Experimental Evaluation of Flow Formability of Sheet Metals for Armament Applications

Flow forming is a promising process for the manufacture of certain critical armament components. This paper deals with the statistical design of an experiment carried out by the authors while flow forming different sheet metals employing various combinations of controlling variables in order to arrive at a functional relationship between flow formability (R/sub f/} and controlling variables. The relationship, established has been tested for its adequacy by proper analysis of variance (ANOVA). Response surface diagrams for a given R/sub f/ in the case of three specific materials are presented

Becoming politically discontented: Anti-establishment careers of Dutch nonvoters and PVV voters

Popular political discontent has become increasingly salient in western countries in recent decades, as can be witnessed by the rise of populist anti-establishment parties, nonvoting and increasing distrust in politics. However, these phenomena have predominantly been treated as ‘democracy’s deviants’, neglecting the perspectives of the people concerned. Taking an inductive approach, this article examines how ordinary citizens come to turn away from established politics. Drawing on in-depth interviews with politically discontented Dutch nonvoters and PVV voters, the article develops a three-stage ‘anti-establishment career’ – ‘introduction’, ‘validation’ and ‘consolidation’ – through which their conceptions of politics gradually change. This deviant career model takes into account the dynamics and agency involved in the process, in contrast to conceptions of discontented citizens as utterly passive and anomic. The article concludes by arguing for more cultural-sociological sensitivity in the use of concepts referring to social-political action

State of Disgrace: Popular Political Discontents about the Dutch State in the 2000s

While it is widely acknowledged that politics and politicians have fallen from grace among large parts of the public in western democracies, it is less clear what the latter’s political discontents are about. To find out, we performed an interpretative content analysis of the letters to the editor of the largest popular Dutch newspaper in the 2000s (2000–2009). It yielded three empirically grounded discourses of political discontents about ‘the state’—shorthand for the government, its agencies, officials, judges, politicians and political parties—‘the incompetent state’, ‘the alienated state’ and ‘the corrupted state’. The relevance of these findings is subsequently discussed in the light of research on political distrus

Statističko-dinamička shema za prognozu u stvarnom vremenu primjenjena na vrlo snažnu ciklonalnu oluju \u27SIDR\u27 nad Bengalskim zaljevom u studenom 2007.

There is an operational requirement to formulate an objective procedure to handle operational cyclone forecasting work in a more efficient and effective way. In this paper we propose a four-step statistical-dynamical scheme for the real time application in cyclone forecasting work. The four-step scheme consists of (a) Analysis of Genesis Potential Parameter (GPP), (b) Estimation of Maximum Potential Intensity (MPI), (c) 72 hours Intensity Prediction and (d) Prediction of decaying intensity after the landfall. In November 2007, a very severe cyclonic storm \u27SIDR\u27 formed over the Bay of Bengal and hit the Bangladesh coast. In this paper, a four-step procedure is demonstrated for real time forecasting this cyclone. The results show that the GPP analysis at early stages of development can strongly indicate that the cyclone »SIDR« had enough potential to reach its cyclone stage. The MPI of the cyclone based on the SST (Sea Surface Temperature) values along the cyclone track is estimated to be 146 knots. The observed maximum intensity of the cyclone is found to be 79 % of its MPI. The 72 hours intensity prediction based on 00 UTC on 12 November could reproduce the intensity value of 109 knots, an underestimation of 6 knots. The subsequent updated forecasts are found to be realistic and useful. The 6-hourly decaying intensity forecast after the landfall shows an underestimation of 10 knots at 12 hours forecast and a significant improvement is noticed with the incorporation of correction factor. The study has documented the potentiality of the procedure for operational application.U svrhu uspješnije prognoze ciklona potrebno je formulirati što objektivnije radne procedure kojima se prognoza određuje. U ovoj studiji je predložena statističko-dinamička shema u četiri koraka prognoze ciklona u stvarnom vremenu. Shema se sastoji od (a) analize potencijalnih parametara nastanka ciklone (GPP), (b) procijene maksimalnog potencijalnog intenziteta (MPI), (c) 72-satne prognoze intenziteta i (d) prognoze smanjivanja intenziteta nakon što se ciklona približila obali. U studenom 2007. godine oformila se vrlo snažna ciklonalna oluja "SIDR" nad Bengalskim zaljevom koja je pogodila obalu Bangladeša. U ovoj studiji je prikazan postupak u četiri koraka u slučaju prognoze ove ciklone u stvarnom vremenu. Rezultati pokazuju da GPP analiza u ranom stadiju razvoja može izrazito nagovijestiti da je ciklona »SIDR« imala dovoljan potencijal da dođe do svog ciklonalnog stupnja. MPI ciklone je procijenjen na 146 čvorova na bazi vrijednosti površinske temperature mora duž putanje ciklone. Opaženi maksimalni intenzitet ciklone je oko 79 % njenog MPI. Prognozirani 72-satni intenzitet na temelju podataka iz 00 UTC od 12 studenog može reproducirati intenzitet od 109 čvorova uz podcjenjivanje od 6 čvorova. Sljedeće ažurirane prognoze bile su realistične i korisne. Šest-satna prognoza zamiranja intenziteta nakon što se ciklona približila obali pokazuje podcjenjivanje od 10 čvorova u 12-satnoj prognozi te je uključivanjem faktora korekcije uočeno značajno poboljšanje. Studija je pokazala potencijal ovog postupka za operativnu primjenu

Phenomenological analysis connecting proton-proton and antiproton-proton elastic scattering

Based on the behavior of the elastic scattering data, we introduce an almost model-independent parametrization for the imaginary part of the scattering amplitude, with the energy and momentum transfer dependences inferred on empirical basis and selected by rigorous theorems and bounds from axiomatic quantum field theory. The corresponding real part is analytically evaluated by means of dispersion relations, allowing connections between particle-particle and particle-antiparticle scattering. Simultaneous fits to proton-proton and antiproton-proton experimental data in the forward direction and also including data beyond the forward direction, lead to a predictive formalism in both energy and momentum transfer. We compare our extrapolations with predictions from some popular models and discuss the applicability of the results in the normalization of elastic rates that can be extracted from present and future accelerator experiments (Tevatron, RHIC and LHC).Comment: 17 pages, 17 figures, to appear in Eur. Phys. J.

Building Strategies for The Banking Sector During the Economic Crisis

The financial crisis from 2007 to the present is a crisis caused by a lack of liquidity in the banking system. It caused the collapse of large financial institutions, the rescue of banks by national governments, and the collapse of stock markets around the world. The crisis unfolded quickly and turned into a global economic shock, which led to a series of European bank failures, drops in various stock market indices and a sharp drop in the market value of stocks and commodities. This research assesses the root causes of the global financial crisis. Near financial research shows that statistical models focused on optimistic expectations contributed to significant mispricing problems in the huge unregulated credit default swaps market that erupted in following currency and banking crisis. This research focuses on the global financial crises, and how we can prevent such crisis in the future by enhancing the regulatory framework and decreasing the risk by recapitalization and emerging banks markets

On the precision of the theoretical predictions for pi pi scattering

In a recent paper, Pelaez and Yndurain evaluate some of the low energy observables of pi pi scattering and obtain flat disagreement with our earlier results. The authors work with unsubtracted dispersion relations, so that their results are very sensitive to the poorly known high energy behaviour of the scattering amplitude. They claim that the asymptotic representation we used is incorrect and propose an alternative one. We repeat their calculations on the basis of the standard, subtracted fixed-t dispersion relations, using their asymptotics. The outcome fully confirms our earlier findings. Moreover, we show that the Regge parametrization proposed by these authors for the region above 1.4 GeV violates crossing symmetry: Their ansatz is not consistent with the behaviour observed at low energies.Comment: Added more material, mostly in Sects. 7, 8 and 9, in support of the same conclusions. Latex, 28 pages, 3 figure

Making a difference through Internal Audit Leadership and Enterprise Risk Management

The common viewpoint of the internal accounting activities must be rejuvenated. It is about performing the conventional audit, but rather a wider outlook and a much greater position in improving organizations strategic priorities. Furthermore, considering their indispensable critical position in controlling enforcement, performance, and efficiency, it is different than everybody thinks of external auditors (CPAs) that execute a financial and accounting audit. The internal audit is an impartial, analytical assurance and advisory service intended to add value and optimize a companys activities. The internal audit covers a broad range of forms, such as the audit of conformity, organizational audit, financial audit, I.T. audit, economy and performance auditing, environmental audit, etc. How does the transition from a classical point of view of human resource management to a modern view of human resources experts core position as strategic collaborators turn the internal audit into a strategy analyst, display leadership, and deeply build a direction within organizational risk management? The study would also discuss data and interpretation and hypotheses to offer a deeper explanation and change stakeholders perceptions