Finite Element Studies in Metal Cutting

AdvantEdge is a finite element software package that integrates advanced dynamics, thermo-mechanically coupled finite element numerics and material modelling appropriate for machining processes. AdvantEdge allows users to specify the workpiece material, tool geometry and cutting conditions. It then provides accurate estimates of thermo-mechanical properties of machining processes such as cutting forces, chip morphology, machined surface residual stresses and temperature behavior of the tool and the workpiece. We will use AdvantEclge to investigate two areas of interest in metal cutting: process clamping via crushing of workpiece material and drilling of metal stacks

The role of CSR perception in consumer behaviour : the influence of perceived value in Saudi banking industry

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has received increasing attention and is thought to have a significant impact on consumer behaviour. Many businesses consider this an important factor in maintaining strong relationships with their customers. A considerable amount of attention has been given to the perception of CSR, but a number of theoretical gaps have been identified for further research. First, previous studies of CSR either explored the perception of CSR or examined the limited aspects of CSR on consumer behaviour, so there is a theoretical gap in examining the full construct of CSR on consumer behaviour. Second, the perceived value of CSR has been implicitly assumed and, therefore, neglected in previous studies. Third, only a limited number of studies have measured consumers’ CSR awareness levels before investigating consumers’ perceptions of CSR. Fourth, the majority of CSR studies examined the concept within the manufacturing industry, while studies in service industries are scant. Fifth, the majority of CSR studies examined the concept within developed countries, so there is a lack of research investigating this perception in developing countries.This study investigated the CSR perception of socially responsible banks in Saudi Arabia and examined how this influences customer loyalty; examined the perceived value of CSR and its influence on customer loyalty; and then analysed customer CSR awareness levels and how this impacted customer support or scepticism. The dyadic nature of this study advances CSR knowledge by investigating CSR from the perspectives of both banks and customers. A mixed method approach was adapted to gather the required data. First, the CSR managers in Saudi Arabian banks were interviewed to understand their perceptions of CSR and the motives and challenges they face, and to identify the constructs necessary to examine the influence of CSR on consumer loyalty. A thematic analysis technique was employed to achieve these goals. The identified constructs included customer expectations, awareness, support, and satisfaction. The perceived value was added to these constructs because of the contradictory findings among these relationships and a lack of studies that fully examined the perceived value of CSR. Second, an online survey was conducted to examine the proposed hypotheses, and this generated a total of 418 responses. The online survey was distributed by three large databases: CSR in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Banks customers, and Saudi Abroad. The link was sent through their Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts, and email databases. An SEM-PLS technique was employed to analyse the data, and the findings were classified into three groups: descriptive, casual, and structural. The findings of this study confirmed that Saudi CSR perceptions follow Carroll’s (1979) model. It also found that Islam has an influence on the understanding of CSR. The structural analysis showed that CSR consists of two dimensions: economic and non-economic responsibilities (legal and ethical). It also showed that customers have a low level of CSR awareness, but they are willing to support responsible businesses. It also demonstrated that customers are generally neutral about dealing with socially responsible businesses, and the only value they perceive is emotional.Two frameworks were generated from this study. First, based on the qualitative research, a presentation of banks’ CSR perceptions was developed. This framework has advanced the body of knowledge in a number of ways: it describes structural levels and relationships between the CSR domains; it identifies the key themes used to analyse CSR; it reports the complexity of CSR; it provides a blueprint for understanding how perception emerge and the implications of these new perceptions; and it draws the findings together in a holistic view. Second, based on an extensive review of literature and the extracted constructs from the qualitative study, a new conceptual model was developed. This model is one of the first to examine CSR perceptions, starting from awareness and ending with loyalty. Previous models have not explained the relationships between CSR perceptions and expectations. This study also investigated the full construct of the perceived value, which had not been investigated before. Finally, this model responded to the calls to investigate customer awareness and their support towards responsible businesses in the same context.This study contributes to our understanding of the perception of CSR by examining the perceived value of CSR. It also contributes to the methodology by employing a mixed method research and adopting the pragmatic approach, which has not been widely used in examining CSR perceptions. The dyadic nature of this study allows the researcher to investigate the phenomenon from two different perspectives. This study is one of a few studies to employ the SEM PLS to examine the structural nature of CSR and the construct of perceived value. Finally, it provides insights for policymakers and CSR managers to better embed CSR in the Saudi banking industry

Prostatic carcinoma with emphasis on gleason’s grading: an institution based experience.

Abstract Objective:To grade prostatic carcinomas according to the Gleason’s Grading System and see whether the frequency of incidental carcinoma is significant. Method:Retrospective study of all consecutive cases of prostatic adenocarcinoma diagnosed at Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) between January 1st, 1996 and December 31st, 1999. Setting:The histopathology section of AKUH, Karachi. Observation:Prostatic adenocarcinomas comprised 14.2% of all prostate specimens. There were 3 types of specimens i.e. transurethral resection, suprapubic prostatectomies and core bIopsies. The mean age was 72.1 years; 68.1% patients were 65 years or older. The majority of the tumours were moderately differentiated (Gleason’s scores 5,6 or 7). Grading was not possible in most core biopsies. The frequency of Incidental carcinoma was 31.4%. Conclusion:Majority of tumours were moderate to poorly differentiated, Indicating that prostatic adenocarcinoma Is an aggressive disease. The frequency of incidental carcinoma was also high emphasizing need for more aggressive prostatic evaluation in the vulnerable age group (JPMA 52:54;2002)

THE EFFECT OF LEARNING STYLE, HOME ENVIRONMENT AND SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF NINTH STANDARD STUDENTS OF ENGLISH MEDIUM SCHOOLS OF RAIPUR CITY - A STUDY

This paper focuses on learning style, school environment and home environment in relation to academic achievement. The research was carried out in Raipur city on a sample of 50 IX standard students. Learning styles of students was measured by Styles of Learning and Thinking (SOLAT) by D. Venkataraman. Home Environment and School Environment was measured by the Inventory prepared by Dr. Karuna Shankar Mishra. The research finding revealed that there is very low, negative & negligible relationship between academic achievement & home environment. Study also revealed that school environment and academic achievement have positive but very low relationship. It is also found that there is significant difference between the academic achievement of students learned by right & left hemisphere but there is no significant difference between the academic achievement of boys & girls students learned either by right hemisphere or left hemisphere.   Article visualizations

A comparative study between the neutralizing capabilities of fly ash and green liquor dregs with acid mine drainage.

Master of Science in Engineering. University of KwaZulu-Natal. Durban, 2018.In South Africa, acid mine drainage (AMD) is a huge problem and arises when sulphide-bearing materials become exposed to oxygen and water. AMD formation is catalysed by mining and mineral extraction activities. The AMD produced seeps into water bodies and this renders the water highly toxic and harmful to humans, animals and vegetation due to its high acidity, high concentration of toxic heavy metals and sulphates. The combustion of coal is the primary method of power generation in South Africa. A by-product of this process is fly ash (FA). Approximately 20Mt of FA is produced in South Africa a year and only 5% of this is used in other applications. Green liquor dregs (GLD) are a by-product waste produced in the pulp and paper industry. They are produced in the Kraft pulping process and primarily comprised of a mixture of sodium and calcium carbonates. Both these waste products pose massive environmental and disposal problems. GLD and FA are both highly alkaline; hence they can be used as neutralizing agents for the highly acidic AMD. The main aim of this project is to investigate the effectiveness of FA and GLDs in neutralizing AMD from coal mines. The effects of reaction time and neutralizing reagent (FA and GLD) concentration on the neutralization of AMD were studied. A 32 factorial design was employed for this research project. The reaction times used for the neutralization reaction were varied (1, 2 and 3 hours). The reagent concentrations used were also varied (0.4g/L, 1g/L and 2g/L). A total of 18 runs were conducted (9 for each reagent). The AMD was placed in beakers and electrical stirrers were used to ensure constant mixing. The reagent was added and the pH and electrical conductivity were measured after various reaction time intervals. From using the preliminary 18 runs, an optimum FA and GLD reagent concentration was obtained, and a run was conducted for each reagent, to achieve a theoretical goal pH of 7. The results indicated that the optimum FA and GLD concentrations were 0.728g/L and 0.422g/L, respectively. Hence, GLD would be a better neutralizing reagent as less of it would be required to neutralize AMD, when compared to FA. It was also proven that time plays a very small effect on the neutralization reaction. Overall, the results conclude that GLD would be better than FA for neutralization of AMD. The deposition of heavy metals caused issues and a future research study may be conducted to reduce this problem

Aberrant expression of miR-133a in endothelial cells inhibits angiogenesis by altering the expression of key angiogenic genes

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.Angiogenesis is a physiological process involved in the formation of blood vessels from pre-existing ones and is tightly regulated by a balance between pro- and anti- angiogenic signals. Disturbance to this balance is associated to human diseases characterised by excessive or insufficient angiogenesis. MicroRNA (miRNA) are small non-coding RNA molecules, which inhibit gene expression by inducing mRNA degradation or suppressing protein translation. Emerging evidence highlights a novel role for miRNAs as regulators of angiogenesis. In endothelial cells miR-133a is expressed at very low levels in physiological conditions however, increased expression of this microRNA in the endothelium has been strongly associated with cardiovascular disease. Previous studies have reported conflicting results regarding the effect of miR-133a expression in endothelial cells during blood vessel formation. The study involved assessing the specific effect of mature miR-133a strands in angiogenesis and the expression of endothelial angiogenic genes. The study evaluated the consequences of aberrant expression of miR-133a in endothelial cells via transfection of miR-133a-3p, -5p, or negative control mimics in primary endothelial cells. This significantly inhibited endothelial cell proliferation, migration, and tubular morphogenesis. The screened gene arrays were performed to identify genes involved in the regulation of signalling pathways, which play a key role in angiogenesis. The results have been further validated by qPCR, which revealed that aberrant expression of miR-133a-3p led to a decrease in the expression of genes encoding pro-angiogenic molecules, whilst increasing those with anti-angiogenic functions. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis of a network of genes differentially expressed in cells harbouring miR-133a-3p, predicted decreased cellular functions related to vasculature branching and cell cycle progression, underlining the inhibitory role of miR-133a-3p in angiogenic cellular processes. The results indicate that enhanced expression of miR-133a-3p in endothelial cells during cardiovascular disease impairs pro-angiogenic cellular processes by altering the expression of specific target genes. Therefore, the results suggest that controlled delivery of miR-133a-3p mimics in diseased endothelial cells may open new therapeutic interventions to treat patients suffering from cardiovascular pathologies associated with excessive or insufficient blood vessel formation.Research Institute in Healthcare Science (RIHS

Sleep-related breathing disorders in obese patients presenting with acute respiratory failure

SummaryIntroduction: The study was conducted to assess the clinical and polysomnographic characteristics of patients with sleep-related breathing disorders who presented to the intensive care unit (ICU) with acute respiratory failure and the practicability of performing polysomnography for such patients.Material and methods: We analyzed clinical presentation, cause of admission to the ICU, ICU course and outcome of 11 subjects with acute respiratory failure who were diagnosed to have sleep disordered breathing based on polysomnography between October 1999 and January 2003. Subjects were compared to 11 patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome matched to each subject using body mass index, age and apnea hypopnea index measured at the time of diagnosis (matched comparison group). Repeated arterial blood gases and polysomnography were done for 8 subjects compliant to treatment 6–8 months after discharge from ICU.Results: The reason for ICU admission for all subjects was hypercapnic respiratory failure. pH and daytime PaO2 were significantly lower in studied subjects compared to the matched comparison group while awake daytime PaCO2 was significantly higher. Subjects had frequent episodes of hypoventilation. Follow up arterial blood gases and polysomnography 6–8 months after treatment (non-invasive ventilation) in compliant subjects showed significant improvement in all blood gases parameters.Conclusions: Early polysomnography (or portable cardio-respiratory monitoring) allows accurate diagnosis and institution of the appropriate ventilation method Further studies should assess the evolution of respiratory drive in patients with sleep disordered breathing and hypercapnia under therapy (non-invasive ventilation)