Damage tolerance analysis using the eXtended finite element method

While the regular Finite Element Method (FEM) is well developed and robust, it is not particularly well suited to model evolving discontinuities, since the construction of a discontinuous space requires the element topology to be aligned with the geometry of the discontinuity. This in turn requires regeneration of the mesh as the discontinuity evolves, resulting in projection errors and a significant computational cost. The eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is a new technique which was developed recently to account for the evolving discontinuities in the crack growth problems. In XFEM, special functions (discontinuous and near tip functions) are added to the regular FEM to model the discontinuities without regenerating the mesh. Using this property in XFEM, and assuming Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) concept, the damage tolerance analysis to determine the time or the number of loading cycles required for a smaller pre-existent crack to grow to critical size can be accomplished more efficiently than that in the regular FEM. The derived XFEM-formulation has been effectively implemented and in-house computer code has been developed to find the stress intensity factors and to model the crack growth efficiently without re-meshing the structure. Numerous benchmark 2-D problems with cracks located at different locations and inclined in different angles have been investigated and the results are validated with those available in the literature. Finally, the potential application of XFEM in damage tolerance analysis has been demonstrated

A Practical and Optimal Approach to CNC Programming for Five-Axis Grinding of the End-Mill Flutes

For a solid carbide tapered end-mill, every flute includes a flute surface and a rake face along a helical side cutting edge, and the end-mill core is at the center and is tangent to all the flutes. The flutes significantly affect the tools cutting performance and life, and the core radius mainly affects the tools rigidity. Mainly, two methods are adopted in industry to grind the flutes; these are: the direct method and the inverse method. In the direct method, a flute is ground using a standard grinding-wheel moving in multi-axis machining to generate the rake face and the flute surface. However, the flute is the natural outcome of the grinding process without any control. On the other side, the inverse method employs the concept of inverse engineering to build a grinding-wheel that accurately grinds the end-mill flutes. This yields a free-form grinding-wheel profile that is used on a 2-axis grinding machine; however, the flute shapes are only exact on one section of the end-mill; when the grinding-wheel moves along the side cutting edge to smaller sections; the deviation of the generated flute from the designed one will be increased. Thus, neither can this method grind the rake face with the prescribed normal rake angle, nor generate the side cutting edge in good agreement with its design. Moreover, the grinding-wheel profile is very difficult and expensive to make. To address these problems, a practical and optimal approach for five-axis grinding of prescribed end-mill flutes is proposed by; first, establishing a 5-axis flute grinding theory describing the wheels locations and orientations during grinding the rake faces with constant normal rake angles; Second, introducing a simple grinding-wheel consisting of lines and circular arcs; and finally, applying an optimization algorithm to optimize the grinding-wheel shape and path. Overall, this approach significantly advances the CNC programming technique for the 5-axis flute grinding, and can substantially increase the quality of the solid carbide end-mills and lays a good foundation for the CAD/CAE/CAM of end-mills. The advantages of this approach over the other approaches are verified using computer simulation

Interdisciplinary investigation of naming practices of cafes signages in Jordan

Various studies have extensively examined the linguistic aspects of signage, especially in the context of store signs. However, scholarly research on Jordanian café culture is limited. Therefore, conducting a comprehensive study of Jordan's café scene is relevant and promising in providing valuable sociocultural insights. This research explores the sociocultural values, norms, and practices associated with café signs in Jordan. Three hundred forty café signs from various neighbourhoods in Amman provided the linguistic data for this research. The findings revealed that English predominates in café signage due to its liveliness, strong connection to globalisation, and favourable client perceptions. The data also showed that trendy café names and English cultural references enhance visibility. These establishments use alliteration, blending, compounding, and connotation techniques to attract customers. This study highlights the significance of English-language signage in Jordan and its implications for linguistic landscape research. Thus, the research proves beneficial for linguistic landscape researchers seeking insights into sociocultural values, norms, and practices in Jordanian society

Politeness Strategies in Hotel Service Encounters in Jordan: Giving Directives

This paper examines directive speech act performed by hotel service counters staff in Jordan. It investigates the politeness strategies employed by staff when they give their directives to hotel foreign guests. The data were collected through audiorecording interactions that occurred between the staff, who are nonnative speakers of English, and foreign guests. Findings from the study show that the directives issued by the staff are characterized by significant directness. The study argues that such directives can be perceived as blunt and discourteous and therefore capable of causing face-threat to the interactants. This principally refers to the fact that they appear to give the guests no choice in complying with the request and fail to acknowledge the imposition involved. The study concludes that the frequent use of such direct strategies may refer to the nature of institutional encounters where the staff enjoy more power due to their institutional knowledge of offering services or information that the guests need as well to the staff\u27s right to ask questions to achieve the purpose of their task-oriented transactions. Furthermore, and more importantly, the staff\u27s use of direct forms may be due to the need for clarity and efficiency in giving directives. The study implies that hotel managers and hospitality curricula designers can benefit from the findings to design materials and manuals that help hotel staff to use appropriate level of directness when they issue their directives to foreign guests to avoid potential face-threat and potential social misunderstandings which can lead to pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic failure

Imperatives in hotel service encounters: the case of Jornadian learners of English

This paper examines the language of requests among the hotel trainees in Jordan. It seeks to explore the ways in which the trainees employ requestive strategies at the service counter in managing interpersonal and cross-cultural communication. Specifically, it discusses the Jordanian trainees' use of imperative requests compared with native speakers hotel staff and relates any divergences to politeness and cultural factors. The data collected include conversations between the trainees and hotel guests.The findings demonstrate that trainees rely more on imperative constructions and they favor conventional imperatives more than any other types. The findings also reveal that the trainees deviate from the native speakers' performance in terms of volume and types of strategies used. Some of these deviations may be due to Arabic language influence, pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic transfer or to insufficient linguistic and pragmatic competences

Making sense of the hotel trainees' internal request modification in Jordanian host-guest interaction

This paper examines the language of requests among the hotel trainees in Jordan. It seeks to explore the ways in which the trainees formulate requests in English as a foreign language at the service counter. Specifically, it discusses the extent to which the Jordanian trainees' use of internal modifiers when managing interpersonal and cross cultural communication diverges from that of the native speakers who are also the hotel supervisors and to relate any such divergences to politeness and cultural factors. The data collected include conversations between the trainees and hotel guests. The findings demonstrate that trainees under use internal modifiers to mitigate the imposition of the requests and they favor the marker 'please' more than any other modifiers. The findings also reveal that the trainees deviate from the native speakers' performance in terms of volume and types of modifiers. Some of these deviations might refer to Arabic language influence, pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic transfer or to insufficient linguistic and pragmatic competences

Relationship Between Organisational Trust and Decision - Making Participation

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the degree of trust among the Amman Education Directorates and how much educational supervisors participated in decision-making. The study sample is made up of 240 academic supervisors. The study’s findings showed that the Education Directorate appeared to have a moderate level of faith in organizational elements such management style, administrative policies, creative possibilities, and organizational values. Furthermore, the study revealed a significant relationship between organizational trust and the level of involvement in decision-making processes, with a significance level of (a≤0.5). However, no statistically significant variations in the sample members’ replies according to their gender, education, or experience were found. Based on these findings, the research recommends that educational directors give priority to strengthening supervisors’ organizational commitment to support educational policies that promote trust and provide them chances to apply their creative thinking to administrative tasks

Sexual Harassment and Its Impact on Employees

Sexual harassment remains a prevalent type of mistreatment of employees that frequently transpires within the confines of the workplace. The present study endeavors to address the lacuna in prior research and examine the effects of sexual harassment on employee depression, employee satisfaction, and turnover intention. The research employs a quantitative methodology utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM) to scrutinize the gathered data. The study's sample comprises 406 employees who have encountered incidents of sexual harassment in Indonesia. The SmartPLS 3 program was utilized to analyze questionnaires that were distributed to 406 employees via Google Forms. The results show that sexual harassment affects depression (p = 0.000), sexual harassment does not affect job satisfaction (p = 0.209), depression affects job satisfaction (p = 0.001), depression affects turnover intention (p = 0.000), and job satisfaction affects turnover intention (p = 0.001). The implication of this research is that organizations must take action to prevent sexual harassment in the work environment and reduce its negative effects by making sexual harassment prevention training and rules related to sexual harassment

Impact of Layoff on Entrepreneurial Intentions and Willingness to Job Application

Many companies are currently stopping and experiencing losses as a result of facing the pressure of the Covid-19 pandemic and also massive competition amidst technological improvements in all sectors. Companies that are not strong enough to face pressure finally use a strategy of massive layoffs to increase business efficiency. In this regard, it is necessary to know the impact of employee layoffs at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic on interest in working again and willingness to apply for jobs. This study is very important to provide implications for the government in providing policies and regulations to reduce unemployment and improve the country's economy. Therefore, a study was conducted by distributing questionnaires to 400 employees affected by layoffs from 10 regions in Indonesia. Analysis using the structural equation model shows that although layoffs have no effect on stress, stress does have an effect on entrepreneurial intentions and willingness to apply for jobs. However, layoffs affect entrepreneurial intentions and willingness to apply for jobs. This study makes an important contribution to the existing literature by empirically examining the relationship between layoffs, stress, entrepreneurial intentions and willingness to job application