Contacting Stability of Sliding Electrical Contacts

It is stated that the operation of the sliding contact unit is accompanied by vibrations of the brushes that occur as a result of internal and external mechanical influences. The resulting violations of the sliding contact (SC) and the instability of contacting lead to a deterioration in the quality of current transmission, increased sparking, accelerated wear of the SC. The article is devoted to the derivation and verification of universal formulas for calculating the relative instability factor (RIF) of the SC. Derived formulas allow calculating the RIF of any SC compounds. Mathematical expressions are obtained to determine the distributions of instability in the tangential and axial directions of the transition layer of the SC. An experimental stand for studying the instability of various SC compounds at idle and in the rated load mode is described. The contacting cycle, which establishes a correspondence between the instantaneous value of the length of the measuring platform and the movement of the collector is described. Expressions for determining the equivalent length of the measuring area for different cases of placing the measuring brush relative to the zone of the main sliding contact are derived. These formulas allow us to find the RIF of various SC regions on experimental data based.

La socialdemocracia alemana y el movimiento sindical ibérico durante las transiciones a la democracia (1974-1979) = The German Social Democracy and the Iberian Trade Union Movement during the Transition to Democracy (1974-1979)

El texto trata de la dimensión internacional de la transición sindical en Portugal y España. En concreto, analiza la contribución de la socialdemocracia alemana a la reconstrucción del movimiento sindical socialista, muy débil en ambos países al iniciarse el proceso de transición. Muestra cómo el temor a que el predominio comunista en las dos grandes centrales ibéricas, Intersindical y Comisiones Obreras, significase un factor de inestabilidad permanente en las nacientes democracias, movió a la DGB y la Fundación Ebert a implicarse masivamente en apoyo de las modestas organizaciones socialistas. El texto explora las líneas maestras de la colaboración con los cuadros sindicales del Partido Socialista portugués y con la española Unión General de Trabajadores. El autor defiende la tesis, que podrá refrendarse o refutarse cuando se permita el acceso a algunas fuentes relevantes en Madrid y Lisboa, que el apoyo alemán fue crucial para el meteórico ascenso del histórico sindicato socialista español y para la creación de homónima central portuguesa União Geral de Trabalhadores. AbstractThis paper deals with the international dimension of the trade union transition in Portugal and Spain in the 1970s. It analyzes the contribution of German social democracy to the reconstruction of the socialist labor movement, which were extremely weak in both countries at the beginning of the transitions. It shows how the fear that the communist dominance in the two great Iberian unions, Intersindical and Comisiones Obreras, meant a permanent instability factor in the nascent democracies, moved the DGB and the Ebert Foundation to massively support the modest socialist labor movement. The text explores the main lines of the cooperation with the trade union cadres of the Portuguese Socialist Party and with the Spanish Unión General de Trabajadores. The author holds the thesis, which can be endorsed or refuted when access to some relevant sources in Madrid and Lisbon is allowed, that German support was crucial for the meteoric rise of the historic Spanish socialist union and for the creation of the homonym Portuguese União Geral de Trabalhadores.

White Wine Protein Instability: Mechanism, Quality Control and Technological Alternatives for Wine Stabilisation—An Overview

Wine protein instability depends on several factors, but wine grape proteins are the main haze factors, being mainly caused by pathogenesis-related proteins (thaumatin-like proteins and chitinases) with a molecular weight between 10~40 kDa and an isoelectric point below six. Wine protein stability tests are needed for the routine control of this wine instability, and to select the best technological approach to remove the unstable proteins. The heat test is the most used, with good correlation with the natural proteins’ precipitations and because high temperatures are the main protein instability factor after wine bottling. Many products and technological solutions have been studied in recent years; however, sodium bentonite is still the most efficient and used treatment to remove unstable proteins from white wines. This overview resumes and discusses the different aspects involved in wine protein instability, from the wine protein instability mechanisms, the protein stability tests used, and technological alternatives available to stabilise wines with protein instability problems.

Evaluating safety performance of highway alignment utilizing fault tree analysis and energy method

To improve the accuracy of road safety evaluation, this article presents a method to calculate the average crash probability for highway sections based on fault tree and energy method. First, the average crash probability of sections was formulated based on fault tree theory, taking lateral instability, rollover, and rear-end crash into account. Second, an instability factor, which described the extent of steering instability and tire sideslip, was proposed based on energy method. Thereafter, the relationships between the instability factor and probability of lateral instability crash, the load transfer ratio and probability of rollover crash, the available sight distance and probability of rear-end crash were investigated. Then, the driver–vehicle–road multi-body dynamics model was developed based on the three-dimensional alignments of Ning-Luo Expressway using CarSim, the dynamics indexes such as lateral velocity, wheel vertical load were obtained, and the average crash probability of each section was calculated. Finally, the correlation between average crash probability and the average number of accidents was analyzed to validate the accuracy of the proposed method. Results reveal that the proposed method can improve the accuracy of evaluation results, compared with existing methods, thus providing theoretical basis for black spot identification of both design phase and in-service highways.

THE PHENOMENON OF NEO-DETERMINISM AND ITS COMPREHENSION IN MODERN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

The author's research attention is focused on modern science-historical interpretations of the phenomenon of neo-determinism. The author also turned his attention to attempts at a theological interpretation of such ideas through the provisions of a religious worldview. The main objective of this article is to study an updated understanding of the fundamental principle of science – the principle of causality. In addition, the author studied the features of the manifestation of the causality principle in scientific and humanitarian projections. The author's special attention is also focused on the study of the specifics of reflection in the modern religious consciousness of the ideas of divine causality. In addition, the author focused on certain manifestations of the immanence of divine being. The author was particularly interested in the specific components of religious teaching. These are the positions in which theologians try to imagine the point of concentration of God's efforts when God carries out his will and providence. It is on the question of divine immanence that the efforts of even the most inquiring mind are broken up into obstacles caused by faith itself. The limit of that area into which the mind cannot intervene is an attempt to touch the divine causality. The question of finding access points through which God changes the natural world in acts of wonderworking also remains incomprehensible. The topic of the article, the choice and application of its theoretical and methodological approaches are determined by the very subject of thought and the nature of the tasks posed. The following cognition methods were used in the article: general philosophical, general scientific theoretical methods. The author followed the principle of objectivity, applied causal analysis. The final results of the study of the topic lead the thought to the following proposition. Within the synergetic paradigm, the focus of scientists has shifted to the phenomenon of instability and randomness in the course of the processes of the world. This led to the foundation of a new non-linear way of thinking. It also led to the penetration of the provisions of nonlinear determinism in the main disciplinary practices – science, philosophy and religion. Ontological philosophical ideas about the nature of the original nomology (about the essence of the fundamental laws of the universe) have changed. The traditional views on the uniqueness of connections and relationships in nature are revised. This was favored by the development of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and the introduction into the scientific knowledge of statistical techniques and research operations. In understanding the causality of classical science, as well as in the picture of the world that this science offered, God, who casts lots, was a stranger and superfluous. However, modern science offers a new vision of the world. It is based on the nonlinearity of the development of the world and the pluralism of being. The instability factor arises at the bifurcation nodes of a particular process. As a result of fluctuations, the instability factor makes the forecast for the development of the system similar to the "coin toss". In this case, the vectors of several future options open in front of the object. Theologians carefully study the achievements of modern science. And here the theologians again got the opportunity to talk about God in a new way. God acts in alternating necessity and chance for a fraction of chance. The main goal of God is the instantaneous realization of new divine plans for the world and man.

Implications of Structural Model on the Design of Steel Moment Resisting Frames

Background: Studies have shown that the flexibility of the connections has an important role in the distribution of forces and moments in the structure. This also applies for the displacements, deformations and the stability of the structure. Objective: The objective of the present study is to investigate the influence of the stiffness of column web-panel and connection on the ultimate response of Moment Resisting Frames (MRFs). Methods: A comprehensive parametric study was carried out. In particular, a set of one hundred and twenty planar frames was analyzed, considering three approaches for modelling the joints. Results: The results highlight that neglecting the influence of the connection and column web panel leads to significant over-estimation of the global instability factor αcr, which can lead to unconservative design and assessment of steel frames, especially for those cases subjected to severe horizontal forces as the seismic actions. Conclusion: Accounting for the joint deformability in MRFs is important even for the cases with connection stiffness (kb) larger than 25 times the beam stiffness where EN1993-1-8 allows neglecting the model of the connection stiffness. Indeed, the comparison of cases with kb ≥ 25 between the models with and without the connection deformability show that of αcr can decrease from 5% to 16%, depending on the refinement of the modelling assumptions. This decrease also lead to higher second order effects and thus to higher design forces but also the overall stiffness of the frame is overestimated.

The role of personality measures as predictors of job performance: Teacher sampleİş performansının öngörülmesinde kişilik ölçümünün rolü: Öğretmen örneği

The present study aims to examine the personality characteristics of teachers by five factor model of personality and to plot their personality profiles. The participants were 349 teachers, 241 women and 108 men, aged between 22-65. The data used to compare teachers with was a total of 3920 people, 1777 women, 2143 men aged between 18 and 79. The comparison of female teachers with the female comparison group showed that female teachers had lower average scores on the Emotional Lability and Self-Distrust dimensions and Emotional Instability factor, and had higher average score on Agreement, Sensitivity, Analytical Thinking, and Openness to Newness dimensions and Openness to Experience factor than the comparison group. Male teachers had lower average scores on Excitement Seeking dimension and higher scores on Analytical Thinking dimension than the comparison group.Extended English summary is in the end of Full Text PDF (TURKISH) file. ÖzetBu çalışmada öğretmenlerin beş faktör kişilik modeliyle kişilik özelliklerinin incelenmesi ve grup olarak profillerinin çıkarılması amaçlanmıştır. Çalışmaya 22-65 yaşları arasında 241 kadın, 108 erkek olmak üzere toplam 349 öğretmen katılmıştır. Bu çalışmada, öğretmenlerin verisini karşılaştırmak amacıyla 18-79 yaşları arasında 1777 kadın, 2143 erkek olmak üzere 3920 kişilik yetişkin verisi kullanılmıştır. Kadın öğretmenler, kadın karşılaştırma grubuyla karşılaştırıldığında Duygusal Değişkenlik, Kendine Güvensizlik boyutlarında ve Duygusal Tutarsızlık faktöründe daha düşük, Uzlaşma, Duyarlılık, Analitik Düşünme, Yeniliğe Açıklık boyutlarında ve Gelişime Açıklık faktöründe de daha yüksek puan ortalamasına sahiptirler. Erkek öğretmenlerin ise erkek karşılaştırma grubuyla karşılaştırıldığında sadece Heyecan Arama boyutunda daha düşük, Analitik Düşünme boyutunda da daha yüksek puan ortalamasına sahip oldukları görülmüştür.

ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS THROUGH CHANGE MANAGEMENT

The technological progress, digitization and the explosion of information significantly change how individuals, the business environment, and society act, develop and add value. New, interdisciplinary approaches, constantly adapted and sustainable both at the micro and the macro levels are required. Within a company, change management is a systematic element of the strategic business process and involves the early identification of the opportunity of the employees’ development, courage, commitment and flexibility; under no circumstances should it be seen as a risk and instability factor, as it may be considered in the early stages. The example presented in this article proves that the openness to change and continuous improvement develops advantages, optimizes processes and sustains long-term progress.