Non-Alignment in a Changing Global System

With the thaw of the cold war and the emergence of detente between the superpowers, it was widely argued that the policy of non-alignment had almost lost its relevance. Behind this belief was the assumption that non-alignment was the outcome of the cold war. However, non alignment did not go into oblivion as predicted by the cold war theory. On the contrary, the Movement was able to adapt itself to the new international conditions of the 1970\u27s and to reemerge bigorously as a major political force in the 1980\u27s. The papers published in this volume tackle these questions from various perspectives. The first two, written by two Indian scholars, provide us with a macroscopic viewpoint of the present international system and its impact on the primary orientations of the Non-Aligned Movement. The papers of Dr. Haroub Othman and Dr. Samir Ahmed review the political and organizational evolution of the Movement. Dr. Galal\u27s and Dr. Singh\u27s papers attempt to describe the security challenges of the Non-Aligned Move cent in the 1980\u27 s and the feasibility of formulating a Non-Aligned Security Doctrine. The next two contributions discuss the political economy of non-alignment. Dr. Selim\u27s paper reviews the emergence of the economic paradigm of non-aligned countries -- the evolution of the Movement of Non-Alignment as to form the main economic pressure group for Third World countries during the 1970\u27s and the basic obstacles which arc likely to influence the economic role of the Movement in Dr Bashai discusses the role of the Movement in North-South the negotiations and the fostering of South-South cooperation. In his second contribution to chis volume, Dr. Samir Ahmed discusses the particular nature of Africa\u27s non-alignment and the basic challenges which confront the continent its endeavor to preserve its non-aligned international status. Finally, Dr. Tadic and Dr. Farajallah succinctly tackle the difficult task of attempting co-identify the general global and structural problems which confront the Nonaligned Movement in the 1980\u27s and the prospects for the future.https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/1878/thumbnail.jp

Analytical and Experimental Investigation of Flow Through a Turbine Vane Cascade .

Present day military aero-gas turbines demand higher stage loadings for turbines so as to meet the growing for higher thrust/power with fuel consumption. This calls for improved methods of blade element profiles. Details of a computer code developed for the design of blade elements for the prescribed distribution of surface velocity (Mach number) based on Stanitz's inverse methods are presented in this paper. Effects of boundary layer growth on the blade surface has also been incorporated in this code. Turbine vane was designed making use of this program and a four-bladed cascade was fabricated. It was tested in a blow down wind tunnel for different blowing pressures and stagger angles. Mach number distribution was determined from measured static pressure on the suction and pressure surfaces of the blade. Based on stream filament technique a computer code was developed to predict the characteristics of flow thorough a blade cascade. Results of this study show reasonable agreement between experimentally obtained Mach number distribution and the initially prescribed as well as analytically predicted Mach number distributions

Branch and Price Solution Approach for Order Acceptance and Capacity Planning in Make-to-Order Operations

The increasing emphasis on mass customization, shortened product lifecycles, synchronized supply chains, when coupled with advances in information system, is driving most firms towards make-to-order (MTO) operations. Increasing global competition, lower profit margins, and higher customer expectations force the MTO firms to plan its capacity by managing the effective demand. The goal of this research was to maximize the operational profits of a make-to-order operation by selectively accepting incoming customer orders and simultaneously allocating capacity for them at the sales stage. For integrating the two decisions, a Mixed-Integer Linear Program (MILP) was formulated which can aid an operations manager in an MTO environment to select a set of potential customer orders such that all the selected orders are fulfilled by their deadline. The proposed model combines order acceptance/rejection decision with detailed scheduling. Experiments with the formulation indicate that for larger problem sizes, the computational time required to determine an optimal solution is prohibitive. This formulation inherits a block diagonal structure, and can be decomposed into one or more sub-problems (i.e. one sub-problem for each customer order) and a master problem by applying Dantzig-Wolfe’s decomposition principles. To efficiently solve the original MILP, an exact Branch-and-Price algorithm was successfully developed. Various approximation algorithms were developed to further improve the runtime. Experiments conducted unequivocally show the efficiency of these algorithms compared to a commercial optimization solver. The existing literature addresses the static order acceptance problem for a single machine environment having regular capacity with an objective to maximize profits and a penalty for tardiness. This dissertation has solved the order acceptance and capacity planning problem for a job shop environment with multiple resources. Both regular and overtime resources is considered. The Branch-and-Price algorithms developed in this dissertation are faster and can be incorporated in a decision support system which can be used on a daily basis to help make intelligent decisions in a MTO operation

Coarse-Grained Models of Biological Membranes within the Single Chain Mean Field Theory

The Single Chain Mean Field theory is used to simulate the equilibrium structure of phospholipid membranes at the molecular level. Three levels of coarse-graining of DMPC phospholipid surfactants are present: the detailed 44-beads double tails model, the 10-beads double tails model and the minimal 3-beads model. We show that all three models are able to reproduce the essential equilibrium properties of the phospholipid bilayer, while the simplest 3-beads model is the fastest model which can describe adequately the thickness of the layer, the area per lipid and the rigidity of the membrane. The accuracy of the method in description of equilibrium structures of membranes compete with Monte Carlo simulations while the speed of computation and the mean field nature of the approach allows for straightforward applications to systems with great complexity.Comment: Accepted for publication in Soft Matte

Fuzzy Computing for Control of Aero Gas Turbine Engines .

Many methods, techniques and procedures available for designing the control system of plants and processes, are applied only after knowing accurately the plant or process to be controlled. However, in some complex situations where plants/processes cannot be accurately modelled, and especially where their control has human interaction, controller design may not be completely satisfactory. In such cases, it has been found that control decisions can be made on the basis of heuristic/linguistic measures or fuzzy algorithms. Fuzzy set principles have been used in controlling various plants/processes ranging from a laboratory steam engine to an autopilot, including an aero gas turbine engine engine for which the response of the engine speed for a fuzzy input of fuel flow has been studied. In this paper, certain stipulations and logic are suggested for the control of the total gas turbine engine. A case study of a single spool aero gas turbine engine with one of its state variables varied by heuristic logic is presented

Linguistic Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of Tamil Version of General Oral Health Assessment Index‑Tml

Background: Oral health has an impact on quality of life hence for research purpose validation of a Tamil version of General Oral Health Assessment Index would enable it to be used as a valuable tool among Tamil speaking population.Aim: In this study, we aimed to assess the psychometric properties of translated Tamil version of General Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI‑Tml).Subjects and Methods: Linguistic adaptation involved forward and backward blind translation process. Reliability was analyzed using test‑retest, Cronbach alpha, and split half reliability. Inter‑item and item‑total correlation were evaluated using Spearman rank correlation. Convenience sampling was done, and 265 consecutive patients aged 20–70 years attending the outpatient department were recruited. Subjects were requested to fill a self‑reporting questionnaire along with Tamil GOHAI version. Clinical examination was done on the same visit. Concurrent validity was measured by assessing the relationship between GOHAI scores and self‑perceived oral health and general health status, satisfaction with oral health, need for dental treatment and esthetic satisfaction. Discriminant validity was evaluated by comparing the GOHAI scores with the objectively assessed clinical parameters. Exploratory factor analysis was done to examine the factor structure.Results: Mean GOHAI‑Tml was 52.7 (6.8, range 22–60, median 54). The mean number of negative impacts was 2 (2.4, range 0–11, median 1). The Spearman rank correlation for test‑retest ranged from 0.8 to 0.9 (P < 0.001) for all the 12 items between visits. The Cronbach alpha for 265 samples was 0.8 suggesting good internal consistency and homogeneity between items. Item scale correlation ranged from 0.4 to 0.8 (P < 0.001). Concurrent and discriminant validity was established. Principal component analysis resulted in extraction of four factors which together accounted for 66.4% (7.9/12) variance.Conclusion: GOHAI‑Tml has shown acceptable psychometric properties, so that it can be used as an efficient tool in identifying the impact of oral health on quality of life among the Tamil speaking population.Keywords: General oral health assessment index, Linguistic adaptation, Oral health‑related quality of life, Psychometric properties, Reliability, Validit