Non Contact Mechanical Testing at High Temperature Using Electromagnetic Forces.

Ultra high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) recently captured interest as potential materials for reusable thermal protection systems and other components in future generation supersonic and hypersonic vehicles where temperatures can reach > 2000 °C. A novel method for mechanical testing of UHTCs at such ultra high temperatures is developed utilizing electromagnetic force. Resistively heated and self-supported specimens in thin ribbon geometry under application of a transverse magnetic field undergo flexural stress from the electromagnetic Lorentz forces, which act as a distributed mechanical load and deform the specimen. This non-contact technique, termed Electro-Magnetic Mechanical Apparatus (EMMA), allows performing rapid tests in a low cost table-top apparatus at temperatures, as high as 2200 °C, otherwise impossible to achieve. The flexibility of this method offers ample opportunity to explore a wide range of mechanical properties. For example utilizing a DC current for resistive heating with a DC magnetic field creates constant loads for Creep testing; replacing with a AC current generates cyclic loads for Fatigue testing; larger magnetic fields can be used for Fast – Fracture experiments; and impulse excitation of the magnetic field vibrates the specimens and enables the determination of the material’s Elastic and Loss Modulus. Zirconium Diboride and Silicon Carbide (ZrB2-SiC) is a prominent member of UHTCs. The creep properties of this composite are explored using this technique in the temperature range 1600 – 2200 °C under stress ranging from 20 – 50 MPa in ambient air as well as non-reactive Nitrogen atmosphere. The kinetic parameters of creep, activation energy and stress exponent are established in the testing range. The creep response from the two environments is compared to understand the effect of the concomitant oxidation during high temperature testing in air. Comparison of creep data from conventional 3-pt, 4-pt flexure tests corroborate the results obtained from EMMA and validate the use of the technique to obtain comparable creep rates.Ph.D.Materials Science and EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91586/1/sindhu_1.pd

Human Resource Coping Strategies in „New Normal‟ and their Impact on Work Places: Systematic Review

The pandemic COVID-19 challenged all the industries in their Human Resource Management systems. The impact was visible with the changing nature of work places and all organizations have to adhere to the lock down restrictions. Many of the industries except health managed their human resources for business continuity with the alternate strategy of work from home. It is interesting to observe that the changing strategy in the Human Resource (HR) practices was swift and creative. In the present study, the authors have reviewed considerable number of research articles published in various journals. The review aimed to understand the coping strategies of the Human resource practices and their impact in the phase of ‘New Normal’. The review questions of the study were a) to understand the concept of coping strategies in HR practices in ‘New normal’ after the pandemic, b) to understand the impact of ‘New Normal’ on HR, and c) to draw inferences from the available research studies. The systematic review was conducted in the following steps: Guiding review questions were framed, search for research articles published in the time period from April 2020 to November 2020, short listing of relevant articles, extraction of the data from the articles in a predesigned form, critical review of the study content by two independent authors and consensus were drawn. Twenty research articles were selected to find answers to the review questions. This paper documents the conclusion and inference drawn from the review. The review has documented the coping brilliance by reinventing new HR practices amidst unprecedented health threat, the progress of the HR from resistance to ‘New Normal’ and the lessons learnt during the new normal. The review reinforces the importance of further studies in this area of HR practices. This review study disseminates the HR practices which are documented and the findings will be useful for organizations to cope up in the post pandemic

Born to trade: a genetically evolved keyword bidder for sponsored search

In sponsored search auctions, advertisers choose a set of keywords based on products they wish to market. They bid for advertising slots that will be displayed on the search results page when a user submits a query containing the keywords that the advertiser selected. Deciding how much to bid is a real challenge: if the bid is too low with respect to the bids of other advertisers, the ad might not get displayed in a favorable position; a bid that is too high on the other hand might not be profitable either, since the attracted number of conversions might not be enough to compensate for the high cost per click. In this paper we propose a genetically evolved keyword bidding strategy that decides how much to bid for each query based on historical data such as the position obtained on the previous day. In light of the fact that our approach does not implement any particular expert knowledge on keyword auctions, it did remarkably well in the Trading Agent Competition at IJCAI2009

Differences in Leadership Styles between Genders: Outcomes and Effectiveness of Women in Leadership Roles

Women, today constituting a large portion of the work force have very few leaders at the top constitutional or organizational positions. In this paper we try to analyze what’s causing hindrance to their growth focusing primarily, if there exists any differences in the leadership styles employed by male and female leaders. As was the case in previous literature, the evidence for sex differences in leadership behavior is still mixed, yet it is clear that these sex differences have not vanished. It is argued that sex differences in leadership styles are largely a consequence of the context in which male and female leaders work. Arguments and evidences from both sides on, “Do women really make better androgynous leaders?” is analyzed overall based on several inferences. This paper further focuses on the values and attitudes of women being in leadership positions leaving challenges for further research on the effect of external variables such as the work force, corporation structure, and necessity of innovation on the gender in the leadership role

Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice in pharmacovigilance among clinical post graduate students in a teaching hospital, Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh, India

Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADR) are global problem causing morbidity and mortality. Good pharmacovigilance (PV) programme can address this problem. Under reporting of ADR is one of the obstacles for good PV. In order to achieve this, health professionals need to have enough Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of ADR`s. The present study was conducted to assess KAP about PV among post graduate (PG) students.Methods: A self administered questionnaire validated by Lynn M consisting of 22 questions covering knowledge, attitude & practice about PV was distributed among PG students of clinical departments of MIMS College. Answering of the questionnaires was supervised directly. Filled questionnaires were analyzed by using Microsoft Excel spread sheet.Results: Evaluation showed an average of 52.3% correct and 47.7% incorrect knowledge about ADR`s and PV.50% students are not sure regarding occurrence of ADR.90% students are not been trained upon reporting of ADR`s. Our study found out that PG students have better attitude towards PV, but have improper knowledge & less awareness about PV. We also found lack of practice among the students.Conclusions: Imparting knowledge and awareness of PV among the PG students by means of continuous educational intervention can create better practice among PG students

INFANT'S SKIN AND CARE NEEDS WITH SPECIAL CONSIDERATION TO FORMULATION ADDITIVES

Infancy is the time of adaptation from intrauterine life to the rather dry and cold, environment. Infant skin is more sensitive due to the immature immune system, hence, effortlessly prone to complications. Children from different age groups face diverse skin problems such as cradle cap, infant eczema, diaper rash, prickly heat, and many more. During early infancy, the products such as mild cleansers and lotions are used, and later, massage oils, creams, lotions, soaps, bubble bath, and other products are utilized for another few years, as a part of routine care. The preterm infants are more prone to skin damage and percutaneous toxicity from topically applied products. The ingredients incorporated in infant care products require special attention while choosing a product for them. Topical application of any such product requires thorough screening for potentially harmful ingredients before its exposure to the infant's skin. Products used for infants should be safe and restricted of fragrance, coloring agents, parabens, plant oils, extracts, and other obnoxious ingredients. The literature is flooded with the list of safer excipients that can be utilized for the development of skin care products for infants and children

CHALLENGES IN FORMULATING HERBAL COSMETICS

The herbal cosmetics are prepared by phytochemicals that occur in a variety of botanical sources, that influences the physiology of skin and provide nutrients that are necessary for the healthy skin or hair. These products are utilized for daily purposes, which include herbal shampoo, herbal conditioner, herbal face wash, herbal soap, etc. These products are classified as a different category by regulatory agencies. However, guidelines of these certifying agencies have no harmonization, and many cosmetic industries prepare and package these formulations in an irrationalway. Many cosmetic products have natural products in their formulation that perform a specific biological function, but these products should be evaluated on their toxicological and efficacy aspects. The contribution of developing countries is very poor in global herbal business because of lack of standardization measures and quality control. The lack of safety and efficacy data on herbal cosmetics renders it difficult to meet the criteria needed for supporting its use worldwide. This review article discusses challenges related to regulatory status, quality control, standardization, certification, drug processing and the opportunities for herbal cosmetics in local as well as the global scenario. The search criteria used in the present review were the keywords mentioned in the manuscript and articles from major scientific resources were cited. The articles from 1952 to 2018 were specifically referred, but few references from 19 century were also cited to support the prevalence of scientific principles in the development of herbal cosmetics in the ancient era

Dynamic Modeling and Parameter Identification of a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle

In recent times, mechanical systems in an automobile are largely controlled by embedded systems, called micro-controllers. These automobiles, installed with micro-controllers, run complex embedded code to improve the efficiency and performance of the targeted mechanical systems. Developing and testing these control algorithms using the concept of model based design (MBD) is a cost-efficient and time-saving approach. MBD employs vehicle system models throughout the design process and offers superior understanding of the system behaviour than a traditional hardware prototype based testing. Consequently, accurate system identification constitutes an important aspect in MBD. The main focus of this thesis is to develop a validated vehicle dynamics model of a Toyota Prius Plug-in hybrid vehicle. This model plays a crucial role in achieving better fuel economy by assisting in the development process of various controller designs such as energy management system, co-operative adaptive cruise control system, and trip planning module. In this work, initially a longitudinal vehicle dynamics model was developed in MapleSim that utilizes acausal modeling techniques and symbolic code generation to create models that are capable of real-time simulation. Here, the motion in longitudinal direction was given importance as it is the crucial degree of freedom (DOF) for determining the fuel consumption. Besides, the generic and full-fledged vehicle dynamics model in Simulink-based Automotive Simulation Models (ASM) software was also modified to create a validated model of the Prius. This software specifically facilitates the implementation of the model for virtual data collection using a driving simulator. Both vehicle models were verified by studying their simulation results at every stage of the development process. Once the vehicle models were fully functional, the accurate and reliable parameters that control the vehicle motion were estimated. For this purpose, experimental data was acquired from the on-road and rolling dynamometer testing of the Prius. During these tests, the vehicle was instrumented with a vehicle measurement system (VMS), global-positioning system (GPS), and inertial measurement unit (IMU) to collect synchronized vehicle dynamics data. Parameters were identified by choosing a local optimization algorithm that minimizes the difference between simulated and experimental results. Homotopy, a global optimization technique was also investigated to check the influence of optimization algorithms on the suspension parameters. This method of parameter estimation from on-road data is highly flexible and economical. Comparison with the parameters obtained from 4-Post testing, a standardized test method, shows that the proposed methods can estimate parameters with an accuracy of 90%. Moreover, the longitudinal and lateral dynamics exhibited by the developed vehicle models are in accordance with the experimental data from on-road testing. The full vehicle simulations suggest that these validated models can be successfully used to evaluate the performance of controllers in real time