Abstract: This paper is devoted to study the effect of corrugation geometry on the crushing behavior, energy absorption, failure mechanism, and failure mode of woven roving glass fibre/epoxy laminated composite tubes. A comprehensive experimental program has been carried out on three geometrically different types of composite tubes subjected to axial compressive loading conditions. A novel method has been developed to fabricate the radial laminated corrugated composite tubes, cylindrical composite tubes, and corrugated surrounded by cylindrical tubes. All are tested under the same condition to establish the effect of corrugation geometry.

This paper investigates the impact of the hand-hold positions on both antenna performance and the specific absorption rate (SAR) induced in the user’s head. A cellular handset with external antenna operating at GSM-900 frequency is modeled and simulated using a finite difference time-domain (FDTD)-based platform SEMCAD-X. A specific anthropomorphic mannequin (SAM) is adopted to simulate the user’s head, whereas a semirealistic CAD-model of three-tissues is designed to simulate the user’s hand. The results show that in case of the handset in hand close to head at different positions; the antenna total efficiency gets reduced to (14.5% - 5.9%) at cheek-position and to (27.5% to 11.8%) at tilt-position. The peak averaged SAR1g values in head close to handset without hand, are 4.67 W/Kg and 2.66 W/Kg at cheek and tilt-position, respectively. Due to the presence of hand, the SAR1g in head gets reduced to (3.67-3.31 W/Kg) at cheek-position and to (1.84-1.64 W/Kg) at tilt-position, depending on the hand-hold position.

A large body of evidence now implicates increased leukocyte-endothelial cell adhesion as a key early event in the development of diabetic retinopathy. We recently reported that raised activity of the glycosylating enzyme core 2 beta 1,6-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase (GlcNAc-T) through protein kinase C (PKC)beta2-dependent phosphorylation plays a fundamental role in increased leukocyte-endothelial cell adhesion and capillary occlusion in retinopathy. In the present study, we demonstrate that following exposure to plasma from diabetic patients, the human promonocytic cell line U937 exhibits a significant elevation in core 2 GlcNAc-T activity and increased adherence to cultured retinal capillary endothelial cells. These effects of diabetic plasma on enzyme activity and cell adhesion, mediated by PKCbeta2-dependent phosphorylation of the core 2 GlcNAc-T protein, were found to be triggered by increased plasma levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha. Levels of enzyme activity in plasma-treated U937 cells were closely dependent on the severity of diabetic retinopathy, with the highest values observed upon treatment with plasma of patients affected by proliferative retinopathy. Furthermore, we noted much higher correlation, as compared with control subjects, between increased values of core 2 GlcNAc-T activity and cell adhesion properties. Based on the prominent role of TNF-alpha in the development of diabetic retinopathy, these observations further validate the significance of core 2 GlcNAc-T in the pathogenesis of capillary occlusion, thereby enhancing the therapeutic potential of specific enzyme inhibitors.

urpose This study sets out to explore the impact of organisational culture innovation on the adoption of information systems (IS) in Libya's oil and banking sectors. Design/methodology/approach Using a structured survey questionnaire based on Cameron and Quinn's Organisational Culture Assessments Instrument (OCAI), 400 questionnaires were administered to middle and top management employees in more than 15 government and public organisations in Libya's oil and banking sectors. Findings The findings showed that there is a relationship between organisational culture innovations and the adoption of IS. The findings also showed that there are no differences in the organisational culture type between the two sectors covered in this study. Originality/value The findings imply that organisational culture innovations are influenced by other factors, which are worthy of investigation. The future implications of this research are also discussed.

 carbon materials2 through their unique combination of excellent processability and high carbon yield. The enediyne functionality of the monomers undergo a thermal Bergman cycloaromatization reaction that yields reactive naphthalene diradicals which polymerize to form polynapthalene.(Figure 1) The tetrafunctionality of the monomers allows for both a higher processing window due to extensive branching and ultimately the formation of network polymers. The high carbon yield results in less shrinkage of the polymer upon pyrolysis to the glassy carbon state. This allows for the faithful templating of carbon structures from a polymeric precursor.

Hydrogen fuel cell electrodes require several properties for optimum performance. An ideal electrode would have as high a surface area as possible with an uniform dispersion of nano-scale catalyst particles attached to the surface. The electrode must be electrically conductive and have good mass transport for products and reactants. Carbon supported platinum is the best known catalyst for the oxidation of hydrogen at the anode and the reduction of oxygen at the cathode of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) 3. The material also must have good compatibility with the material used for the proton exchange membrane in the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), usually a sulfonated fluoropolymer such as Nafion. We have undertaken a study to prepare a high surface area carbon material through a BODA templating method which can then be functionalized with both well dispersed platinum nanoparticles …

Irregular (so-called broken) plural identification in modern standard Arabic is a problematic issue for information retrieval (IR) and language engineering applications, but their effect on the performance of IR has never been examined. Broken plurals (BPs) are formed by altering the singular (as in English: tooth→ teeth) through an application of interdigitating patterns on stems, and singular words cannot be recovered by standard affix stripping stemming techniques. We developed several methods for BP detection, and evaluated them using an unseen test set. We incorporated the BP detection component into a new light-stemming algorithm that conflates both regular and broken plurals with their singular forms. We also evaluated the new light-stemming algorithm within the context of information retrieval, comparing its performance with other stemming algorithms.

Abstract

Due to the high number of inflectional variations of Arabic words, empirical results suggest that stemming is essential for Arabic information retrieval. However, current light stemming algorithms do not extract the correct stem of irregular (so-called broken) plurals, which constitute ~10% of Arabic texts and ~41% of plurals. Although light stemming in particular has led to improvements in information retrieval [5, 6], the effects of broken plurals on the performance of information retrieval systems has not been examined.We propose a light stemmer that incorporates a broken plural recognition component, and evaluate it within the context of information retrieval. Our results show that identifying broken plurals and reducing them to their correct stems does result in a significant improvement in the performance of information retrieval systems.

после добавления токсиканта, во всем диапазоне концентраций фенола. Таким образом, зависимости, получаемые в таких случаях, являются сложными и фиксируют большое число факторов. Исключение в эксперименте одних факторов и изучение влияния других достигается в проточных реакторах полного перемешивания, когда один из факторов поддерживается постоянным (например, режим рН-стата). Построенные в работе зависимости позволяют разрабатывать методики эксперимента, служащих целям токсикологии, например, при разработке системы предельно допустимых концентраций по влиянию токсиканта на скорость дыхания тест-объекта. Природные фенольные соединения расщепляются почвенными микроорганизмами, использующими их в качестве источника углерода [29]. Микроорганизмы природных биоценозов приспособлены к низким концентрациям этих соединений. Для удаления фенолов при их высокой концентрации (например, промышленные сточные воды, аварийные ситуации, залповые выбросы) необходимо выделять формы, которые активно окисляют фенол, и адаптировать их к высоким концентрациям фенола как субстрата [30]. В связи с этим возникает круг задач оптимального сочетания концентраций основного субстрата, окислителя и косубстратов (азот в форме дрожжевого экстракта), которые могут быть решены в соответствии с подходом, представленным выше в форме задачи о конкуренции молекул субстрата и окислителя за активные центры поверхности клеточной мембраны. Круг подобного типа задач может быть расширен в зависимости от вопросов, которые ставит практика микробиологии.

Abstract

The turbine of an automotive turbocharger is essentially one acoustic element in the exhaust system which lies between the primary noise source, the gas pulsations through the exhaust valves, and the primary noise radiation element, the exhaust tailpipe orifice. As such, like every other acoustic element of the exhaust system, it has a passive effect on the propagation of the primary exhaust noise. Thus if a comprehensive model of the acoustic propagation through the entire exhaust system of a turbocharged engine is sought, an acoustic model of the turbine is a prerequisite.

This paper presents a preliminary attempt to create such a model. The model is a purely fluid mechanic one, without recourse to any empiricism such as a turbine map. The nonlinear equations of the fluid flow are developed and solved for steady flow, to determine the mean convective flow effects upon the noise. The full time-domain equations are then linearised and solved for a single frequency of sound.

Results are given from both the steady flow and the acoustic analyses. The latter are presented in terms of both transmission loss and four-pole parameters. The model is found to give a rational representation of the passive effect of a turbine rotor.