320 research outputs found
The Rise of Opaque Products as an Efficient Revenue Management Technique in the Travel Industry
No full textThis paper discusses and reviews in detail about opaque products which is also known as probabilistic goods, right from its inception and beginnings in early 2000’s. Opaque products are virtual goods and can be considered as a relatively new revenue management technique that has aided mainly the travel industry, specifically the airlines and hotels to increase their revenues and profits by intentionally withholding certain key information for some of the products to the customers. For Example, in airline industry the information may be product attributes like carrier, transfers, departure time etc. These products primarily trades consumption value for price savings with the buyers. Several models of opaque products which segment the market, thereby enhancing price discrimination and providing revenue enhancement, specifically in the airline industry have been described in this paper. A specific type of opaque product known as variable opaque product has also been described. Such variable opaque products allow the customer to pick and choose the attributes thereby varying the opaqueness. Thus, they have been found extremely advantageous and provide financial benefits to the airlines while providing welfare to the customers. The advantages of opaque selling models both to the customer as well as the airlines under certain types of environment has also been discussed along with its extensive applications in seat inventory control and inter-temporal pricing. Finally, the paper comes up with a few useful propositions that can be either tested empirically or modelled appropriately along with probable future work that should provide a vivid reader with the necessary spark that would aid him or her to contribute to further useful work in this area
The management learning tool: Andragogy
No full textThe name andragogy was first used by a German grammar school teacher named Alexander Kapp in 1833 to portray the educational theory of the Greek philosopher Plato. He used it to refer to the normal process by which adults engage in continuing education. The first use of the term "andragogy" to catch the extensive attention of adult educators was in 1968, when Knowles, then a professor of adult education at Boston University, introduced the term (then spelled "andragogy") through a journal article. Andragogy is an educational theory that utilizes the adult’s life experiences to teach and aid in learning rather than using someone else’s experience in an attempt to teach. Since this is a way of teaching and learning, the principles lend andragogy to be accepted as a theory. Andragogy applies to any form of adult learning and has been used extensively in the design of organizational training programs (especially for "soft skill" domains such as management development). Andragogical methods are best when they can be applied are in community situation and industry/corporate situations that are supportive of a self-directed learner. Human Resource departments should also consider andragogical principals when designing their employee development programs, providing the organization whose management style is one that is represented by McGregor’s Theory Y. By placing a value on training and development, employees will be motivated to learn new skills to help them in their career development.Andragogy, Management learning tool
Continuous supply chain collaboration : Road to achieve operational excellence
No full textSupply chain management (SCM) is becoming critical as firms recognize that competition is shifting from company versus company to supply chain versus supply chain. In the present competitive scenario, the fierce competition has driven most companies to seek means of enhancing performance beyond their four wall boundaries. The firm’s ability in collaborating with its upstream and downstream partners determines its success in attaining better performance with supply chain collaboration; a firm is able to serve fragmented markets in which end customers require more product varieties and availability with shorter product life cycle and at the same time lower supply chain costs. Hence, this paper introduces the framework of continuous supply chain collaboration (CSCC), which extends the traditional frame of reference in strategic sourcing from a supplier centric to a supply-chain-scope as continuous improvement efforts to enhance the customer satisfaction. CSCC practices are rather exceptional, yet CSCC is believed to be the single most comprehensive framework for attaining operational excellence.Continuous supply chain collaboration (CSCC); Supply chain management: Continuous improvement; Operational excellence; Supply Chain Management
Control of capillary break-up in spiralling liquid jets
No full textA cylindrical column of fluid breaks into drops under the action of surface tension when other forces are relatively small. This phenomenon is called the capillary break-up. Since the introduction of the seminal theory of inertial-capillary jet instability by Rayleigh in the late 19th century, this phenomenon has seen a rich influx of academic research and industrial interests over the past few decades. The theory suggests that out of all the unstable wavelengths only the most unstable wavelength determines the drop size. But in reality, random background perturbations and non-linear pinch-off dynamics result in bi-modal drop size distribution. The two peaks in the bi-modal distribution correspond to the formation of main drops and satellite drops. The main drops are the desired product of the industry and the satellite drops are relatively smaller in size and are discarded by post-production processes like sieving. To reduce post-production processes and ensure repeatability, the industrial demand is to have a "narrow uni-modal" drop size distribution. Meaning, elimination of satellite drops and having uniform-sized main drops. Narrow distribution is achieved by employing finite-amplitude perturbation on the jet. This way the jet is not affected by the random background perturbation as the finite-amplitude perturbation dominates the break-up process. But this does not ensure satellite drop elimination. Uni-modality is achieved when the satellite drops merge with the main drops. Merging happens when the satellite and the main drop have different velocities and follow the same trajectory. The amplitude of the sinusoidal perturbation can be tuned to have this merging condition. The externally perturbed jet finds its application in a plethora of industrial processes such as powder production, combustion, micro-encapsulation, extreme ultraviolet rays (EUV) and, laser-plasma production (LPP), ink-jet printing, etc. The focus of this thesis is the production of crystalline fertilizer pellets from the capillary break-up of a spiralling jet of molten fertilizer. This process is called rotary prilling. Experimental studies in spiraling jets without external perturbation also shows bi-modal distribution of drops. The fine satellite drops produced in prilling process are a potential safety hazard as they can cause dust explosions which can be detrimental to air quality. Expensive filters and wet scrubbers are placed inside the prilling tower to remove the fine satellite drops. Hence uni-modal drop size distribution in prilling is highly beneficial for both economic and environmental reasons. As perturbed spiralling jets are not studied in detail in the existing literature, this thesis employs sinusoidal perturbations on spiraling water jets and aims to achieve uni-modal drop size distribution. While the straight jets have a nearly constant base flow, the spiraling jets have a base flow that accelerates due to the centrifugal and Coriolis forces in the downstream direction. As a result of mass conservation the accelerating base flow results in jet stretching in the downstream direction. The evolution of perturbations on such a stretched jet not only depends on surface tension and inertial forces of the local jet radius, but also on the wavelength that is excited initially. Hence the evolution of perturbations on straight jets with constant base flow is an eigen-value problem whereas, on a stretched jet it is an initial value problem. When the stretching rate is faster than the capillary growth rate damping of the surface perturbations will occur. For the process parameters investigated in this thesis, the capillary growth rate is faster resulting in negligible damping. The other effect of jet stretching is that the wavelengths are also stretched, that is the wavelength that is excited initially becomes longer in the downstream direction, thus the wavenumber decreases. The linear spatial instability theory for spiraling jets is experimentally validated in this thesis. For the set of non-dimensional numbers chosen in this thesis, uni-modal distribution of drops is achieved by tuning the frequency and amplitude of the sinusoidal perturbation. Uni-modality is observed when the non-dimensional wavenumber near break-up is approximately 0.7 and the amplitude is tuned accordingly. As the wavenumber decreases in downstream direction the wavenumber excited at the nozzle should be greater than 0.7
Rigid Pavement Concrete by Adding GGBS and River Sand in Accelerate Curing Method
No full textThis method of concrete mix design consists of selection of optimum properties of ingredients, i.e., cement, mineral admixture, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate, water and chemical admixture if needed to produce concrete specified properties such as strength, workability and durability, etc. as economic as possible. The compressive strength of hardened concrete which is generally considered to be an index its properties depends upon its factor, e.g., quality, quality of cement, water, aggregate; placing, compacting and curing. The cost of concrete is made up of cost of material the variation in cost of material a rise in fact that in cement several time costly then aggregate thus the aim to produce a lean mix. In this paper, concrete pavement has designed by adding mineral admixture in reduction of cement content up to 32% and reduce the cost of concrete mix and also to attain its equal strength of concrete
Spin-crossover in iron(II)-phenylene ethynylene-2,6-di(pyrazol-1-yl) pyridine hybrids: Toward switchable molecular wire-like architectures
No full textLuminescent oligo(p-phenylene ethynylene) (OPE) and spin-crossover (SCO) active Fe(II)-2,6-di(pyrazol-1-yl) pyridine (BPP) systems are prominent examples proposed to develop functional materials such as molecular wires/memories. A marriage between OPE and Fe(II)-BPP systems is a strategy to obtain supramolecular luminescent ligands capable of metal coordination useful to produce novel spin-switchable hybrids with synergistic coupling between spin-state of Fe(II) and a physical property associated with the OPE skeleton, for example, electronic conductivity or luminescence. To begin in this direction, two novel ditopic ligands, namely L1 and L2, featuring OPE-type backbone end-capped with metal coordinating BPP were designed and synthetized. The ligand L2 tailored with 2-ethylhexyloxy chains at the 2 and 5 positions of the OPE skeleton shows modulated optical properties and improved solubility in common organic solvents relative to the parent ligand L1. Solution phase complexation of L1 and L2 with Fe(BF4)2•6H2O resulted in the formation of insoluble materials of the composition [Fe(L1)]n(BF4)2n and [Fe(L2)]n(BF4)2n as inferred from elemental analyses. Complex [Fe(L1)]n(BF4)2n underwent thermal SCO centred at T 1/2 = 275 K as well as photoinduced low-spin to high-spin transition with the existence of the metastable high-spin state up to 52 K. On the other hand, complex [Fe(L2)]n(BF4)2n, tethered with 2-ethylhexyloxy groups, showed gradual and half-complete SCO with 50% of the Fe(II)-centres permanently blocked in the high-spin state due to intermolecular steric interactions. The small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) pattern of the as-prepared solid complex [Fe(L1)]n(BF4)2n revealed the presence of nm-sized crystallites implying a possible methodology towards the template-free synthesis of functional-SCO nanostructures
INVESTIGATION ON START-UP CHARACTERISTICS OF CRYOGENIC HEAT PIPES
No full textABSTRACT Heat pipe is a device which transfers heat from one location to another with a small temperature gradient. Application includes use of cryogenic heat pipe in cooling infrared sensors, laser systems, cryocoolers, thermal control large superconducting magnets and tumor surgery. This paper deals with transient behavior of cryogenic heat pipes with wire mesh and axial grooved wick using nitrogen and oxygen as working fluid. A special liquid nitrogen cryostat has been designed and developed for evaluating the transient behavior of heat pipes at 77 K when the condenser portion is connected to the cold sink externally. In this study, the start-up characteristic of heat pipes is experimentally investigated. Keywords: cryogenic heat pipe, start up behavior. INTRODUCTION A heat pipe is a self-contained structure, which achieves very high thermal conductance by means of capillary circulation. It utilizes the latent heat of the vaporized working fluid for transfer of heat. As a result, the effective thermal conductivity is several orders of magnitudes higher than that of the good solid conductors. As illustrated i
Production and size characterization of graphene
No full textGraphene, a 2D nanomaterial made of carbon, has gained interest in the scientific community since its discovery in 2004. Among other properties, graphene has excellent tensile strength, electrical and thermal conductivity and can be used as catalyst. Graphene has no shortage of applications, but large scale production methods are yet to be developed. LPE is a promising method, in which the layers that make up graphite are separated to produce graphene in a liquid medium. However, the flakes that are produced are polydispersed in size and thickness, which leads to the need for size selection. Current studies have achieved size selection with centrifugation. However, centrifugation has thus far been a trial and-error procedure, without understanding the underlying physics and statistics. This research focuses on creating a rational basis by combining experiments with simulations based on fluid dynamics and statistics. By combining results from simulations and experiments we are able to arrive at the size distributions of initial stock dispersion of graphene that was made from LPE. The simulations entail plate particle settling in a tube, where randomly generated polydisperse particles are randomly distributed in a tube. Stokes settling velocity is assumed for each particle. In parallel to this, we perform sedimentation experiments of stock dispersion at fixed relative centrifugal force (RCF) for different times. From the experiments we know the mass transfer from the supernatant to the sediment and the average thickness of the plates in the supernatant. Both these experimental results allow us to narrow the initial particle size distributions we assumed in the simulations. Thus we have developed a technique based on simple experiments and simulations that gives great insight into particle size distribution without having to perform tedious characterization such as AFM or TEM. Once the particle size distribution is known for a specific LPE protocol, it will allow the likes of both industry and academia to standardize graphene quality.<br/
Comments on ‘microstructural evolution of hydroformed inconel 625 bellows’
No full textInternational audienceIn a recent paper, E. Pavithra and V.S. Senthil Kumar [Journal of Alloys and Compounds 669 (2016) 199] studied the microstructure evolutions during fatigue of hydroformed bellows made of Alloy 625. The authors made several shortcuts in their analysis of microstructure evolutions after two fatigue tests performed at room temperature and at 650 °C. Moreover, the conclusions of the paper are not supported by the very poor SEM observations provided in this paper. The aim of the present comments is to reconsider these results based on the available literature on the microstructure evolutions and fatigue properties of Alloy 625
The forest departement and forest richts act India
No full textIndian forests are predominantly (98.46%) owned and managed under command and control system by State through State Forest Departments (SFD) since 1865. Numerous legislations enacted by the States since 1865, has alienated people from forests, and curtailed their forest related rights severely. However, owing to acute dependence on forest for habitation and livelihood needs, tribal and other forest dependent people continue to stay and use forests unauthorisedly, facing stiff resistance of SFD‟s. Their prolonged struggle for recognition of their forest related rights has led the Government of India to enact “Forest Rights Act” (FRA) in the year 2006, which confers host of forest use and habitation rights to the forest dependent communities. It also empowers them to protect and manage the State owned forests. Such empowerment places them on equal footing with SFD in management of State owned forests and lead to existence of two parallel power structures at village level. Therefore, the FRA is considered as an important piece of legislation in decentralisation of forest governance to grass root level in India and expected to affect the working pattern and resilience of SFD‟s. Thereby, the implementation of FRA is likely to result in conflict between SFD and forest dependent communities due to their differing interest in forest management. Despite of enactment in the year 2006, the FRA has not yet implemented in many States in India. Among various reasons cited for poor progress, non-cooperation from SFD is also considered as a major factor. Contrary to the accusation, the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department (MPFD) in India is actively involved in implementation of FRA and the State of Madhya Pradesh leads other States in FRA works in India. Thereby, the MPFD provides scope to assess the effect of FRA on Forest Department working and its resilience. To assess these issues, a perception study was conducted among the forest officers of Madhya Pradesh, working at State, district, and village levels on how they view the effect and changes caused by FRA and their perceived position in the changed environmen
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