, sensitivity to neutral gauge boson anomalous couplings with the Higgs boson is investigated using the parameters of the Large Hadron electron Collider (LHeC) and the Future Circular electron-hadron Collider (FCC-eh) with a model-independent approach. By using MadGraph5_aMC@NLO multi-purpose event generator with the parameters of LHeC and FCC-eh, the bounds on the anomalous Hγγ, HγZ and HZZ couplings in e− p → e− q H process are obtained. Detector simulations are also taken into account in the calculations.

Keywords: Anomalous Couplings, Effective Lagrangian, Electron-Proton Colliders, Higgs Boson.

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Authors: K. Appasamy, P. Paul

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Mauritius, a developing small-island-state, is facing a recession which is having a considerable economic impact particularly on its construction sector. Further, the presence of foreign entities, both as companies and workers, within this sector is creating a very competitive environment for local firms. This study investigates the key drivers that allow foreign firms to participate in this sector, in particular looking at the international and local tender processes, and the capacity of local industry to participate. This study also looks at how the current set up may hinder the latter’s involvement. The methodology used included qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted with established foreign companies, local companies, and public bodies. Study findings indicate: there is an adequate availability of professional skills and expertise within the Mauritian construction industry but a lack of skilled labour especially at the operative level; projects awarded to foreign firms are either due to their uniqueness and hence lack of local knowledge, or due to foreign firms having lower tender bids; tendering systems and processes are weak, including monitoring and enforcement, which encourages corruption and favouritism; a high lev el of ignorance of this sector’s characteristics and opportunities exists amongst the local population; local entities are very profit oriented and have short term strategies that discourage long term investment in workforce training and development; but most importantly, stakeholders do not grasp the importance of encouraging youngsters to join this sector, they have no long term vision, and there is a lack of mutual involvement and collaboration between them. Although local industry is highly competent, qualified and experienced, the tendering and procurement systems in Mauritius are not conducive enough to allow for effective strategic planning and an equitable allocation of projects during an economic downturn so that the broadest spread of stakeholders’ benefit. It is of utmost importance that all sector and government entities collaborate to formulate strategies and reforms on tender processes and capacity building to ensure fairness and continuous growth of this sector in Mauritius.

Keywords: Construction industry, tender process, international firms, local capacity, Mauritius.

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Authors: Murad Al-Rajab, Sherin Hazboun, Azhar Al-Hamamreh, Nirmeen Odeh, Siham Halaseh

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Tourism is considered an important sector for most countries, while maintaining good tourism attractions can promote national economic development. The State of Palestine is historically considered a wealthy country full of many archaeological places. In the city of Bethlehem, for example, the Church of the Nativity is the most important touristic site, but it does not have enough technology development to attract tourists. In this paper, we propose a smart mobile application named “Pal-STAR” (Palestine Smart Tourist Augmented Reality) as an innovative solution which targets tourists and assists them to make a visit inside the Church of the Nativity. The application will use augmented reality and feature a virtual tourist guide showing views of the church while providing historical information in a smart, easy, effective and user-friendly way. The proposed application is compatible with multiple mobile platforms and is considered user friendly. The findings show that this application will improve the practice of the tourism sector in the Holy Land, it will also increase the number of tourists visiting the Church of the Nativity and it will facilitate access to historical data that have been difficult to obtain using traditional tourism guidance. The value that tourism adds to a country cannot be denied, and the more technological advances are incorporated in this sector, the better the country’s tourism sector can be served. Palestine’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism in many of its main cities, despite several limitations, and technological development is needed to enable this sector to flourish. The proposed mobile application would definitely have a good impact on the development of the tourism sector by creating an Augmented Reality environment for tourists inside the church, helping them to navigate and learn about holy places in a non-traditional way, using a virtual tourist guide.

Keywords: Smartphones, tourism, tourists guide, augmented reality, Palestine.

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Authors: Bello Abdullahi, Yahaya M. Ibrahim, Ahmed D. Ibrahim, Kabir Bala

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Public sector tendering has traditionally been conducted using manual paper-based processes which are known to be inefficient, less transparent and more prone to manipulations and errors. The advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web has led to the development of numerous e-Tendering systems that addressed some of the problems associated with the manual paper-based tendering system. However, most of these systems rarely support the evaluation of tenders and where they do it is mostly based on the single decision maker which is not suitable in public sector tendering, where for the sake of objectivity, transparency, and fairness, it is required that the evaluation is conducted through a tender evaluation committee. Currently, in Nigeria, the public tendering process in general and the evaluation of tenders, in particular, are largely conducted using manual paper-based processes. Automating these manual-based processes to digital-based processes can help in enhancing the proficiency of public sector tendering in Nigeria. This paper is part of a larger study to develop an electronic tendering system that supports the whole tendering lifecycle based on Nigerian procurement law. Specifically, this paper presents the design and implementation of part of the system that supports group evaluation of tenders based on a technique called fuzzy multi-attributes group decision making. The system was developed using Object-Oriented methodologies and Unified Modelling Language and hypothetically applied in the evaluation of technical and financial proposals submitted by bidders. The system was validated by professionals with extensive experiences in public sector procurement. The results of the validation showed that the system called NPS-eTender has an average rating of 74% with respect to correct and accurate modelling of the existing manual tendering domain and an average rating of 67.6% with respect to its potential to enhance the proficiency of public sector tendering in Nigeria. Thus, based on the results of the validation, the automation of the evaluation process to support tender evaluation committee is achievable and can lead to a more proficient public sector tendering system.

Keywords: e-Tendering, e-Procurement, public tendering, tender evaluation, tender evaluation committee, web-based group decision support system.

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Authors: Muhammad Haitham Albahnassi, Adnan Malki, Shokri Almekdad

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In this paper, a method for reconfiguring bandwidth in a circular dual-mode resonator is presented. The method concerns the optimized geometry of a structure that may be used to host the tuning elements, which are typically RF (Radio Frequency) switches. The tuning elements themselves, and their performance during tuning, are not the focus of this paper. The designed resonator is able to reconfigure its fractional bandwidth by adjusting the inter-coupling level between the degenerate modes, while at the same time improving its response by adjusting the external-coupling level and keeping the center frequency fixed. The inter-coupling level has been adjusted by changing the dimensions of the perturbation element, while the external-coupling level has been adjusted by changing one of the feeder dimensions. The design was arrived at via optimization. Agreeing simulation and measurement results of the designed and implemented filters showed good improvements in return loss values and the stability of the center frequency.

Keywords: Dual-mode resonators, perturbation element, perturbation theory, reconfigurable filters, software defined radio (SDR), cognitine radio.

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Authors: King-Leung Wong, Wen-Lih Chen, Yu-feng Chang

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The reliable results of an insulated oval duct considering heat radiation are obtained basing on accurate oval perimeter obtained by integral method as well as one-dimensional Plane Wedge Thermal Resistance (PWTR) model. This is an extension study of former paper of insulated oval duct neglecting heat radiation. It is found that in the practical situations with long-short-axes ratio a/b <= 5/1, heat transfer rate errors are within 1.2 % by comparing with accurate two-dimensional numerical solutions for most practical dimensionless insulated thickness (t/R2 <= 0.5). On the contrary, neglecting the heat radiation effect is likely to produce very big heat transfer rate errors of non-insulated (E>43% at t/R2=0) and thin-insulated (E>4.5% while t/R2<= 0.1) oval ducts in situations of ambient air with lower external convection heat coefficients and larger surface emissivity.

Keywords: Heat convection, heat radiation, oval duct, PWTR model.

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Authors: Nada Azhar

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This paper is drawn from a wider study of the management of gender, age and disability diversity in the banking sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which aims to develop a framework for diversity management (DM) in this sector. The paper focuses on the management of disability diversity. The purpose of the paper is to assist in understanding disability DM in the banking sector in KSA and to make suggestions for its enhancement. Hence, it contributes to filling a research gap, as there is a dearth of literature on disability DM, in KSA in general, and in the banking sector specifically. Discrimination against people with disabilities is a social issue that has not been entirely overcome in any society. However, in KSA, Islam informs almost every aspect of daily life including work, and Islam is against discrimination. Hence, in KSA, there are regulations to accommodate people with disabilities; however, employers are still free not to hire job applicants with disabilities specifically because of their condition. Indeed, disabled people are almost entirely absent from the labour market. There are 12 Saudi-owned or part-Saudi-owned banks in KSA and two managers from each of these were interviewed, making a total of 24. The interviews aimed to investigate empirically the understanding of managers in the banking sector in KSA of diversity management, including disability DM, in the banking sector. The interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. Two interviewees stated that banks used the employment of people with disabilities to enhance their corporate image, while five expressed the opinion that disabled employees could contribute to the bank provided they did not have to deal with customers face-to-face. Nine of the interviewees perceived that disabled employees could be of value to the bank for their own sake, not only in ‘behind the scenes’ roles. Another two interviewees mentioned that employing disabled people could be part of the bank’s community service programme and one thought it would be part of the bank’s Saudisation efforts. The remaining five interviewees did not know how disabled people could contribute to the bank. The findings show that disability DM in the banking sector in KSA is a relatively new concept, and is not yet well understood. In the light of the findings, in order to achieve the purpose of the paper, the following suggestions were made for the enhancement of disability DM in the banking sector in KSA. A change in attitudes towards disabled people is necessary. Such a change in the workplace can only be achieved if a top-down approach is taken to the integration of disabled people. Hence, it is suggested that management and employees follow a course in disability awareness. Further, a diversity officer in the HR department could enhance the integration of disabled people into the banking workforce. It is also suggested that greater government support is required through closely monitored and enforced anti-discrimination legislation. Moreover, flexible working arrangements such as part-time work would facilitate the employment of disabled people and benefit other groups of employees.

Keywords: Banking, disability, diversity management, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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Authors: Kalayanee Koonmee

Abstract:

An incentive for performance, as one subsystem of a new performance management system, has been implemented in the Thai public sector since 2004. This research investigates the development of organizational justice in the incentive allocation by comparing the roles of distributive and procedural justice on national personnel-s attitudinal outcomes (incentive satisfaction and job performance) between 2 periods, i.e. 2006 and 2008. The data were collected via self-administered questionnaires completed by national government officers and employees. They were stratified using multistage sampling with 2,600 usable samples or 72.0% response rate in 2006, and 1,969 usable samples or 59.3% in 2008. The findings are: (1) There is no difference in means between the two periods relating to distributive justice, procedural justice, incentive satisfaction and job performance. (2) Distributive justice and procedural justice played more important roles in predicting incentive satisfaction and job performance in 2008 than in 2006.

Keywords: Distributive justice, incentive allocation, proceduraljustice, Thai public sector.

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Authors: M. Norouzi, M. H. Kayhani, M. R. H. Nobari, M. Karimi Demneh

Abstract:

In this paper, fully developed flow and heat transfer of viscoelastic materials in curved ducts with square cross section under constant heat flux have been investigated. Here, staggered mesh is used as computational grids and flow and heat transfer parameters have been allocated in this mesh with marker and cell method. Numerical solution of governing equations has being performed with FTCS finite difference method. Furthermore, Criminale-Eriksen- Filbey (CEF) constitutive equation has being used as viscoelastic model. CEF constitutive equation is a suitable model for studying steady shear flow of viscoelastic materials which is able to model both effects of the first and second normal stress differences. Here, it is shown that the first and second normal stresses differences have noticeable and inverse effect on secondary flows intensity and mean Nusselt number which is the main novelty of current research.

Keywords: Viscoelastic, fluid flow, heat convection, CEF model, curved duct, square cross section.

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Authors: Masoud Mahdavi

Abstract:

The use of sloping lands is increasing due to the reduction of suitable lands for the construction of buildings. In the design and construction of buildings on sloping lands, the foundation has special loading conditions that require the designer and executor to use the slopped foundation. The creation of underground cavities, including urban and subway tunnels, sewers, urban facilities, etc., inside the ground, causes the behavior of the foundation to be unknown. In the present study, using Abacus software, a 45-degree stepped foundation on the ground is designed. The foundations are placed on the ground in a cohesive (no-hole) manner with circular cavities that show the effect of increasing the cross-sectional area of ​​the underground cavities on the foundation's performance. The Kobe earthquake struck the foundation and ground for two seconds. The underground cavities have a circular cross-sectional area with a radius of 5 m, which is located at a depth of 22.54 m above the ground. The results showed that as the number of underground cavities increased, von Mises stress (in the vertical direction) increased. With the increase in the number of underground cavities, the plastic strain on the ground has increased. Also, with the increase in the number of underground cavities, the change in location and speed in the foundation has increased.

Keywords: Stepped foundation, sloping ground, Kobe earthquake, Abaqus software, underground excavations.

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Authors: Susanna Vanhamäki, Gabor Schneider, Kati Manskinen

Abstract:

‘Bioeconomy’ is a complex concept that cuts across many sectors and covers several policy areas. To achieve an overall understanding and support a successful bioeconomy, a cross-sectorial approach is necessary. In practice, due to the concept’s wide scope and varying international approaches, fully understanding bioeconomy is challenging on policy level. This paper provides a background of the topic through an analysis of bioeconomy strategies in the Baltic Sea region. Expert interviews and a small survey were conducted to discover the current and intended focuses of these countries’ bioeconomy sectors. The research shows that supporting sustainability is one of the keys in developing the future bioeconomy. The results highlighted that the bioeconomy has to be sustainable and based on circular economy principles. Currently, traditional bioeconomy sectors like food, wood, fish & waters as well as fuel & energy, which are in the core of national bioeconomy strategies, are best known and are considered more relevant than other bioeconomy industries. However, there is increasing potential for novel sectors, such as textiles and pharmaceuticals. The present research indicates that the opportunities presented by these bioeconomy sectors should be recognised and promoted. Education, research and innovation can play key roles in developing transformative and sustainable improvements in primary production and renewable resources. Furthermore, cooperation between businesses and educators is important.

Keywords: Bioeconomy, circular economy, policy, strategy.

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Authors: Pulak Mishra, P V Kiran Kumar

Abstract:

In the context of introduction of deregulatory policy measures and subsequent wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Indian corporate sector since 1991, the present paper attempts to examine the welfare implications of this wave. It is found that M&A do not have any significant impact on consumers- welfare. Instead, consumers- welfare is significantly influenced by exports intensity, imports intensity, advertising intensity, technology related efforts, and past profitability of the firms. While the industries with higher exports orientation or greater product differentiation or better financial performance experience greater loss in consumers- welfare, it is less in the industries with greater competition from imports or better technology. Hence, the wave of M&A in Indian manufacturing sector in the post-liberalization era may not be a matter of serious concern from consumers- welfare point of view. Instead, in many cases, M&A can help the firms in consolidating their business and enhancing competitiveness, and this may benefit the consumers in the form of greater efficiency and lower prices.

Keywords: Mergers, acquisitions, concentration, welfare, IndiaJEL CodesÔÇöL1, L2, L4, L5

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Authors: Dariush Semnani, Mohammad Sheikhzadeh

Abstract:

Circular knitting machine makes the fabric with more than two knitting tools. Variation of yarn tension between different knitting tools causes different loop length of stitches duration knitting process. In this research, a new intelligent method is applied to control loop length of stitches in various tools based on ideal shape of stitches and real angle of stitches direction while different loop length of stitches causes stitches deformation and deviation those of angle. To measure deviation of stitch direction against variation of tensions, image processing technique was applied to pictures of different fabrics with constant front light. After that, the rate of deformation is translated to needed compensation of loop length cam degree to cure stitches deformation. A fuzzy control algorithm was applied to loop length modification in knitting tools. The presented method was experienced for different knitted fabrics of various structures and yarns. The results show that presented method is useable for control of loop length variation between different knitting tools based on stitch deformation for various knitted fabrics with different fabric structures, densities and yarn types.

Keywords: Circular knitting, Radon transformation, Knittedfabric, Regularity, Fuzzy control

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Authors: Carine Moussaed, Stephen Wornom, Bruno Koobus, Maria Vittoria Salvetti, Alain Dervieux,

Abstract:

The effects of dynamic subgrid scale (SGS) models are investigated in variational multiscale (VMS) LES simulations of bluff body flows. The spatial discretization is based on a mixed finite element/finite volume formulation on unstructured grids. In the VMS approach used in this work, the separation between the largest and the smallest resolved scales is obtained through a variational projection operator and a finite volume cell agglomeration. The dynamic version of Smagorinsky and WALE SGS models are used to account for the effects of the unresolved scales. In the VMS approach, these effects are only modeled in the smallest resolved scales. The dynamic VMS-LES approach is applied to the simulation of the flow around a circular cylinder at Reynolds numbers 3900 and 20000 and to the flow around a square cylinder at Reynolds numbers 22000 and 175000. It is observed as in previous studies that the dynamic SGS procedure has a smaller impact on the results within the VMS approach than in LES. But improvements are demonstrated for important feature like recirculating part of the flow. The global prediction is improved for a small computational extra cost.

Keywords: variational multiscale LES, dynamic SGS model, unstructured grids, circular cylinder, square cylinder.

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Authors: J. Prakash, K. Rajesh

Abstract:

In this paper we propose a novel method for human face segmentation using the elliptical structure of the human head. It makes use of the information present in the edge map of the image. In this approach we use the fact that the eigenvalues of covariance matrix represent the elliptical structure. The large and small eigenvalues of covariance matrix are associated with major and minor axial lengths of an ellipse. The other elliptical parameters are used to identify the centre and orientation of the face. Since an Elliptical Hough Transform requires 5D Hough Space, the Circular Hough Transform (CHT) is used to evaluate the elliptical parameters. Sparse matrix technique is used to perform CHT, as it squeeze zero elements, and have only a small number of non-zero elements, thereby having an advantage of less storage space and computational time. Neighborhood suppression scheme is used to identify the valid Hough peaks. The accurate position of the circumference pixels for occluded and distorted ellipses is identified using Bresenham-s Raster Scan Algorithm which uses the geometrical symmetry properties. This method does not require the evaluation of tangents for curvature contours, which are very sensitive to noise. The method has been evaluated on several images with different face orientations.

Keywords: Circular Hough Transform, Covariance matrix, Eigenvalues, Elliptical Hough Transform, Face segmentation, Raster Scan Algorithm.

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