Search results

This paper aims to provide a new approach to address the problem of reaching the synchronous speed in the network connected multiple motors.

Practically, all the control approaches require continuous monitoring of the system thereby consuming extra energy. The method proposed in this paper uses an event-based approach with the multi-agent system (MAS) consensus control alongside with linear quadratic regulator control, thus saving a larger amount of energy. The proposed system is developed by using non-inverting buck boost chopper to provide necessary electrical power for the direct current motor, hence creating a single agent of bigger MAS with identical dynamics. The system stability is formulated by using Lyapunov stability theory. The proposed system is simulated via MATLAB.

The acquired simulated results validate that the proposed methodology and the multi-motor system worked successfully, thereby achieving common speed, i.e. consensus. The proposed system also validates the energy-saving concept.

Presently, the multiple motor synchronous speed system found application in paper-making machines, textile printing machines, offset printing, etc. The proposed study will contribute greatly to the existing methodologies and overcome their deficiencies by making the system more flexible and error-free due to the presence of network connectivity.

The system is simulated to verify theoretical concepts.

This chapter investigates the political and economic contexts of the controversy about the causes of the increase of income concentration in Brazil during the 1960s. That was the most important economic debate that took place under the military dictatorship that ran the country from 1964 to 1985. The perceived sharp increase in income inequality posed a challenge to the economic legitimation of the military regime, which had by the early 1970s achieved high rates of economic growth. This chapter discusses the apparent paradox of relatively open economic debate during a period of political repression, as well as its international dimension as reflected in the role played by institutions such as the World Bank.

Describes how enhancing the specialist medical knowledge of 150 underwriters and claims assessors at Legal & General Assurance Society has helped the company to save thousands of pounds in costs for referring claims to chief medical officers.

Explains the reasons for the training, the form it took and the results it has achieved.

Details how the company has established a pool of UK‐wide specialist underwriters and claims assessors with an enhanced knowledge and understanding of common diseases, disorders and syndromes, and this is helping it to underwrite risks and prognoses more effectively.

Reveals that, as a result of the training, Legal & General has experienced 500 fewer referrals to chief medical officers a month. This is a 35 percent reduction, which translates to a saving of £12,000 a month. The course paid for itself within 13 months.

Highlights the benefits to L&G clients, in terms of better quality and faster service.

Describes an effective training partnership between L&G and Cardiff University Center for Lifelong Learning.

After the adoption of unconventional monetary policies (UMPs) in advanced economies (AEs) there were many studies of monetary spillovers to asset prices in emerging market economies (EMEs) but the extent of contribution of EMEs and AEs, respectively, in real exchange rate (RER) misalignments has not been addressed. This paper addresses the gap in a cross-country panel set-up with country specific controls.

Fixed effects, pooled mean group (Pesaran et al., 1999) and common correlated effects (Pesaran, 2006) estimations are used to examine the relationship. Multiway clustering is taken into account to ensure robust statistical inferences.

Robust evidence is found for significant monetary spillovers over 1998–2017 in the form of RER overvaluation of EMEs against AEs, especially through the portfolio rebalancing channel. EME RER against the US saw significantly more overvaluation in UMP years indicating greater role of the US in monetary spillovers. However, in the long-run monetary neutrality holds. EMEs did pursue mercantilist and precautionary policies that undervalued their RERs. Precautionary undervaluation is more evident with bilateral EME US RER.

It may be useful for large EMEs to monitor the impact of foreign portfolio flows on short-run deviations in RER. Export diversification reduces EME mercantilist motives against the US. That AE monetary policy significantly appreciates EME RER has implications for future policy cooperation between EMEs and AEs.

To the best of the author's knowledge such a comparative analysis between AE and EME policy variables on RER misalignment has not been done previously.

The purpose of this paper is to present experimental investigations on the structural behaviour of composite sandwich panels for civil engineering applications. The performance of two different core materials – rigid plastic polyurethane (PU) foam and polypropylene (PP) honeycomb – combined with glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) skins, and the effect of using GFRP ribs along the longitudinal edges of the panels were investigated.

The experimental campaign first included flatwise tensile tests on the GFRP skins; edgewise and flatwise compressive tests; flatwise tensile tests on small‐scale sandwich specimens; and shear tests on the core materials. Subsequently, flexural static and dynamic tests were carried out in full‐scale sandwich panels (2.50×0.50×0.10 m³) in order to evaluate their service and failure behaviour. Linear elastic analytical and numerical models of the tested sandwich panels were developed in order to confirm the effects of varying the core material and of introducing GFRP ribs.

Tests confirmed the considerable influence of the core, namely of its stiffness and strength, on the performance of the unstrengthened panels; in addition, tests showed that the introduction of lateral reinforcements significantly increases the stiffness and strength of the panels, with the shear behaviour of strengthened panels being governed by the ribs. The unstrengthened panels collapsed due to core shear failure, while the strengthened panels failed due to face skin delamination followed by crushing of the skins. The models, validated with the experimental results, allowed simulating the serviceability behaviour of the sandwich panels with a good accuracy.

The present study confirmed that composite sandwich panels made of GFRP skins and PU rigid foam or PP honeycomb cores have significant potential for a wide range of structural applications, presenting significant stiffness and strength, particularly when strengthened with lateral GFRP ribs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which variations in gender, socioeconomic and academic background influence real estate students’ academic performance in Nigeria.

Data for the study were collected using self-administered questionnaire, served on final year real estate students in two of the three Federal universities offering real estate as a course in Southwestern Nigeria. Data collected were analyzed using mean, frequency count, percentages, independent t-test, correlation and analysis of variance.

The result of the study suggests there is no statistically significant difference in the academic performance of Nigerian real estate students based on gender and socioeconomic background.

The study has been limited to the sensitivity of either gender to possibly constraining socioeconomic and academic factors that might have served as barriers, especially among female students, in achieving outstanding academic performance.

This paper presents one of the few attempts examining gender and socioeconomic perspectives to factors influencing real estate students’ academic performance, especially from the perception of an emerging African country like Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors affecting academic performance of real estate students in a developing country like Nigeria.

Data for the study were collected with the aid of questionnaire served on 152 final year real estate students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and Federal University of Technology Akure, in southwestern Nigeria. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Findings show that the factors relating to academic assessment, parent/family background and teaching methods or techniques have more impact on students’ academic performance, while school and general academic environment had less influence on students’ academic performance.

The study complements the body of knowledge regarding the factors influencing real estate students’ academic performance from the point of view of an emerging economy where issues of socioeconomic, academic and training perspectives differ from what obtains in advanced economies.

This study is one of the few attempts at establishing factors that influence real estate students’ performance, especially from an emerging economy like Nigeria.

Constructing an effective production control policy is the most important issue in wafer fabrication factories. Most of researches focus on the input regulations of wafer fabrication. Although many of these policies have been proven to be effective for wafer fabrication manufacturing, in practical, there is a need to help operators decide which lots should be pulled in the right time and to develop a systematic way to alleviate the long queues at the bottleneck workstation. The purpose of this study is to construct a photolithography workstation dispatching rule (PADR). This dispatching rule considers several characteristics of wafer fabrication and influential factors. Then utilize the weights and threshold values to design a hierarchical priority rule. A simulation model is also constructed to demonstrate the effect of the PADR dispatching rule. The PADR performs better in throughput, yield rate, and mean cycle time than FIFO (First‐In‐First‐Out) and SPT (Shortest Process Time).

Background: The political participation of children and adolescents provided for in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Brazil’s Statute of the Child and Adolescent adopted in July 1990 has been proposed to ensure the effectiveness and guarantee of citizenship with regard to children and adolescents in adult-centered and adult-normative cultures.

Methods: This study aimed to understand the meaning of recognition in relation to the child as a subject of rights in the context of political participation in Brazil from 2001 to 2017 through the accounts of two adolescents who have been activists since childhood. The narratives were interpreted in light of the identity theory based on the critical social psychology and the sociology of childhood.

Results: This helped identify (1) the systemic unpreparedness when dealing with adolescents as persons who advocate for the civil rights of children and adolescents; (2) the attempts by education professionals to restrict adolescent activists to schools and family institutions to delegitimize them from their representative potential; and (3) that political participation could help raise the interviewed adolescents’ awareness of the power relations inherent in the social structure.

Conclusions: The effectiveness of political participation is considered a challenge, regardless of official documents being made use of, given the need for a paradigm shift with regard to the universalist theories that consider the institution of childhood exclusively as a progressive preparation for the adult world.