• Wind and Structures
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.43-53
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• 2019

Vortex-induced vibration of three circular cylinders (each of diameter D) in an equilateral triangular arrangement is investigated using the immersed boundary method. The cylinders, with one placed upstream and the other two side-by-side downstream, are free to vibrate in the cross-flow direction. The cylinder center-to-center spacing L is adopted as L/D = 2.0. Other parameters include the Reynolds number Re = 100, mass ratio $m^*=2.0$, reduced velocity $U_r=2{\sim}15$ and damping ratio ${\zeta}=0$. Cylinder vibration responses are dependent on $U_r$ and classified into five regimes, i.e. Regime I ($U_r{\leq}3.2$), Regime II ($3.2<U_r{\leq}5.0$), Regime III ($5.0<U_r{\leq}6.4$), Regime IV ($6.4<U_r{\leq}9.2$) and Regime V ($U_r>9.2$). Different facets of vibration amplitude, hydrodynamic forces, wake patterns and displacement spectra are extracted and presented in detail for each regime.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.15-32
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• 2019

Much advancement has been made in wind power due to modern technological developments. The wind energy technology is the world's fastest-growing energy option. More power can be generated from wind energy by the use of new design and techniques of wind energy machines. The geographical areas with suitable wind speed are more favorable and preferred for wind power deployment over other sources of energy generation. Today's wind turbines are mainly the horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) and vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs). HAWTs are commercially available in various sizes starting from a few kilowatts to multi-megawatts and are suitable for almost all applications, including both onshore and offshore deployment. On the other hand, VAWTs finds their places in small and residential wind applications. The objective of the present work is to review the technological development, available sizes, efficiencies, structural types, and structural stability of VAWTs. Structural stability and efficiencies of the VAWTS are found to be dependent on the structural shape and size.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.65-75
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• 2019

A heated square cylinder (with height $A^*$) is kept parallel to the cold wall at a fixed gap height $0.5A^*$ from the wall. Another adiabatic rectangular cylinder (of same height $A^*$ and width $0.5A^*$) is placed upstream in an inline tandem arrangement. The spacing between the two cylinders is fixed at $3.0A^*$. The inlet flow is taken as Couette-Poiseuille flow based non-linear velocity profile. The conventional fluid (also known as base fluid) is chosen as water (W) whereas the nanoparticle material is selected as $Al_2O_3$. Numerical simulations are performed by using SIMPLE algorithm based Finite Volume approach with staggered grid arrangement. The dependencies of hydrodynamic and heat transfer characteristics of the cylinder on non-dimensional parameters governing the nanofluids and the fluid flow are explored here. A critical discussion is made on the mechanism of improvement/reduction (due to the presence of the upstream cylinder) of heat transfer and drag coefficient, in comparison to those of an isolated cylinder. It is observed that the heat transfer increases with the increase in the non-linearity in the incident velocity profile at the inlet. For the present range studied, particle concentration has a negligible effect on heat transfer.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.945-961
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• 2019

Tongue diagnosis is one of the most important diagnostic methods in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Tongue image segmentation aims to extract the image object (i.e., tongue body), which plays a key role in the process of manufacturing an automated tongue diagnosis system. It is still challenging, because there exists the personal diversity in tongue appearances such as size, shape, and color. This paper proposes an innovative segmentation method that uses image thresholding, gray projection and active contour model (ACM). Specifically, an initial object region is first extracted by performing image thresholding in HSI (i.e., Hue Saturation Intensity) color space, and subsequent morphological operations. Then, a gray projection technique is used to determine the upper bound of the tongue body root for refining the initial object region. Finally, the contour of the refined object region is smoothed by ACM. Experimental results on a dataset composed of 100 color tongue images showed that the proposed method obtained more accurate segmentation results than other available state-of-the-art methods.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.364-379
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• 2019

Wave-induced ship motion and load responses are usually investigated on the assumption that the incident waves are long-crested. The realistic sea waves are however short-crested irregular waves. Real practice reveals that the ship motion and load responses induced by short-crested waves are different from those induced by long-crested waves. This paper aims to conduct a comprehensive study on ship motions and loads in different wave fields. For this purpose, comparative studies by small-scale model towing tank test and large-scale model sea trial are conducted to experimentally identify the difference between ship motions and loads in long-crested and short-crested irregular waves. Moreover, the influences of directional spreading function of short-crested waves on ship motions and loads are analyzed by numerical seakeeping calculation. The results and conclusions obtained from this study are of great significance for the further extrapolation and estimation of ship motions and loads in short-crested waves based on long-crested wave response results.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.7
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• pp.73-84
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• 2020

Existing studies disagree over the core predictors of firm-level financial choices in developing countries. The general practice only validates the traditional capital structure model, which leads to inconsistency and a lack of novelty. This study removed overfitting issues among existing factors and presented the most reliable and advanced capital structure model in Pakistani firms. The panel data include 368 Pakistani companies from 19 non-financial sectors over the period 2004 to 2017. We apply Akaike and Bayesian Information Criteria to remove overfitting issues among inconsistent proxies in the capital structure model. The fixed effects regression is used for basic results and the Generalized Method of Moments is applied to control the endogeneity. Besides the conventional proxies, we report that credit rating, distance from bankruptcy, managerial concentration, and institutional quality are the most advanced capital structure determinants in Pakistan. These predictors remain significant across firm size and growth levels. Also, the findings confirm that new predictors are reliable to define capital structure dynamics and improve the speed of adjustment in overall and sub-sample analysis. The major findings suggest that managers and policymakers should consider these advanced predictors to design their financial settings in firms.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.153-162
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• 2021

This paper aims to simulate the isotropic elastic damage theory of Liu Jun (2012) using the self-programmed UMAT subroutine in the interface of ABAQUS. Liu Jun (2012)'s method based on the mechanic theory can not be used interactively with the currently commonly used finite element software ABAQUS. The advantage of this method in the paper is that it can interact with ABAQUS and provide a constitutive program framework that can be modified according to user need. The model retains the two scalar damage variables and the corresponding two energy dissipation mechanisms and damage criteria for considering the tensile and compressive asymmetry of concrete. Taking C45 concrete as an example, the relevant damage evolution parameters of its tensile and compressive constitutive model are given. The study demonstrates that the uniaxial tensile stress calculated by the subroutine is almost the same as the Chinese Concrete Design Specification (GB50010) before the peak stress, but ends soon after the peak stress. The stress-strain curve of uniaxial compression calculated by the subroutine is in good agreement with the peak stress in Chinese Concrete Design Specification (GB50010), but there is a certain deviation in the descending stage. In addition, this paper uses the newly compiled subroutine to simulate the shear bearing capacity of the shear key in a new structural system, namely the open-web sandwich slab. The results show that the damage constitutive subroutine has certain reliability.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.350-364
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• 2022

Traditionally, in multi-user multi-carrier systems, the neighboring subband will be gapped by one subcarrier, which is set as guard band to reduce multiple access interference (MAI) between neighboring subbands. The empty subcarrier for guard band will degrade the spectral efficiency of the whole system. In order to enhance the spectral efficiency of multi-user filter bank multiple carrier (FBMC) systems, a new subband allocation method is introduced, in which the neighboring subband is gapped by half subcarrier instead of one subcarrier. Meanwhile, in order to implement the proposed resource allocation scheme, an optimized FBMC prototype filter is designed to decrease the inter-subband interference to the neighboring subband. The detailed simulations about the comparison between the proposed spectrum assignment and traditional FBMC are given, as well as the performance in the different interference scenarios. The simulation results show that the combination of the proposed spectrum assignment scheme and the optimized filter has better performance compared to the traditional scheme. The proposed scheme can be used in the system which serves massive users to get higher spectrum efficiency.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.205-225
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• 2022

Different types of corporate ownership may affect the environment among firms and could influence the decisions of new entities in the region. This study determines the role of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in hindering new foreign manufacturing firms in the Yangtze River delta (YRD). The negative binomial regression is used for city-sector level data and the following points summarize the results: Firstly, the unique privileges that SOEs enjoy alongside governmental support create difficulties for foreign firms trying to establish themselves near existing SOEs. Secondly, although core cities are more attractive to foreign firms than peripheral cities, the role of core-periphery reveals that, in spite of all the regional advantages core cities could offer, whenever the share of SOEs is higher, the core-periphery system will have an adverse impact on new foreign firms. In other words, government preference for SOEs can suppress the attraction of foreign start-ups. However, after 2008, the governmental authorities finally succeeded in implementing their promising policy of fair treatment and competition in only the core cities.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2022

In this paper, four specimens of CFST column joints with endplates and long bolts are tested in the scenario of progressive collapse. Flush endplate and extended endplate are both adopted in this study. The experimental results show that increasing the thickness of the endplate could improve the behavior of the joint, but delay the mobilization of catenary action. The thickness of the endplate should not be relatively thick in comparison to the diameter of the bolts, otherwise catenary action would not be mobilized or work effectively. Effective bending deformation of the endplate could help the formation and development of catenary action in the joints. The performance of flexural action in the joint would affect the formation of catenary action in the joint. Extra middle-row bolts set at the endplates and structural components set below the bottom beam flange should be used to enhance the robustness of joints. A special weld access hole between beam and endplate should be adopted to mitigate the chain damage potential of welds. It is suggested that the structural components of joints should be independent of each other to enhance the robustness of joints. Based on the component method, a formula calculating the stiffness coefficient of preloaded long bolts was proposed whose results matched well with the experimental results.