Search results for: qualification criterion

Authors: Pedro M. Abreu, Bruno R. Mendes

Abstract:

The management of pharmacotherapy and the process of dispensing medicines is becoming critical in clinical pharmacy due to the increase of incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases, the complexity and customization of therapeutic regimens, the introduction of innovative and more expensive medicines, the unbalanced relation between expenditure and revenue as well as due to the lack of rationalization associated with medication use. For these reasons, co-payments emerged in Europe in the 70s and have been applied over the past few years in healthcare. Co-payments lead to a rationing and rationalization of user’s access under healthcare services and products, and simultaneously, to a qualification and improvement of the services and products for the end-user. This analysis, under hospital practices particularly and co-payment strategies in general, was carried out on all the European regions and identified four reference countries, that apply repeatedly this tool and with different approaches. The structure, content and adaptation of European co-payments were analyzed through 7 qualitative attributes and 19 performance indicators, and the results expressed in a scorecard, allowing to conclude that the German models (total score of 68,2% and 63,6% in both elected co-payments) can collect more compliance and effectiveness, the English models (total score of 50%) can be more accessible, and the French models (total score of 50%) can be more adequate to the socio-economic and legal framework. Other European models did not show the same quality and/or performance, so were not taken as a standard in the future design of co-payments strategies. In this sense, we can see in the co-payments a strategy not only to moderate the consumption of healthcare products and services, but especially to improve them, as well as a strategy to increment the value that the end-user assigns to these services and products, such as medicines.

Keywords: Clinical pharmacy, co-payments, healthcare, medicines.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1302

Authors: Elena Lyakso, Olga Frolova, Yuri Matveev

Abstract:

The aim of the study is to determine the acoustic features of voice and speech of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) as a possible additional diagnostic criterion. The participants in the study were 95 children with ASD aged 5-16 years, 150 typically development (TD) children, and 103 adults – listening to children’s speech samples. Three types of experimental methods for speech analysis were performed: spectrographic, perceptual by listeners, and automatic recognition. In the speech of children with ASD, the pitch values, pitch range, values of frequency and intensity of the third formant (emotional) leading to the “atypical” spectrogram of vowels are higher than corresponding parameters in the speech of TD children. High values of vowel articulation index (VAI) are specific for ASD children’s speech signals. These acoustic features can be considered as diagnostic marker of autism. The ability of humans and automatic recognition of the psychoneurological state of children via their speech is determined.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorders, biomarker of autism, child speech, voice features.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 545

Authors: Autcha Araveeporn

Abstract:

The Random Coefficient Dynamic Regression (RCDR) model is to developed from Random Coefficient Autoregressive (RCA) model and Autoregressive (AR) model. The RCDR model is considered by adding exogenous variables to RCA model. In this paper, the concept of the Maximum Likelihood (ML) method is used to estimate the parameter of RCDR(1,1) model. Simulation results have shown the AIC and BIC criterion to compare the performance of the the RCDR(1,1) model. The variables as the stationary and weakly stationary data are good estimates where the exogenous variables are weakly stationary. However, the model selection indicated that variables are nonstationarity data based on the stationary data of the exogenous variables.

Keywords: Autoregressive, Maximum Likelihood Method, Nonstationarity, Random Coefficient Dynamic Regression, Stationary.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1603

Authors: Andras Szekrenyes

Abstract:

This work presents the mixed-mode II/III prestressed split-cantilever beam specimen for the fracture testing of composite materials. In accordance with the concept of prestressed composite beams one of the two fracture modes is provided by the prestressed state of the specimen, and the other one is increased up to fracture initiation by using a testing machine. The novel beam-like specimen is able to provide any combination of the mode-II and mode-III energy release rates. A simple closed-form solution is developed using beam theory as a data reduction scheme and for the calculation of the energy release rates in the new configuration. The applicability and the limitations of the novel fracture mechanical test are demonstrated using unidirectional glass/polyester composite specimens. If only crack propagation onset is involved then the mixed-mode beam specimen can be used to obtain the fracture criterion of transparent composite materials in the GII - GIII plane in a relatively simple way.

Keywords: Composite, fracture mechanics, toughness testing, mixed-mode II/III fracture.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1898

Authors: P. Mekpruksawong, S. Chuenchooklin, T. Ichikawa

Abstract:

The aim of research project is to evaluate quantity and quality for conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water in lower in the Lower Nam Kam area, Thailand, even though there have been hints of saline soil and water. The mathematical model named WUSMO and MIKE Basin were applied for the calculation of crop water utilization. Results of the study showed that, in irrigation command area, water consumption rely on various sources; rain water 21.56%, irrigation water 78.29%, groundwater and some small surface storage 0.15%. Meanwhile, for non-irrigation command area, water consumption depends on the Nam Kam and Nambang stream 42%, rain water 36.75% and groundwater and some small surface storage 19.18%. Samples of surface water and groundwater were collected for 2 seasons. The criterion was determined for the assessment of suitable water for irrigation. It was found that this area has very limited sources of suitable water for irrigation.

Keywords: Conjunctive use, Groundwater, Surface water, Saline soil.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1748

Authors: Eiad Yafi, Ahmed Sultan Al-Hegami, M. A. Alam, Ranjit Biswas

Abstract:

Association rules are an important problem in data mining. Massively increasing volume of data in real life databases has motivated researchers to design novel and incremental algorithms for association rules mining. In this paper, we propose an incremental association rules mining algorithm that integrates shocking interestingness criterion during the process of building the model. A new interesting measure called shocking measure is introduced. One of the main features of the proposed approach is to capture the user background knowledge, which is monotonically augmented. The incremental model that reflects the changing data and the user beliefs is attractive in order to make the over all KDD process more effective and efficient. We implemented the proposed approach and experiment it with some public datasets and found the results quite promising.

Keywords: Knowledge discovery in databases (KDD), Data mining, Incremental Association rules, Domain knowledge, Interestingness, Shocking rules (SHR).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1835

Authors: Khalid Alnafjan, Tazar Hussain, Hanif Ullah, Zia ul haq Paracha

Abstract:

Software and applications are subjected to serious and damaging security threats, these threats are increasing as a result of increased number of potential vulnerabilities. Security testing is an indispensable process to validate software security requirements and to identify security related vulnerabilities. In this paper we analyze and compare different available vulnerabilities testing techniques based on a pre defined criteria using analytical hierarchy process (AHP). We have selected five testing techniques which includes Source code analysis, Fault code injection, Robustness, Stress and Penetration testing techniques. These testing techniques have been evaluated against five criteria which include cost, thoroughness, Ease of use, effectiveness and efficiency. The outcome of the study is helpful for researchers, testers and developers to understand effectiveness of each technique in its respective domain. Also the study helps to compare the inner working of testing techniques against a selected criterion to achieve optimum testing results.

Keywords: Software Security, Security Testing, Testing techniques, vulnerability, AHP.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2839

Authors: Il Young Song, Du Yong Kim, Vladimir Shin

Abstract:

This paper reports on a receding horizon filtering for mobile robot systems with cross-correlated sensor noises and uncertainties. Also, the effect of uncertain parameters in the state of the tracking error model performance is considered. A distributed fusion receding horizon filter is proposed. The distributed fusion filtering algorithm represents the optimal linear combination of the local filters under the minimum mean square error criterion. The derivation of the error cross-covariances between the local receding horizon filters is the key of this paper. Simulation results of the tracking mobile robot-s motion demonstrate high accuracy and computational efficiency of the distributed fusion receding horizon filter.

Keywords: Distributed fusion, fusion formula, Kalman filter, multisensor, receding horizon, wheeled mobile robot

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1157

Authors: S. Cherif, S. Marcos, M. Jaidane

Abstract:

In this paper the behavior of the decision feedback equalizers (DFEs) adapted by the decision-directed or the constant modulus blind algorithms is presented. An analysis of the error surface of the corresponding criterion cost functions is first developed. With the intention of avoiding the ill-convergence of the algorithm, the paper proposes to modify the shape of the cost function error surface by using a soft decision instead of the hard one. This was shown to reduce the influence of false decisions and to smooth the undesirable minima. Modified algorithms using the soft decision during a pseudo-training phase with an automatic switch to the properly tracking phase are then derived. Computer simulations show that these modified algorithms present better ability to avoid local minima than conventional ones.

Keywords: Blind DFEs, decision-directed algorithm, constant modulus algorithm, cost function analysis, convergence analysis, soft decision.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1838

Authors: Saad Alkhaldi, Fadi Ghammas, Tariq Alghamdi, Stefano Alexandirs

Abstract:

The operating conditions and corrosive nature of the process fluid in the Haradh and Hawiyah areas are subjecting facility piping to undesirable corrosion phenomena. Therefore, production headers inside remote headers have been internally cladded with high alloy material to mitigate the corrosion damage mechanism. Corrosion mitigation in the jump-over lines, constructed between the existing flowlines and the newly constructed facilities to provide operational flexibility, is proposed. This corrosion mitigation system includes the application of fusion bond epoxy (FBE) coating on the internal surface of the pipe and depositing corrosion-resistant alloy (CRA) weld layers at pipe and fittings ends to protect the carbon steel material. In addition, high alloy CRA weld material is used to deposit the girth weld between the 90-degree elbows and mating internally coated segments. A rigorous testing and qualification protocol was established prior to actual adoption at the Haradh and Hawiyah Field Gas Compression Program, currently being executed by Saudi Aramco. The proposed mitigation system, aimed at applying the cladding at the ends of the internally FBE coated pipes/elbows, will resolve field joint coating challenges, eliminate the use of approximately 1700 breakout flanges, and prevent the potential hydrocarbon leaks.

Keywords: Corrosion, FBE coated sour service, cost savings.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 251

Authors: Elsa Eka Putri, N.S.V Kameswara Rao, M. A. Mannan

Abstract:

The objective of this study is to evaluate the threshold stress of the clay with sand subgrade soil. Threshold stress can be defined as the stress level above which cyclic loading leads to excessive deformation and eventual failure. The thickness determination of highways formations using the threshold stress approach is a more realistic assessment of the soil behaviour because it is subjected to repeated loadings from moving vehicles. Threshold stress can be evaluated by plastic strain criterion, which is based on the accumulated plastic strain behaviour during cyclic loadings [1]. Several conditions of the all-round pressure the subgrade soil namely, zero confinement, low all-round pressure and high all-round pressure are investigated. The threshold stresses of various soil conditions are determined. Threshold stress of the soil are 60%, 31% and 38.6% for unconfined partially saturated sample, low effective stress saturated sample, high effective stress saturated sample respectively.

Keywords: threshold stress, cyclic loading, pore water pressure.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2555

Authors: Jing Yu, Hongyang Liu, Dong Hao

Abstract:

On-Orbit Refueling is of great significance in extending space crafts' lifetime. The problem of minimum-fuel, time-fixed, Peer-to-Peer On-Orbit Refueling mission planning is addressed here with the particular aim of assigning fuel-insufficient satellites to the fuel-sufficient satellites and optimizing each rendezvous trajectory. Constraints including perturbation, communication link, sun illumination, hold points for different rendezvous phases, and sensor switching are considered. A planning model has established as well as a two-level solution method. The upper level deals with target assignment based on fuel equilibrium criterion, while the lower level solves constrained trajectory optimization using special maneuver strategies. Simulations show that the developed method could effectively resolve the Peer-to-Peer On-Orbit Refueling mission planning problem and deal with complex constraints.

Keywords: Mission planning, orbital rendezvous, on-orbit refueling, space mission.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 580

Authors: V. Girondel, L. Bonnaud, A. Caplier, M. Rombaut

Abstract:

This paper presents various classifiers results from a system that can automatically recognize four different static human body postures in video sequences. The considered postures are standing, sitting, squatting, and lying. The three classifiers considered are a naïve one and two based on the belief theory. The belief theory-based classifiers use either a classic or restricted plausibility criterion to make a decision after data fusion. The data come from the people 2D segmentation and from their face localization. Measurements consist in distances relative to a reference posture. The efficiency and the limits of the different classifiers on the recognition system are highlighted thanks to the analysis of a great number of results. This system allows real-time processing.

Keywords: Belief theory, classifiers comparison, data fusion, human motion analysis, real-time processing, static posture recognition.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1470

Authors: K.M. Faraoun, A. Boukelif

Abstract:

This paper describes a new approach of classification using genetic programming. The proposed technique consists of genetically coevolving a population of non-linear transformations on the input data to be classified, and map them to a new space with a reduced dimension, in order to get a maximum inter-classes discrimination. The classification of new samples is then performed on the transformed data, and so become much easier. Contrary to the existing GP-classification techniques, the proposed one use a dynamic repartition of the transformed data in separated intervals, the efficacy of a given intervals repartition is handled by the fitness criterion, with a maximum classes discrimination. Experiments were first performed using the Fisher-s Iris dataset, and then, the KDD-99 Cup dataset was used to study the intrusion detection and classification problem. Obtained results demonstrate that the proposed genetic approach outperform the existing GP-classification methods [1],[2] and [3], and give a very accepted results compared to other existing techniques proposed in [4],[5],[6],[7] and [8].

Keywords: Genetic programming, patterns classification, intrusion detection

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1665

Authors: Zhang Wenbo, Tian Ye, Sun Peigen, Xu Haifeng

Abstract:

According to the mobility of the satellite network nodes and the characteristic of management domain dynamic partition in the satellite network, the login and logout mechanism of the satellite network dynamic management domain partition was proposed in the paper. In the mechanism, a ground branch-station sends the packets of login broadcasting to satellites in view. After received the packets, the SNMP agents on the satellites adopt link-delay test to respond. According to the mechanism, the SNMP primitives were extended, and the new added primitives were as follows: broadcasting, login, login confirmation,delay_testing, test responses, and logout. The definition of primitives, which followed RFC1157 criterion, could be encoded by the BER coding. The policy of the dynamic management domain partition on the basis of the login and logout mechanism, which was supported by the SNMP protocol, was realized by the design of the extended primitives.

Keywords: Satellites Network, network management, communication primitive, SNMP

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1508

Authors: H. R. Kazemi Nia, A. Yeganeh Fallah

Abstract:

Without uncertainty by applying external loads on beams, bending is created. The created bending in I-beams, puts one of the flanges in tension and the other one in compression. With increasing of bending, compression flange buckled and beam in out of its plane direction twisted, this twisting well-known as Lateral Torsional Buckling. Providing bending moment varieties along the beam, the critical moment is greater than the case its under pure bending. In other words, the value of bending gradient coefficient is always greater than unite. In this article by the use of " ANSYS 10.0" software near 80 3-D finite element models developed for the propose of analyzing beams` lateral torsional buckling and surveying influence of slenderness on beams' bending gradient coefficient. Results show that, presented Cb coefficient via AISC is not correct for some of beams and value of this coefficient is smaller than what proposed by AISC. Therefore instead of using a constant Cb for each case of loading , a function with two criterion for calculation of Cb coefficient for some cases is proposed.

Keywords: Beams critical moment, Bending Gradient Coefficient, finite element, Lateral Torsional Buckling

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4466

Authors: B. Bagheri Nakhjavanlo, T. S. Ellis, P.Raoofi, Sh.ziari

Abstract:

This paper presents an application of level sets for the segmentation of abdominal and thoracic aortic aneurysms in CTA datasets. An important challenge in reliably detecting aortic is the need to overcome problems associated with intensity inhomogeneities. Level sets are part of an important class of methods that utilize partial differential equations (PDEs) and have been extensively applied in image segmentation. A kernel function in the level set formulation aids the suppression of noise in the extracted regions of interest and then guides the motion of the evolving contour for the detection of weak boundaries. The speed of curve evolution has been significantly improved with a resulting decrease in segmentation time compared with previous implementations of level sets, and are shown to be more effective than other approaches in coping with intensity inhomogeneities. We have applied the Courant Friedrichs Levy (CFL) condition as stability criterion for our algorithm.

Keywords: Image segmentation, Level-sets, Local fitting binary, Thoracic aorta.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1410

Authors: Krisada Lekdee, Sunee Sammatat, Nittaya Boonsit

Abstract:

This paper proposes a GLMM with spatial and temporal effects for malaria data in Thailand. A Bayesian method is used for parameter estimation via Gibbs sampling MCMC. A conditional autoregressive (CAR) model is assumed to present the spatial effects. The temporal correlation is presented through the covariance matrix of the random effects. The malaria quarterly data have been extracted from the Bureau of Epidemiology, Ministry of Public Health of Thailand. The factors considered are rainfall and temperature. The result shows that rainfall and temperature are positively related to the malaria morbidity rate. The posterior means of the estimated morbidity rates are used to construct the malaria maps. The top 5 highest morbidity rates (per 100,000 population) are in Trat (Q3, 111.70), Chiang Mai (Q3, 104.70), Narathiwat (Q4, 97.69), Chiang Mai (Q2, 88.51), and Chanthaburi (Q3, 86.82). According to the DIC criterion, the proposed model has a better performance than the GLMM with spatial effects but without temporal terms.

Keywords: Bayesian method, generalized linear mixed model (GLMM), malaria, spatial effects, temporal correlation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2102

Authors: A. Armin, R. Fotouhi, W. Szyszkowski

Abstract:

In this paper a 3-D finite element (FE) investigation of soil-blade interaction is described. The effects of blade’s shape and rake angle are examined both numerically and experimentally. The soil is considered as an elastic-plastic granular material with non-associated Drucker-Prager material model. Contact elements with different properties are used to mimic soil-blade sliding and soil-soil cutting phenomena. A separation criterion is presented and a procedure to evaluate the forces acting on the blade is given and discussed in detail. Experimental results were derived from tests using soil bin facility and instruments at the University of Saskatchewan. During motion of the blade, load cells collect data and send them to a computer. The measured forces using load cells had noisy signals which are needed to be filtered. The FE results are compared with experimental results for verification. This technique can be used in blade shape optimization and design of more complicated blade’s shape.

Keywords: Finite element analysis, soil-blade contact modeling, blade force, experimental results.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1117

Authors: Li Chen, ZhouLong Li, Qing-zhen Bi, LiMin Zhu

Abstract:

A new tool path planning method for 5-axis flank milling of a globoidal indexing cam is developed in this paper. The globoidal indexing cam is a practical transmission mechanism due to its high transmission speed, accuracy and dynamic performance. Machining the cam profile is a complex and precise task. The profile surface of the globoidal cam is generated by the conjugate contact motion of the roller. The generated complex profile surface is usually machined by 5-axis point-milling method. The point-milling method is time-consuming compared with flank milling. The tool path for 5-axis flank milling of globoidal cam is developed to improve the cutting efficiency. The flank milling tool path is globally optimized according to the minimum zone criterion, and high accuracy is guaranteed. The computational example and cutting simulation finally validate the developed method.

Keywords: Globoidal cam, flank milling, LSQR, MINIMAX.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2231

Authors: Seni Karnchanawong, Wachara Phajee

Abstract:

The effects of upflow liquid velocity (ULV) on performance of expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) system were investigated. The EGSB reactor, made from galvanized steel pipe 0.10 m diameter and 5 m height, had been used to treat piggery wastewater, after passing through acidification tank. It consisted of 39.3 l working volume in reaction zone and 122 l working volume in sedimentation zone, at the upper part. The reactor was seeded with anaerobically digested sludge and operated at the ULVs of 4, 8, 12 and 16 m/h, consecutively, corresponding to organic loading rates of 9.6 – 13.0 kg COD/ (m3.d). The average COD concentrations in the influent were 9,601 – 13,050 mg/l. The COD removal was not significantly different, i.e. 93.0% - 94.0%, except at ULV 12 m/h where SS in the influent was exceptionally high so that VSS washout had occurred, leading to low COD removal. The FCOD and VFA concentrations in the effluent of all experiments were not much different, indicating the same range of treatment performance. The biogas production decreased at higher ULV and ULV of 4 m/h is suggested as design criterion for EGSB system.

Keywords: Expanded granular sludge bed system, piggery wastewater, upflow liquid velocity

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2743

Authors: Teerawach Khamkorn, Laongtip Mathurasa, Savittree Rochanasmita Arnold, Witthaya Mekhum

Abstract:

The objective of this research seeks to transmit a distance training model to the community in the upper northeastern region. The group sampling consists of 60 community leaders in the municipality of sub-district Kumphawapi, Kumphawapi Disrict, Udonthani Province. The research tools rely on the following instruments, they are : 1) the achievement test of community leaders- training and 2) the satisfaction questionnaires of community leaders. The statistics used in data analysis takes the statistical mean, percentage, standard deviation, and statistical T-test. The resulted findings reveal : 1) the efficiency of the distance training developed by the researcher for the community leaders joining in the training received the average score between in-training and post-training period higher than the setup criterion, 2) the two groups of participants in the training achieved higher knowledge than their pre-training state, 3) the comparison of the achievements between the two group presented no different results, 4) the community leaders obtained the high-to-highest satisfaction.

Keywords: Distance Training, Management, Technology, Transmitting.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1258

Authors: Sedighe Arabameri, Nasser Salmasi

Abstract:

In this researcha particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is proposedfor no-wait flowshopsequence dependent setuptime scheduling problem with weighted earliness-tardiness penalties as the criterion (
|, |Σ   " ).The smallestposition value (SPV) rule is applied to convert the continuous value of position vector of particles in PSO to job permutations.A timing algorithm is generated to find the optimal schedule and calculate the objective function value of a given sequence in PSO algorithm. Twodifferent neighborhood structures are applied to improve the solution quality of PSO algorithm.The first one is based on variable neighborhood search (VNS) and the second one is a simple one with invariable structure. In order to compare the performance of two neighborhood structures, random test problems are generated and solved by both neighborhood approaches.Computational results show that the VNS algorithmhas better performance than the other one especially for the large sized problems.

Keywords: minimization of summation of weighed earliness and tardiness, no-wait flowshop scheduling, particle swarm optimization, sequence dependent setup times

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1583

Authors: Makkia, Ahmad, Al-Falahi, Abdullah Abdelaziz Muharram

Abstract:

Healthcare workers (HCWs) in Yemen are exposed to a myriad of occupational health hazards, including biological, physical, ergonomic, chemical and psychosocial hazards. HCWs operate in an environment that is considered to be one of the most hazardous occupational settings. The current study aimed to assess sng the prevalence of ‎occupational health hazards among Health care workers and associated ‎risk factors in public hospitals in Sana'a City, Yemen. Descriptive cross-sectional design was utilized; out of 5443 totals of HCWs 396 were selected by multistage sampling technique was carried out in the public hospitals in Sana'a city, Yemen. More the half (60.6%) of HCWs were aged between 20-30 years, 50.8% were males, 56.3% were married, and 45.5% had a diploma qualification, while 65.2% of HCWs had less than 6 years of experience. The results show a high prevalence of occupational hazards (99%); ergonomic hazards (93.4%), biological hazards (87.6%), psychosocial (86.65%), physical hazards (83.3%), and chemical hazards (73.5%). There were no statistically significant differences between demographic characteristics and the prevalence of occupational hazards (p > 0.05). The study revealed that occupational hazards were highly prevalent among the participants. The most common biological hazard was exposure to sharp-related injuries, while the predominant physical hazard was slip, trip, and fall incidents. Ergonomic hazards manifested as back or neck pain during work. Chemical hazards were represented by allergic reactions to medical gloves powder. Psychosocial hazards included experiencing verbal and physical harassment. In conclusion, the study emphasized the importance of raising awareness among HCWs and conducting training courses to prevent occupational hazards.

Keywords: Health workers, occupational hazard, prevalence, risk factors.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18

Authors: Ali Dehghani, Mojtaba Hakimzadeh, Amir Habibi, Navid Mehdizadeh Afroozi

Abstract:

In this paper an isolated wind-diesel hybrid power system has been considered for reactive power control study having an induction generator for wind power conversion and synchronous alternator with automatic voltage regulator (AVR) for diesel unit is presented. The dynamic voltage stability evaluation is dependent on small signal analysis considering a Static VAR Compensator (SVC) and IEEE type -I excitation system. It's shown that the variable reactive power source like SVC is crucial to meet the varying demand of reactive power by induction generator and load and to acquire an excellent voltage regulation of the system with minimum fluctuations. Integral square error (ISE) criterion can be used to evaluate the optimum setting of gain parameters. Finally the dynamic responses of the power systems considered with optimum gain setting will also be presented.

Keywords: SVC, Small Signal Stability, Reactive Power, Control, Hybrid System.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2419

Authors: G. Parmar, S. Mukherjee, R. Prasad

Abstract:

The authors present an optimization algorithm for order reduction and its application for the determination of the relative mapping errors of linear time invariant dynamic systems by the simplified models. These relative mapping errors are expressed by means of the relative integral square error criterion, which are determined for both unit step and impulse inputs. The reduction algorithm is based on minimization of the integral square error by particle swarm optimization technique pertaining to a unit step input. The algorithm is simple and computer oriented. It is shown that the algorithm has several advantages, e.g. the reduced order models retain the steady-state value and stability of the original system. Two numerical examples are solved to illustrate the superiority of the algorithm over some existing methods.

Keywords: Order reduction, Particle swarm optimization, Relative mapping error, Stability.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1535

Authors: A. Mostafa

Abstract:

This paper presents a numerical study on determination of ballistic limit velocity (V₅₀) of stainless steel 304 (SS 304) used in manufacturing security screens. The simulated ballistic impact tests were conducted on clamped sheets with different thicknesses using ABAQUS/Explicit nonlinear finite element (FE) package. The ballistic limit velocity was determined using three approaches, namely: numerical tests based on material properties, FE calculated residual velocities and FE calculated residual energies. Johnson-Cook plasticity and failure criterion were utilized to simulate the dynamic behaviour of the SS 304 under various strain rates, while the well-known Lambert-Jonas equation was used for the data regression for the residual velocity and energy model. Good agreement between the investigated numerical methods was achieved. Additionally, the dependence of the ballistic limit velocity on the sheet thickness was observed. The proposed approaches present viable and cost-effective assessment methods of the ballistic performance of SS 304, which will support the development of robust security screen systems.

Keywords: Ballistic velocity, stainless steel, numerical approaches, security screen.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 579

Authors: Seyed Hossein Iranmanesh, Mansoureh Zarezadeh

Abstract:

This paper presents an application of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to forecast actual cost of a project based on the earned value management system (EVMS). For this purpose, some projects randomly selected based on the standard data set , and it is produced necessary progress data such as actual cost ,actual percent complete , baseline cost and percent complete for five periods of project. Then an ANN with five inputs and five outputs and one hidden layer is trained to produce forecasted actual costs. The comparison between real and forecasted data show better performance based on the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) criterion. This approach could be applicable to better forecasting the project cost and result in decreasing the risk of project cost overrun, and therefore it is beneficial for planning preventive actions.

Keywords: Earned Value Management System (EVMS), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Estimate At Completion, Forecasting Methods, Project Performance Measurement.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2704

Authors: Arati Siddharth Petkar, Joel E. M. Macwan

Abstract:

Preferences for residential location are of a diverse nature. Primarily they are based on the socio-economic, socio-cultural, socio-demographic characteristics of the household. It also depends on character, and the growth potential of different areas in a city. In the present study, various criteria affecting residential location preferences from the Urban Dwellers’ perspective have been analyzed. The household survey has been conducted in two parts: Existing Buyers’ survey and Future Buyers’ survey. The analysis reveals that workplace location is the most governing criterion in deciding residential location from the majority of the urban dwellers perspective. For analyzing the importance of varied criteria, Analytical Hierarchy Process approach has been explored. The suggested approach will be helpful for urban planners, decision makers and developers, while designating a new residential area or redeveloping an existing one.

Keywords: Analytical hierarchy process, household, preferences, residential location preferences, residential land use, urban dwellers.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1194

Authors: Yasmin Mohd Yacob, Harsa A. Mat Sakim, Nor Ashidi Mat Isa

Abstract:

Feature selection study is gaining importance due to its contribution to save classification cost in terms of time and computation load. In search of essential features, one of the methods to search the features is via the decision tree. Decision tree act as an intermediate feature space inducer in order to choose essential features. In decision tree-based feature selection, some studies used decision tree as a feature ranker with a direct threshold measure, while others remain the decision tree but utilized pruning condition that act as a threshold mechanism to choose features. This paper proposed threshold measure using Manhattan Hierarchical Cluster distance to be utilized in feature ranking in order to choose relevant features as part of the feature selection process. The result is promising, and this method can be improved in the future by including test cases of a higher number of attributes.

Keywords: Feature ranking, decision tree, hierarchical cluster, Manhattan distance.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1926