Using time-driven activity-based costing to manage digital forensic readiness in large organisations

A digital forensic readiness (DFR) programme consists of a number of activities that should be chosen and managed with respect to cost constraints and risk. Traditional cost systems, however, can not provide the cost of individual activities. This makes it difficult or impossible for organisations to consider cost when making decisions about specific activities. In this paper we show that the relatively new cost system, time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC), can be used to determine the cost of implementing and managing activities required for DFR. We show through analysis and simulation that the cost information from a TDABC model can be used for such decisions. We also discuss some of the factors that ought to be considered when implementing or managing the use of TDABC in a large organisation.     

Microstructure refinement with forced convection in aluminium and superalloys

The cooling and average local solidification times were determined for slow solidifiation of Al-4.4 wt% Cu alloy under natural convection and under electromagnetically forced axisymmetric rotation during liquid cooling and solidification in graphite moulds. Cooling rates were measured within situ thermocouples. The conditions needed to stabilize the radial temperature gradient with rotation were established. The microstructure size decreased with increasing rotation, as did the local solidification times. The average grain and dendrite size without imposed rotation is coarser near the mould wall compared with the centre of the casting. This trend is reversed with imposed rotation. Rotation also led to a smaller spread of grain and dendrite size at any chosen height of the casting. These results are discussed in relation to existing theories, and several reasons for an improved heat transfer coefficient with rotation are presented. Forced convective solidification was then carried out for various shapes of integral investment cast Nimonic-90 alloy solidifying under modified conditions that prevented columnar grain formation. Similar results to those recorded for the aluminium case were obtained and are presented here. The major conclusion is that observations indicating a reduction of microstructure spacing during forced convection should also consider improved heat extraction at the mould-metal interface.List of symbols Gr Grashof number =gTZ ^{3 3}/ ³ - g _r acceleration in radial direction - g acceleration in direction - g _z acceleration inZ direction (gravity) - h heat transfer coefficient - k _l thermal conductivity of liquid - Nu _z Nusselt number =hZ/k _l - Pr Prandtl number =/ - Ra Rayleigh numberGr Pr - R radius of mould - Re _r Reynolds number =V ₀ R/ - T temperature - T temperature difference in radial direction - Ta Taylor number = ²4H ⁴ W ²/ ² - V velocity - W r.p.m. - thermal diffusivity - coefficient of volume expansion - viscosity - density Mr G. S. Reddy is also a post graduate student registered at the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.     

Investigation of Mechanical and Microstructural Properties of Fiber-Reinforced Geopolymer Concrete with GGBFS and Metakaolin: Novel Raw Material for Geopolymerisation

Silicon - In modern days, one or the way, development of infrastructure plays a major role that decides upon the matrix of our lifestyle. The development of geopolymer concrete (GPC) is an...     

Simulation Study of Dielectric Modulated Dual Material Gate TFET Based Biosensor by Considering Ambipolar Conduction

Silicon - In this paper, a dielectric modulated dual material gate TFET (DM-DMG_TFET)based biosensor is proposed. In order to detect various biomolecules, a nanogap cavity is formed by the...     

Ozone Contactor Hydrodynamics

Tracer tests were conducted at the 6,000 pounds of ozone per day Tucson, CAP Water Treatment Plant in Tucson, Arizona. The tests were designed to determine T₁₀ values through the contactors at various operating conditions. The tests were modeled using three techniques. Peclet Number was calculated for each of the runs, which would indicate the hydrodynamic conditions inside the ozone contactor. The results indicated that the increase in water flow rate and the number of cells with gas flow increased Peclet Number. The flow rate of liquid seemed to impact the Peclet Number more than gas flow. The headloss in each cell appeared to be important in controlling the distribution of liquid and gas through the cell. A correlation was developed between the product of gas and liquid phase Reynolds Number and Peclet Number.     

Efficient mining of discriminative co-clusters from gene expression data

Discriminative models are used to analyze the differences between two classes and to identify class-specific patterns. Most of the existing discriminative models depend on using the entire feature space to compute the discriminative patterns for each class. Co-clustering has been proposed to capture the patterns that are correlated in a subset of features, but it cannot handle discriminative patterns in labeled datasets. In certain biological applications such as gene expression analysis, it is critical to consider the discriminative patterns that are correlated only in a subset of the feature space. The objective of this paper is twofold: first, it presents an algorithm to efficiently find arbitrarily positioned co-clusters from complex data. Second, it extends this co-clustering algorithm to discover discriminative co-clusters by incorporating the class information into the co-cluster search process. In addition, we also characterize the discriminative co-clusters and propose three novel measures that can be used to evaluate the performance of any discriminative subspace pattern-mining algorithm. We evaluated the proposed algorithms on several synthetic and real gene expression datasets, and our experimental results showed that the proposed algorithms outperformed several existing algorithms available in the literature.     

HEAT TRANSFER IN A THIN LIQUID FILM IN THE PRESENCE OF AN ELECTRIC FIELD

Heat transfer enhancement in an evaporating thin liquid film utilizing a electric field under isothermal interfacial condition is presented. A new mathematical model subjected to van der Waals attractive forces, capillary pressure, and an electric field is developed to describe the heat transfer enhancement in the evaporating thin liquid film. The effect of the electrostatic field on the curvature of the thin film, evaporative flux, pressure gradient distribution, heat flux, and heat transfer coefficient in the thin film is presented. The results show that applying an electric field can enhance heat transfer in a thin liquid film significantly. In addition, utilizing electric fields on the evaporating film will be a way to expand the extended meniscus region to attain high heat transfer coefficients and high rates of heat flux.     

Uptake of Pb(II) and Cd(II) by a new phenolformaldehyde polymer resin derived by the insertion of sulfur ligands in the form of xanthate

A new phenolformaldehyde polymer resin containing potential soft‐type donor atoms (sulfur atoms) was synthesized by the reaction of sodium salt of 2,4‐dihydroxyacetophenone formaldehyde resin with carbon disulfide. The resin was characterized by elemental analysis, IR, and ¹H‐NMR spectral studies. Because of its insolubility in aqueous media, the resin was successfully used in the removal of Pb(II) and Cd(II). Parameters such as the effect of pH, the effect of time, competitive studies, the effect of initial metal‐ion concentration, and the recyclability of the polymer resin were studied. The amount of metal removed by the resin was determined with atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The retention properties were strongly dependent on pH. The elution of metal ions was investigated in acid media. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 1932–1936, 2004     

Novel electrically conductive and ferromagnetic composites of poly(aniline‐co‐aminonaphthalenesulfonic acid) with iron oxide nanoparticles: Synthesis and characterization

Nanocomposites of iron oxide (Fe₃O₄) with a sulfonated polyaniline, poly(aniline‐co‐aminonaphthalenesulfonic acid) [SPAN(ANSA)], were synthesized through chemical oxidative copolymerization of aniline and 5‐amino‐2‐naphthalenesulfonic acid/1‐amino‐5‐naphthalenesulfonic acid in the presence of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The nanocomposites [Fe₃O₄/SPAN(ANSA)‐NCs] were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, elemental analysis, UV–visible spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), superconductor quantum interference device (SQUID), and electrical conductivity measurements. The TEM images reveal that nanocrystalline Fe₃O₄ particles were homogeneously incorporated within the polymer matrix with the sizes in the range of 10–15 nm. XRD pattern reveals that pure Fe₃O₄ particles are having spinel structure, and nanocomposites are more crystalline in comparison to pristine polymers. Differential thermogravimetric (DTG) curves obtained through TGA informs that polymer chains in the composites have better thermal stability than that of the pristine copolymers. FTIR spectra provide information on the structure of the composites. The conductivity of the nanocomposites (～ 0.5 S cm^?1) is higher than that of pristine PANI (～ 10^?3 S cm^?1). The charge transport behavior of the composites is explained through temperature difference of conductivity. The temperature dependence of conductivity fits with the quasi‐1D variable range hopping (quasi‐1D VRH) model. SQUID analysis reveals that the composites show ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature. The maximum saturation magnetization of the composite is 9.7 emu g^?1. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2007     

Hydrogels based on graft copolymers of collagen synthesis

Graft copolymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate in combination with hydrophobic monomers onto soluble collagen was employed in the synthesis of hydrogels. The hydrogels were formed by simultaneous graft copolymerization and crosslinking. In order to study the effect of various crosslinking agents on the water retention character of the hydrogels, three different crosslinking agents, namely, N,N′-methylene bis acrylamide, 1,4-butanediol dimethacrylate, and hexamethylene urethanediacrylate were used. Hexamethylene urethanediacrylate crosslinked systems require a minimum amount of crosslinking agent to attain maximum water content in comparison to the other systems.