An analysis of the effect of process parameters on the formability of sheet metal

This investigation is in two parts, theory and experimental verification. (1) Theoretical Study In this study it is, for obvious reasons, necessary to analyse the concept of formability first. For the purpose of the present investigation it is sufficient to define the four aspects of formability as follows: (a) the formability of the material at a critical section, (b) the formability of the material in general, (c) process efficiency, (d) proportional increase in surface area. A method of quantitative assessment is proposed for each of the four aspects of formability. The theoretical study also includes the distinction between coaxial and non-coaxial strains which occur, respectively, in axisymmetrical and unsymmetrical forming processes and the inadequacy of the circular grid system for the assessment of formability is explained in the light of this distinction. (2) Experimental Study As one of the bases of the experimental work, the determination of the end point of a forming process, which sets the limit to the formability of the work material, is discussed. The effects of three process parameters on draw-in are shown graphically. Then the delay of fracture in sheet metal forming resulting from draw-in is analysed in kinematical terms, namely, through the radial displacements, the radial and the circumferential strains, and the projected thickness of the workpiece. Through the equilibrium equation of the membrane stresses, the effect on the shape of the unsupported region of the workpiece, and hence the position of the critical section is explained. Then, the effect of draw-in on the four aspects of formability is discussed throughout this investigation. The triangular coordinate system is used to present and analyse the triaxial strains involved. This coordinate system has the advantage of showing all the three principal strains in a material simultaneously, as well as representing clearly the many types of strains involved in sheet metal work.

The role of the English language in the context of national development vision 2025 with specific reference to agriculture in Tanzania

After thirty years of vacillation, the Tanzanian government has made a firm decision to Swahilize its secondary education system. It has also embarked on an ambitious economic and social development programme (Vision 2025) to transform its peasant society into a modern agricultural community. However, there is a faction in Tanzania opposed to Kiswahili as the medium of education. Already many members of the middle and upper class their children to English medium primary schools to avoid the Kiswahili medium public schools and to prepare their children for the English medium secondary system presently in place. Within the education system, particularly at university level, there is a desire to maintain English as the medium of education. English is seen to provide access to the international scientific community, to cutting edge technology and to the global economy. My interest in this conflict of interests stems from several years' experience teaching English to students at Sokoine University of Agriculture. Students specialise in agriculture and are expected to work with the peasant population on graduation. The students experience difficulties studying in English and then find their Kiswahili skills insufficient to explain to farmers the new techniques and technologies that they have studied in English. They are hampered by a complex triglossic situation in which they use their mother tongue with family and friends, Kiswahili, the national language for early education and most public communication within Tanzania, and English for advanced studies. My aim in this thesis was - to study the language policy in Tanzania and see how it is understood and implemented; - to examine the attitudes towards the various languages and their various roles; - to investigate actual language behaviour in Tanzanian higher education. My conclusion is that the dysfunctionality of the present study has to be addressed. Diglossic public life in Tanzania has to be accommodated. The only solution appears to be a compromise, namely a bilingual education system which supports from all cases of society by using Kiswahili, together with an early introduction of English and its promotion as a privileged foreign language, so that Tanzania can continue to develop internally through Kiswahili and at the same time retain access to the globalising world through the medium of English.

From ideal to real:a longitudinal study of the role of implicit leadership theories on leader-member exchanges and employee outcomes

The results of the present longitudinal study demonstrate the importance of implicit leadership theories (ILTs) for the quality of leader-member exchanges (LMX) and employees' organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and well-being. Results based on a sample of 439 employees who completed the study questionnaires at 2 time points showed that the closer employees perceived their actual manager's profile to be to the ILTs they endorsed, the better the quality of LMX. Results also indicated that the implicit-explicit leadership traits difference had indirect effects on employee attitudes and well-being. These findings were consistent across employee groups that differed in terms of job demand and the duration of manager-employee relation, but not in terms of motivation. Furthermore, crossed-lagged modeling analyses of the longitudinal data explored the possibility of reciprocal effects between implicit-explicit leadership traits difference and LMX and provided support for the initially hypothesized direction of causal effects.

A comparative evaluation of the legislative controls on unfair terms and exemption clauses in consumer and business contracts in England and Brazil

The purpose of the present study is to make a comparative evaluation of the legislative controls on unfairness in the context of B2B, B2C and small businesses contracts in England and Brazil. This work will focus on the examination of statutes and relevant case law which regulate exemption clauses and terms on the basis of their ‘unfairness’. The approach adopted by legislation and courts towards the above controls may vary according to the type of contract. Business contracts are more in line with the classical model of contract law according to which parties are presumably equals and able to negotiate terms. As a consequence interventions should be avoided for the sake of freedom of contract even if harmful terms were included. Such assumption of equality however is not applicable to small businesses contracts because SMEs are often in a disadvantageous position in relation to their larger counterparties. Consumer contracts in their turn are more closely regulated by the English and Brazilian legal systems which recognised that vulnerable parties are more exposed to unfair terms imposed by the stronger party as a result of the inequality of bargaining power. For this reason those jurisdictions adopted a more interventionist approach to provide special protection to consumers which is in line with the modern law of contract. The contribution of this work therefore consists of comparing how the law of England and Brazil tackles the problem of ‘unfairness’ in the above types of contracts. This study will examine the differences and similarities between rules and concepts of both jurisdictions with references to the law of their respective regional trade agreements (EU and the Mercosul). Moreover it will identify existing issues in the English and Brazilian legislation and recommend lessons that one system can learn from the other.

Local delivery of the KCa3.1 blocker, TRAM-34, prevents acute angioplasty-induced coronary smooth muscle phenotypic modulation and limits stenosis

Objective-We previously demonstrated that upregulation of intermediate-conductance Ca2+ -activated K+ channels (KCa 3.1) is necessary for mitogen-induced phenotypic modulation in isolated porcine coronary smooth muscle cells (SMCs). The objective of the present study was to determine the role of KCa3.1 in the regulation of coronary SMC phenotypic modulation in vivo using a swine model of postangioplasty restenosis. Methods and Results-Balloon angioplasty was performed on coronary arteries of swine using either noncoated or balloons coated with the specific KCa3.1 blocker TRAM-34. Expression of KCa3.1, c-jun, c-fos, repressor element-1 silencing transcription factor (REST), smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (SMMHC), and myocardin was measured using qRT-PCR in isolated medial cells 2 hours and 2 days postangioplasty. KCa3.1, c-jun, and c-fos mRNA levels were increased 2 hours postangioplasty, whereas REST expression decreased. SMMHC expression was unchanged at 2 hours, but decreased 2 days postangioplasty. Use of TRAM-34 coated balloons prevented KCa3.1 upregulation and REST downregulation at 2 hours, SMMHC and myocardin downregulation at 2 days, and attenuated subsequent restenosis 14 and 28 days postangioplasty. Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated corresponding changes at the protein level. Conclusion-Blockade of KCa3.1 by delivery of TRAM-34 via balloon catheter prevented smooth muscle phenotypic modulation and limited subsequent restenosis. © 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.

The Experience of the Arnamagnæan Institute, Copenhagen

The Arnamagnæan Institute, principally in the form of the present writer, has been involved in a number of projects to do with the digitisation, electronic description and text-encoding of medieval manuscripts. Several of these projects were dealt with in a previous article 'The view from the North: Some Scandinavian digitisation projects', NCD review, 4 (2004), pp. 22-30. This paper looks in some depth at two others, MASTER and CHLT. The Arnamagnæan Institute is a teaching and research institute within the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen. It is named after the Icelandic scholar and antiquarian Árni Magnússon (1663-1730), secretary of the Royal Danish Archives and Professor of Danish Antiquities at the University of Copenhagen, who in the course of his lifetime built up what is arguably the single most important collection of early Scandinavian manuscripts in the world, some 2,500 manuscript items, the earliest dating from the 12th century. The majority of these are from Iceland, but the collection also contains important Norwegian, Danish and Swedish manuscripts, along with approximately 100 manuscripts of continental provenance. In addition to the manuscripts proper, there are collections of original charters and apographa: 776 Norwegian (including Faroese, Shetlandic and Orcadian) charters and 2895 copies, 1571 Danish charters and 1372 copies, and 1345 Icelandic charters and 5942 copies. When he died in 1730, Árni Magnússon bequeathed his collection to the University of Copenhagen. The original collection has subsequently been augmented through individual purchases and gifts and the acquisition of a number of smaller collections, bringing the total to nearly 3000 manuscript items, which, with the charters and apographa, comprise over half a million pages.

Neuropathology of the sporadic and variant subtypes of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease:a comparative quantitative study

The objective of the present study was to compare quantitatively the neuropathology of two subtypes of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), viz., sporadic CJD (sCJD) and variant CJD (vCJD). The vacuolation (‘spongiform change’), surviving neurons, glial cell nuclei, and deposits of the disease form of prion protein (PrPsc) were quantified in histological sections of the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum in 11 cases of sCJD and 15 cases of vCJD. Three aspects of the quantitative pathology of each histological feature were studied: overall abundance (density or coverage), spatial distribution parallel to the tissue boundary, and laminar distribution across gyri of the cerebral cortex. Overall vacuole density was greater in sCJD than in vCJD in some regions while overall neuronal densities were greater in vCJD. In cerebral cortex, vacuoles and PrPsc deposits were distributed in clusters which exhibited a regular distribution parallel to the pia mater, this type of spatial pattern being more frequent in sCJD than in vCJD. In some cortical gyri there were differences in laminar distribution between subtypes, viz. the vacuolation was more generally distributed across cortical laminae in sCJD, neuronal loss was often greater in upper laminae in vCJD but in lower laminae in sCJD, and PrPsc deposits were more frequently distributed in upper laminae in vCJD but in lower laminae in sCJD. A significant gliosis affected lower cortical laminae in both sCJD and vCJD. Hence, there were differences in degeneration of cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum in sCJD and vCJD, which may reflect variations in disease aetiology and propagation of PrPsc through the brain.

Comparative quantitative neuropathology of the sporadic and variant subtypes of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

The objective of the present study was to compare quantitatively the neuropathology of two subtypes of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), viz., sporadic CJD (sCJD) and variant CJD (vCJD). The vacuolation (‘spongiform change’), surviving neurons, glial cell nuclei, and deposits of the disease form of prion protein (PrPsc) were quantified in histological sections of the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum in 11 cases of sCJD and 15 cases of vCJD. Three aspects of the quantitative pathology of each histological feature were studied: overall abundance (density or coverage), spatial distribution parallel to the tissue boundary, and laminar distribution across gyri of the cerebral cortex. Overall vacuole density was greater in sCJD than in vCJD in some regions while overall neuronal densities were greater in vCJD. In cerebral cortex, vacuoles and PrPsc deposits were distributed in clusters which exhibited a regular distribution parallel to the pia mater, this type of spatial pattern being more frequent in sCJD than in vCJD. In some cortical gyri there were differences in laminar distribution between subtypes, viz. the vacuolation was more generally distributed across cortical laminae in sCJD, neuronal loss was often greater in upper laminae in vCJD but in lower laminae in sCJD, and PrPsc deposits were more frequently distributed in upper laminae in vCJD but in lower laminae in sCJD. A significant gliosis affected lower cortical laminae in both sCJD and vCJD. Hence, there were differences in degeneration of cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum in sCJD and vCJD, which may reflect variations in disease aetiology and propagation of PrPsc through the brain.

Az átalakuló globális pénzügyi szabályozórendszer kérdései = Dilemmas of the changing global financial regulation system

Erősődő igény van a jelenlegi sokoldalú nemzetközi felügyeleti rendszer reformjára úgy, hogy az a nemzeti gazdaságpolitikák nemzetközi hatásait is figyelembe vegye. Ehhez át kell reformálni a jelenlegi globális pénzügyi szabályozási rendszert, de ki kell alakítani a nemzeti gazdaságpolitikák egymásra hatásának koordinációját is. Ide tartozik a globális külső sokkok csillapítására szolgáló anti-ciklikus finanszírozás, a nemzetközi adózási együttműködés fokozása, a nemzetközi adósságfinanszírozás tökéletesítése, vagy a globális fizetésieszköz-tartalékok és a fizetési rendszer viszonya. Ez utóbbi területen az SDR kiterjedtebb használatának feltételeit kell kimunkálni. A jelenlegi globális intézmények – WTO, Nemzetközi Valutaalap, Világbank – alapos megújítása elkerülhetetlen. A globális gazdasági koordináció intézményi kereteinek kidolgozása viszont még várat magára. A G20-ak csoportja – bár fontos reformokat kezdeményezett –, nem tekinthető a világgazdasági egyensúlytalanságok megoldása letéteményesének. A cél csak olyan globális intézményi struktúra lehet, amely egyaránt képes a világ nagy számú gazdaságai közötti koordinációs feladatok megoldására, s a döntések végrehajtásának kikényszerítésére. / === / The present multilateral international surveillance system needs to be reformed with an eye on international repercussions of national economic policies. The present global financial architecture, the coordination of interplays of national economic policies must be modified. An anti-cyclical financing capable of absorbing global external shocks, strengthening of international tax cooperation, improving international debt financing or the relations between global financial reserves and the global payment system might be part and parcel of this process. A more extended use of SDR could be worked out. Reforms of the present global institutions – the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank – cannot be avoided any further. Institutional frameworks of global economic coordination mechanism have still not been worked out. The Group of 20 (G-20) cannot be seen as the sole player in fighting world economic disequlibria. A global institutional system is envisaged, which is able to implement economic coordination among national economic units and to enforce the implementation of decisions taken. At present there is no global institution dealing with coherence and consistency of global issues. Reforming present institutions and/or designing new ones are possible options. The basis for such an international coordination must involve general acceptance of principles, transparent implementation, and enforcement of decisions taken.

What lessons can we learn from the present economic crisis for the possible future strategies of enterprises - lesson from Hungary and Slovakia

The paper explores the characteristics of the present economic crisis at enterprise level and its comsequences for possible growth after the crisis. The study builds on international experiences concerning recovery from crisis during the previous economic downturns between 1980 and 2002. Survey results in Hungary and Slovakia are presented with special attention to how companies tried to react to the present economic recession. The study analyses the possible consequences of the strategies followed by the Slovakian and Hungarian firms during the crisis period from the point of view of capabilities for utilizing the options for growth when demand will start to increase.

A virtuális térben élő fogyasztó – A Second Life hatása a fogyasztói magatartásra (Consumer in the virtual world – Affect of the Second Life to the consumer behavior)

A virtuális szociális világok, úgy mint a Second Life, egyre nagyobb népszerűségre téve szert, hamar az üzleti érdeklődés középpontjában találták magukat. A szerző célja, hogy feltérképezze a virtuális identitás és a fogyasztói magatartás közötti kapcsolat mibenlétét a Second Life világában. Ezért először bemutatja, hogy miként működik a Second Life és milyen jellemzőkkel rendelkezik. Másodszor ismerteti, hogy az on-line identitásalkotás miként befolyásolja üzleti szempontból az individuális viselkedést. A Second Life vizsgálata során a virtuális identitás fogalmát használja föl, mely összevethető az egyén valódi életbeli identitásával. Harmadszor: rátér a kutatási részre, amely során a Second Life világában kialakított identitás jellemzőit vizsgálta. Négy virtuális identitástípust azonosított, melyeknek más és más kapcsolata van a virtuális fogyasztás jelenségével. Végezetül: kiemeli azokat az eredményeket és megállapításokat, melyeket a vállalatoknak különösképpen figyelembe kell venniük a pszichológiai nézőpont szempontjából ahhoz, hogy eredményesen szerepeljenek a virtuális világokban. ________ Given their increasing popularity, virtual worlds, such as Second Life, attracted the attention of the business media. The aim of the present article is to explore the relationship between virtual identity and consumer behaviour in Second Life. First, the author reviews Second Life functions and particular characteristics. Second, he illustrates how online identity construction affects one’s behaviour in such environments from a business perspective. Third, the author demonstrates his findings associated with identity construction in Second Life. More specifically, four different types of virtual identities can be identified, each with slightly different implications toward virtual consumption. Finally, he highlights the major points to which companies should pay particular attention in their virtual social world activities, focusing on the psychological mechanisms that influence people’s online behaviour and thinking.

A hazai védekezőtől a regionális „támadóig” – az OTP nemzetköziesedésének időbeni alakulása (From the domestic defender to the regional striker – a timebased process of the OTP Bank’s internationalization)

A vállalatok nemzetköziesedése egy széles körben vizsgált szakterület, különösképpen olyan vállalatok esetében (az ún. tradicionális multik), amelyek hagyományosan nemzetközi orientációjú országokból (Triád) származnak. A nemzetközi piacokon viszonylag újnak számító közép-kelet-európai cégek terjeszkedése az üzleti kontextus változásával párhuzamosan zajlott. Következésképpen ahhoz, hogy megértsük a nemzetköziesedés időben zajló folyamatát, a vállalatok nemzetközi evolúcióját a kontextussal összefüggésben kell vizsgálni. A vállalatok nemzetköziesedésének legelterjedtebb kutatási módszerei a nagymintás keresztmetszeti vizsgálatok, amelyek nem adnak lehetőséget a nemzetközi fejlődés időbeni alakulásának megfigyelésére és a mintázat mögött rejlő valós okok feltárására. A jelen tanulmány egy longitudinális kutatási modell mentén vizsgálja egy nem tradicionális multi, a hazai OTP nemzetköziesedésének időbeni alakulását, feltárva a nemzetközivé válás folyamata során kialakuló komplex kapcsolatrendszert. _______ The purpose of the present paper is to describe the internationalisation process of a non-traditional multinational, the Hungarian OTP Bank and to understand the dynamic linkages between the spatial and temporal context and the content of firm internationalization using a phenomenon oriented longitudinal research design. The paper contributes to the time-based processual view of firm internationalization arguing that in order to understand firm internationalization along time one should observe organizations and their contextual environments as complex interacting processes. By analysing the interaction between the multi-level processes that shape internationalization, one can explore the reasons behind the dynamic profile of firm internationalization. The paper applies an interpretative approach focusing on local causality.

Evaluation of the internal structural validity of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition) anxiety disorders in children and adolescents

The purpose of the present dissertation was to evaluate the internal validity of symptoms of four common anxiety disorders included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fourth edition (text revision) (DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000), namely, separation anxiety disorder (SAD), social phobia (SOP), specific phobia (SP), and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), in a sample of 625 youth (ages 6 to 17 years) referred to an anxiety disorders clinic and 479 parents. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were conducted on the dichotomous items of the SAD, SOP, SP, and GAD sections of the youth and parent versions of the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV (ADIS-IV: C/P; Silverman & Albano, 1996) to test and compare a number of factor models including a factor model based on the DSM. Contrary to predictions, findings from CFAs showed that a correlated model with five factors of SAD, SOP, SP, GAD worry, and GAD somatic distress, provided the best fit of the youth data as well as the parent data. Multiple group CFAs supported the metric invariance of the correlated five factor model across boys and girls. Thus, the present study’s finding supports the internal validity of DSM-IV SAD, SOP, and SP, but raises doubt regarding the internal validity of GAD.^

Tests of the Intersensory Redundancy Hypothesis across early postnatal development

The Intersensory Redundancy Hypothesis (IRH; Bahrick & Lickliter, 2000, 2002, 2012) predicts that early in development information presented to a single sense modality will selectively recruit attention to modality-specific properties of stimulation and facilitate learning of those properties at the expense of amodal properties (unimodal facilitation). Vaillant (2010) demonstrated that bobwhite quail chicks prenatally exposed to a maternal call alone (unimodal stimulation) are able to detect a pitch change, a modality-specific property, in subsequent postnatal testing between the familiarized call and the same call with altered pitch. In contrast, chicks prenatally exposed to a maternal call paired with a temporally synchronous light (redundant audiovisual stimulation) were unable to detect a pitch change. According to the IRH (Bahrick & Lickliter, 2012), as development proceeds and the individual's perceptual abilities increase, the individual should detect modality-specific properties in both nonredundant, unimodal and redundant, bimodal conditions. However, when the perceiver is presented with a difficult task, relative to their level of expertise, unimodal facilitation should become evident. The first experiment of the present study exposed bobwhite quail chicks 24 hr after hatching to unimodal auditory, nonredundant audiovisual, or redundant audiovisual presentations of a maternal call for 10min/hr for 24 hours. All chicks were subsequently tested 24 hr after the completion of the stimulation (72 hr following hatching) between the familiarized maternal call and the same call with altered pitch. Chicks from all experimental groups (unimodal, nonredundant audiovisual, and redundant audiovisual exposure) significantly preferred the familiarized call over the pitch-modified call. The second experiment exposed chicks to the same exposure conditions, but created a more difficult task by narrowing the pitch range between the two maternal calls with which they were tested. Chicks in the unimodal and nonredundant audiovisual conditions demonstrated detection of the pitch change, whereas the redundant audiovisual exposure group did not show detection of the pitch change, providing evidence of unimodal facilitation. These results are consistent with predictions of the IRH and provide further support for the effects of unimodal facilitation and the role of task difficulty across early development.

The role of the transcription factor Ets1 in melanocyte development

Melanocytes, pigment-producing cells, derive from the neural crest (NC), a population of pluripotent cells that arise from the dorsal aspect of the neural tube during embryogenesis. Many genes required for melanocyte development were identified using mouse pigmentation mutants. The deletion of the transcription factor Ets1 in mice results in hypopigmentation; nevertheless, the function of Ets1 in melanocyte development is unknown. The goal of the present study was to establish the temporal requirement and role of Ets1 in murine melanocyte development. In the mouse, Ets1 is widely expressed in developing organs and tissues, including the NC. In the chick cranial NC, Ets1 is required for the expression of Sox10, a transcription factor critical for the development of melanocytes, enteric ganglia, and other NC derivatives. ^ Using a combination of immunofluorescence and cell survival assays Ets1 was found to be required between embryonic days 10 and 11, when it regulates NC cell and melanocyte precursor (melanoblast) survival. Given the requirement of Ets1 for Sox10 expression in the chick cranial NC, a potential interaction between these genes was investigated. Using genetic crosses, a synergistic genetic interaction between Ets1 and Sox10 in melanocyte development was found. Since Sox10 is essential for enteric ganglia formation, the importance of Ets1 on gut innervation was also examined. In mice, Ets1 deletion led to decreased gut innervation, which was exacerbated by Sox10 heterozygosity. ^ At the molecular level, Ets1 was found to activate a Sox10 enhancer critical for Sox10 expression in melanoblasts. Furthermore, mutating Ets1 at a site I characterized in the spontaneous variable spotting mouse pigmentation mutant, led to a 2-fold decrease in enhancer activation. Overexpression and knockdown of Ets1 did not affect Sox10 expression; nonetheless, Ets1 knockdown led to a 6-fold upregulation of the transcription factor Sox9, a gene required for melanocyte and chondrocyte development, but which impairs melanocyte development when its expression is prolonged. Together, these results suggest that Ets1 is required early during melanocyte development for NC cell and melanoblast survival, possibly acting upstream of Sox10. The transcription factor Ets1 may also act indirectly in melanocyte fate specification by repressing Sox9 expression, and consequently cartilage fate.^