Stability Analysis of an Inflated, Axially Extended, Residually Stressed Circular Cylindrical Tube

Residual stress may have an important influence on the mechanical response of residually stressed materials. This paper is concerned with the effects of residual stress on the stability of inflated, axially extended, residually stressed circular cylindrical tube. To this end, the theory of small incremental deformations superimposed on a large underlying finite deformation is used. Asymmetric and axisymmetric types of bifurcation are considered. It is found that for residual stress parameter γ of the same sign the effect of the residual stress is different depending on the type of bifurcation. For example, for asymmetric bifurcations with mode number m = 1 and with positive γ inclusion of residual stress makes the tube more stable, on the other hand, for axisymmetric bifurcations inclusion of residual stress, corresponding to positive residual stress parameter γ, leads to increase of instabilities. In all cases, residual stress with positive and negative residual stress parameter γ leads to a symmetric character of bifurcation curves

Framework for Academic Advice through Mobile Applications

The increasing rate of high (secondary) school leavers choosing academic majors to study at the university without proper guidance has most times left students with unfavorable consequences including low grades, extra year(s), the need to switch programs and ultimately having to withdraw from the university. In a bid to proffer a solution to the issue, this research aims to build an expert system that recommends university or academic majors to high school students in developing countries where there is a dearth of human career counselors. This is to reduce the adverse effects caused as a result of wrong choices made by students. A mobile rule-based expert system supported with ontology was developed for easy accessibility by the students

Maintenance of street lighting systems using mobile phones

There is no doubt that street lighting systems have an important role in cities promoting comfort, as well as enhancing safety and security. These kinds of systems require maintenance in order to guarantee operation and reduce energy consumption. To help with certain maintenance tasks, a new smartphone application has been developed. The aim of this tool is to set up street lighting energy efficiency level at the same time that the illuminance level is evaluated. The benefit of this tool is that maintenance staff can assess energy efficiency on an easy and quick way, achieving a result report. In addition, a new Bluetooth device was created to perform the measurements, being necessary to perform a brief study about its accuracy compared with a mobile phone ambient light sensor and an external sensor

Impact of communication and relationships on student satisfaction and acceptance of self- and peer-assessment

This study presents a learning-oriented assessment experience and examines the impact of communication and relationships on student satisfaction and on the acceptance of self- and peer-assessment. To this end, an analysis was conducted based on the data collected from engineering students in a subject with a high degree of creativity. The answers of online surveys (n = 180) were examined by using the structural equation modelling technique (SEM). The results indicate that effective, frequent, and timely communication and quality relationships play an important role in ensuring that formative assessment, based on teamwork, feedback and self- and peer-assessment, is perceived as easy to implement and useful for learning and skills development, which also increases student satisfaction. In addition, these perceptions have an important impact on students’ acceptance of self- and peer-assessment, although students show more confidence in the teacher’s judgement and concern about the validity and reliability of their peers’ marks.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Framework for Development Triages through Mobile Applications

The emergency triage is being implemented due to the congestion of the emergency services, for several reasons, such as: easy access to the patient, demanding an immediate diagnostic an medical aid, prioritizing severely ill patients rather than patients with minor problems that make improper use of the emergency areas. The objective is building a system, integrated to the main system of health organization, for management of emergency triage. To do this, we have analysed and developed a system which allows us to evaluate patients through a mobile application. Results suggest that the integration of emergency triage to mobile application, helps to improve and optimize resource management and decrease the response time. In conclusion, this system optimizes the resources implemented as well as an increase of customer satisfaction

Analysis of customer satisfaction using surveys with open questions

In this paper the use of open-ended questionnaires to improve the evaluation of customer satisfaction according to ISO 9001 in small and medium-sized enterprises is analyzed. By obtaining more information in comparison to the closed questions questionnaire some limitations coming from the second one are removed. The open-ended questionnaire is analyzed by applying a semantic study to obtain the root of each word and remove the word that is not relevant for the information needs of the organization. This way the positive or negative trend for each response is identified. This study proofs that the use of open-ended questionnaires facilitates the fulfilment of the ISO 9001 standard. It allows the comparison between the data coming from the Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) and the data obtained through the questionnaire. Furthermore it opens new areas of research based in the use of semantic analysis in quality systems and marketing

A hierarchical asymptotic homogenization approach for viscoelastic composites

Effective properties of non-aging linear viscoelastic and hierarchical composites are investigated via a three-scale asymptotic homogenization method. In this approach, we consider the assumption of a generalized periodicity in the different structural levels and their characterization through the so-called stratified functions. The expressions for the associated local and homogenized problems, and the effective coefficients are derived at each level of organization by using the correspondence principle and the Laplace-Carson transform. Considering isotropic components and a perfect contact at the interfaces between the constituents, analytical solutions, in the Laplace-Carson space, are found for the local problems and the effective coefficients are computed. An interconversion procedure between the effective relaxation modulus and the effective creep compliance is carried out for obtaining information about both viscoelastic properties. The numerical inversion to the original temporal space is also performed. Finally, we exploit the potential of the approach and study the overall properties of a hierarchical viscoelastic composite structure representing the dermis