Flexible profile approach to the conjugate heat transfer problem

The flexible profile approach proposed earlier to create CTM (compact or reduced order thermal models) is extended to cover the area of conjugate heat transfer. The flexible profile approach is a methodology that allows building a highly boundary conditions independent CTM, with any desired degree of accuracy, that may adequately replace detailed 3D models for the whole spectrum of applications in which the modeled object may be used. The extension to conjugate problems radically solves the problem of interfacing two different domains. Each domain, fluid or solid, can be "compacted" independently creating two CTM that can be joined together to produce reliable results for any arbitrary set of external boundary conditions.Comment: Submitted on behalf of TIMA Editions (http://irevues.inist.fr/tima-editions

AN INDEX METHOD FOR SELECTING REPRESENTATIVE CITIES OF A TARGET MARKET

An index was developed to rank U.S. metropolitan areas according to overall similarities in their socio-economic characteristics to the U.S. average. This index is given as a solution to matching a representative city or market area to a target market as well as matching a group of cities which are similar to each other. The index shows stability in ranking these cities with different consumption data for similar products and proves to be a promising approach whenever the researcher must find a group of cities which are similar to each other and to the target market.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Emigration 2.0: Young Moroccans, Emigration and the Internet

This article examines the relationship between young Moroccans’ uses of the Internet and their migratory project to Europe. It frames its analysis within key debates on international migration and makes the case for a more systematic exploration of the symbolic dimensions of emigration. The research conducted, (2011/2012) including qualitative interviews, focus groups and a survey, shows that although an increasing number of young Moroccans are using the Internet to migrate into Europe, the majority are, unlike the findings of previous empirical research [Sabry, T. (2003). Exploring Symbolic Dimensions of Emigration: Mental and Physical Emigrations, Ph.D. thesis, University of Westminster] have shown, less keen to emigrate. The research also shows how young Moroccans are more interested in communicating with other young Moroccans on social media than they are with young people from Europe or in other parts of the world. Qualitative material has also shown how young Moroccans’ interactions with Arabs from the Gulf, using social media, has exposed serious contradictions between profane and sacred Islam. The story that emerges is not one of heightened global or westernised consciousness, but one of localization par excellence

Ethnography as thrownness and the face of the sufferer

This article provides a self-reflexive account of ethnographic research conducted on the outskirts of Burj Al Brajneh, a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, run by Hezbollah. It focuses on ethnographic research conducted with a Syrian refugee family including the mother, father and three children. The research is well captured, in hindsight, by Sarah Pink’s definition of ethnography as a ‘reflexive and experiential process through which academic and applied understanding, knowing and knowledge are produced’. The article demonstrates how the ethnographer’s experience with the refugee children was marked, regardless of long and diligent preparations, by several dislocations: methodological, sensorial and epistemic. The ethnographer pursued a non-media-centric approach allowing him to explore both the refugee family’s media uses as well as the lived, everyday conditions that marked their media uses. The primary aim of the article is three-pronged: (a) to provide an ethnographic description and analysis of the media worlds in a Hizbullah area in South Beirut, (b) to analyse media uses and aesthetics of violence in the context of war/refugees’ lives and (c) to theorise using the Heideggerian concept of thrownness, the entangled and affective regime that emerges during the ethnographic encounter

Information systems for interactive learning: Design perspective

This paper aims to present and discuss educational issues and relevant research to universities and colleges in the Arabian Gulf Region. This include cultural, students’ learning preferences and the use of information and communication technology. It particularly focuses on interactive learning through the consideration of learning styles. It explores the sequential-global learning styles profile of undergraduate students as part of a continuous research in Information Systems design with a particular focus on the design of Interactive Learning Systems (ILSs). A study to examine the learning style profile of undergraduate students in a cohort of Management Information Systems at a UAE university has been conducted, and a discussion and recommendations on how these findings can be reflected on the design of ILSs are provided