Predicting Damping of Semi-Rigid Glued T-Beams

A theoretical model for predicting damping in composite wood T-beam is provided. The formulation is based on energy dissipation due to relative slip at the interface of the flange and joist. A loss factor parameter as obtained from stress-strain relationship of elastomeric adhesive has been introduced into the formulation. Damping computed from experimental tests is found to about 5% to 8% compared to theoretical values of 4.5% to 6.5%

Harnessing the Power Within: The Consequences of Salesperson Moral Identity and the Moderating Role of Internal Competitive Climate

The purpose of this research is to examine the notion of salesperson moral identity as a prosocial individual trait and its associated effects on customer and coworker relationships. In addition, this study examines the underlying processes in which these effects occur as well as the moderating role of internal competitive climate. Our empirical investigation of business-to-business (B2B) sales professionals reveals that moral identity has both direct and indirect effects on a salesperson’s customer- and team-directed outcomes. Specifically, our results demonstrate that salesperson moral identity positively affects both salesperson-customer identification and organizational identification, which, in turn, impact customer service provision and teamwork. Our findings also indicate that internal competitive climate exacerbates the positive effects of salesperson moral identity on customer service provision and teamwork

Isolating the direct effects of adverse developmental conditions on in vivo cardiovascular function at adulthood: the avian model.

It is now well accepted that exposure to adverse environmental conditions in utero can predispose a fetus to disease later in life. Using an avian model to study the programming of disease has a unique advantage as it allows isolation of the direct effects of adverse conditions on fetal physiology, without any confounding effects via the mother or placenta. However, experiments in avian models are limited by the lack of well-established surgical protocols for the adult bird, which we have established in this study. Surgery was performed on seven young adult Bovan Brown chickens (body weight 1617±214 g, mean±s.d.) in order to instrument them with femoral arterial and venous catheters and a femoral arterial flow probe. Isoflurane and lidocaine were both found to have depressive effects on chicken cardiovascular function. Optimised methods of anaesthesia, intraoperative monitoring, surgical approach, postoperative care, and experimentation are described. Chickens recovered rapidly from surgery without significant blood gas perturbation, and basal in vivo cardiovascular studies were performed following 5 days of recovery. These techniques allow detailed investigation of avian cardiometabolic function, permitting determination of the consequences in later life of direct environmental insults to fetal physiology, isolated from additional effects on maternal physiology and/or placental endocrinology

Characterization of compressive damage behavior of steel and aluminum

Compressive deformation is imposed on aluminum cast 195-76 and ferritic stainless steel 18-8specimens at high strain rateusing perforation split Hopkinson pressure bar (P-SHPB).The energy levels and the compressive dynamic failure behavior of the materials were investigated at high strain rate deformation between 950 and 5700 s-1. This paper investigates the effects of specimen’s thickness andimpact energy on failure behavior with correlation of P-SHPB and SHPB.The relationship of different damage mode can be followed with the stress-strain relationship, strain rate and energy absorbed by steel and aluminum specimens

Compression of the material characteristics of steel, aluminum, wood and woven graphite epoxy composites in response to high strain rate load

The stresses developed in the material by impact load are analyzed experimentally, numerically, and analytically for specimens out of steel, aluminum, wood and woven graphite epoxy composites to investigate the material response to high strain rate stresses for aforementioned materials. The applied strain rates in experiments were set to be within 950 and 3500 s-1. The thin circular shape specimens were examined with high strain rate laboratory tests using the perforation split Hopkinson pressure bar (P-SHPB) with dimensional ratio accepted for One-dimensional stress analysis hypothesis. The article describes analytical solutions for one dimensional in detail to be implemented for numerical analyzing via trapezoid computation. The graphs of the four listed materials with two different thicknesses are compared for the specimen’s energy absorbed, specimen’s strain rate, stress strain rate relationship of the specimen, maximum energy absorbed, and maximum strain in specimen. It turned out that the dependency of deformation on energy absorption follows a power law for the woven composite and is approximated with linear relationships for aluminum and steel. Studying the effect of thickness in energy absorbed shows that doubling the thickness of the specimen reduces the strain of the specimen by 50 percentages for woven graphite epoxy and wood specimens, but the reduction is 25 percentages in the steel and aluminum specimen

Inside sales social media use and its strategic implications for salesperson-customer digital engagement and performance

Highlights Inside salespeople rely on four main strategies when it comes to using social media in their roles to engage with customers. Inside sales strategic social media use leads to higher levels of customer digital engagement and, ultimately, performance. Firm digital technology resources may shape the effects of inside sales strategic social media use. Abstract The nature of inside sales has shifted, increasing in autonomy, importance, and scope. Moreover, buyers are changing their preferences from face-to-face interactions to virtual-based relationships, leading to a future full of opportunities for inside salespeople using social media. The practitioner literature suggests that inside sales represent the sales business model of the digital era and a distinct strategic selling approach. While there has been a recent surge in theoretical research on inside sales, extant research fails to explore how and why inside salespeople uses social media as a critical tool. Research on social media use in sales has neglected to consider the growing role of inside sales, where sellers lack the opportunity to meet with customers face-to-face and must routinely rely on remote communication to interact with customers. As such, we use a grounded theory approach to investigate the “lived experiences” of inside salespeople at the intersection with social media in sales. Emergent from our findings is a framework depicting: inside sales strategic social media use → inside salesperson-customer digital engagement → inside sales performance. We also find that firm digital technology resources serve as enablement factors that shape the effects of the social media strategies that inside salespeople use

Three-dimensional integration technology for real time micro-vision system

科研費報告書収録論文(課題番号:06555103・試験研究(B)(1)・H6～H7/研究代表者:小柳, 光正/超高速光バスを有するモンテカルロ解析専用並列処理システムの試作

Countrywide spread of OXA-48 carbapenemase in Lebanon: Surveillance and genetic characterization of carbapenem-non-susceptible Enterobacteriaceae in 10 hospitals over a one-year period

© 2014 The Authors. Objectives: To detect, characterize, and assess the genetic clonality of carbapenem-non-susceptible Enterobacteriaceae in 10 Lebanese hospitals in 2012. Methods: Selected Enterobacteriaceae isolates with reduced susceptibility to carbapenems were subject to phenotypic study including antibiotic susceptibility, cloxacillin effect, modified Hodge test, and activity of efflux pump inhibitor. Carbapenemase genes were detected using PCR; clonal relatedness was studied by pulsed field gel electrophoresis. Results: Out of 8717 Enterobacteriaceae isolated in 2012, 102 (1.2%) showed reduced susceptibility to carbapenems. Thirty-one (70%) of the 44 studied clinical isolates harbored blaOXA-48, including 15 Klebsiella pneumoniae, eight Escherichia coli, four Serratia marcescens, three Enterobacter cloacae, and one Morganella morganii. The majority of OXA-48 producers co-secreted an extended-spectrum beta-lactamase, while one had an acquired AmpC of the ACC type. In the non-OXA-48 producers, carbapenem resistance was attributed to the production of acquired AmpC cephalosporinases of MOX or CIT type, outer membrane impermeability, and/or efflux pump overproduction. DNA fingerprints revealed that OXA-48 producers were different, except for clonal relatedness among four K. pneumoniae, two E. coli, two E. cloacae, and three S. marcescens. Conclusions: Nosocomial carbapenem-non-susceptible Enterobacteriaceae are moderately spread in Lebanon and the predominant mechanism is OXA-48 production