Academic attractiveness of countries; a possible benchmark strategy applied to the Netherlands

The number of international students and the number of countries hosting these students are growing. The level of internationalization has also become an indication of the prestige of higher education institutions. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important for countries – an indeed the European higher education area as a whole – to be academically attractive to international students. To measure the attractiveness, this paper argues that in addition to looking at countries' characteristics (i.e. factual data), subjective data (i.e. perceptions of international students) should also be considered. Hence, proposed is an explorative benchmark model based on a mixed method approach and consisting of factual and perceptual data as an initial attempt to measure the academic attractiveness countries. Outcomes provide insights into the strengths and weakness as benchmarked against other countries and can result in possible implications for policy. Because of data limitations, the model was solely applied to the Netherland

Simulation of coalescence, break up and mass transfer in bubble columns by using the Conditional Quadrature Method of Moments in OpenFOAM

The evaluation of the mass transfer rates and the fluid-dynamics aspects of bubble columns are strongly affected by the intrinsic poly-dispersity of the gas phase, namely the different dispersed bubbles are usually distributed over a certain range of size and chemical composition values. In our previous work, gas-liquid systems were investigated by coupling Computational Fluid Dynamics with mono-variate population balance models (PBM) solved by using the quadrature method of moments (QMOM). Since mass transfer rates depend not only on bubble size, but also on bubble composition, the problem was subsequently extended to the solution of multi-variate PBM (Buffo et al. 2013). In this work, the conditional quadrature method of moments (CQMOM) is implemented in the open-source code OpenFOAM for describing bubble coalescence, breakage and mass transfer of a realistic partially aerated rectangular bubble column, experimentally investigated by Diaz et al.(2008). Eventually, the obtained results are here compared with the experimental data availabl

Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer in Turbulent Pipe Flow with Structured Wall Surfaces

Innovative heat transfer technology is the key to the optimization of many processes in the power or process industry. Operational costs and usage of valuable resources can be reduced, if the heat transfer efficiency is increased and pressure loss is reduced. Therefore, the current work is focused on heat transfer enhancement at tubes with micro-structured walls with turbulent flow. In this kind of geometry modern optical measurement technology cannot be applied and the analysis of the turbulent transport is only possible with numerical flow simulations. A large-eddy turbulence model is applied to account for turbulence closures. First, the simulation setup is validated with data from the literature and then several micro-structured geometries are investigated. The simulations are computationally costly and depend on high performance computing (HPC). The open-source software library OpenFOAM® is applied to perform massively parallel simulations

Application of advanced technologies to derivatives of current small transport aircraft

Mission requirements of the derivative design were the same as the baseline to readily identify the advanced technology benefits achieved. Advanced technologies investigated were in the areas of propulsion, structures and aerodynamics and a direct operating cost benefit analysis conducted to identify the most promising. Engine improvements appear most promising and combined with propeller, airfoil, surface coating and composite advanced technologies give a 21-25 percent DOC savings. A 17 percent higher acquisition cost is offset by a 34 percent savings in fuel used

Artificial Insemination in the Dog

Artificial insemination means the collecting of semen from a male and its subsequent introduction into the genital passage of a female. The first recorded artificial insemination of dogs was done by Abbe Spallanzani in 1780

Actuarial computation of multiemployer pension plan withdrawal liability

This project helps to demonstrate how pension actuaries must keep a constant eye on new laws. The pension industry is constantly bombarded with new laws which force them to alter policies and procedures. Because of the huge number of laws, it is difficult for all employees to fully understand every law. During my stay at the Principal, I discovered that many passages are interpreted differently by different people. I also uncovered some details through my research that other employees were not aware of. Because of this complexity, it is often necessary to assign to one person, such as myself, the job of understanding and becoming an expert on the law. Hence, these laws obviously result in an increased expense for insurance companies, and because of their complexity, an increased confusion on the part of their clients. I feel that the passage of MPPAA was a very necessary and overdue addition to ERISA. Before its passage, employers of multiemployer plans could withdraw without assuming responsibility for the benefits promised to their employees. Also, the provisions for accelerated funding of plans in financial distress has resulted in more financially stable plans. Although many people may complain about the increased paperwork and research involved in the passage of MPPAA, the bottom line is that it helps to protect the little people which is very necessary in today\u27s world of large corporations

Unstructured surface and volume decimation of tessellated domains

A general algorithm for decimating unstructured discretized data sets is presented. The discretized space may be a planar triangulation, a general 3D surface triangulation, or a 3D tetrahedrization. The decimation algorithm enforces Dirichlet boundary conditions, uses only existing vertices, and assumes manifold geometry. Local dynamic vertex removal is performed without history information while preserving the initial topology and boundary geometry. The tessellation at each step of the algorithm is preserved and, in the pathological case, every interior vertex is a candidate for removal. The research focuses on how to remove a vertex from an existing unstructured n-dimensional tessellation, not on the formulation of decimation criteria. Criteria for removing a candidate vertex may be based on geometric properties or any scalar governing function specific to the application. Use of scalar functions to adaptively control or optimize tessellation resolution is particularly applicable to the computer graphics, computational fluids, and structural analysis disciplines. Potential applications in the geologic exploration and medical or industrial imaging fields are promising