Search results for: functional principal component analysis

Authors: Feran Asur

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In cities, plants; with its visual and functional effects, it helps to provide balance between human and environmental system. It is possible to develop alternative solutions to eliminate visual pollution by evaluating the potential properties of plant materials with other inanimate materials such as color, texture, form, size, etc. characteristics and other inanimate materials such as highlighter, background forming, harmonizing and concealer. In cold climates, the number of ornamental plant species that grow in warmer climates is less. For this reason, especially in the landscaping works of urban spaces, it is difficult to create the desired visuality with aesthetically qualified plants that are suitable for the ecology of the area, without creating monotony, with color variety. In this study, the importance of plant and plant compositions in the solution of visual problems in urban environments in cold climatic conditions is emphasized. The potential of ornamental plants that can be used for this purpose in preventing visual pollution is given. It has been shown how to use prominent features of these ornamental plants such as size, form, texture, vegetation periods to improve visual landscape in urban spaces in a long time. In addition to the design group disciplines that have activity on planning or application basis in the city and its surroundings, landscape architecture discipline can provide visual improvement of the studies to be carried out in detail in terms of planting design.

Keywords: residential landscape, planting, urban space, visual improvement

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Authors: Ahmad Mohsin, Syda Fatima, Falak Nawaz, Aman Ullah Khan

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Selection of an appropriate architectural style is vital to the success of target web service under development. The nature of architecture design and selection for service-oriented computing applications is quite different as compared to traditional software. Web Services have complex and rigorous architectural styles to choose. Due to this, selection for accurate architectural style for web services development has become a more complex decision to be made by architects. Architectural style selection is a multi-criteria decision and demands lots of experience in service oriented computing. Decision support systems are good solutions to simplify the selection process of a particular architectural style. Our research suggests a new approach using DSS for selection of architectural styles while developing a web service to cater FRs and NFRs. Our proposed DSS helps architects to select right web service architectural pattern according to the domain and non-functional requirements. In this paper, a rule base DSS has been developed using CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System) to support decisions using multi-criteria requirements. This DSS takes architectural characteristics, domain requirements and software architect preferences for NFRs as input for different architectural styles in use today in service-oriented computing. Weighted sum model has been applied to prioritize quality attributes and domain requirements. Scores are calculated using multiple criterions to choose the final architecture style.

Keywords: software architecture, web-service, rule-based, DSS, multi-criteria requirements, quality attributes

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Authors: Schirin Hanf, Carlos Lizandara-Pueyo, Timmo P. Emmert, Ivana Jevtovikj, Roger Gläser, Stephan A. Schunk

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Metal alkoxides are very versatile precursors for a broad array of complex functional materials. However, metal alkoxides, especially transition metal alkoxides, tend to form oligomeric structures due to the very strong M–O–M binding motif. This fact hinders their facile application in sol-gel-processes and complicates access to complex carbonate or oxidic compounds after hydrolysis of the precursors. Therefore, the development of a synthetic alternative with the aim to grant access to carbonates and hydroxycarbonates from simple metal alkoxide precursors via hydrolysis is key to this project. Our approach involves the reaction of metal alkoxides with unsaturated isoelectronic molecules, such as carbon dioxide. Subsequently, a stoichiometric insertion of the CO₂ into the alkoxide M–O bond takes place and leads to the formation of soluble metal alkyl carbonates. This strategy is a very elegant approach to solubilize metal alkoxide precursors to make them accessible for sol-gel chemistry. After hydrolysis of the metal alkyl carbonates, crystalline metal carbonates, and hydroxycarbonates can be obtained, which were then utilized for the synthesis of Cu/Zn based bulk catalysts for methanol synthesis. Using these catalysts, a comparable catalytic activity to commercially available MeOH catalysts could be reached. Based on these results, a complement for traditional precipitation techniques, which are usually utilized for the synthesis of bulk methanol catalysts, have been found based on an alternative solubilization strategy.

Keywords: metal alkoxides, metal carbonates, metal hydroxycarbonates, CO₂ insertion, solubilization

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Authors: Mehdi Radmehr, Amir Hamed Mashhadzadeh, Mehdi Jafari

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Traditional HVDC systems are tough to DC short circuits as they are current regulated with a large reactance connected in series with cables. Multi-terminal DC wind farm topologies are attracting increasing research attempt. With AC/DC converters on the generator side, this topology can be developed into a multi-terminal DC network for wind power collection, which is especially suitable for large-scale offshore wind farms. For wind farms, the topology uses high-voltage direct-current transmission based on voltage-source converters (VSC-HVDC). Therefore, they do not suffer from over currents due to DC cable faults and there is no over current to react to. In this study, the multi-terminal DC wind farm topology is introduced. Then, possible internal DC faults are analyzed according to type and characteristic. Fault over current expressions are given in detail. Under this characteristic analysis, fault detection and detailed protection methods are proposed. Theoretical analysis and PSCAD/EMTDC simulations are provided.

Keywords: DC short circuits, multi-terminal DC wind farm topologies, HVDC transmission based on VSC, fault analysis

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Authors: Mina Kargozari, Isabel Revilla Martin, Ángel A. Carbonell-Barrachina

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Different formulations of Turkish fermented sausages (sucuks) prepared with camel meat-hump (CH), camel meat-beef fat (CB), beef-hump (BH) and beef-beef fat (BB), were characterized. The sausages were analytically compared to determine differences in proximate composition and total cholesterol content (TCC), quality parameters such as fatty acids profile and fat quality characteristics, and lipid oxidation parameters including peroxide value, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) and resulted carbonyl compounds. The PUFAs/SFAs ratio was higher in CB and BB samples than CH and BH (p<0.05). The higher calculated atherogenic and thrombogenic indexes (AI and TI) were obtained from the samples made with hump (p< 0.05) as a result of high amounts of their SFAs. The CH sausages contained high amount of total fat (p<0.05) among all samples. The CB sucuks exhibited the highest protein content and the lowest TCC and rancidity at the end of ripening (p<0.05). The TBARS results showed that beef fat samples were more susceptible to lipid oxidation. Moreover, no significant difference (p<0.05) was observed for the values of short aldehydes among the sucuk samples excepting nonanal. This study demonstrated that supplementing camel meat for the production of dry-fermented sausage resulted in high quality products with good functional and nutritional characteristics.

Keywords: fermented sausages, quality properties, SPME, total cholesterol content

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Authors: Arin Ghazarian, Cyril Rakovski

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Differential privacy has become the leading technique to protect the privacy of individuals in a database while allowing useful analysis to be done and the results to be shared. It puts a guarantee on the amount of privacy loss in the worst-case scenario. Differential privacy is not a toggle between full privacy and zero privacy. It controls the tradeoff between the accuracy of the results and the privacy loss using a single key parameter called

Keywords: arrhythmia, cardiology, differential privacy, ECG, epsilon, medi-cal data, privacy preserving analytics, statistical databases

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Authors: Ayuko Itsuki, Sachiyo Aburatani

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Soil enzyme activities in Kasuga-yama Hill Primeval Forest (Nara, Japan) were examined to determine levels of mineralization and metabolism. Samples were selected from the soil surrounding laurel-leaved (B_B-1) and Carpinus japonica (B_B-2 and P_w) trees for analysis. Cellulase, β-xylosidase, and protease activities were higher in B_B-1 samples those in B_B-2 samples. These activity levels corresponded to the distribution of cellulose and hemicellulose in the soil horizons. Cellulase, β-xylosidase, and chymotrypsin activities were higher in soil from the P_w forest than in that from the B_B-2 forest. The relationships between the soil enzymes calculated by Spearman’s rank correlation indicate that the interactions between enzymes in B_B-2 samples were more complex than those in P_w samples.

Keywords: comparative analysis, enzyme activities, forest soil, Spearman's rank correlation

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Authors: Bahram Khan, Anderson Rocha Ramos, Rui R. Paulo, Fernando J. Velez

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With the growing demand for a new blend of applications, the users dependency on the internet is increasing day by day. Mobile internet users are giving more attention to their own experiences, especially in terms of communication reliability, high data rates and service stability on move. This increase in the demand is causing saturation of existing radio frequency bands. To address these challenges, researchers are investigating the best approaches, Carrier Aggregation (CA) is one of the newest innovations, which seems to fulfill the demands of the future spectrum, also CA is one the most important feature for Long Term Evolution - Advanced (LTE-Advanced). For this purpose to get the upcoming International Mobile Telecommunication Advanced (IMT-Advanced) mobile requirements (1 Gb/s peak data rate), the CA scheme is presented by 3GPP, which would sustain a high data rate using widespread frequency bandwidth up to 100 MHz. Technical issues such as aggregation structure, its implementations, deployment scenarios, control signal techniques, and challenges for CA technique in LTE-Advanced, with consideration of backward compatibility, are highlighted in this paper. Also, performance evaluation in macro-cellular scenarios through a simulation approach is presented, which shows the benefits of applying CA, low-complexity multi-band schedulers in service quality, system capacity enhancement and concluded that enhanced multi-band scheduler is less complex than the general multi-band scheduler, which performs better for a cell radius longer than 1800 m (and a PLR threshold of 2%).

Keywords: component carrier, carrier aggregation, LTE-advanced, scheduling

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Authors: W. Zekri

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This paper explores Zohra Drif’s memoir, Inside the Battle of Algiers, which narrates her desires as a student to become a revolutionary activist. She exemplified, in her narrative, the different roles, she and her fellows performed as combatants in the Casbah during the Algerian Revolution 1954-1962. This book review aims to evaluate the concept of women’s agency through education and language learning, and its impact on empowering women’s desires. Close-reading method and thematic analysis are used to explore the text. The analysis identified themes that refine the meaning of agency which are social and cultural supports, education, and language proficiency. These themes aim to contribute to the representation in Inside the Battle of Algiers of a woman guerrilla who engaged herself to perform national acts of resistance.

Keywords: agency, education, learning, women

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Authors: Mohammad Qasim Mohammadi, Mohammad Arif Rohman

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Although socially sustainable building is becoming increasingly popular worldwide, past studies indicate that when policymakers support sustainable building development, the social dimension is often given insufficient attention or entirely disregarded. There are not many studies that focus on the problems of socially sustainable buildings in Afghanistan. This research investigates the factors that may hinder social sustainability implementation in residential building construction. The study will gather data from construction professionals by purposive sampling and employ Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Varimax for analysis. The results will undergo rigorous examination and thorough discussion. The expected results in this research will analyze the underlying barrier structure (factors) that hinder social sustainability, and each of these factors will represent a set of observed variables. In addition, the factor loadings show which barriers pose the greatest challenges. The primary goal of this study is to provide valuable insights into the impediment factors of social sustainability within the residential building environment, aiming to inform decision-making in the industry and encourage the adoption of more socially sustainable construction practices.

Keywords: social sustainability, residential building, barriers, drivers, afghanistan, factor analysis

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Authors: Ji-Hoon Byeon, Kwon-Hee Lee

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Strainer filter serves to block the inflow of impurities while mixed fluid is entering or exiting the piping. The filter of the strainer has a perforated structure, so that the pressure drop and the velocity change necessarily occur when the mixed fluid passes through the filter. It is possible to predict the pressure drop and velocity change of the strainer by numerical analysis by implementing all the perforated plates. However, if the size of the perforated plate exceeds a certain size, it is difficult to perform the numerical analysis, and sometimes we cannot guarantee its accuracy. In this study, we tried to predict the pressure drop and velocity change by using the porous media technique to obtain the equivalent resistance without actual implementation of the perforation shape of the strainer. Ansys-CFX, a commercial software, is used to perform the numerical analysis. The analysis procedure is as follows. Firstly, the unit pattern of the perforated plate is modeled, and the pressure drop is analyzed by varying the velocity by symmetry of the wall surface. Secondly, since the equation for obtaining resistance is a quadratic equation of pressure having unknown velocity, the viscous resistance and the inertia resistance of the perforated plate are obtained from the relationship between pressure and speed. Thirdly, by using the calculated resistance values, the values are substituted into the flat plate implemented as a two-dimensional porous media, and the accuracy is verified by comparing the pressure drop and the velocity change. Fourthly, the pressure drop and velocity change in the whole strainer are analyzed by using the resistance values obtained on the perforated plate in the actual whole strainer model. Using the porous media technique, it is found that pressure drop and velocity change can be predicted in relatively short time without modeling the overall shape of the filter. Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Valve Center from the Regional Innovation Center(RIC) Program of Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE).

Keywords: strainer, porous media, CFD, numerical analysis

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Authors: Libena Cernohorska

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The goal of this paper is to specify factors influencing the profitability of selected banks. Next, a model will be created to help establish variables that have a demonstrable influence on the development of the selected banks' profitability ratios. Czech banks and their international parent companies were selected for analyzing profitability. Banks categorized as large banks (according to the Czech National Bank's system, which ranks banks according to balance sheet total) were selected to represent the Czech banks. Two ratios, the return on assets ratio (ROA) and the return on equity ratio (ROE) are used to assess bank profitability. Six endogenous and four external indicators were selected from among other factors that influence bank profitability. The data analyzed were for the years 2001 – 2013. First, correlation analysis, which was supposed to eliminate correlated values, was conducted. A large number of correlated values were established on the basis of this analysis. The strongly correlated values were omitted. Despite this, the subsequent regression analysis of profitability for the individual banks that were selected did not confirm that the selected variables influenced their profitability. The studied factors' influence on bank profitability was demonstrated only for Československá Obchodní Banka and Société Générale using regression analysis. For Československá Obchodní Banka, it was demonstrated that inflation level and the amount of the central bank's interest rate influenced the return on assets ratio and that capital adequacy and market concentration influenced the return on equity ratio for Société Générale.

Keywords: banks, profitability, regression analysis, ROA, ROE

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Authors: Siti Khadijah Che Osmi, Mohammed Ahmad Syed

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Underground structures are crucial components which required detailed analysis and design. Tunnels, for instance, are massively constructed as transportation infrastructures and utilities network especially in urban environments. Considering their prime importance to the economy and public safety that cannot be compromised, thus any instability to these tunnels will be highly detrimental to their performance. Recent experience suggests that tunnels become vulnerable during earthquakes and blast scenarios. However, a very limited amount of studies has been carried out to study and understanding the dynamic response and performance of underground tunnels under those unpredictable extreme hazards. In view of the importance of enhancing the resilience of these structures, the overall aims of the study are to evaluate probabilistic future performance of shallow tunnels subjected to seismic and blast loads by developing detailed fragility analysis. Critical non-linear time history numerical analyses using sophisticated finite element software Midas GTS NX have been presented about the current methods of analysis, taking into consideration of structural typology, ground motion and explosive characteristics, effect of soil conditions and other associated uncertainties on the tunnel integrity which may ultimately lead to the catastrophic failure of the structures. The proposed fragility curves for both extreme loadings are discussed and compared which provide significant information the performance of the tunnel under extreme hazards which may beneficial for future risk assessment and loss estimation.

Keywords: fragility analysis, seismic loads, shallow tunnels, blast loads

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Authors: Radovan Cobanovic, Milica Rankov-Sicar

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The fresh cake is in the group of perishable food which cannot be kept a long period of time. The study of sustainability has been done in order to extend the shelf-life of the product which was 10 days. According to the plan of sustainability, it was defined that 5 samples had to be stored for 20 days at max +8°C and analyzed every 5th day from the day of reception until the 20th day. The shelf life of cake has expired during the study of sustainability in the period between 10th and 20th day of analyses. Cake samples were subjected to sensory analysis (appearance, odor, taste, color, aroma) and bacteriological analysis (Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp. and Enterobacteriaceae) according to Serbian state regulation. All analysis were tested according to ISO methodology: sensory analysis ISO 6658, Listeria monocytogenes ISO 11290-1, Salmonella spp ISO 6579, and Enterobacteriaceae ISO 21258-2. Analyses showed that after ten days of storage at a temperature defined by the manufacturers and within the product's shelf life, the cake did not have any noticeable changes in sensory characteristics. Smell and taste are unaffected there was no presence of strange smell or taste. As far as microbiological analyses are concerned, neither one pathogen was detected and number of Enterobacteriaceae was at level less than 102 cfu/g. After expiry of shelf life in a period of 15th and 20th day of storage, the sensory analysis showed the presence of strange sour-milky smell and rancid taste. Concerning microbiological analyses, there still were not positive results for pathogen microorganisms but the number of Enterobacteriaceae was at level more than 103cfu/g. Reviewing the results of sensory analysis indicates that it is not recommended to extend the shelf-life of the product comparing to the already defined shelf-life because occurred changes may adversely affect the consumer desire for the choice of this product.

Keywords: confectionary product, extension of shelf life, sensory and microbiological analyses, sustainability

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Authors: Chanhoe Kang, Changhyun Lee, Seock-Hee Jun, Yeong-Tae Oh

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Offshore floating structure under the various environmental conditions maintains a fixed position by mooring system. Environmental conditions, vessel motions and mooring loads are applied to mooring lines as the dynamic tension. Because global responses of mooring system in deep water are specified as wave frequency and low frequency response, they should be calculated from the time-domain analysis due to non-linear dynamic characteristics. To take into account all mooring loads, environmental conditions, added mass and damping terms at each time step, a lot of computation time and capacities are required. Thus, under the premise that reliable fatigue damage could be derived through reasonable analysis method, it is necessary to reduce the analysis cases through the sensitivity studies and appropriate assumptions. In this paper, effects in fatigue are studied for spread mooring system connected with oil FPSO which is positioned in deep water of West Africa offshore. The target FPSO with two Mbbls storage has 16 spread mooring lines (4 bundles x 4 lines). The various sensitivity studies are performed for environmental loads, type of responses, vessel offsets, mooring position, loading conditions and riser behavior. Each parameter applied to the sensitivity studies is investigated from the effects of fatigue damage through fatigue analysis. Based on the sensitivity studies, the following results are presented: Wave loads are more dominant in terms of fatigue than other environment conditions. Wave frequency response causes the higher fatigue damage than low frequency response. The larger vessel offset increases the mean tension and so it results in the increased fatigue damage. The external line of each bundle shows the highest fatigue damage by the governed vessel pitch motion due to swell wave conditions. Among three kinds of loading conditions, ballast condition has the highest fatigue damage due to higher tension. The riser damping occurred by riser behavior tends to reduce the fatigue damage. The various analysis results obtained from these sensitivity studies can be used for a simplified fatigue analysis of spread mooring line as the reference.

Keywords: mooring system, fatigue analysis, time domain, non-linear dynamic characteristics

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Authors: Ncoza Dlova, Tivani Mashamba-Thompson

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Garcinia livingstonei (Clusiaceae) extracts, morelloflavone- 7″- sulphate and sargaol were shown to be effective against hyper-pigmentation through inhibition of tyrosinase enzyme, in vitro . The aim of this study is to elucidate the structural mechanism through which morelloflavone- 7″- sulphate and sargaol binds human tyrosinase. Implementing a homology model to construct a tyrosinase model using the crystal structure of a functional unit from Octopus hemocyanin (PDB: 1JS8) as a reference template enabled us to create a human tyrosinase model. Molecular dynamics and binding free energy calculations were optimized to enable molecular dynamics simulation of the copper dependent inhibitors. Results show the importance of the hydrogen bond formation morelloflavone- 7″- sulphate and sargaol between compound and active site residues. Both complexes demonstrated the metallic coordination between compound and arginine residue as well as copper ions within the active site. The comprehensive molecular insight gained from this study should be vital in understanding the binding mechanism morelloflavone- 7″- sulphate and sargaol. Moreover, these results will assist in the design of novel of metal ion dependent enzyme inhibitors as potential anti-hyper-pigmentation disorder therapies.

Keywords: hyper-pigmentation disorders, dyschromia African skin, morelloflavone- 7″- sulphate, sagoal

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Authors: M. E. Abou-Hashem El Dib, M. K. Swailem, M. M. Metwally, A. I. El Awady

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The present work illustrates a parametric study for the effect of stiffeners on the performance of slender built up steel I-columns. To achieve the desired analysis, finite element technique is used to develop nonlinear three-dimensional models representing the investigated columns. The finite element program (ANSYS 13.0) is used as a calculation tool for the necessary nonlinear analysis. A validation of the obtained numerical results is achieved. The considered parameters in the study are the column slenderness ratio and the horizontal stiffener's dimensions as well as the number of stiffeners. The dimensions of the stiffeners considered in the analysis are the stiffener width and the stiffener thickness. Numerical results signify a considerable effect of stiffeners on the performance and failure load of slender built up steel I-columns.

Keywords: columns, local buckling, slender, stiffener, thin walled section

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Authors: Tzong-Shing Cheng, Chen Pei Chen, Shu-Wei Chen

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The purpose of this research is to apply Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to investigate the factors that influence elementary school teacher’s behavior of using e-books. Based on the literature review, a questionnaire was modified and used to test the elementary school teachers in Changhua. A total of 420 questionnaires were administered and 364 of them were returned, including 328 valid and 36 invalid questionnaires. The effective response rate is 78%. The methods of data analysis include descriptive statistics, factor analysis, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and simple regression analysis. The results show that: 1. There were significant difference in the Elementary school teachers’ “Performance Expectancy”, “Effort Expectancy”, “Social Influence”, and “Facilitating Conditions” depending on their different “Demographic Variables”. 2. “Performance Expectancy” and “Behavioral Intention to Use” are positively correlated. 3. “Effort Expectancy” and “Behavioral Intention to Use” are positively correlated. 4. There was no significant relationship between “Social Influence” and “Behavioral Intention to Use”. 5. There was significant relationship between “Facilitating Conditions” and “Use Behavior”.

Keywords: e-books, UTAUT, elementary school teacher, behavioral intention to use

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Authors: Alexander Heckman, Rohan Goswami, Zachi Attia, Paul Friedman, Peter Noseworthy, Demilade Adedinsewo, Pablo Moreno-Franco, Rickey Carter, Tathagat Narula

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Background: Postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) is associated with adverse health consequences, higher costs, and longer hospital stays. Utilizing existing predictive models that rely on clinical variables and circulating biomarkers, multiple societies have published recommendations on the treatment and prevention of POAF. Although reasonably practical, there is room for improvement and automation to help individualize treatment strategies and reduce associated complications. Methods and Results: In this retrospective cohort study of solid organ transplant recipients, we evaluated the diagnostic utility of a previously developed AI-based ECG prediction for silent AF on the development of POAF within 30 days of transplant. A total of 2261 non-cardiac transplant patients without a preexisting diagnosis of AF were found to have a 5.8% (133/2261) incidence of POAF. While there were no apparent sex differences in POAF incidence (5.8% males vs. 6.0% females, p=.80), there were differences by race and ethnicity (p<0.001 and 0.035, respectively). The incidence in white transplanted patients was 7.2% (117/1628), whereas the incidence in black patients was 1.4% (6/430). Lung transplant recipients had the highest incidence of postoperative AF (17.4%, 37/213), followed by liver (5.6%, 56/1002) and kidney (3.6%, 32/895) recipients. The AUROC in the sample was 0.62 (95% CI: 0.58-0.67). The relatively low discrimination may result from undiagnosed AF in the sample. In particular, 1,177 patients had at least 1 AI-ECG screen for AF pre-transplant above .10, a value slightly higher than the published threshold of 0.08. The incidence of POAF in the 1104 patients without an elevated prediction pre-transplant was lower (3.7% vs. 8.0%; p<0.001). While this supported the hypothesis that potentially undiagnosed AF may have contributed to the diagnosis of POAF, the utility of the existing AI-ECG screening algorithm remained modest. When the prediction for POAF was made using the first postoperative ECG in the sample without an elevated screen pre-transplant (n=1084 on account of n=20 missing postoperative ECG), the AUROC was 0.66 (95% CI: 0.57-0.75). While this discrimination is relatively low, at a threshold of 0.08, the AI-ECG algorithm had a 98% (95% CI: 97 – 99%) negative predictive value at a sensitivity of 66% (95% CI: 49-80%). Conclusions: This study's principal finding is that the incidence of POAF is rare, and a considerable fraction of the POAF cases may be latent and undiagnosed. The high negative predictive value of AI-ECG screening suggests utility for prioritizing monitoring and evaluation on transplant patients with a positive AI-ECG screening. Further development and refinement of a post-transplant-specific algorithm may be warranted further to enhance the diagnostic yield of the ECG-based screening.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, atrial fibrillation, cardiology, transplant, medicine, ECG, machine learning

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Authors: Rujnan Tuna, Ayse Cil Akinci

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Work life takes up an important place in human life, and an employed person faces many stimuli from internal and external environments and is affected by them in a positive or negative way. Also, the handover process, which is the process of sharing information about the patient with other health professionals, is an important criterion to maintain patient care and enhance the quality of care provided. Handover is a key component for sustaining daily basic clinical practices and is also essential to maintain the safe patient care. This investigation followed a descriptive and correlation design in order to establish job stress and the handover efficiency of nurses and the relationship in between. The study was conducted with 192 nurses working in a public hospital in Istanbul between January and March 2017. Descriptive information form, Job Stressors Scale, and Handover Evaluation Scale were used to collect the data of the study. The data were analyzed by using IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 statistical software. Approvals from participants, managers of institution, and ethics committee were taken for the study. As a result of the research, it was found that job stress was above the median value, and the highest score in the ‘work role conflict’ subdimension. Also, it was found that the effectiveness of the nurses' handover effectiviness was above the median value and the highest score in the ‘quality of information’ subdimension. In the study, there was a negatively weak correlation between ‘work role overload’ subdimension of Job Stressors Scale and ‘interaction and support’ subdimension of Handover Evaluation Scale. There is a need for further study in order to maintain patient safety.

Keywords: handover, job stress, nurse, patient

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Authors: Rogelio Luck, Yucheng Liu

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This paper proposes the continuous-time singular value decomposition (SVD) for the impulse response function, a special kind of Green’s functions e⁻⁽ᵗ⁻ ᵀ⁾, in order to find a set of singular functions and singular values so that the convolutions of such function with the set of singular functions on a specified domain are the solutions to the inhomogeneous differential equations for those singular functions. A numerical example was illustrated to verify the proposed method. Besides the continuous-time SVD, a discrete-time SVD is also presented for the impulse response function, which is modeled using a Toeplitz matrix in the discrete system. The proposed method has broad applications in signal processing, dynamic system analysis, acoustic analysis, thermal analysis, as well as macroeconomic modeling.

Keywords: singular value decomposition, impulse response function, Green’s function , Toeplitz matrix , Hankel matrix

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Authors: Eslam Dabbish, Fortuna Ponte, Stefano Scoditti, Emilia Sicilia, Gloria Mazzone

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The medical techniques based on the use of light for activating the drug are occupying a prominent place in the cancer treatment due to their selectivity that contributes to reduce undesirable side effects of conventional chemotherapy. Among these therapeutic treatments, photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT) are emerging as complementary approaches for selective destruction of neoplastic tissue through direct cellular damage. Both techniques rely on the employment of a molecule, photosensitizer (PS), able to absorb within the so-called therapeutic window. Thus, the exposure to light of otherwise inert molecules promotes the population of excited states of the drug, that in PDT are able to produce the cytotoxic species, such as 1O2 and other ROS, in PACT can be responsible of the active species release or formation. Following the success of cisplatin in conventional treatments, many other transition metal complexes were explored as anticancer agents for applications in different medical approaches, including PDT and PACT, in order to improve their chemical, biological and photophysical properties. In this field, several crucial characteristics of candidate PSs can be accurately predicted from first principle calculations, especially in the framework of density functional theory and its time-dependent formulation, contributing to the understanding of the entire photochemical pathways involved which can ultimately help in improving the efficiency of a drug. A brief overview of the outcomes on some platinum and ruthenium-based PSs proposed for the application in the two phototherapies will be provided.

Keywords: TDDFT, metal complexes, PACT, PDT

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Authors: Omar Eldenali, Ahmed M. Bufares

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There are primarily two types of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAVs), namely, multirotor and fixed wing. Each type has its own advantages. This study introduces a design of a fixed wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAV. The design is classified as ready-to-fly (RTF) fixed wing UAV. This means that the UAV is capable of not only taking off, landing, or hovering like a multirotor aircraft but also cruising like a fixed wing UAV. In this study, the conceptual design of 15 kg takeoff weight twin-tail boom configuration FW-VTOL plane is carried out, the initial sizing of the plane is conducted, and both the horizontal and vertical tail configurations are estimated. Moreover, the power required for each stage of flight is determined. Finally, the stability analysis of the plane based on this design is performed, the results shows that this design based on the suggested flight mission is stable and can be utilized.

Keywords: FW-VTOL, initial sizing, constrain analysis, stability

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Authors: Xiang Li, Jian-Qiao Sun

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As the crucial component of city traffic network, intersections have significant impacts on urban traffic performance. Despite of the rapid development in transportation systems, increasing traffic volumes result in severe congestions especially at intersections in urban areas. Effective regulation of vehicle flows at intersections has always been an important issue in the traffic control system. This study presents a multi-objective optimization method at intersections with cellular automata to achieve better traffic performance. Vehicle conflicts and pedestrian interference are considered. Three categories of the traffic performance are studied including transportation efficiency, energy consumption and road safety. The left-turn signal type, signal timing and lane assignment are optimized for different traffic flows. The multi-objective optimization problem is solved with the cell mapping method. The optimization results show the conflicting nature of different traffic performance. The influence of different traffic variables on the intersection performance is investigated. It is observed that the proposed optimization method is effective in regulating the traffic at the intersection to meet multiple objectives. Transportation efficiency can be usually improved by the permissive left-turn signal, which sacrifices safety. Right-turn traffic suffers significantly when the right-turn lanes are shared with the through vehicles. The effect of vehicle flow on the intersection performance is significant. The display pattern of the optimization results can be changed remarkably by the traffic volume variation. Pedestrians have strong interference with the traffic system.

Keywords: cellular automata, intersection, multi-objective optimization, traffic system

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Authors: Mohamad Amin Amini, Mehdi Poursha

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Nonlinear response history analysis (NL-RHA) is a robust analytical tool for estimating the seismic demands of structures responding in the inelastic range. However, because of its conceptual and numerical complications, the nonlinear static procedure (NSP) is being increasingly used as a suitable tool for seismic performance evaluation of structures. The conventional pushover analysis methods presented in various codes (FEMA 356; Eurocode-8; ATC-40), are limited to the first-mode-dominated structures, and cannot take higher modes effect into consideration. Therefore, since more than a decade ago, researchers developed enhanced pushover analysis procedures to take higher modes effect into account. The main objective of this study is to propose an enhanced invariant lateral displacement distribution to take higher modes effect into consideration in performing a displacement-based pushover analysis, whereby a set of laterally applied displacements, rather than forces, is monotonically applied to the structure. For this purpose, the effect of different parameters such as the spectral displacement of ground motion, the modal participation factor, and the effective modal participating mass ratio on the lateral displacement distribution is investigated to find the best distribution. The major simplification of this procedure is that the effect of higher modes is concentrated into a single invariant lateral load distribution. Therefore, only one pushover analysis is sufficient without any need to utilize a modal combination rule for combining the responses. The invariant lateral displacement distribution for pushover analysis is then calculated by combining the modal story displacements using the modal combination rules. The seismic demands resulting from the different procedures are compared to those from the more accurate nonlinear response history analysis (NL-RHA) as a benchmark solution. Two structures of different heights including 10 and 20-story special steel moment resisting frames (MRFs) were selected and evaluated. Twenty ground motion records were used to conduct the NL-RHA. The results show that more accurate responses can be obtained in comparison with the conventional lateral loads when the enhanced modal lateral displacement distributions are used.

Keywords: displacement-based pushover, enhanced lateral load distribution, higher modes effect, nonlinear response history analysis (NL-RHA)

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Authors: Jihad Daba, Jean-Pierre Dubois

Abstract:

Multi path fading noise degrades the performance of cellular communication, most notably in femto- and pico-cells in 3G and 4G systems. When the wireless channel consists of a small number of scattering paths, the statistics of fading noise is not analytically tractable and poses a serious challenge to developing closed canonical forms that can be analysed and used in the design of efficient and optimal receivers. In this context, noise is multiplicative and is referred to as stochastically local fading. In many analytical investigation of multiplicative noise, the exponential or Gamma statistics are invoked. More recent advances by the author of this paper have utilized a Poisson modulated and weighted generalized Laguerre polynomials with controlling parameters and uncorrelated noise assumptions. In this paper, we investigate the statistics of multi-diversity stochastically local area fading channel when the channel consists of randomly distributed Rayleigh and Rician scattering centers with a coherent specular Nakagami-distributed line of sight component and an underlying doubly stochastic Poisson process driven by a lognormal intensity. These combined statistics form a unifying triply stochastic filtered marked Poisson point process model.

Keywords: cellular communication, femto and pico-cells, stochastically local area fading channel, triply stochastic filtered marked Poisson point process

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Authors: E. Akpinar, A. Erol, M.F. Cakir

Abstract:

Precast reinforced concrete (RC) structures are excellent alternatives for construction world all over the globe, thanks to their rapid erection phase, ease mounting process, better quality and reasonable prices. Such structures are rather popular for industrial buildings. For the sake of economic importance of such industrial buildings as well as significance of safety, like every other type of structures, performance assessment and structural risk analysis are important. Fragility curves are powerful tools for damage projection and assessment for any sort of building as well as precast structures. In this study, a comparative review of current knowledge on fragility analysis of industrial precast RC structures were presented and findings in previous studies were compiled. Effects of different structural variables, parameters and building geometries as well as soil conditions on fragility analysis of precast structures are reviewed. It was aimed to briefly present the information in the literature about the procedure of damage probability prediction including fragility curves for such industrial facilities. It is found that determination of the aforementioned structural parameters as well as selecting analysis procedure are critically important for damage prediction of industrial precast RC structures using fragility curves.

Keywords: damage prediction, fragility curve, industrial buildings, precast reinforced concrete structures

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Authors: Muhammad Abdullah, Salman Iqbal, Mamoona Rasheed

Abstract:

Social identity among people is an important source of pride and self-esteem, consequently, people struggle to preserve a positive perception of their groups and collectives. The purpose of this paper is to explain the process of social identification and to highlight the underlying causal factors of social identity among employees. There is a little research about how the social identity of employees is shaped in Pakistan’s organizational culture. This study is based on social identity theory. This study uses Systems’ approach as a research methodology. The feedback loop approach is applied to explain the underlying key elements of employee behavior that collectively form social identity among social groups in corporate arena. The findings of this study reveal that effective, evaluative and cognitive components of an individual’s personality are associated with the social identification. The system dynamic feedback loop approach has revealed the underlying structure that is associated with social identity, social group formation, and effective component proved to be the most associated factor. This may also enable to understand how social groups become stable and individuals act according to the group requirements. The value of this paper lies in the understanding gained about the underlying key factors that play a crucial role in social group formation in organizations. It may help to understand the rationale behind how employees socially categorize themselves within organizations. It may also help to design effective and more cohesive teams for better operations and long-term results. This may help to share knowledge among employees as well. The underlying structure behind the social identification is highlighted with the help of system modeling.

Keywords: affective commitment, cognitive commitment, evaluated commitment, system thinking

Procedia PDF Downloads 137

Authors: Sadeq Al Yaari, Muhammad Alkhunayn, Ayman Al Yaari, Montaha Al Yaari, Aayah Al Yaari, Adham Al Yaari, Sajedah Al Yaari, Fatehi Eissa

Abstract:

Stuttering is a multidimensional disorder that is influenced by different factors. As a result of their un-understanding of the genuine reasons behind stuttering, psychiatrists and Speech and Language Pathologists/Therapists (SLP/Ts) are often unfamiliar with the psychoneurolinguistic characteristics, support needs, and the disability measurement impacting requested rehabilitation of the stuttering population. PubMed, PsycInfo, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google scholar searches, in addition to some unpublished literature, were conducted in this Systematic Literature Review and Meta-analysis (SLR and Meta-analysis) to identify whether stuttering is caused by psychological or neurological reasons. The study concluded that psychological, not neurolinguistic factors were identified as most significant for the causality of childhood stuttering. Stutterers have intact language skills, but impaired ability more to communicate with others than to form letters in the brain or to articulate them. The study recommends research in the future that sheds light on the adult stuttering population often left out of the focus of diagnosis and in need of further exploration vis-a-vis issues they encounter, as well as the possible ways to deal with them psychoneurolinguistically.

Keywords: causality, childhood stuttering, psychology, neurolinguistics, systematic literature review, meta-analysis

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Authors: Surjit Angra, Manisha Kumari, Vinod Kumar

Abstract:

The objective of the Hydro Turbine Head Cover is to support the guide bearing, guide vane regulating mechanism and even in some design for generator thrust bearing support. Mechanical design of head cover deals with high static as well as fluctuating load acting on the structure. In the present work structural analysis of hydro turbine Head-cover using ANSYS software is carried out. Finite element method is used to calculate stresses on head cover. These calculations were done for the maximum possible loading under operating condition “LCI Quick Shut Down”. The results for equivalent Von-Mises stress, total deformation and directional deformation have been plotted and compared with the existing results whether the design is safe or not.

Keywords: ANSYS, head cover, hydro-turbine, structural analysis, total deformation, Von-Mises stress

Procedia PDF Downloads 535