An Evaluation of Inventory Management and Performance in Indian Machine Tool SMEs: An Exploratory Study

Inventory Management (IM) plays a decisive role in the enhancement of efficiency and competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises. Therefore, major manufacturing enterprises are following IM practices as a strategy to improve efficiency and achieve competitiveness. However, the spread of IM culture among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is limited due to lack of initiation, expertise and financial limitations in developed countries, leave alone developing countries. With this backdrop, this paper makes an attempt to ascertain the role and importance of IM practices and performance of SMEs in the machine tools industry of Bangalore, India. The relationship between inventory management practices and inventory cost are probed based on primary data gathered from 91 SMEs. The paper brings out that formal IM practices have a positive impact on the inventory performance of SMEs.

An analysis of MONTBLEX data on heat and momentum flux at Jodhpur

Parameterization of sensible heat and momentum fluxes as inferred from an analysis of tower observations archived during MONTBLEX-90 at Jodhpur is proposed, both in terms of standard exchange coefficients C-H and C-D respectively and also according to free convection scaling. Both coefficients increase rapidly at low winds (the latter more strongly) and with increasing instability. All the sensible heat flux data at Jodhpur (wind speed at 10m <(U)over bar (10)>, < 8ms(-1)) also obey free convection scaling, with the flux proportional to the '4/3' power of an appropriate temperature difference such as that between 1 and 30 m. Furthermore, for <(U)over bar (10)> < 4 ms(-1) the momentum flux displays a linear dependence on wind speed.

Studies of the specific gravity of some Indian coal ashes

One of the major problems faced by coal based thermal power stations is handling and disposal of ash. Among the various uses of fly ash, the major quantity of ash produced is used in geotechnical engineering applications such as construction of embankments, as a backfill material, etc. The generally low specific gravity of fly ash resulting in low unit weight as compared to soils is an attractive property for its use in geotechnical applications. In general, specific gravity of coal ash lies around 2.0 but can vary to a large extent (1.6 to 3.1). The variation of specific gravity of coal ash is due to the combination of various factors like gradation, particle shape, and chemical composition. Since specific gravity is an important physical property, it has been studied in depth for three Indian coal ashes and reported in this paper.

How do proteins fold?

Understanding the mechanism by which an unfolded polypeptide chain folds to its unique, functional structure is a primary unsolved problem in biochemistry. Fundamental advances towards understanding how proteins fold have come from kinetic studies, Kinetic studies allow the dissection of the folding pathway of a protein into individual steps that are defined by partially-structured folding intermediates. Improvements in both the structural and temporal resolution of physical methods that are used to monitor the folding process, as well as the development of new methodologies, are now making it possible to obtain detailed structural information on protein folding pathways. The protein engineering methodology has been particularly useful in characterizing the structures of folding intermediates as well as the transition state of folding, Several characteristics of protein folding pathways have begun to emerge as general features for the folding of many different proteins. Progress in our understanding of how structure develops during folding is reviewed here.

Childhood-as-rescue in the emergence and spread of the U.S. public school

In this volume, the editors have brought together prominent international contributors to examine the relevance of Foucauldian thought on educational theory, practice and institutional life. The result is a diverse collection that offers broad and engaging analyses of how power and knowledge are configured in the practices and norms of schooling. This text not only provides a critical examination of the significance of Foucauldian thought for education, but also discusses how Foucault's theories are arrayed in the everyday life of schools.

The use of tin and bronze in prehistoric southern Indian metallurgy

The medieval icons of southern India are among the most acclaimed Indian artistic innovations, especially those of the Chola Tamil kingdom (9th–10th centuries), which is best known for the Hindu iconography of the Dance of Siva that captured the imagination of master sculptor Rodin.1 Apart from these prolific images, however, not much was known about southern Indian copperbased metallurgy. Hence, these often spectacular castings have been regarded as a sudden efflorescence, almost without precedent, of skilled metallurgy as contrasted with tin-rich China or southeast Asia, for instance, where a developed copper-bronze tradition has been better appreciated.

Approximate solution of u'=-A2u using a relation between exp(-tA2) and exp(itA)

Let A be a positive definite operator in a Hilbert space and consider the initial value problem for u(t) = -A(2)u. Using a representation of the semigroup exp(-A(2)t) in terms of the group exp(iAt) we express u in terms of the solution of the standard heat equation w(t) = W-yy, with initial values v solving the initial value problem for v(y) = iAv. This representation is used to construct a method for approximating u in terms of approximations of v. In the case that A is a 2(nd) order elliptic operator the method is combined with finite elements in the spatial variable and then reduces the solution of the 4(th) order equation for u to that of the 2(nd) order equation for v, followed by the solution of the heat equation in one space variable.

Crystallographic study of push-pull ethylenes

From structural data of several crystal structure analyses of push-pull ethylenes it is found that C=C bond lengths in this class of molecules are significantly longer than the value for this bond in ethylene. With powerful donors and acceptors such as -NMe2 and -COOMe groups respectively, the C=C bond length is as long as 1.460 å. Correlations are observed between (i) C=C bond lengths and the twist angles about the C=C bond and (ii) C=C bond lengths and the torsional barrier measured by thednmr technique.

We need to fund more than just science priorities for Australia’s future

Australia's Science and Research Priorities focus on activating STEM researchers (science, technology, engineering, maths). In this article in The Conversation, Professor Marcus Foth argues that we need to fund more than just science priorities for Australia’s future.

The validity of the Adler-Bardeen theorem in the supersymmetric U(1) gauge model

Using the dimensional reduction regularization scheme, we show that radiative corrections to the anomaly of the axial current, which is coupled to the gauge field, are absent in a supersymmetric U(1) gauge model for both 't Hooft-Veltman and Bardeen prescriptions for γ5. We also discuss the results with reference to conventional dimensional regularization. This result has significant implications with respect to the renormalizability of supersymmetric models.

Cluster analysis of rainfall stations of the Indian peninsula

Principal component analysis is applied to derive patterns of temporal variation of the rainfall at fifty-three stations in peninsular India. The location of the stations in the coordinate space determined by the amplitudes of the two leading eigenvectors is used to delineate them into eight clusters. The clusters obtained seem to be stable with respect to variations in the grid of stations used. Stations within any cluster occur in geographically contiguous areas.

Adaptive significance of the Indian caste system: an ecological perspective

Indian society is an agglomeration of several thousand endogamous groups or castes each with a restricted geographical range and a hereditarily determine mode of subsistence. These reproductively isolated castes may be compared to biological species, and the society thought of as a biological community with each caste having its specific ecological niche. In this paper we examine the ecological-niche relationships of castes which are directly dependent on natural resources. Evidence is presented to show that castes living together in the same region had so organized their pattern of resource use as to avoid excessive intercaste competition for limiting resources. Furthermore, territorial division of the total range of the caste regulated intra-caste competition. Hence, a particular plant or animal resource in a given locality was used almost exclusively by a given lineage within a caste generation after generation. This favoured the cultural evolution of traditions ensuring sustainable use of natural resources. This must have contributed significantly to the stability of Indian caste society over several thousand years. The collapse of the base of natural resources and increasing monetarization of the economy has, however, destroyed the earlier complementarity between the different castes and led to increasing conflicts between them in recent years.

New species of Ptychozoon (Sauria: Gekkonidae) from the Nicobar Archipelago, Indian Ocean

A new species of Ptychozoon is described from the central portion of the Nicobar Archipelago, Bay of Bengal, India. It has been formerly referred to P. kuhli, a species widely distributed in Sundaland. Ptychozoon nicobarensis sp. nov. reaches an SVL of 100.3 mm, and is diagnosable from congeneric species in showing the following combination of characters: dorsum with a tan vertebral stripe, lacking dark transverse bars; supranasals in contact; cutaneous expansions on sides of head; absence of predigital notch in preantebrachial cutaneous expansion; imbricate parachute support scales; four irregular rows of low, rounded enlarged scales on dorsum; 20-29 scales across widest portion of tail terminus; three indistinct chevrons on dorsum; 7-11 pairs of preanal pores; femoral pores absent; tail with an expanded terminal flap and weak lobe fusion at proximal border of tail terminus. The curious distribution of the new species, centred around the central Nicobars is speculated to be the result of competition with and/or predation by large gekkonid species, to the north (Gekko verreauxi) and south (G. smithii) of the group of islands occupied by the new Ptychozoon from the central Nicobars.