Agents of responsibility—freelance web developers in web applications development

Much of the literature on responsibility in the IT field addresses the responsibilities of members of the IT profession. In this paper, we investigate to what extent the responsibilities associated with computing practitioners apply to freelance web developers. The relevant moral question is not “can freelancers be considered as professionals?”, but “are they agents of responsibility and can they cause harm”? It is obvious that they can. To justify this claim we will take the case of using free malicious code by freelance web developers and show how their actions or omissions may cause harm to the users, clients and others. We will then identify different types of responsibilities and relationships, which can be associated with freelance web developers. In the end, we will stress that, freelance web developers have higher form of responsibility and should actively seek to bring about environments in which they can function as responsible agents aiming at developing safe, secure, and workable web applications and systems.     

RADL: a resource and deadline-aware dynamic load-balancer for cloud tasks

The Journal of Supercomputing - Cloud service providers acquire the computing resources and allocate them to their clients. To effectively utilize the resources and achieve higher user...     

Theory and design of a simple tunable Sagnac loop filter for multiwavelength fiber lasers

We present a novel design for a Sagnac loop filter (SLF) whose periodic output spectrum can be fully controlled by cascading a small-birefringence loop (SBL) with a high-birefringence loop (HBL). We develop a detailed theoretical analysis, using the Jones vector method, to calculate the transfer function of the tunable SLF. It has been quantitatively shown that both the transmission coefficient and the phase of the SLF can be controlled by adjusting the orientation angle of the birefringent axes of the SBL in the plane of polarization. The theory has been confirmed by experimental results where a stress-induced SBL was mechanically rotated to tune both the wavelength and the power of a periodic output spectrum. Such a tunable SLF is used in the design of a multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser in the C band.     

New relation between viscosity and surface tension for pure hydrocarbon liquids

A new relation between viscosity and surface tension is proposed and checked for 21 pure hydrocarbon liquids, and validated with the National Institute of Science and Technology data. The performance and accuracy of the proposed relation are compared with the reported empirical correlations in the form of absolute average deviation. The proposed relation remains valid for higher hydrocarbons (up to C₂₅H₅₂). A total of 418 data points for 21 pure hydrocarbon liquids were taken into consideration for checking the accuracy of the proposed relation. The proposed relation gives an absolute average deviation of 5.66%, indicating high accuracy of the proposed relation.     

Material,Mechanical, and Tribological Characterization of Laser-Treated Surfaces

Laser treatment under nitrogen assisting gas environment of cobalt-nickel-chromium-tungsten-based superalloy and high-velocity oxygen-fuel thermal spray coating of nickel-chromium-based superalloy on carbon steel was carried out to improve mechanical and tribological properties. Superalloy surface was preprepared to include B₄C particles at the surface prior to the laser treatment process. Material and morphological changes in the laser-treated samples were examined using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Residual stresses present at the surface region of the laser-treated layer were determined from the XRD data. The microhardness of the laser-treated surface was measured by indentation tests. Fracture toughness of the coating surfaces before and after laser treatment were also measured using overload indentation tests. Macrowear and macrofriction characterization were carried out using pin-on-disk tests.     

Plasma estrogen in patients with endometrial hyperplasia and carcinoma

In a total of 53 patients, most of whom were over 40 years of age and who presented symptoms of vaginal bleeding, total plasma estrogens were measured with gas liquid chromatography, and the clinical correlates were studied. The results revealed that total plasma estrogen levels in the endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial carcinoma groups were significantly higher than those measured in the control group. In addition, a positive, significant correlation was found between the plasma estrogen levels and obesity in the patients with endometrial carcinoma. The study provides objective data that document the clinical impressions that hyperestrogenism and obesity are significant findings in endometrial carcinoma.     

SLA-RALBA: cost-efficient and resource-aware load balancing algorithm for cloud computing

The Journal of Supercomputing - Recently, Service-level agreement (SLA) is deemed to be an integral aspect for on-demand provisioning of scalable resources on Cloud. SLA defines important...     

Laser gas assisted nitriding and tin coating of Ti–6Al–4V alloy: Experimental and numerical investigation of mechanical properties

Three-point bending tests are carried out to measure the Young's modulus of laser gas assisting nitrided, laser gas assisting nitrided and coated, heat treated and coated, specimens. The testing conditions are incorporated to simulate the material response to the bending load using finite element modelling (FEM) and the ANSYS code is utilized in this regard. Laser gas assisted nitriding is carried out using a CO₂ laser system while TiN coating is realized using the PVD coating unit. It is found that crack-free laser gas assisting nitrided layer of about 80 μm is achieved while TiN coatings thickness is about 2 μm. Young's modulus of TiN coating is similar to that obtained for laser gas assisting nitrided layer.     

Extrusion of axi-symmetric bi-metallic tubes from solid circular billets: application of a generalised upper bound analysis and some experiments

The generalised upper bound technique previously applied to the determination of working pressures in extrusion–piercing of solid billets (Chitkara NR, Aleem A. Int J Mech Sci 2001;43:1685–709.) to form hollow monometallic tubes is extended to analyse the problem of bi-metallic tube extrusions through profile shaped dies and mandrel combinations. Theoretical results of mean extrusion pressures obtained from the generalised upper bound analysis are compared with those obtained earlier by the generalised slab method of analysis (Chitkara NR, Aleem A. Int J Mech Sci 2001;43:2857–82.) and some experiments. A few salient observations made during the experimental investigations carried out into forward extrusion of bi-metallic tubes made of h.c. copper and c.p. aluminium are also given and the results commented upon.     

The Effect of Inhibitors on the Susceptibility of Al 6013/SiC Interface to Localized Corrosion

Al 6013-20 SiC (p) in tempers T4, O, and F is sensitive to localized corrosion in 3.5 wt.% NaCl because of the preponderance of the secondary phase particles of Cu, Fe, and Cr at the Al/SiC interface. Treatment with cerium chloride effectively inhibited the localized corrosion of the alloy by suppressing the cathodic reactions at Al 6013/SiC interface as shown by electrochemical investigations. Morphological studies showed the formation of a protective cerium oxide/hydroxide films, which suppresses the corrosion of the alloy.