Optimization of cut surface quality during CNC Plasma Arc Cutting process

Optimization of cut surface quality during CNC plasma-arc cutting (PAC) of mild steel plates is presented. Using design of experiments (DOE) the optimum process parameters are estimated. The process parameters tested include cutting speed, cutting height and arc voltage. Analysis of means (ANOM) and analysis of variances (ANOVA) were used in order for the effect of each parameter on the surface quality to be assessed

Mobile agent location management in global networks

Mobility management is a necessity in highly dynamic and large-scale Mobile Agents (MAs) networks, especially in a multi-region environment in order to control and communicate with agents after launching. Existing mechanisms for locating MAs are not efficient as these do not consider the effect of location updates on migration time and produce network overload. This paper presents a hierarchical model for location management of MAs in global networks. Three protocols are developed, namely search, update and search-update. The location management technique uses one combination of search, update and search-update protocols throughout execution. Three cases are considered for Update and Search-Update Protocols. Thus, nine combinations of location management protocols are generated, from which an agent can dynamically select one as per requirement, to communicate with other agents on the global network. We have implemented these protocols on the system developed at IIT Roorkee, to evaluate the performance. Results indicate that overhead generated by these protocols does not affect the actual agent response and migration time[1].  

Analysis of Methods to Evaluate the Noise Reduction due to Acoustic Barriers Installation

Transportation infrastructures represent a relevant noise source in residential areas and have to be carefully taken into account in urban planning. Road traffic is commonly assumed to be the most relevant transportation mean in developed countries. For this reason, road traffic noise can be considered as the most important source of annoyance. The extremely random nature of road traffic makes very difficult to model the phenomenon and give reliable predictions. In the infrastructure design phase, a proper acoustic modelling can be helpful to minimize the noise impact. If the road is already present in the area, it is important to design effective mitigation actions. In this paper, the installation of noise barriers is simulated in a case study. This location, in south Italy, is characterized by several buildings placed in proximity of a motorway. In particular, a new building set has been built just in front of the motorway, without providing any noise mitigation action. In this paper, once the noise map of the area is obtained with a predictive software, the effects of the barriers, measured in terms of noise level reduction, are evaluated by means of literature, regulation and software approaches. The comparison between these approaches will be discussed and will show that, in order to obtain a reliable estimation of the noise reduction, diffraction, reflection and other relevant parameters cannot be neglected

Gender influence in perception and adoption of e-learning platforms

The main objective of this study is to examine gender differences and the adoption of technology in higher education students. TAM model is the tool used to measure the acceptance and use of e-learning of the respondents. We used Partial Least Squares (PLS), specifically, the PLS multi-group analysis was used to compare differences between groups. In summary, results show that students’ behavior of acceptance of elearning technology do not manifest statistically significant differences between women and men