Archives-December 

Damping is the material's ability to dissipate elastic strain energy during cyclic loading. Materials with high damping capacity are significant in the present day scenario for transportation and other industrial applications. The development of materials with high damping capacity is one of the efficient measures to reduce vibrations, thereby noise. Low weight materials like aluminum and magnesium have excellent mechanical properties, but poor in damping.

The study has been done on the basis of questionnaire survey in the twenty-degree engineering colleges from West Bengal and foreign countries by random selection, ten colleges from each to measure the current or baseline performance level. The feedback for this questionnaire survey has been considered independently for service providers such as administrators, faculties, other supporting staff as well as students who receive these services and are direct customers. A total of 2168 persons have been surveyed from the 20 colleges. The baseline or current performance level of the colleges has been assessed based on the sigma level through quantification of the survey questionnaire consisting of eight enablers. Each enabler contains several questions or drivers. A seven-point scale has been designed for each driver ranging from “Unsatisfactory” to “Outstanding”.

In the current paper, the fundamental principles of Canada stock exchange are firstly reviewed and then, the importance of stock exchange’s instruments in Canada, especially their role in development of money and capital market, is investigated. Finally, some basic recommendations are presented.

Sand inclusion is an important defect in Cast Iron castings. On an average this defect is almost thirty to forty per cent of the total defects occurring in a foundry. Sand inclusion is undesirable since it results in reduction in the strength of the casting and bad finish of the casting surface. More than hundred parameters are responsible for sand inclusion and hence it is difficult to control defect during casting. A detailed Literature review of the previous work mostly on sand inclusion for almost last fifty years is done in this paper to find appropriate parameters for defect formation of sand inclusion. From the literature review it is found that the exact remedy for sand inclusion is not easy. The papers describing different techniques like Quality Function Deployment, cause and effect diagram, Design of Experiments etc. are also referred for finding the appropriate parameters responsible for sand inclusion. Corrective action should be taken on responsible parameters to eliminate the defect and improve quality of ferrous castings.

In order to get good-quality crystals, method of slow evaporation was adopted to grow pure and L-Arginine doped Zinc (tris) Thiourea sulphate (ZTS) single crystals. The grown crystals are semiorganic non linear in nature whose lattice parameter values were found out using single x-ray diffraction analysis. The different functional bond frequencies associated with the crystals, decomposition temperature, and weight loss were found out from Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopic analysis, differential thermal analysis (DTA), and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) respectively. The optical behavior, mechanical stability and etching nature were also analysed. The SHG efficiency of the grown crystals was measured through NLO studies.

Anamorphs are common and widespread. They are among the most successful groups of moulds with important roles in natural ecosystems and the human economy. The present paper deals with the study of aeromycological study of Dongargarh hill-top with the help of petriplate method in one year one year from May 2010- April 2011. 31 fungal floras were isolated during the investigation period. Only anamorphic fungal group contributes major 24 out of 31 fungal species. It was also observed that 341 colonies of anamorphic fungi isolated out of total 389 fungal colonies. The fungal species Cladosporium oxysporum, Fusarium Aspergillus, Penicillium,Curvularia,Cladosporium, Trichoderma etc were observed.

All over the world today, there is monumental degeneration and degradation of everything that hold human together for a better society. There is moral, economic, social and even political bankruptcy. There also exist natural disaster like the catastrophic earthquake – tsunami, great flash flood, hurricane and other natural disasters that have occurred and continue to occur claiming so many lives in recent times. In all these, catalysm, ruinations and great calamities, can humans be of assistance? Can we fix our seemingly titanic and mounting challenges? This paper seeks to analytically establish and affirm the cause of these problems and proffer a way out.

The Indian retail sector is going through a transformation and this emerging market is witnessing a significant change in its growth and investment pattern. Both existing and new players are experimenting with new retail formats. The growth and potential of the sector is being widely acknowledged both in the domestic as well as international forums. India topped AT Kearney’s Global Retail Development Index 2009 for the third consecutive year, retaining its position in the global market as the most preferred retail destination amongst emerging markets. Consumer dynamics in India is changing and the retailers need to take note of this and formulate their strategies and tactics to deliver value to the consumer. This paper investigates impact of emergence of modern retail formats on Indian consumers in organized and unorganized sector.

Current study intended to explore cost of financial distress in case of Pakistani manufacturing ongoing firms listed at KSE. In doing so, financial distress is divided into operating distress and financial but not operating distress. Sample consists of ongoing firms that were at least once on distress counter for the period of analysis. To conclude the proposed theory descriptive and independent t-test for mean differences are used. It is found that firms bear opportunity loss before and after entering to both operating and financial distress. Moreover, results also show that operating distress affects more to firms’ value as compared to financial but not operating distress category. However, result for pre financial but not operating distress is found insignificant. In conclusion current study provides opportunity to all investors, management and other stakeholders to assess firms’ performances before and after entering to both operating and financial distress.

The occurence of building collpased has become a national embarrasment with its human and societal casualties. The issue of load bearing capacity in terms of the number of occupants observed in the building in comparism with the standard expected occupancy ratio has not being well identified. The study therefore uses purposeful method to select six buildings from the collapsed buildings in different of areas of Ikeja lagos. Questions were administered Orally to the immediate residents of the collapsed buildings. With a chi square of 65.34% in the conducted analysis it reveals that therew is a strong statistical relationship between the observed load bearing capacity in terms of occupacncy rate and the standard expected. This tend to suggest that the the occurence of buildings collpased in lagos may be due to an abnormal occupancy ratio or a higher load bearing capacity. The study thus recommends a strict adherence to the use of building codes and zoning to enforce building design and type for residential areas and the adpotion of fees payment in lieu of default for those building with a higher ratio than normal.