Because vehicles run in high speed environments, it is difficult to establish the topology of the network. Moreover, data transmission may be interrupted by the handoff of various APs. This study established the network of roadside-to-vehicle (R2V) environment, and used the DSRC (dedicated short range communication) to achieve seamless handoff control on a streaming service. To achieve this goal, we first used the GPS (global positioning system) to collect vehicular information (e.g., speed, direction, and location), and subsequently exchanged the parameter of vehicular information at both ends by DSRC. Therefore, the computer in the vehicle can predict the link expiration time (LET) between two mobile nodes. Furthermore, this study used two cases of handoff in vehicular networks. One case was non-overlapping handoff, and the other case was overlapping handoff. A simple formula was designed to calculate vehicular total buffer size in these two cases, and to adjust the data flow to the receiver. Finally, we used the network simulator to simulate the actual situation of vehicular motion and network transmission. This study proved the accuracy and feasibility of mechanism through the simulation result. This study achieved the streaming of seamless handoff control in the network of R2V.

Alkylphenols (APs) received great attention in the past decade because they were on the priority hazardous substances list. The kinetics of a lab-scale moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) that was fed with synthetic wastewater containing 4-NonylPhenol (4-NP) and 4-tert-OctylPhenol (4-t-OP) was investigated in this paper. The MBBR reactor was evaluated under different Aps, organic loading rates, and hydraulic retention times (HRT). The substrate removal rate was predicted with First order, Second order, Stover–Kincannon and the Monod substrate removal models.\n4-NP and 4-t-OP pollutants were removed in the different percentages of 87.1% to 99.9% and 83.2% to 99.9%, respectively. Biokinetic parameters like Y, KS, k, µmax and kd that would be favourable to design an MBBR were evaluated. Based on the results, the second-order (Grau), Stover–Kincannon and Monod models were observed to be the most suitable for this reactor. These models showed high correlation coefficients of about 99.6%, 99.1% and 92.9%, respectively. Consequently, these models could be utilized in anticipating the performance and design of MBBR reactors.

Failure evaluation and prediction of a structure are important procedures when inspecting aged dams. This study establishes a failure criterion model on the basis of an efficient method for the risk assessment of an aged dam. The proposed methodology incorporates discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) with a numerical manifold method (NMM) to process predictable simulation. According to large-scale analyses, the programs of DDA+NMM follow the energy-conservation principle to simulate the interaction of deformable blocks and disconnected joints within a discontinuous system, which consists of many blocks shaped in an arbitrary polygon. However, for small-scale estimation, disjoined layers are assumed along seepage flow lines which are potentially yielded by saturated groundwater levels because of overbalance precipitation. The computation recruits open-source programs to efficiently evaluate an aged earth dam by modeling the groundwater seepage flow lines as possible block joints and creating reasonable risk criteria. An aged dam built in Taiwan more than 70 years ago, serves as the case study. The necessary parameters regarding the geotechnical and geometrical properties are adopted from an official report of dam safety assessment. Four types of potential failure modes attributable to dam topology and critical joint distribution are categorized by several combinations of critical risk factors coupled with extreme loading conditions. Both static and dynamic simulations of various levels of water pressure, uplift force, possible joints, and material coefficients are applied. Furthermore, a risk-assessment criterion table, with three-level risk indexes, provides a reference for failure alerts for the proposed dam structure. As the result, the assessment procedure can help in predicting potential failure modes as well as in determining risk-assessment criteria for proper hazard-prevention strategies for aged dam structures in the future.

The mortars produced currently have adhesion and mechanical resistance and physical properties often unsatisfactory to cater for projects with large loads and environmental conditions more severe. This work aims to study the mechanical properties and durability of coating mortars produced with excessive lime or cement. Tests were carried out air incorporated content; resistance to compression, flexion traction and pull off; elasticity modulus; water absorption; porosity, fissurability e digital microscope images. It was CP-II-E-32 cement, CH-I lime and quartz natural sand. The results showed that the addition of excessive binder maximizes some mechanical properties such as compression, tensile and elasticity modulus, yet reduces the adhesion and durability properties analyzed. It is concluded that it is necessary to get the proper content of cement and lime for mortar mixed with a focus primarily on adherence and durability indicators, being these more sensitive to variation properties of materials.

Team is a basic unit and group of people who interact, cooperate and coordinate to accomplish a shared goal. This study investigated to compare and narrate the difference in the role of team building, through self-assessed inventory by VC (executive leader), observation sheet filled by co-workers as well as the narrated vision of four executive leaders of newly established university of the region. Mixed research method was selected in which Concurrent triangulation design was followed. Population of the study included all Vice Chancellors of Public sector universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Concurrent Mixed Method sampling technique was used. Four Vice Chancellors of newly established Universities and five observers among their co-workers of each VC were taken as participants of the study. A part of Global Executive Leadership Inventory developed by Dr. Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries (2005) was used to collect self-assessed and views of the colleagues regarding respective executive leaders. The difference among the self-assessed view of the executive leaders was calculated by Friedman test. Self-assessed and observed views were compared paired sampled t-test as well as the narrative views of four executives were also compared by matrices and topology. Narrative part was interviewed in the form of structured questions, transcript and interpreted. For trustworthiness of study, prolonged engagement and persistent observation, triangulation of data (from inventory, observation sheet and interview) and member checking was the part of study. There was significant difference among the self-assessed views of VCs regarding team building at newly established universities, self-assessed view and views of their co-workers and narrative views of executive leaders. For team leadership, egalitarian style, knowledge of emotional intelligence and target-oriented communication to be a guide and facilitator is important.

This study focuses on the similarities and differences in Global Consumer theory, National Identity Theory and Categorization theory in a developing market. From the field of sociology; National Identity Theory literature has been linked with marketing field by using concepts of country branding and country of origin (COO). ‘Categorization Theory’ that has a significance relevance in this study has been tested that consumers apply categorization to specific “country’s product category (e.g Japanese product), a geographic or regional category (e.g Asian product) or may be two distinguish categories of “domestic” and “foreign” products. \nFor this purpose a sample of 616 respondents was selected. By the results of structural equal modeling, it revealed that there was positive association of categorization theory is found in this region. Pakistani consumers were more concerned about displaying their image and status by using foreign products in their relevant social groups. Similarly Value consciousness consumers had positive association with the home product country image and negative association with the foreign product country image. \n Global consumer culture had a positive influence on Cosmopolitan consumers. They were found to show preference for both foreign product and domestic products. Whereas National Identity theory had no influence on Pakistani consumers because they felt that they were quite patriotic but still hold a positive perception about foreign country’s products; and their ethnocentrism did not pose a hurdle in their decisions to buy foreign products.

To experimentally investigate the change in air distribution in cold storage because of induce draught, a reduced scaled experimental setup is developed. Air velocity is measured by using hot wire anemometer. Air distribution is most important criteria for design and operation of cold storage chamber. Quality and life of food stuff in cold storage highly dependent on air distribution as temperature filed are likely varies as per flow of air. In this paper customization of air flow using induced duct is discussed. It has been observed that in a cold chamber air flow is heterogeneous it cause number of temperature zones in chamber, high respiration rate and various relative humidity zone, all these leads to loss of stored items through perish. An experimental setup of geometrically similar reduce scale model of cold storage (6m (l) x 4m (w) x 4m (h)) is developed by taking ratio one fourth of actual dimensions. Outcome of this work proposed that use of reverse duct to produce induce draught for enhance the air flow in farthest part of cold room, which will leads to improve the temperature distribution in chamber. Uniform air flow distribution help to reduce the loss of perishable agricultural product and increased their safe storage period