Patient-completed or symptom-based screening tools for endometriosis: a scoping review.

Science.gov (United States)

Surrey, Eric; Carter, Cathryn M; Soliman, Ahmed M; Khan, Shahnaz; DiBenedetti, Dana B; Snabes, Michael C

2017-08-01

The objective of this review was to evaluate existing patient-completed screening questionnaires and/or symptom-based predictive models with respect to their potential for use as screening tools for endometriosis in adult women. Validated instruments were of particular interest. We conducted structured searches of PubMed and targeted searches of the gray literature to identify studies reporting on screening instruments used in endometriosis. Studies were screened according to inclusion and exclusion criteria that followed the PICOS (population, intervention, comparison, outcomes, study design) framework. A total of 16 studies were identified, of which 10 described measures for endometriosis in general, 2 described measures for endometriosis at specific sites, and 4 described measures for deep-infiltrating endometriosis. Only 1 study evaluated a questionnaire that was solely patient-completed. Most measures required physician, imaging, or laboratory assessments in addition to patient-completed questionnaires, and several measures relied on complex scoring. Validation for use as a screening tool in adult women with potential endometriosis was lacking in all studies, as most studies focused on diagnosis versus screening. This literature review did not identify any fully validated, symptom-based, patient-reported questionnaires for endometriosis screening in adult women.

Conserved PCR primer set designing for closely-related species to complete mitochondrial genome sequencing using a sliding window-based PSO algorithm.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cheng-Hong Yang

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Complete mitochondrial (mt genome sequencing is becoming increasingly common for phylogenetic reconstruction and as a model for genome evolution. For long template sequencing, i.e., like the entire mtDNA, it is essential to design primers for Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR amplicons which are partly overlapping each other. The presented chromosome walking strategy provides the overlapping design to solve the problem for unreliable sequencing data at the 5' end and provides the effective sequencing. However, current algorithms and tools are mostly focused on the primer design for a local region in the genomic sequence. Accordingly, it is still challenging to provide the primer sets for the entire mtDNA. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The purpose of this study is to develop an integrated primer design algorithm for entire mt genome in general, and for the common primer sets for closely-related species in particular. We introduce ClustalW to generate the multiple sequence alignment needed to find the conserved sequences in closely-related species. These conserved sequences are suitable for designing the common primers for the entire mtDNA. Using a heuristic algorithm particle swarm optimization (PSO, all the designed primers were computationally validated to fit the common primer design constraints, such as the melting temperature, primer length and GC content, PCR product length, secondary structure, specificity, and terminal limitation. The overlap requirement for PCR amplicons in the entire mtDNA is satisfied by defining the overlapping region with the sliding window technology. Finally, primer sets were designed within the overlapping region. The primer sets for the entire mtDNA sequences were successfully demonstrated in the example of two closely-related fish species. The pseudo code for the primer design algorithm is provided. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In conclusion, it can be said that our proposed sliding window-based PSO

PERFORMANCE OF FAT-TAILED RAMS FED COMPLETE FEED BASED OIL PALM FRONDS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Hamidah

2011-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the performance of fat-tailed rams fed complete feed based oil palm fronds (OPF. This experiment was arranged in Completely Randomized Design (CRD with 5 treatments and 4 replications i.e. 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of OPF substituting fields grass in complete feed for A, B, C, D and E treatments, respectively. Twenty fat-tailed rams were fed twice at 08.00 and 14.00 with pellet of complete feed for 4 months. The result of this experiment showed that OPF significantly influenced nutrient consumption, average daily gain (ADG and feed efficiency ratio (FER. Oil palm fronds significantly affected (P<0.05 fat-tailed rams’s dry matter intake (DMI, organic matter intake (OMI, crude protein intake (CPI, ADG and FER. The highest DMI, OMI, CPI, ADG, and FER of fat-tailed rams was in C treatment and significantly different from the others. It was concluded that C treatment was the best treatment which can give the best fat-tailed rams performance. The OPF can be used to replace the field grass as feed up to 75% proportion in complete feed and could increase the performance and productivity of fat-tailed rams.

Quasi-experimental designs in practice-based research settings: design and implementation considerations.

Science.gov (United States)

Handley, Margaret A; Schillinger, Dean; Shiboski, Stephen

2011-01-01

Although randomized controlled trials are often a gold standard for determining intervention effects, in the area of practice-based research (PBR), there are many situations in which individual randomization is not possible. Alternative approaches to evaluating interventions have received increased attention, particularly those that can retain elements of randomization such that they can be considered "controlled" trials. Methodological design elements and practical implementation considerations for two quasi-experimental design approaches that have considerable promise in PBR settings--the stepped-wedge design, and a variant of this design, a wait-list cross-over design, are presented along with a case study from a recent PBR intervention for patients with diabetes. PBR-relevant design features include: creation of a cohort over time that collects control data but allows all participants (clusters or patients) to receive the intervention; staggered introduction of clusters; multiple data collection points; and one-way cross-over into the intervention arm. Practical considerations include: randomization versus stratification, training run in phases; and extended time period for overall study completion. Several design features of practice based research studies can be adapted to local circumstances yet retain elements to improve methodological rigor. Studies that utilize these methods, such as the stepped-wedge design and the wait-list cross-over design, can increase the evidence base for controlled studies conducted within the complex environment of PBR.

Exploring determinants of completeness of implementation and continuation of a Dutch school-based healthy diet promotion programme

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bessems, K.M.H.H.; Assema, P. van; Vries, N.K. de; Paulussen, T.W.G.M.

2014-01-01

Strategies to promote implementation of school-based health promotion (HP) programmes should be designed to suit determinants of implementation and continuation. This study explored determinants of completeness of teachers' implementation of a healthy diet promotion programme and of their intention

Healthy by Design: Using a Gender Focus to Influence Complete Streets Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Keippel, April Ennis; Henderson, Melissa A; Golbeck, Amanda L; Gallup, TommiLee; Duin, Diane K; Hayes, Stephen; Alexander, Stephanie; Ciemins, Elizabeth L

2017-10-17

Public health leaders in Yellowstone County, Montana, formed an alliance to address community-wide issues. One such issue is Complete Streets, with its vision of safe streets for all. This case study focuses on development and adoption of a Complete Streets policy. It examines how a community coalition, Healthy By Design, infused a gender focus into the policymaking process. An incremental and nonlinear policymaking process was aided by a focus on gender and health equity. The focus on a large constituency helped to frame advocacy in terms of a broad population's needs, not just special interests. The city council unanimously adopted a Complete Streets resolution, informed by a gender lens. Healthy By Design further used gender information to successfully mobilize the community in response to threats of repeal of the policy, and then influenced the adoption of a revised policy. Policies developed with a focus on equity, including gender equity, may have broader impact on the community. Such policies may pave the way for future policies that seek to transform gender norms toward building a healthier community for all residents. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Optimizing fracture and completion design in the Westerose field

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dunn-Norman, S. [Missouri Univ., Rolla, MO (United States); Griffiths, E.; Barnhart, W. [Pan-Canadian Petroleum Ltd., Calgary, AB (Canada); Aunger, D.; Kenny, L.; Halvaci, M.

1998-12-31

An experimental study was conducted to determine the feasibility of developing additional gas reserves in the tight sands located between the main bar trends in the Westerose gas field, located 75 km south of Edmonton, Alberta. As part of the study, fracturing and completion alternatives in the Glauconitic `bar` and `interbar` sands were analyzed and compared. Optimal fracture designs for vertical wells were determined for each type of sand. Vertical well performance was compared to stimulated and unstimulated horizontal wells drilled either parallel or perpendicular to the minimum in-situ stress. Results indicated that in-situ permeabilities in the interbar sands were lower than anticipated. It was also shown that over the permeability ranges studied, predicted rates matched actual rates for both vertical fractured and multifractured horizontal wells, suggesting that analytical models can be used to assess anticipated well performance. A further conclusion drawn from the study was that by stimulating a wide variety of permeability ranges, well orientations, anisotropy, fracture orientations and completion options can be determined. 12 refs., 7 tabs., 4 figs.

Improving horizontal completions on heterogeneous tight shales

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Suarez-Rivera, Roberto; Deenadayalu, Chaitanya; Chertov, Maxim; Novalo Hartanto, Ricardo; Gathogo, Patrick [Schlumberger (United States); Kunjir, Rahul [University of Utah (United States)

2011-07-01

Evaluation of the two formation characteristics conducive to economic well production is important when tight shale formation characterization and completion design are being considered. This paper presents the basic understanding required to improve the efficiency of horizontal completions in oil and gas producing shales. Guidelines are defined for effective perforation and fracturing to improve the efficiency and sustainability of horizontal completions using extensive laboratory characterization of mechanical properties on core, core/log integration and continuous mapping of these properties by logging-while-drilling (LWD) methods. The objective is to improve completion design efficiency. This is accomplished by suitable selection of perforation intervals based on an understanding of the relevant physical processes and rock characterization. Conditions at two reservoir regions, the near-wellbore and the far-wellbore, are outlined and are essential to completion design. From the study, it can be concluded that tight shales are strongly anisotropic and cannot be approximated using isotropic models.

Employee knowledge of value-based insurance design benefits.

Science.gov (United States)

Henrikson, Nora B; Anderson, Melissa L; Hubbard, Rebecca A; Fishman, Paul; Grossman, David C

2014-08-01

Value-based insurance designs (VBD) incorporate evidence-based medicine into health benefit design. Consumer knowledge of new VBD benefits is important to assessing their impact on health care use. To assess knowledge of features of a VBD. The eligible study population was employees receiving healthcare benefits in an integrated care system in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. In 2010, participants completed a web-based survey 2 months after rollout of the plan, including three true/false questions about benefit design features including copays for preventive care visits and chronic disease medications and premium costs. Analysis was completed in 2012. Knowledgeable was defined as correct response to all three questions; self-reported knowledge was also assessed. A total of 3,463 people completed the survey (response rate=71.7%). The majority of respondents were female (80.1%) Caucasians (79.6%) aged 35-64 years (79.0%), reflecting the overall employee population. A total of 45.7% had at least a 4-year college education, and 69.1% were married. About three quarters of respondents correctly answered each individual question; half (52.1%) of respondents answered all three questions correctly. On multivariate analysis, knowledge was independently associated with female gender (OR=1.80, 95% CI=1.40, 2.31); Caucasian race (OR=1.72, 95% CI=1.28, 2.32); increasing household income (OR for ≥$100,000=1.86, 95% CI=1.29, 2.68); nonunion job status (OR compared to union status=1.63, 95% CI=1.17, 2.26); and high satisfaction with the health plan (OR compared to low satisfaction=1.26; 95% CI=1.00, 1.57). Incomplete knowledge of benefits is prevalent in an employee population soon after VBD rollout. Copyright © 2014 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Implementation of a Project-Based Telecommunications Engineering Design Course

Science.gov (United States)

Aliakbarian, Hadi; Soh, Ping Jack; Farsi, Saeed; Xu, Hantao; Van Lil, Emmanuel H. E. M. J. C.; Nauwelaers, Bart K. J. C.; Vandenbosch, Guy A. E.; Schreurs, Dominique M. M.-P.

2014-01-01

This paper describes and discusses the implementation of a project-based graduate design course in telecommunications engineering. This course, which requires a combination of technical and soft skills for its completion, enables guided independent learning (GIL) and application of technical knowledge acquired from classroom learning. Its main…

Integrated security systems design a complete reference for building enterprise-wide digital security systems

CERN Document Server

Norman, Thomas L

2014-01-01

Integrated Security Systems Design, 2nd Edition, is recognized as the industry-leading book on the subject of security systems design. It explains how to design a fully integrated security system that ties together numerous subsystems into one complete, highly coordinated, and highly functional system. With a flexible and scalable enterprise-level system, security decision makers can make better informed decisions when incidents occur and improve their operational efficiencies in ways never before possible. The revised edition covers why designing an integrated security system is essential a

Design of an intelligent materials data base for the IFR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mikaili, R.; Lambert, J.D.B.; Orth, T.D.

1992-01-01

In the development of the integral fast reactor (IFR) concept, there is a consensus that materials considerations are an important part of the reactor design, operation, and maintenance and that materials performance is central to liquid-metal reactor reliability and safety. In the design of the IRF materials data base, artificial intelligence techniques are being used to ensure efficient control of information. Intelligent control will provide for the selection of menus to be displayed, efficient data-base searches, and application-dependent guidance through the data base. The development of the IRF data base has progressed to the point of (a) completing the design of the data-base architecture and tables, (b) installing computer hardware for storing large amounts of data, (c) outlining strategies for data transferal, and (d) identifying ways to validate and secure the integrity of data

Nominal completion for rewrite systems with binders

OpenAIRE

Fernández, Maribel; Rubio Gimeno, Alberto

2012-01-01

We design a completion procedure for nominal rewriting systems, based on a generalisation of the recursive path ordering to take into account alpha equivalence. Nominal rewriting generalises first-order rewriting by providing support for the specification of binding operators. Completion of rewriting systems with binders is a notably difficult problem; the completion procedure presented in this paper is the first to deal with binders in rewrite rules. Peer Reviewed

A completely new design and regulatory process - A risk-based approach for new nuclear power plants. Annex 17

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ritterbusch, S.E.

2002-01-01

In the de-regulated electric power market place that is developing in the USA, competition from alternative electric power sources has provided significant downward pressure on the costs of new construction projects. Studies by the Electric Power Research Institute have shown that, in the USA, the capital cost of new nuclear plants must be decreased by at least 35% to 40% relative to the cost of Advanced Light Water Reactors designed in the early 1990s in order to be competitive with capital costs of gas-fired electric power plants. The underlying reasons for the high capital costs estimated for some nuclear plants are (1) long construction times, (2) the high level of 'defense-in-depth' or safety margin, included throughout the design and licensing process, and (3) the use of out-dated design methods and information. Probabilistic Safety Assessments are being used to develop a more accurate assessment of real plant risk and to provide relief if it can be demonstrated that plant equipment is not providing a significant contribution to plant safety. Westinghouse addressed some of these cost drivers in the development of the AP-600 passive plant design. However, because of relatively inexpensive natural gas plant alternative, we need to reduce the costs even further. Therefore, the AP-600 design is now being up-rated to a 1000 MWe design, AP-1000. The development of AP1000 is described in another paper being presented at this meeting. Westinghouse is also managing a project, sponsored by the US Department of Energy, which is aimed at developing an all-new 'risk-based' approach to design and regulation. Methodologies being developed use risk-based information to the extent practical and 'defense-in-depth' only when necessary to address uncertainties in models and equipment performance. Early results, summarized in this paper, include (1) the initial framework for a new design and regulatory process and (2) a sample design analysis which shows that the Emergency Core

A Novel Image Tag Completion Method Based on Convolutional Neural Transformation

KAUST Repository

Geng, Yanyan; Zhang, Guohui; Li, Weizhi; Gu, Yi; Liang, Ru-Ze; Liang, Gaoyuan; Wang, Jingbin; Wu, Yanbin; Patil, Nitin; Wang, Jing-Yan

2017-01-01

In the problems of image retrieval and annotation, complete textual tag lists of images play critical roles. However, in real-world applications, the image tags are usually incomplete, thus it is important to learn the complete tags for images. In this paper, we study the problem of image tag complete and proposed a novel method for this problem based on a popular image representation method, convolutional neural network (CNN). The method estimates the complete tags from the convolutional filtering outputs of images based on a linear predictor. The CNN parameters, linear predictor, and the complete tags are learned jointly by our method. We build a minimization problem to encourage the consistency between the complete tags and the available incomplete tags, reduce the estimation error, and reduce the model complexity. An iterative algorithm is developed to solve the minimization problem. Experiments over benchmark image data sets show its effectiveness.

A Novel Image Tag Completion Method Based on Convolutional Neural Transformation

KAUST Repository

Geng, Yanyan

2017-10-24

In the problems of image retrieval and annotation, complete textual tag lists of images play critical roles. However, in real-world applications, the image tags are usually incomplete, thus it is important to learn the complete tags for images. In this paper, we study the problem of image tag complete and proposed a novel method for this problem based on a popular image representation method, convolutional neural network (CNN). The method estimates the complete tags from the convolutional filtering outputs of images based on a linear predictor. The CNN parameters, linear predictor, and the complete tags are learned jointly by our method. We build a minimization problem to encourage the consistency between the complete tags and the available incomplete tags, reduce the estimation error, and reduce the model complexity. An iterative algorithm is developed to solve the minimization problem. Experiments over benchmark image data sets show its effectiveness.

Design of CMOS imaging system based on FPGA

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Bo; Chen, Xiaolai

2017-10-01

In order to meet the needs of engineering applications for high dynamic range CMOS camera under the rolling shutter mode, a complete imaging system is designed based on the CMOS imaging sensor NSC1105. The paper decides CMOS+ADC+FPGA+Camera Link as processing architecture and introduces the design and implementation of the hardware system. As for camera software system, which consists of CMOS timing drive module, image acquisition module and transmission control module, the paper designs in Verilog language and drives it to work properly based on Xilinx FPGA. The ISE 14.6 emulator ISim is used in the simulation of signals. The imaging experimental results show that the system exhibits a 1280*1024 pixel resolution, has a frame frequency of 25 fps and a dynamic range more than 120dB. The imaging quality of the system satisfies the requirement of the index.

Research-based design & design-based research: Affordances, limitations and synergies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

McKenney, Susan

2015-01-01

Research-based design is an orientation to educational development that is explicitly informed by existing research as well as formative evaluation. Design-based research is a genre of inquiry in which the design of innovative solutions to problems in educational practice provides the context for

Perceived barriers to completing an e-learning program on evidence-based medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Gagnon, Marie-Pierre; Légaré, France; Labrecque, Michel; Frémont, Pierre; Cauchon, Michel; Desmartis, Marie

2007-01-01

The Continuing Professional Development Center of the Faculty of Medicine at Laval University offers an internet-based program on evidence-based medicine (EBM). After one year, only three physicians out of the 40 who willingly paid to register had completed the entire program. This descriptive study aimed to identify physicians' beliefs regarding their completion of this online program. Using theoretical concepts from the Theory of Planned Behaviour, a semi-structured telephone interview guide was developed to assess respondents' attitudes, perceived subjective norms, perceived obstacles and facilitating conditions with respect to completing this internet-based program. Three independent reviewers performed content analysis of the interview transcripts to obtain an appropriate level of reliability. Findings were shared and organised according to theoretical categories of beliefs. A total of 35 physicians (88% response rate) were interviewed. Despite perceived advantages to completing the internet-based program, barriers remained, especially those related to physicians' perceptions of time constraints. Lack of personal discipline and unfamiliarity with computers were also perceived as important barriers. This study offers a theoretical basis to understand physicians' beliefs towards completing an internet-based continuing medical education (CME) program on EBM. Based upon respondents' insights, several modifications were carried out to enhance the uptake of the program by physicians and, therefore, its implementation.

Design of LTCC Based Fractal Antenna

KAUST Repository

AdbulGhaffar, Farhan

2010-09-01

The thesis presents a Sierpinski Carpet fractal antenna array designed at 24 GHz for automotive radar applications. Miniaturized, high performance and low cost antennas are required for this application. To meet these specifications a fractal array has been designed for the first time on Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) based substrate. LTCC provides a suitable platform for the development of these antennas due to its properties of vertical stack up and embedded passives. The complete antenna concept involves integration of this fractal antenna array with a Fresnel lens antenna providing a total gain of 15dB which is appropriate for medium range radar applications. The thesis also presents a comparison between the designed fractal antenna and a conventional patch antenna outlining the advantages of fractal antenna over the later one. The fractal antenna has a bandwidth of 1.8 GHz which is 7.5% of the centre frequency (24GHz) as compared to 1.9% of the conventional patch antenna. Furthermore the fractal design exhibits a size reduction of 53% as compared to the patch antenna. In the end a sensitivity analysis is carried out for the fractal antenna design depicting the robustness of the proposed design against the typical LTCC fabrication tolerances.

Completion plug design provides improved operational efficiency and safety while minimizing environmental risks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dum, Frank [T.D. Williamson, Inc., Tulsa, OK (United States)

2012-07-01

Pipeline repair standards have been raised with recent improvements for completion plugs when used with a brand new setting tool, resulting in lower environmental risks, improved operational efficiency and safety. The design changes were originally made to serve in an offshore environment in order to minimize the diver's time in the water and simplify steps by the diver to execute pipeline repair operations in cold, dark conditions. Enhancements in the design include fewer number of fittings, plugs, o-rings and gaskets isolating the pipeline product found inside the pipe. The new design is a step toward meeting strict operational and safety standards demanded in the field of pipeline maintenance and repair. (author)

Motivation and degree completion in a university-based teacher education programme

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fokkens-Bruinsma, Marjon; Canrinus, Esther Tamara

2015-01-01

This study investigated which factors determine degree completion in a Dutch university-based teacher education programme. We assumed that both student characteristics and characteristics of the learning environment affected degree completion. We included the following factors in our study:

[Presurgical alveolar molding using computer aided design in infants with unilateral complete cleft lip and palate].

Science.gov (United States)

Zgong, Xin; Yu, Quan; Yu, Zhe-yuan; Wang, Guo-min; Qian, Yu-fen

2012-04-01

To establish a new method of presurgical alveolar molding using computer aided design(CAD) in infants with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP). Ten infants with complete UCLP were recruited. A maxillary impression was taken at the first examination after birth. The study model was scanned by a non-contact three-dimensional laser scanner and a digital model was constructed and analyzed to simulate the alveolar molding procedure with reverse engineering software (RapidForm 2006). The digital geometrical data were exported to produce a scale model using rapid prototyping technology. The whole set of appliances was fabricated based on these solid models. The digital model could be viewed and measured from any direction by the software. By the end of the NAM treatment before surgical lip repair, the cleft was narrowed and the malformation of alveolar segments was aligned normally, significantly improving nasal symmetry and nostril shape. Presurgical NAM using CAD could simplify the treatment procedure and estimate the treatment objective, which enabled precise control of the force and direction of the alveolar segments movement.

Token-Aware Completion Functions for Elastic Processor Verification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sudarshan K. Srinivasan

2009-01-01

Full Text Available We develop a formal verification procedure to check that elastic pipelined processor designs correctly implement their instruction set architecture (ISA specifications. The notion of correctness we use is based on refinement. Refinement proofs are based on refinement maps, which—in the context of this problem—are functions that map elastic processor states to states of the ISA specification model. Data flow in elastic architectures is complicated by the insertion of any number of buffers in any place in the design, making it hard to construct refinement maps for elastic systems in a systematic manner. We introduce token-aware completion functions, which incorporate a mechanism to track the flow of data in elastic pipelines, as a highly automated and systematic approach to construct refinement maps. We demonstrate the efficiency of the overall verification procedure based on token-aware completion functions using six elastic pipelined processor models based on the DLX architecture.

Design of nanostructured-based glucose biosensors

Science.gov (United States)

Komirisetty, Archana; Williams, Frances; Pradhan, Aswini; Konda, Rajini B.; Dondapati, Hareesh; Samantaray, Diptirani

2012-04-01

This paper presents the design of glucose sensors that will be integrated with advanced nano-materials, bio-coatings and electronics to create novel devices that are highly sensitive, inexpensive, accurate, and reliable. In the work presented, a glucose biosensor and its fabrication process flow have been designed. The device is based on electrochemical sensing using a working electrode with bio-functionalized zinc oxide (ZnO) nano-rods. Among all metal oxide nanostructures, ZnO nano-materials play a significant role as a sensing element in biosensors due to their properties such as high isoelectric point (IEP), fast electron transfer, non-toxicity, biocompatibility, and chemical stability which are very crucial parameters to achieve high sensitivity. Amperometric enzyme electrodes based on glucose oxidase (GOx) are used due to their stability and high selectivity to glucose. The device also consists of silicon dioxide and titanium layers as well as platinum working and counter electrodes and a silver/silver chloride reference electrode. Currently, the biosensors are being fabricated using the process flow developed. Once completed, the sensors will be bio-functionalized and tested to characterize their performance, including their sensitivity and stability.

Design-Based Research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gynther, Karsten; Christensen, Ove; Petersen, Trine Brun

2012-01-01

I denne artikel introduceres Design Based Research for første gang på dansk i et videnskabeligt tidsskrift. Artiklen præsenterer de grundlæggende antagelser, som ligger til grund for Design Based Research-traditionen, og artiklen diskuterer de principper, som ligger til grund for gennemførelse af...... et DBR-forskningsprojekt. Med udgangspunkt i forsknings- og udviklingsprojektet ELYK: E-læring, Yderområder og Klyngedannelse, præsenteres den innovationsmodel, som projektet har udviklet med udgangspunkt i Design Based Research traditionen. ELYKs DBR innovationsmodel har vist sig effektiv i forhold...

LQR-Based Optimal Distributed Cooperative Design for Linear Discrete-Time Multiagent Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Huaguang; Feng, Tao; Liang, Hongjing; Luo, Yanhong

2017-03-01

In this paper, a novel linear quadratic regulator (LQR)-based optimal distributed cooperative design method is developed for synchronization control of general linear discrete-time multiagent systems on a fixed, directed graph. Sufficient conditions are derived for synchronization, which restrict the graph eigenvalues into a bounded circular region in the complex plane. The synchronizing speed issue is also considered, and it turns out that the synchronizing region reduces as the synchronizing speed becomes faster. To obtain more desirable synchronizing capacity, the weighting matrices are selected by sufficiently utilizing the guaranteed gain margin of the optimal regulators. Based on the developed LQR-based cooperative design framework, an approximate dynamic programming technique is successfully introduced to overcome the (partially or completely) model-free cooperative design for linear multiagent systems. Finally, two numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design methods.

Model-based design approaches for plug-in hybrid vehicle design

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mendes, C.J. [CrossChasm Technologies, Cambridge, ON (Canada); Stevens, M.B.; Fowler, M.W. [Waterloo Univ., ON (Canada). Dept. of Chemical Engineering; Fraser, R.A. [Waterloo Univ., ON (Canada). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; Wilhelm, E.J. [Paul Scherrer Inst., Villigen (Switzerland). Energy Systems Analysis

2007-07-01

A model-based design process for plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) was presented. The paper discussed steps between the initial design concept and a working vehicle prototype, and focused on an investigation of the software-in-the-loop (SIL), hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), and component-in-the-loop (CIL) design phases. The role and benefits of using simulation were also reviewed. A method for mapping and identifying components was provided along with a hybrid control strategy and component-level control optimization process. The role of simulation in component evaluation, architecture design, and de-bugging procedures was discussed, as well as the role simulation networks can play in speeding deployment times. The simulations focused on work performed on a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox converted to a fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle (FCHEV). Components were aggregated to create a complete virtual vehicle. A simplified vehicle model was implemented onto the on-board vehicle control hardware. Optimization metrics were estimated at 10 alpha values during each control loop iteration. The simulation was then used to tune the control system under a variety of drive cycles and conditions. A CIL technique was used to place a physical hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) component under the control of a real time HEV/PHEV simulation. It was concluded that controllers should have a standardized component description that supports integration into advanced testing procedures. 4 refs., 9 figs.

Evidence-Based Secondary Transition Practices for Enhancing School Completion

Science.gov (United States)

Test, David W.; Fowler, Catherine H.; White, James; Richter, Sharon; Walker, Allison

2009-01-01

Approximately 28% of students with disabilities do not complete high school (National Longitudinal Transition Study-2, 2005). This increases the likelihood that these students will experience low wages, high rates of incarceration, and limited access to postsecondary education. This article reviews evidence-based secondary transition practices…

Wood lens design philosophy based on a binary additive manufacturing technique

Science.gov (United States)

Marasco, Peter L.; Bailey, Christopher

2016-04-01

Using additive manufacturing techniques in optical engineering to construct a gradient index (GRIN) optic may overcome a number of limitations of GRIN technology. Such techniques are maturing quickly, yielding additional design degrees of freedom for the engineer. How best to employ these degrees of freedom is not completely clear at this time. This paper describes a preliminary design philosophy, including assumptions, pertaining to a particular printing technique for GRIN optics. It includes an analysis based on simulation and initial component measurement.

Microfluidic Cytometer for Complete Blood Count Analysis, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — We will fabricate and test microfluidic designs for a micro-electromechanical system based complete blood count (CBC) analysis in separate modules and integrate them...

A Novel Riemannian Metric Based on Riemannian Structure and Scaling Information for Fixed Low-Rank Matrix Completion.

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, Shasha; Xiong, Lin; Jiao, Licheng; Feng, Tian; Yeung, Sai-Kit

2017-05-01

Riemannian optimization has been widely used to deal with the fixed low-rank matrix completion problem, and Riemannian metric is a crucial factor of obtaining the search direction in Riemannian optimization. This paper proposes a new Riemannian metric via simultaneously considering the Riemannian geometry structure and the scaling information, which is smoothly varying and invariant along the equivalence class. The proposed metric can make a tradeoff between the Riemannian geometry structure and the scaling information effectively. Essentially, it can be viewed as a generalization of some existing metrics. Based on the proposed Riemanian metric, we also design a Riemannian nonlinear conjugate gradient algorithm, which can efficiently solve the fixed low-rank matrix completion problem. By experimenting on the fixed low-rank matrix completion, collaborative filtering, and image and video recovery, it illustrates that the proposed method is superior to the state-of-the-art methods on the convergence efficiency and the numerical performance.

Model-Based Design of Tree WSNs for Decentralized Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ashraf Tantawy

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The classical decentralized detection problem of finding the optimal decision rules at the sensor and fusion center, as well as variants that introduce physical channel impairments have been studied extensively in the literature. The deployment of WSNs in decentralized detection applications brings new challenges to the field. Protocols for different communication layers have to be co-designed to optimize the detection performance. In this paper, we consider the communication network design problem for a tree WSN. We pursue a system-level approach where a complete model for the system is developed that captures the interactions between different layers, as well as different sensor quality measures. For network optimization, we propose a hierarchical optimization algorithm that lends itself to the tree structure, requiring only local network information. The proposed design approach shows superior performance over several contentionless and contention-based network design approaches.

Control room design and human factors using a virtual reality based tool for design, test and training

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lirvall, Peter

1998-02-01

This report describes a user-centred approach to control room design adopted by IFE for the nuclear industry. The novelty of this approach is the development of a Control Room Philosophy, and the use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology as a tool in the design process, integrated with a specially developed Design Documentation System (DDS) and a process display prototyping tool PICASSO-3. The control room philosophy identifies all functional aspects of a control centre, to define the baseline principles and guidelines for the design. The use of VR technology enables end-users of the control room design (e.g. control room operators) to specify their preferred design of the new control room, and to replace the need for a physical mock-up to test and evaluate the proposed design. The DDS, integrated with the VR design tool, guides the control room operators, through a structured approach, to document the proposed design in a complete design specification. The VR tool, specially developed by IFE, is called the VR based Design, Test and Training tool (VR DTandT). It is not only intended to visualise the design, but also to test and evaluate the design. When the design is implemented, the same model is re-used as a VR based training simulator for operators. A special feature in the VR DTandT tool is that the verification and validation (VandV) tests, concerning human factors, are according to the regulative standards for nuclear control rooms

New Designs of Reduced-Order Observer-Based Controllers for Singularly Perturbed Linear Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heonjong Yoo

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The slow and fast reduced-order observers and reduced-order observer-based controllers are designed by using the two-stage feedback design technique for slow and fast subsystems. The new designs produce an arbitrary order of accuracy, while the previously known designs produce the accuracy of O(ϵ only where ϵ is a small singular perturbation parameter. Several cases of reduced-order observer designs are considered depending on the measured state space variables: only all slow variables are measured, only all fast variables are measured, and some combinations of the slow and fast variables are measured. Since the two-stage methods have been used to overcome the numerical ill-conditioning problem for Cases (III–(V, they have similar procedures. The numerical ill-conditioning problem is avoided so that independent feedback controllers can be applied to each subsystem. The design allows complete time-scale separation for both the reduced-order observer and controller through the complete and exact decomposition into slow and fast time scales. This method reduces both offline and online computations.

Design of High-Security USB Flash Drives Based on Chaos Authentication

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Teh-Lu Liao

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to propose a novel design of high-security USB flash drives with the chaos authentication. A chaos authentication approach with the non-linear encryption and decryption function design is newly proposed and realized based on the controller design of chaos synchronization. To complete the design of high-security USB flash drives, first, we introduce six parameters into the original Henon map to adjust and obtain richer chaotic state responses. Then a discrete sliding mode scheme is proposed to solve the synchronization problem of discrete hyperchaotic Henon maps. The proposed sliding mode controller can ensure the synchronization of the master-slave Henon maps. The selection of the switching surface and the existence of the sliding motion are also addressed. Finally, the obtained results are applied to design a new high-security USB flash drive with chaos authentication. We built discrete hyperchaotic Henon maps in the smartphone (master and microcontroller (slave, respectively. The Bluetooth module is used to communicate between the master and the slave to achieve chaos synchronization such that the same random and dynamical chaos signal can be simultaneously obtained at both the USB flash drive and smartphone, and pass the chaos authentication. When users need to access data in the flash drive, they can easily enable the encryption APP in the smartphone (master for chaos authentication. After completing the chaos synchronization and authentication, the ARM-based microcontroller allows the computer to access the data in the high-security USB flash drive.

Participatory design based research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dau, Susanne; Bach Jensen, Louise; Falk, Lars

This poster reveal how participatory design based research by the use of a CoED inspired creative process can be used for designing solutions to problems regarding students study activities outside campus.......This poster reveal how participatory design based research by the use of a CoED inspired creative process can be used for designing solutions to problems regarding students study activities outside campus....

Model-Based Requirements Management in Gear Systems Design Based On Graph-Based Design Languages

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kevin Holder

2017-10-01

Full Text Available For several decades, a wide-spread consensus concerning the enormous importance of an in-depth clarification of the specifications of a product has been observed. A weak clarification of specifications is repeatedly listed as a main cause for the failure of product development projects. Requirements, which can be defined as the purpose, goals, constraints, and criteria associated with a product development project, play a central role in the clarification of specifications. The collection of activities which ensure that requirements are identified, documented, maintained, communicated, and traced throughout the life cycle of a system, product, or service can be referred to as “requirements engineering”. These activities can be supported by a collection and combination of strategies, methods, and tools which are appropriate for the clarification of specifications. Numerous publications describe the strategy and the components of requirements management. Furthermore, recent research investigates its industrial application. Simultaneously, promising developments of graph-based design languages for a holistic digital representation of the product life cycle are presented. Current developments realize graph-based languages by the diagrams of the Unified Modelling Language (UML, and allow the automatic generation and evaluation of multiple product variants. The research presented in this paper seeks to present a method in order to combine the advantages of a conscious requirements management process and graph-based design languages. Consequently, the main objective of this paper is the investigation of a model-based integration of requirements in a product development process by means of graph-based design languages. The research method is based on an in-depth analysis of an exemplary industrial product development, a gear system for so-called “Electrical Multiple Units” (EMU. Important requirements were abstracted from a gear system

Design-based research and doctoral students: Guidelines for preparing a dissertation proposal

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Herrington, Jan; Montgomerie, C.; McKenney, Susan; Seale, J.; Reeves, Thomas C.; Oliver, Ron

2007-01-01

At first glance, design-based research may appear to be such a long-term and intensive approach to educational inquiry that doctoral students, most of whom expect to complete their Ph.D. degree in 4-5 years, should not attempt to adopt this approach for their doctoral dissertations. In this paper,

On Intelligent Design and Planning Method of Process Route Based on Gun Breech Machining Process

Science.gov (United States)

Hongzhi, Zhao; Jian, Zhang

2018-03-01

The paper states an approach of intelligent design and planning of process route based on gun breech machining process, against several problems, such as complex machining process of gun breech, tedious route design and long period of its traditional unmanageable process route. Based on gun breech machining process, intelligent design and planning system of process route are developed by virtue of DEST and VC++. The system includes two functional modules--process route intelligent design and its planning. The process route intelligent design module, through the analysis of gun breech machining process, summarizes breech process knowledge so as to complete the design of knowledge base and inference engine. And then gun breech process route intelligently output. On the basis of intelligent route design module, the final process route is made, edited and managed in the process route planning module.

The-Abstraction-Hierarchy-based Mobile PC Display Design for NPP Maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, In; Kim, Bo Gyung; Seong, Poong Hyun; Ha, Jun Su

2010-01-01

Recently, the importance of effective maintenance in nuclear power plants (NPPs) has been emphasized and research into effective maintenance by adopting mobile maintenance aids (MMAs) have been attempted. For improved and effective use of an MMA display design method based on abstraction hierarchy (AH) is proposed and its design considerations are discussed in this study. Six levels of abstraction hierarchy are proposed in this paper to classify the maintenance information. By classifying and organizing maintenance information using AH, maintenance information can be used effectively by users with either high or low levels of expertise. When information classification has been finished, the information for MMA design is selected and designed. With the considerations of MMA design analysis and guidelines, AH-based MMA is designed for the maintenance tasks. An experiment is conducted using the AH-based MMA in order to estimate the effectiveness of the proposed method for the maintenance tasks and to identify design considerations to enhance the proposed MMAs. The result indicated that an AH-based manual was more effective than a conventional manual in terms of task completion time and number of errors. The workload for the AH-based manual was estimated less than the conventional manual for subjects with low level of expertise. As the level of expertise increases, subjects tended to follow more abstract information while the number of navigations decreased. It is believed that when mobile devices become pervasive in NPP maintenance fields, AH-model applied MMAs can be used as an effective maintenance supporting tool

Reflections on Design-Based Research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ørngreen, Rikke

2015-01-01

Design-Based Research is an intervention method that researches educational design (products or processes) in real-life settings with the dual purpose of generating theories about the domain and develop the design iteratively. This paper is an integrative review with a personal ethnographic...... narrative that draws on Design-Based Research literature, and identifies and discusses elements from Interaction Design and Action Research that the Design-Based Research approach could apply, situating the research in online educational projects, where participants are distributed in time and space...

Modeling, Designing, and Implementing an Avatar-based Interactive Map

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Andrei

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Designing interactive maps has always been a challenge due to the geographical complexity of the earth’s landscape and the difficulty of resolving details to a high resolution. In the past decade or so, one of the most impressive map-based software application, the Global Positioning System (GPS, has probably the highest level of interaction with the user. This article describes an innovative technique for designing an avatar-based virtual interactive map for the Lamar University Campus, which will entail the buildings’ exterior as well as their interiors. Many universities provide 2D or 3D maps and even interactive maps. However, these maps do not provide a complete interaction with the user. To the best of our knowledge, this project is the first avatar-based interaction game that allows 100% interaction with the user. This work provides tremendous help to the freshman students and visitors of Lamar University. As an important marketing tool, the main objective is to get better visibility of the campus worldwide and to increase the number of students attending Lamar University.

Elementary Students' Learning of Materials Science Practices Through Instruction Based on Engineering Design Tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Wendell, Kristen Bethke; Lee, Hee-Sun

2010-12-01

Materials science, which entails the practices of selecting, testing, and characterizing materials, is an important discipline within the study of matter. This paper examines how third grade students' materials science performance changes over the course of instruction based on an engineering design challenge. We conducted a case study of nine students who participated in engineering design-based science instruction with the goal of constructing a stable, quiet, thermally comfortable model house. The learning outcome of materials science practices was assessed by clinical interviews conducted before and after the instruction, and the learning process was assessed by students' workbooks completed during the instruction. The interviews included two materials selection tasks for designing a sturdy stepstool and an insulated pet habitat. Results indicate that: (1) students significantly improved on both materials selection tasks, (2) their gains were significantly positively associated with the degree of completion of their workbooks, and (3) students who were highly engaged with the workbook's reflective record-keeping tasks showed the greatest improvement on the interviews. These findings suggest the important role workbooks can play in facilitating elementary students' learning of science through authentic activity such as engineering design.

A General Design Methodology for Synchronous Early-Completion-Prediction Adders in Nano-CMOS DSP Architectures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mauro Olivieri

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Synchronous early-completion-prediction adders (ECPAs are used for high clock rate and high-precision DSP datapaths, as they allow a dominant amount of single-cycle operations even if the worst-case carry propagation delay is longer than the clock period. Previous works have also demonstrated ECPA advantages for average leakage reduction and NBTI effects reduction in nanoscale CMOS technologies. This paper illustrates a general systematic methodology to design ECPA units, targeting nanoscale CMOS technologies, which is not available in the current literature yet. The method is fully compatible with standard VLSI macrocell design tools and standard adder structures and includes automatic definition of critical test patterns for postlayout verification. A design example is included, reporting speed and power data superior to previous works.

Traffic speed data imputation method based on tensor completion.

Science.gov (United States)

Ran, Bin; Tan, Huachun; Feng, Jianshuai; Liu, Ying; Wang, Wuhong

2015-01-01

Traffic speed data plays a key role in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS); however, missing traffic data would affect the performance of ITS as well as Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS). In this paper, we handle this issue by a novel tensor-based imputation approach. Specifically, tensor pattern is adopted for modeling traffic speed data and then High accurate Low Rank Tensor Completion (HaLRTC), an efficient tensor completion method, is employed to estimate the missing traffic speed data. This proposed method is able to recover missing entries from given entries, which may be noisy, considering severe fluctuation of traffic speed data compared with traffic volume. The proposed method is evaluated on Performance Measurement System (PeMS) database, and the experimental results show the superiority of the proposed approach over state-of-the-art baseline approaches.

Design of Racing Electric Control System Based on AVR SCM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shuang WAN

2014-10-01

Full Text Available A racing car’s instrument system, signal system and monitoring system were designed based on the rules of the competition (FSAE, Formula SAE. The main components of the instrument system were selected by comparing the advantages and disadvantages of various instrument systems. And the circuit diagram and PCB diagram of the instrument system was drawn by Altium Designer. Then, the instrument system with Single Chip Microcomputer (SCM as the main body was set up according to the circuit diagram. Besides, programs were written according to the function of instrument system. Finally, the instrument system was debugged. In the aspect of the design of signal system and monitoring system, the circuit diagram of signal system and signal system were drawn according to the racing design requirements and rules. Currently, the instrument system has been successfully debugged. And the design of circuit diagram of signal system and monitoring system has been completed.

Prostate cancer risk prediction based on complete prostate cancer family history

OpenAIRE

Albright, Frederick; Stephenson, Robert A; Agarwal, Neeraj; Teerlink, Craig C; Lowrance, William T; Farnham, James M; Albright, Lisa A Cannon

2014-01-01

Background Prostate cancer (PC) relative risks (RRs) are typically estimated based on status of close relatives or presence of any affected relatives. This study provides RR estimates using extensive and specific PC family history. Methods A retrospective population-based study was undertaken to estimate RRs for PC based on complete family history of PC. A total of 635,443 males, all with ancestral genealogy data, were analyzed. RRs for PC were determined based upon PC rates estimated from ma...

Task-Based Method for Designing Underactuated Mechanisms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shoichiro Kamada

2012-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper we introduce a task-based method for designing underactuated multi-joint prosthetic hands for specific grasping tasks. The designed robotic hands or prosthetic hands contain fewer independent actuators than joints. We chose a few specific grasping tasks that are frequently repeated in everyday life and analysed joint motions of the hand during the completion of each task and the level of participation of each joint. The information was used for the synthesis of dedicated underactuated mechanisms that can operate in a low dimensional task coordinate space. We propose two methods for reducing the actuators' number. The kinematic parameters of the synthesized mechanism are determined by using a numerical approach. In this study the joint angles of the synthesized hand are considered as linearly dependent on the displacements of the actuators. We introduced a special error index that allowed us to compare the original trajectory and the trajectory performed by the synthesized mechanism, and to select the kinematic parameters of the new kinematic structure as a way to reduce the error. The approach allows the design of simple gripper mechanisms with good accuracy for the preliminary defined tasks.

Developing effective web-based regional anesthesia education: a randomized study evaluating case-based versus non-case-based module design.

Science.gov (United States)

Kopp, Sandra L; Smith, Hugh M

2011-01-01

Little is known about the use of Web-based education in regional anesthesia training. Benefits of Web-based education include the ability to standardize learning material quality and content, build appropriate learning progressions, use interactive multimedia technologies, and individualize delivery of course materials. The goals of this investigation were (1) to determine whether module design influences regional anesthesia knowledge acquisition, (2) to characterize learner preference patterns among anesthesia residents, and (3) to determine whether learner preferences play a role in knowledge acquisition. Direct comparison of knowledge assessments, learning styles, and learner preferences will be made between an interactive case-based and a traditional textbook-style module design. Forty-three Mayo Clinic anesthesiology residents completed 2 online modules, a knowledge pretest, posttest, an Index of Learning Styles assessment, and a participant satisfaction survey. Interscalene and lumbar plexus regional techniques were selected as the learning content for 4 Web modules constructed using the Blackboard Vista coursework application. One traditional textbook-style module and 1 interactive case-based module were designed for each of the interscalene and lumbar plexus techniques. Participants scored higher on the postmodule knowledge assessment for both of the interscalene and lumbar plexus modules. Postmodule knowledge performance scores were independent of both module design (interactive case-based versus traditional textbook style) and learning style preferences. However, nearly all participants reported a preference for Web-based learning and believe that it should be used in anesthesia resident education. Participants did not feel that Web-base learning should replace the current lecture-based curriculum. All residents scored higher on the postmodule knowledge assessment, but this improvement was independent of the module design and individual learning styles

Access and completion of a Web-based treatment in a population-based sample of tornado-affected adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Price, Matthew; Yuen, Erica K; Davidson, Tatiana M; Hubel, Grace; Ruggiero, Kenneth J

2015-08-01

Although Web-based treatments have significant potential to assess and treat difficult-to-reach populations, such as trauma-exposed adolescents, the extent that such treatments are accessed and used is unclear. The present study evaluated the proportion of adolescents who accessed and completed a Web-based treatment for postdisaster mental health symptoms. Correlates of access and completion were examined. A sample of 2,000 adolescents living in tornado-affected communities was assessed via structured telephone interview and invited to a Web-based treatment. The modular treatment addressed symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and alcohol and tobacco use. Participants were randomized to experimental or control conditions after accessing the site. Overall access for the intervention was 35.8%. Module completion for those who accessed ranged from 52.8% to 85.6%. Adolescents with parents who used the Internet to obtain health-related information were more likely to access the treatment. Adolescent males were less likely to access the treatment. Future work is needed to identify strategies to further increase the reach of Web-based treatments to provide clinical services in a postdisaster context. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Clinician Resources to Improve Evidence-Based Sexual Healthcare: Does Content and Design Matter?

Science.gov (United States)

Hosseinzadeh, Hassan; Dadich, Ann; Bourne, Chris; Murray, Carolyn

2014-01-01

This study examines how the design and content of printed educational materials (PEMs) influence clinician capacity to deliver evidence-based sexual healthcare. General practitioners in New South Wales, Australia (n = 214), completed a survey about their use and perceptions of PEMs - a clinical aide, sexual health articles, and an educational…

Efficient Design of OFDMA-Based Programmable Wireless Radios

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shah SFA

2008-01-01

Full Text Available With the increasing demand for efficient spectrum management, programmable wireless radios can potentially play a key role in shaping our future spectrum use. In this paper, we consider the design of low-power programmable wireless radios based on orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA. To meet the demands of higher data rate communications, we split OFDMA symbols carrying multiuser data across several noncontiguous bands of available spectrum. To relax power consumption in analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, we use a programmable narrowband RF front end comprising of programmable synthesizers and fixed low-pass filters. To perform digital baseband signal processing in an energy efficient manner, we propose efficient designs for the fast Fourier transform (FFT and inverse FFT (IFFT modules. Our designs of the FFT/IFFT modules reduce power consumption and chip area, and are capable of handling the dynamic nature of spectrum in programmable radios. To recover data that falls within the transition band of the filters, we propose a combiner similar to maximal ratio combiner. We also present the complete design of programmable wireless radios in accordance with the IEEE 802.22 (draft standard.

Efficient Design of OFDMA-Based Programmable Wireless Radios

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. H. Tewfik

2008-03-01

Full Text Available With the increasing demand for efficient spectrum management, programmable wireless radios can potentially play a key role in shaping our future spectrum use. In this paper, we consider the design of low-power programmable wireless radios based on orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA. To meet the demands of higher data rate communications, we split OFDMA symbols carrying multiuser data across several noncontiguous bands of available spectrum. To relax power consumption in analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, we use a programmable narrowband RF front end comprising of programmable synthesizers and fixed low-pass filters. To perform digital baseband signal processing in an energy efficient manner, we propose efficient designs for the fast Fourier transform (FFT and inverse FFT (IFFT modules. Our designs of the FFT/IFFT modules reduce power consumption and chip area, and are capable of handling the dynamic nature of spectrum in programmable radios. To recover data that falls within the transition band of the filters, we propose a combiner similar to maximal ratio combiner. We also present the complete design of programmable wireless radios in accordance with the IEEE 802.22 (draft standard.

Traffic Speed Data Imputation Method Based on Tensor Completion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bin Ran

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Traffic speed data plays a key role in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS; however, missing traffic data would affect the performance of ITS as well as Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS. In this paper, we handle this issue by a novel tensor-based imputation approach. Specifically, tensor pattern is adopted for modeling traffic speed data and then High accurate Low Rank Tensor Completion (HaLRTC, an efficient tensor completion method, is employed to estimate the missing traffic speed data. This proposed method is able to recover missing entries from given entries, which may be noisy, considering severe fluctuation of traffic speed data compared with traffic volume. The proposed method is evaluated on Performance Measurement System (PeMS database, and the experimental results show the superiority of the proposed approach over state-of-the-art baseline approaches.

PERFORMANCE OF FAT-TAILED RAMS FED COMPLETE FEED BASED OIL PALM FRONDS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Hamidah

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the performance of fat-tailed rams fed complete feedbased oil palm fronds (OPF. This experiment was arranged in Completely Randomized Design (CRDwith 5 treatments and 4 replications i.e. 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of OPF substituting fields grass incomplete feed for A, B, C, D and E treatments, respectively. Twenty fat-tailed rams were fed twice at08.00 and 14.00 with pellet of complete feed for 4 months. The result of this experiment showed thatOPF significantly influenced nutrient consumption, average daily gain (ADG and feed efficiency ratio(FER. Oil palm fronds significantly affected (P<0.05 fat-tailed rams’s dry matter intake (DMI, organicmatter intake (OMI, crude protein intake (CPI, ADG and FER. The highest DMI, OMI, CPI, ADG, andFER of fat-tailed rams was in C treatment and significantly different from the others. It was concludedthat C treatment was the best treatment which can give the best fat-tailed rams performance. The OPFcan be used to replace the field grass as feed up to 75% proportion in complete feed and could increasethe performance and productivity of fat-tailed rams.

New designs of a complete set of Photonic Crystals logic gates

Science.gov (United States)

Hussein, Hussein M. E.; Ali, Tamer A.; Rafat, Nadia H.

2018-03-01

In this paper, we introduce new designs of all-optical OR, AND, XOR, NOT, NOR, NAND and XNOR logic gates based on the interference effect. The designs are built using 2D square lattice Photonic Crystal (PhC) structure of dielectric rods embedded in air background. The lattice constant, a, and the rod radius, r, are designed to achieve maximum operating range of frequencies using the gap map. We use the Plane Wave Expansion (PWE) method to obtain the band structure and the gap map of the proposed designs. The operating wavelengths achieve a wide band range that varies between 1266.9 nm and 1996 nm with center wavelength at 1550 nm. The Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method is used to study the field behavior inside the PhC gates. The gates satisfy their truth tables with reasonable power contrast ratio between logic '1' and logic '0'.

Research on conflict resolution of collaborative design with fuzzy case-based reasoning method

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

HOU Jun-ming; SU Chong; LIANG Shuang; WANG Wan-shan

2009-01-01

Collaborative design is a new style for modern mechanical design to meet the requirement of increasing competition. Designers of different places complete the same work, but the conflict appears in the process of design which may interface the design. Case-based reasoning (CBR) method is applied to the problem of conflict resolution, which is in the artificial intelligence field. However, due to the uncertainties in knowledge representation, attribute description, and similarity measures of CBR, it is very difficult to find the similar cases from case database. A fuzzy CBR method was proposed to solve the problem of conflict resolution in collaborative design. The process of fuzzy CBR was introduced. Based on the feature attributes and their relative weights determined by a fuzzy technique, a fuzzy CBR retrieving mechanism was developed to retrieve conflict resolution cases that tend to enhance the functions of the database. By indexing, calculating the weight and defuzzicating of the cases, the case similarity can be obtained. Then the case consistency was measured to keep the right result. Finally, the fuzzy CBR method for conflict resolution was demonstrated by means of a case study. The prototype system based on web is developed to illustrate the methodology.

Case-based Agile Fixture Design

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2001-01-01

In order to realize the agility of the fixture design, such asreconfigurability, rescalability and reusability, fixture structure is function unit-based decomposed from a fire-new point of view. Which makes it easy for agile fixture to be reconfigured and modified. Thereby, the base of case-based agile fixture design system info is established.Whole case-based agile fixture design model is presented. In which, three modules are added relative to the other models, including case matching of fixture planning module, conflict arbitration module and agile fixture case modify module. The three modules could solve the previous problem that the experience and result are difficult to be reused in the process of design.Two key techniques in the process of the agile fixture design, the evaluation of case similarity, and restriction-based conflict arbitration, are listed. And some methods are presented to evaluate the similarity and clear up the conflict.

Perceived barriers to completing an e-learning program on evidence-based medicine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie-Pierre Gagnon

2007-06-01

Conclusions This study offers a theoretical basis to understand physicians' beliefs towards completing an internet-based continuing medical education (CME program on EBM. Based upon respondents' insights, several modifications were carried out to enhance the uptake of the program by physicians and, therefore, its implementation.

Waste analysis plan for confirmation or completion of Tank Farms backlog waste designation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-08-01

This waste analysis plan satisfies the requirements of Item 3 of Ecology Order 93NM-201 as amended per the Settlement Agreement. Item 3 states: ''Within forty (40) calendar days of receipt of this Order, the US Department of Energy Richland Operations (DOE-RL) and Westinghouse Hanford Company (WHC) shall provide Ecology with a plan for review and approval detailing the established criteria and procedures for waste inspection, segregation, sampling, designation, and repackaging of all containers reported in item number-sign 1. The report shall include sampling plan criteria for different contaminated media, i.e., soils, compactable waste, high-efficiency particular air (HEPA) filters, etc., and a schedule for completing the work within the time allowed under this Order.'' Item 3 was amended per the Settlement Agreement as follows: ''In addition to the waste inspection plans for the ''unknowns'' previously provided and currently being supplemented, DOE-RL and WHC shall provide a draft waste analysis plan for the containers reported in Item 1 of the Order to Ecology by July 12, 1993. A final, DOE-RL approved waste analysis plan shall be submitted to Ecology by September 1, 1993, for Ecology's written approval by September 15, 1993.'' Containers covered by the Order, Settlement Agreement, and this waste analysis plan consist of all those reported under Item 1 of the Order, less any containers that have been identified in unusual occurrences reported by Tank Farms. This waste analysis plan describes the procedures that will be undertaken to confirm or to complete designation of the solid waste identified in the Order

Watershed-based survey designs

Science.gov (United States)

Detenbeck, N.E.; Cincotta, D.; Denver, J.M.; Greenlee, S.K.; Olsen, A.R.; Pitchford, A.M.

2005-01-01

Watershed-based sampling design and assessment tools help serve the multiple goals for water quality monitoring required under the Clean Water Act, including assessment of regional conditions to meet Section 305(b), identification of impaired water bodies or watersheds to meet Section 303(d), and development of empirical relationships between causes or sources of impairment and biological responses. Creation of GIS databases for hydrography, hydrologically corrected digital elevation models, and hydrologic derivatives such as watershed boundaries and upstream–downstream topology of subcatchments would provide a consistent seamless nationwide framework for these designs. The elements of a watershed-based sample framework can be represented either as a continuous infinite set defined by points along a linear stream network, or as a discrete set of watershed polygons. Watershed-based designs can be developed with existing probabilistic survey methods, including the use of unequal probability weighting, stratification, and two-stage frames for sampling. Case studies for monitoring of Atlantic Coastal Plain streams, West Virginia wadeable streams, and coastal Oregon streams illustrate three different approaches for selecting sites for watershed-based survey designs.

Design of Composite Structures Using Knowledge-Based and Case Based Reasoning

Science.gov (United States)

Lambright, Jonathan Paul

1996-01-01

A method of using knowledge based and case based reasoning to assist designers during conceptual design tasks of composite structures was proposed. The cooperative use of heuristics, procedural knowledge, and previous similar design cases suggests a potential reduction in design cycle time and ultimately product lead time. The hypothesis of this work is that the design process of composite structures can be improved by using Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) and Knowledge-Based (KB) reasoning in the early design stages. The technique of using knowledge-based and case-based reasoning facilitates the gathering of disparate information into one location that is easily and readily available. The method suggests that the inclusion of downstream life-cycle issues into the conceptual design phase reduces potential of defective, and sub-optimal composite structures. Three industry experts were interviewed extensively. The experts provided design rules, previous design cases, and test problems. A Knowledge Based Reasoning system was developed using the CLIPS (C Language Interpretive Procedural System) environment and a Case Based Reasoning System was developed using the Design Memory Utility For Sharing Experiences (MUSE) xviii environment. A Design Characteristic State (DCS) was used to document the design specifications, constraints, and problem areas using attribute-value pair relationships. The DCS provided consistent design information between the knowledge base and case base. Results indicated that the use of knowledge based and case based reasoning provided a robust design environment for composite structures. The knowledge base provided design guidance from well defined rules and procedural knowledge. The case base provided suggestions on design and manufacturing techniques based on previous similar designs and warnings of potential problems and pitfalls. The case base complemented the knowledge base and extended the problem solving capability beyond the existence of

Problem Based Game Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Reng, Lars; Schoenau-Fog, Henrik

2011-01-01

At Aalborg University’s department of Medialogy, we are utilizing the Problem Based Learning method to encourage students to solve game design problems by pushing the boundaries and designing innovative games. This paper is concerned with describing this method, how students employ it in various ...... projects and how they learn to analyse, design, and develop for innovation by using it. We will present various cases to exemplify the approach and focus on how the method engages students and aspires for innovation in digital entertainment and games.......At Aalborg University’s department of Medialogy, we are utilizing the Problem Based Learning method to encourage students to solve game design problems by pushing the boundaries and designing innovative games. This paper is concerned with describing this method, how students employ it in various...

Modeling and Design of Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers Based-on Database Optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, M W; Gwo, T J; Deng, T M; Chang, H C

2006-01-01

A Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers simulation database, based on electromechanical coupling theory, has been fully developed for versatile capacitive microtransducer design and analysis. Both arithmetic and graphic configurations are used to find optimal parameters based on serial coupling simulations. The key modeling parameters identified can improve microtransducer's character and reliability effectively. This method could be used to reduce design time and fabrication cost, eliminating trial-and-error procedures. Various microtransducers, with optimized characteristics, can be developed economically using the developed database. A simulation to design an ultrasonic microtransducer is completed as an executed example. The dependent relationship between membrane geometry, vibration displacement and output response is demonstrated. The electromechanical coupling effects, mechanical impedance and frequency response are also taken into consideration for optimal microstructures. The microdevice parameters with the best output signal response are predicted, and microfabrication processing constraints and realities are also taken into consideration

Simultaneous all-channel OTDM demultiplexing based on complete optical Fourier transformation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Guan, Pengyu; Lillieholm, Mads; Røge, Kasper Meldgaard

2016-01-01

We demonstrate simultaneous OTDM demultiplexing of all 16-channels for 160-Gbit/s DPSK and 320-Gbit/s DQPSK signals based on complete OFT. Furthermore, numerical simulations show promising results for extending the proposed technique to spectrally efficient Nyquist-OTDM....

Sequential ensemble-based optimal design for parameter estimation: SEQUENTIAL ENSEMBLE-BASED OPTIMAL DESIGN

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Man, Jun [Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Institute of Soil and Water Resources and Environmental Science, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou China; Zhang, Jiangjiang [Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Institute of Soil and Water Resources and Environmental Science, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou China; Li, Weixuan [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland Washington USA; Zeng, Lingzao [Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Institute of Soil and Water Resources and Environmental Science, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou China; Wu, Laosheng [Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside California USA

2016-10-01

The ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) has been widely used in parameter estimation for hydrological models. The focus of most previous studies was to develop more efficient analysis (estimation) algorithms. On the other hand, it is intuitively understandable that a well-designed sampling (data-collection) strategy should provide more informative measurements and subsequently improve the parameter estimation. In this work, a Sequential Ensemble-based Optimal Design (SEOD) method, coupled with EnKF, information theory and sequential optimal design, is proposed to improve the performance of parameter estimation. Based on the first-order and second-order statistics, different information metrics including the Shannon entropy difference (SD), degrees of freedom for signal (DFS) and relative entropy (RE) are used to design the optimal sampling strategy, respectively. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by synthetic one-dimensional and two-dimensional unsaturated flow case studies. It is shown that the designed sampling strategies can provide more accurate parameter estimation and state prediction compared with conventional sampling strategies. Optimal sampling designs based on various information metrics perform similarly in our cases. The effect of ensemble size on the optimal design is also investigated. Overall, larger ensemble size improves the parameter estimation and convergence of optimal sampling strategy. Although the proposed method is applied to unsaturated flow problems in this study, it can be equally applied in any other hydrological problems.

Exploration and design of smart home circuit based on ZigBee

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Huirong

2018-05-01

To apply ZigBee technique in smart home circuit design, in the hardware design link of ZigBee node, TI Company's ZigBee wireless communication chip CC2530 was used to complete the design of ZigBee RF module circuit and peripheral circuit. In addition, the function demand and the overall scheme of the intelligent system based on smart home furnishing were proposed. Finally, the smart home system was built by combining ZigBee network and intelligent gateway. The function realization, reliability and power consumption of ZigBee network were tested. The results showed that ZigBee technology was applied to smart home system, making it have some advantages in terms of flexibility, scalability, power consumption and indoor aesthetics. To sum up, the system has high application value.

Decision-Based Design Integrating Consumer Preferences into Engineering Design

CERN Document Server

Chen, Wei; Wassenaar, Henk Jan

2013-01-01

Building upon the fundamental principles of decision theory, Decision-Based Design: Integrating Consumer Preferences into Engineering Design presents an analytical approach to enterprise-driven Decision-Based Design (DBD) as a rigorous framework for decision making in engineering design.  Once the related fundamentals of decision theory, economic analysis, and econometrics modelling are established, the remaining chapters describe the entire process, the associated analytical techniques, and the design case studies for integrating consumer preference modeling into the enterprise-driven DBD framework. Methods for identifying key attributes, optimal design of human appraisal experiments, data collection, data analysis, and demand model estimation are presented and illustrated using engineering design case studies. The scope of the chapters also provides: •A rigorous framework of integrating the interests from both producer and consumers in engineering design, •Analytical techniques of consumer choice model...

Complete filter-based cerebral embolic protection with transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Gils, Lennart; Kroon, Herbert; Daemen, Joost; Ren, Claire; Maugenest, Anne-Marie; Schipper, Marguerite; De Jaegere, Peter P; Van Mieghem, Nicolas M

2018-03-01

To evaluate the value of left vertebral artery filter protection in addition to the current filter-based embolic protection technology to achieve complete cerebral protection during TAVR. The occurrence of cerebrovascular events after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has fueled concern for its potential application in younger patients with longer life expectancy. Transcatheter cerebral embolic protection (TCEP) devices may limit periprocedural cerebrovascular events by preventing macro and micro-embolization to the brain. Conventional filter-based TCEP devices cover three extracranial contributories to the brain, yet leave the left vertebral artery unprotected. Patients underwent TAVR with complete TCEP. A dual-filter system was deployed in the brachiocephalic trunk and left common carotid artery with an additional single filter in the left vertebral artery. After TAVR all filters were retrieved and sent for histopathological evaluation by an experienced pathologist. Eleven patients received a dual-filter system and nine of them received an additional left vertebral filter. In the remaining two patients, the left vertebral filter could not be deployed. No periprocedural strokes occurred. We found debris in all filters, consisting of thrombus, tissue derived debris, and foreign body material. The left vertebral filter contained debris in an equal amount of patients as the Sentinel filters. The size of the captured particles was similar between all filters. The left vertebral artery is an important entry route for embolic material to the brain during TAVR. Selective filter protection of the left vertebral artery revealed embolic debris in all patients. The clinical value of complete filter-based TCEP during TAVR warrants further research. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Digitally Milled Metal Framework for Fixed Complete Denture with Metal Occlusal Surfaces: A Design Concept.

Science.gov (United States)

AlBader, Bader; AlHelal, Abdulaziz; Proussaefs, Periklis; Garbacea, Antonela; Kattadiyil, Mathew T; Lozada, Jaime

Implant-supported fixed complete dentures, often referred to as hybrid prostheses, have been associated with high implant survival rates but also with a high incidence of mechanical prosthetic complications. The most frequent of these complications have been fracture and wear of the veneering material. The proposed design concept incorporates the occlusal surfaces of the posterior teeth as part of a digital milled metal framework by designing the posterior first molars in full contour as part of the framework. The framework can be designed, scanned, and milled from a titanium blank using a milling machine. Acrylic resin teeth can then be placed on the framework by conventional protocol. The metal occlusal surfaces of the titanium-countered molars will be at centric occlusion. It is hypothesized that metal occlusal surfaces in the posterior region may reduce occlusal wear in these types of prostheses. When the proposed design protocol is followed, the connection between the metal frame and the cantilever part of the prosthesis is reinforced, which may lead to fewer fractures of the metal framework.

Design And Implementation Of Integrated Vision-Based Robotic Workcells

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Michael J.

1985-01-01

Reports have been sparse on large-scale, intelligent integration of complete robotic systems for automating the microelectronics industry. This paper describes the application of state-of-the-art computer-vision technology for manufacturing of miniaturized electronic components. The concepts of FMS - Flexible Manufacturing Systems, work cells, and work stations and their control hierarchy are illustrated in this paper. Several computer-controlled work cells used in the production of thin-film magnetic heads are described. These cells use vision for in-process control of head-fixture alignment and real-time inspection of production parameters. The vision sensor and other optoelectronic sensors, coupled with transport mechanisms such as steppers, x-y-z tables, and robots, have created complete sensorimotor systems. These systems greatly increase the manufacturing throughput as well as the quality of the final product. This paper uses these automated work cells as examples to exemplify the underlying design philosophy and principles in the fabrication of vision-based robotic systems.

Phylogenetic tree based on complete genomes using fractal and correlation analyses without sequence alignment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zu-Guo Yu

2006-06-01

Full Text Available The complete genomes of living organisms have provided much information on their phylogenetic relationships. Similarly, the complete genomes of chloroplasts have helped resolve the evolution of this organelle in photosynthetic eukaryotes. In this review, we describe two algorithms to construct phylogenetic trees based on the theories of fractals and dynamic language using complete genomes. These algorithms were developed by our research group in the past few years. Our distance-based phylogenetic tree of 109 prokaryotes and eukaryotes agrees with the biologists' "tree of life" based on the 16S-like rRNA genes in a majority of basic branchings and most lower taxa. Our phylogenetic analysis also shows that the chloroplast genomes are separated into two major clades corresponding to chlorophytes s.l. and rhodophytes s.l. The interrelationships among the chloroplasts are largely in agreement with the current understanding on chloroplast evolution.

Reliability assessment and probability based design of reinforced concrete containments and shear walls

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hwang, H.; Reich, M.; Ellingwood, B.; Shinozuka, M.

1986-03-01

This report summarizes work completed under the program entitled, ''Probability-Based Load Combinations for Design of Category I Structures.'' Under this program, the probabilistic models for various static and dynamic loads were formulated. The randomness and uncertainties in material strengths and structural resistance were established. Several limit states of concrete containments and shear walls were identified and analytically formulated. Furthermore, the reliability analysis methods for estimating limit state probabilities were established. These reliability analysis methods can be used to evaluate the safety levels of nuclear structures under various combinations of static and dynamic loads. They can also be used to generate analytically the fragility data for PRA studies. In addition to the development of reliability analysis methods, probability-based design criteria for concrete containments and shear wall structures have also been developed. The proposed design criteria are in the load and resistance factor design (LRFD) format. The load and resistance factors are determined for several limit states and target limit state probabilities. Thus, the proposed design criteria are risk-consistent and have a well-established rationale. 73 refs., 18 figs., 16 tabs

Completely contained and remotely operated digital density meter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goergen, C.R.

1979-10-01

A completely contained and remotely operated density determination system having unique features was designed, fabricated, and installed at the Savannah River Plant. The system, based on a Mettler calculating digital density meter, provides more precise and accurate results than the falling drop technique for measuring densities. The system is fast, simple, easy to operate, and has demonstrated both reliability and durability

Prison-based rehabilitation: Predictors of offender treatment participation and treatment completion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bosma, A.; Kunst, M.; Dirkzwager, A.J.E.; Nieuwbeerta, Paul|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/138622973

2016-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to examine to what extent risk factors and treatment readiness were related to engagement (i.e., participation and completion) in prison-based rehabilitation programs. The sample consisted of the total 6-month inflow of male detainees in the Netherlands who were

Review of research in feature based design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Salomons, O.W.; van Houten, Frederikus J.A.M.; Kals, H.J.J.

1993-01-01

Research in feature-based design is reviewed. Feature-based design is regarded as a key factor towards CAD/CAPP integration from a process planning point of view. From a design point of view, feature-based design offers possibilities for supporting the design process better than current CAD systems

Auditing The Completeness and Legibility of Computerized Radiological Request Forms.

Science.gov (United States)

Al Muallem, Yahya; Al Dogether, Majed; Househ, Mowafa; Saddik, Basema

2017-11-04

Certain Saudi healthcare organizations transfer outpatients to medical imaging departments for radiological examinations in a manual process that relies on the use of paper-based forms. With the increased implementation of electronic medical records in Saudi Hospitals, little is known about the completeness and legibility of information captured in  electronic-based medical imaging forms. The purpose of this study is to audit the completeness and legibility of medical imaging paper-based forms in comparison with electronic-based medical imaging forms. As a secondary objective, we also examined the number of errors found on the forms.An observational retrospective cross-sectional study was utilized to audit the completeness and legibility of both paper and electronic forms collected between March 1 and May 15, 2015. The study measured the association among categorical variables using Chi-Square analysis. The results of this investigation show a significant association between form completion and type of record (i.e., paper vs. electronic) where electronic-based systems were found to be more complete than paper-based records. Electrnoic based records were also found to improve form legibility, promote user adherence to complete the forms and minimize entry errors. In conclusion, electronic-based medical imaging forms are more complete and legible than paper based forms. Future studies should evaluate other hospitals and compare both legibility and completeness of electronic-based medical imaging forms and conduct usability evaluation studies with users to explore the impacts of system design on both completeness and legibility of electronic forms, in general, but more specifically, electronic-based medical imaging forms.

Design and efficient synthesis of novel haptens and complete antigens for the AOZ, a toxic metabolite of furazolidone

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2007-01-01

A good strategy was brought forward for designing efficient haptens and complete antigens for 3-amino-2-oxazolidinone (AOZ).Haptens designed newly were achieved facilely in good yield by using LiCl-N(Et)3 as new catalysis system, the structure of which was elucidated by spectroscopy analysis, such as NMR and MS. Novel antigens for AOZ were prepared successfully by convenient indicated that the haptens with a short unsaturated side chain can evoke specific immune response effectively.

Reusing Design Knowledge Based on Design Cases and Knowledge Map

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Cheng; Liu, Zheng; Wang, Haobai; Shen, Jiaoqi

2013-01-01

Design knowledge was reused for innovative design work to support designers with product design knowledge and help designers who lack rich experiences to improve their design capacity and efficiency. First, based on the ontological model of product design knowledge constructed by taxonomy, implicit and explicit knowledge was extracted from some…

Exercise in completing design information questionnaire for model research reactor: model description, notes, questionnaire

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bellinger, J.; Ho, T.

1989-01-01

The document which defines the inspection measures which the IAEA can deploy at any given nuclear facility is known as the Facility Attachment. For the Agency to negotiate an effective Facility Attachment it must have available certain design information, including the facility's identity, capacity and location; the form, location and flow of nuclear material and the layout of important items of equipment; and a description of the features and procedures relating to nuclear material accountancy, containment and surveillance. In practice such information is solicited in a format, standardized for each facility type, known as the Design Information Questionnaire or the D.I.Q. The nuclear activities used as a model in this course are those of a fictitious country called Pacifica. These nuclear activities bear some resemblance to those at the Australian Atomic Energy Commission's Research Establishment at Lucas Heights. Specifically, Pacifica has a 10 MW heavy water cooled and moderated research reactor using enriched uranium fuel which is very similar to the HIFAR reactor. The reactor and the associated laboratories are described and the Design Information Questionnaire for them is completed. figs., tabs

Design, Dynamics, and Workspace of a Hybrid-Driven-Based Cable Parallel Manipulator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bin Zi

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The design, dynamics, and workspace of a hybrid-driven-based cable parallel manipulator (HDCPM are presented. The HDCPM is able to perform high efficiency, heavy load, and high-performance motion due to the advantages of both the cable parallel manipulator and the hybrid-driven planar five-bar mechanism. The design is performed according to theories of mechanism structure synthesis for cable parallel manipulators. The dynamic formulation of the HDCPM is established on the basis of Newton-Euler method. The workspace of the manipulator is analyzed additionally. As an example, a completely restrained HDCPM with 3 degrees of freedom is studied in simulation in order to verify the validity of the proposed design, workspace, and dynamic analysis. The simulation results, compared with the theoretical analysis, and the case study previously performed show that the manipulator design is reasonable and the mathematical models are correct, which provides the theoretical basis for future physical prototype and control system design.

The Complete Semiconductor Transistor and Its Incomplete Forms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jie Binbin; Sah, C.-T.

2009-01-01

This paper describes the definition of the complete transistor. For semiconductor devices, the complete transistor is always bipolar, namely, its electrical characteristics contain both electron and hole currents controlled by their spatial charge distributions. Partially complete or incomplete transistors, via coined names or/and designed physical geometries, included the 1949 Shockley p/n junction transistor (later called Bipolar Junction Transistor, BJT), the 1952 Shockley unipolar 'field-effect' transistor (FET, later called the p/n Junction Gate FET or JGFET), as well as the field-effect transistors introduced by later investigators. Similarities between the surface-channel MOS-gate FET (MOSFET) and the volume-channel BJT are illustrated. The bipolar currents, identified by us in a recent nanometer FET with 2-MOS-gates on thin and nearly pure silicon base, led us to the recognition of the physical makeup and electrical current and charge compositions of a complete transistor and its extension to other three or more terminal signal processing devices, and also the importance of the terminal contacts.

Design of simulated nuclear electronics laboratory experiments based on IAEA-TECDOC-530 on pcs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ghousia, S.F.; Nadeem, M.; Khaleeq, M.T.

2002-05-01

In this IAEA project, PK-11089 (Design of Simulated Nuclear Electronics Laboratory Experiments based on IAEA-TECDOC-530 on PCs), a software package consisting of Computer-Simulated Laboratory Experiments on Nuclear Electronics compatible with the IAEA-TECDOC-530 (Nuclear Electronics Laboratory Manual) has been developed in OrCAD 9.0 (an electronic circuit simulation software environment) as a self-training aid. The software process model employed in this project is the Feedback Waterfall model with some Rapid Application Model. The project work is completed in the five phases of the SDLC, (all of them have been fully completed) which includes the Requirement Definition, Phase, System and Software Design, Implementation and Unit testing, Integration and System-testing phase and the Operation and Maintenance phase. A total of 125 circuits are designed in 39 experiments from Power Supplies, Analog circuits, Digital circuits and Multi-channel analyzer sections. There is another set of schematic designs present in the package, which contains faulty circuits. This set is designed for the learners to exercise the troubleshooting. The integration and system-testing phase was carried out simultaneously. The Operation and Maintenance phase has been implemented by accomplishing it through some trainees and some undergraduate engineering students by allowing them to play with the software independently. (author)

Plant aging and design bases documentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kelly, J.

1985-01-01

As interest in plant aging and lifetime extension continues to grow, the need to identify and capture the original design bases for the plant becomes more urgent. Decisions on lifetime extension and availability must be based on a rational understanding of design input, assumptions, and objectives. As operating plant time accumulates, the history of the early design begins to fade. The longer the utility waits, the harder it will be to re-establish the original design bases. Therefore, the time to develop this foundation is now. This paper demonstrates the impact that collecting and maintaining the original design bases of the plant can have on a utility's lifetime extension program. This impact becomes apparent when considering the technical, regulatory and financial aspects of lifetime extension. It is not good enough to know that the design information is buried somewhere in the corporate archives, and that given enough time, it could be retrieved. To be useful to the lifetime extension program, plant design information must be concise, readily available (i.e., retrievable), and easy to use. These objectives can only be met through a systematic program for collecting and presenting plant design documentation. To get the maximum benefit from a lifetime extension program, usable design bases documentation should be available as early in the plant life as possible. It will help identify areas that require monitoring today so that data is available to make rational decisions in the future

Prediction Method for the Complete Characteristic Curves of a Francis Pump-Turbine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Huang

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Complete characteristic curves of a pump-turbine are essential for simulating the hydraulic transients and designing pumped storage power plants but are often unavailable in the preliminary design stage. To solve this issue, a prediction method for the complete characteristics of a Francis pump-turbine was proposed. First, based on Euler equations and the velocity triangles at the runners, a mathematical model describing the complete characteristics of a Francis pump-turbine was derived. According to multiple sets of measured complete characteristic curves, explicit expressions for the characteristic parameters of characteristic operating point sets (COPs, as functions of a specific speed and guide vane opening, were then developed to determine the undetermined coefficients in the mathematical model. Ultimately, by combining the mathematical model with the regression analysis of COPs, the complete characteristic curves for an arbitrary specific speed were predicted. Moreover, a case study shows that the predicted characteristic curves are in good agreement with the measured data. The results obtained by 1D numerical simulation of the hydraulic transient process using the predicted characteristics deviate little from the measured characteristics. This method is effective and sufficient for a priori simulations before obtaining the measured characteristics and provides important support for the preliminary design of pumped storage power plants.

Development and Analysis of Patient-Based Complete Conducting Airways Models.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafel Bordas

Full Text Available The analysis of high-resolution computed tomography (CT images of the lung is dependent on inter-subject differences in airway geometry. The application of computational models in understanding the significance of these differences has previously been shown to be a useful tool in biomedical research. Studies using image-based geometries alone are limited to the analysis of the central airways, down to generation 6-10, as other airways are not visible on high-resolution CT. However, airways distal to this, often termed the small airways, are known to play a crucial role in common airway diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD. Other studies have incorporated an algorithmic approach to extrapolate CT segmented airways in order to obtain a complete conducting airway tree down to the level of the acinus. These models have typically been used for mechanistic studies, but also have the potential to be used in a patient-specific setting. In the current study, an image analysis and modelling pipeline was developed and applied to a number of healthy (n = 11 and asthmatic (n = 24 CT patient scans to produce complete patient-based airway models to the acinar level (mean terminal generation 15.8 ± 0.47. The resulting models are analysed in terms of morphometric properties and seen to be consistent with previous work. A number of global clinical lung function measures are compared to resistance predictions in the models to assess their suitability for use in a patient-specific setting. We show a significant difference (p < 0.01 in airways resistance at all tested flow rates in complete airway trees built using CT data from severe asthmatics (GINA 3-5 versus healthy subjects. Further, model predictions of airways resistance at all flow rates are shown to correlate with patient forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1 (Spearman ρ = -0.65, p < 0.001 and, at low flow rates (0.00017 L/s, FEV1 over forced vital capacity (FEV1

Work-Based Curriculum to Broaden Learners' Participation in Science: Insights for Designers

Science.gov (United States)

Bopardikar, Anushree; Bernstein, Debra; Drayton, Brian; McKenney, Susan

2018-05-01

Around the globe, science education during compulsory schooling is envisioned for all learners regardless of their educational and career aspirations, including learners bound to the workforce upon secondary school completion. Yet, a major barrier in attaining this vision is low learner participation in secondary school science. Because curricula play a major role in shaping enacted learning, this study investigated how designers developed a high school physics curriculum with positive learning outcomes in learners with varied inclinations. Qualitative analysis of documents and semistructured interviews with the designers focused on the curriculum in different stages—from designers' ideas about learning goals to their vision for enactment to the printed materials—and on the design processes that brought them to fruition. This revealed designers' emphases on fostering workplace connections via learning goals and activities, and printed supports. The curriculum supported workplace-inspired, hands-on design-and-build projects, developed to address deeply a limited set of standards aligned learning goals. The curriculum also supported learners' interactions with relevant workplace professionals. To create these features, the designers reviewed other curricula to develop vision and printed supports, tested activities internally to assess content coverage, surveyed states in the USA receiving federal school-to-work grants and reviewed occupational information to choose unit topics and career contexts, and visited actual workplaces to learn about authentic praxis. Based on the worked example, this paper offers guidelines for designing work-based science curriculum products and processes that can serve the work of other designers, as well as recommendations for research serving designers and policymakers.

ERGONOMIC DESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS BASED ON AN ACTUAL CHAINSAW DESIGN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Kaljun

2012-01-01

Full Text Available

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: To develop high quality products, a designer has to consider various influential factors, one of which is ergonomics. And to fashion a specific product for the user, a designer needs expert knowledge of the user’s requirements. However, expert knowledge can also be accessed through an intelligent advisory system for ergonomic design support. The effectiveness of such an expert system depends mainly on the quality of the knowledge base and on the appropriateness of the system's inference engine. Data for the system’s knowledge base can be collected in different ways. One approach is to study relevant projects to collect appropriate ergonomic solutions; another is to recognise bottlenecks in ergonomic design. This paper presents a case study of the design of an actual chainsaw – with emphasis on ergonomic design solutions – that can be transformed into ergonomic design recommendations. At the end of the paper, an application of one of the derived recommendations within the knowledge base of the intelligent advisory system is presented.

AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: By die ontwerp van gehaltegoedere moet aandag gegee word aan verskeie faktore soos die Ergonomie. Die produkontwerper moet deeglike kennis dra van die verbruikersbehoeftes. Daarbenewens moet hy liefs ook gebruik maak van ’n intelligente sisteem vir ontwerphulp. Die navorsing is toegespits op datasteun vir ’n kettingsaagontwerp en toon hoe die intelligente sisteem betekenisvolle ondersteuning verleen.

Competency Based Assessment in Fashion Design

Science.gov (United States)

Russanti, Irma; Nurlaela, Lutfiyah; Basuki, Ismet; Munoto

2018-04-01

Professional certification is a form of stipulation on certain competency standards provided by one professional organization to the performance of a person through assessment. For that an assessment needs to be standardized so that there exists a general standardized scale to measure competence. In the professional certification of fashion design department, an instrument of competency based assessment is essential to be developed. The purpose of this review is to know the application of competency based assessment in the field of fashion design. The literature reviews were found by journal searching with keywords competency based assessment and fashion design in Google scholar, of which was gotten over 20 journals from 2006 to 2016. Afterwards, the search of the free-downloaded e-books in libgen was conducted under competency based assessment and fashion design, which is then found some related references. The obtained literatures were used to review the definition, approach, and implementation of competency based assessment in the field of fashion design. Results show that it is important to develop an assessment sheet in the field of fashion design covering garment, apparel and embroidery sectors by patterning the criteria of performers along with the qualifications.

A program for making completely balanced Latin Square designs employing a systemic method

OpenAIRE

Kim, Beob G; Kim, Taemin

2010-01-01

Animal scientists employ Latin square designs to reduce the required number of animals for detecting statistical differences in animal experiments. Randomization procedures do not balance residual effects that possibly exist in Latin square experiments. A spreadsheet-based program is available for making Latin square designs balanced for the first-order residual effects. The balance of remote residual effects may also be very important to consider when a relatively long latent period exists a...

LMI–based robust controller design approach in aircraft multidisciplinary design optimization problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qinghua Zeng

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This article proposes a linear matrix inequality–based robust controller design approach to implement the synchronous design of aircraft control discipline and other disciplines, in which the variation in design parameters is treated as equivalent perturbations. Considering the complicated mapping relationships between the coefficient arrays of aircraft motion model and the aircraft design parameters, the robust controller designed is directly based on the variation in these coefficient arrays so conservative that the multidisciplinary design optimization problem would be too difficult to solve, or even if there is a solution, the robustness of design result is generally poor. Therefore, this article derives the uncertainty model of disciplinary design parameters based on response surface approximation, converts the design problem of the robust controller into a problem of solving a standard linear matrix inequality, and theoretically gives a less conservative design method of the robust controller which is based on the variation in design parameters. Furthermore, the concurrent subspace approach is applied to the multidisciplinary system with this kind of robust controller in the design loop. A multidisciplinary design optimization of a tailless aircraft as example is shown that control discipline can be synchronous optimal design with other discipline, especially this method will greatly reduce the calculated amount of multidisciplinary design optimization and make multidisciplinary design optimization results more robustness of flight performance.

FPGA design best practices for team-based reuse

CERN Document Server

Simpson, Philip Andrew

2015-01-01

This book describes best practices for successful FPGA design. It is the result of the author’s meetings with hundreds of customers on the challenges facing each of their FPGA design teams. By gaining an understanding into their design environments, processes, what works and what does not work, key areas of concern in implementing system designs have been identified and a recommended design methodology to overcome these challenges has been developed. This book’s content has a strong focus on design teams that are spread across sites. The goal being to increase the productivity of FPGA design teams by establishing a common methodology across design teams; enabling the exchange of design blocks across teams. Coverage includes the complete FPGA design flow, from the basics to advanced techniques.  This new edition has been enhanced to include new sections on System modeling, embedded design and high level design. The original sections on Design Environment, RTL design and timing closure have all been expand...

Design and development of power supplies for high power IOT based RF amplifier

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kumar, Yashwant; Kumari, S.; Ghosh, M.K.; Bera, A.; Sadhukhan, A.; Pal, S.S.; Khare, V.K.; Tiwari, T.P.; Thakur, S.K.; Saha, S.

2013-01-01

Design, development, circuit topology, function of system components and key system specifications of different power supplies for biasing electrodes of Thales Inductive Output Tube (IOT) based high power RF amplifier are presented in this paper. A high voltage power supply (-30 kV, 3.2A dc) with fast (∼microsecond) crowbar protection circuit is designed, developed and commissioned at VECC for testing the complete setup. Other power supplies for biasing grid electrode (300V, 0.5A dc) and Ion Pump (3 kV, 0.1mA dc) of IOT are also designed, developed and tested with actual load. A HV Deck (60kV Isolation) is specially designed in house to place these power supplies which are floating at 30 kV. All these power supplies are powered by an Isolation Transformer (5 kVA, 60 kV isolation) designed and developed in VECC. (author)

Participatory design of probability-based decision support tools for in-hospital nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeffery, Alvin D; Novak, Laurie L; Kennedy, Betsy; Dietrich, Mary S; Mion, Lorraine C

2017-11-01

To describe nurses' preferences for the design of a probability-based clinical decision support (PB-CDS) tool for in-hospital clinical deterioration. A convenience sample of bedside nurses, charge nurses, and rapid response nurses (n = 20) from adult and pediatric hospitals completed participatory design sessions with researchers in a simulation laboratory to elicit preferred design considerations for a PB-CDS tool. Following theme-based content analysis, we shared findings with user interface designers and created a low-fidelity prototype. Three major themes and several considerations for design elements of a PB-CDS tool surfaced from end users. Themes focused on "painting a picture" of the patient condition over time, promoting empowerment, and aligning probability information with what a nurse already believes about the patient. The most notable design element consideration included visualizing a temporal trend of the predicted probability of the outcome along with user-selected overlapping depictions of vital signs, laboratory values, and outcome-related treatments and interventions. Participants expressed that the prototype adequately operationalized requests from the design sessions. Participatory design served as a valuable method in taking the first step toward developing PB-CDS tools for nurses. This information about preferred design elements of tools that support, rather than interrupt, nurses' cognitive workflows can benefit future studies in this field as well as nurses' practice. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association 2017. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the United States.

Reactor plant for Belene NPP completion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dragunov, Yu. G.; Ryzhov, S. B.; Ermakov, D. N.; Repin, A. I.

2004-01-01

Construction of 'Belene' NPP was started at the end of 80-ties using project U-87 with V-320 reactor plant, general designer of this plant is OKB 'Gidropress'. At the beginning of 90-ties, on completing the considerable number of deliveries and performance of civil engineering work at the site the NPP construction was suspended. Nowadays, considering the state of affairs at the site and the work performed by Bulgarian Party on preservation of the equipment delivered, the most perspective is supposed to be implementation of the following versions in completing 'Belene' NPP: for completion of Unit 1 - reactor plant VVER-1000 on the basis of V-320 reactor with the maximum use of the delivered equipment (V-320M) having the extended service life and safety improvement; for Unit 2 - advanced reactor plant VVER-1000. For the upgraded reactor plant V-230M the basic solutions and characteristics are presented, as well as the calculated justification of strength and safety analyses, design of the reactor core and fuel cycle, instrumentation and control systems, application of the 'leak-before break' in the project and implementation of safety measures. For the modernised reactor plant V-392M the main characteristics and basic changes are presented, concerning reactor pressure vessel, steam generator, reactor coolant pump set. Design of NPP with the modernized reactor plant V-320M meets the up-to-date requirements and can be licensed for completion and operation. In the design of NPP with the advanced reactor plant the basic solutions and the equipment are used that are similar to those used in standard reactor plant V-320 and new one with VVER-1000 under construction and completion in Russia, and abroad. Compliance of reactor design with the up-to-date international requirements, considering the extended service life of the main equipment, shows its rather high potential for implementation during completion of 'Belene' NPP

The impact of design-based modeling instruction on seventh graders' spatial abilities and model-based argumentation

Science.gov (United States)

McConnell, William J.

models to better assist them in scientific argumentation over paper drawing models. In fact, when given a choice, students rarely used paper drawing to assist in argument. There was also a difference in model utility between the two different model types. Participants explicitly used 3D printed models to complete gestural modeling, while participants rarely looked at 2D models when involved in gestural modeling. This study's findings added to current theory dealing with the varied spatial challenges involved in different modes of expressed models. This study found that depth, symmetry and the manipulation of perspectives are typically spatial challenges students will attend to using CAD while they will typically ignore them when drawing using paper and pencil. This study also revealed a major difference in model-based argument in a design-based instruction context as opposed to model-based argument in a typical science classroom context. In the context of design-based instruction, data revealed that design process is an important part of model-based argument. Due to the importance of design process in model-based argumentation in this context, trusted methods of argument analysis, like the coding system of the IASCA, was found lacking in many respects. Limitations and recommendations for further research were also presented.

SLS Navigation Model-Based Design Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Oliver, T. Emerson; Anzalone, Evan; Geohagan, Kevin; Bernard, Bill; Park, Thomas

2018-01-01

The SLS Program chose to implement a Model-based Design and Model-based Requirements approach for managing component design information and system requirements. This approach differs from previous large-scale design efforts at Marshall Space Flight Center where design documentation alone conveyed information required for vehicle design and analysis and where extensive requirements sets were used to scope and constrain the design. The SLS Navigation Team has been responsible for the Program-controlled Design Math Models (DMMs) which describe and represent the performance of the Inertial Navigation System (INS) and the Rate Gyro Assemblies (RGAs) used by Guidance, Navigation, and Controls (GN&C). The SLS Navigation Team is also responsible for the navigation algorithms. The navigation algorithms are delivered for implementation on the flight hardware as a DMM. For the SLS Block 1-B design, the additional GPS Receiver hardware is managed as a DMM at the vehicle design level. This paper provides a discussion of the processes and methods used to engineer, design, and coordinate engineering trades and performance assessments using SLS practices as applied to the GN&C system, with a particular focus on the Navigation components. These include composing system requirements, requirements verification, model development, model verification and validation, and modeling and analysis approaches. The Model-based Design and Requirements approach does not reduce the effort associated with the design process versus previous processes used at Marshall Space Flight Center. Instead, the approach takes advantage of overlap between the requirements development and management process, and the design and analysis process by efficiently combining the control (i.e. the requirement) and the design mechanisms. The design mechanism is the representation of the component behavior and performance in design and analysis tools. The focus in the early design process shifts from the development and

78 FR 11676 - Notice of Inventory Completion: National Guard Bureau/A7AN, Air National Guard, Joint Base...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-02-19

... Inventory Completion: National Guard Bureau/A7AN, Air National Guard, Joint Base Andrews, MD AGENCY..., Joint Base Andrews, MD, has completed an inventory of human remains and associated funerary objects, in... associated funerary objects may contact National Guard Bureau, Air National Guard, Joint Base Andrews, MD...

Prioritization of design changes based on PSA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krajnc, B.; Mavko, B.

1996-01-01

Effective use of Probabilistic Safety Analyses (PSA) in the day to day plant operation is subject of intensive discussions among plant operators and regulators. There are several possible applications in which the PSA can be used, among those also to use the PSA approach for the quantification of influence of different proposed design changes to nuclear safety - influence on public safety - health. NPP Krsko is one of those plants that successfully completed its PSA project, with Level 1 and Level 2 analyses and effective know-how transfer. It also faces a number of regulatory and internally generated requirements for different design changes, mainly due to the fact that the plant is committed to continuous augmentation of nuclear safety. It is considered that the available tools and knowledge should be used and therefore applicable methodology should be developed for effective prioritization of proposed design changes by performing cost-benefit analyses for all major modifications - focusing on their influence on nuclear safety. Based on the above a new method for prioritization of design changes is proposed. The method uses Level 1 results (in the sense of plant damage states and their frequencies) directly as an input for further processing - first decision step to decide whether the proposed modification has or has no influence on nuclear safety. In Level 2 analyses the combination of probabilistic and deterministic approach was adopted. In fact the results of the deterministic analyses of severe accidents are treated in probabilistic manner due to large uncertainty of results. Finally to be able to perform plant specific cost benefit analyses so called partial Level 3 was defined. The proposed methods was preliminary tested and it gave favorable results. (author)

Design for game based learning platforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Birgitte Holm; Meyer, Bente

2010-01-01

This paper focuses on the challenges related to the design of game based learning platforms for formal learning contexts that are inspired by the pupil's leisure time related use of web 2.0. The paper is based on the project Serious Games on a Global Market Place (2007-2011) founded by the Danish...... of web 2.0 and integrates theories of learning, didactics, games, play, communication, multimodality and different pedagogical approaches. In relation to the introduced model the teacher role is discussed.......This paper focuses on the challenges related to the design of game based learning platforms for formal learning contexts that are inspired by the pupil's leisure time related use of web 2.0. The paper is based on the project Serious Games on a Global Market Place (2007-2011) founded by the Danish...... Council for Strategic Research, in which an online game-based platform for English as a foreign language in primary school is studied. The paper presents a model for designing for game based learning platforms. This design is based on cultural and ethnographic based research on children's leisure time use...

Implementing a Generative Urban Design Model : Grammar-based design patterns for urban design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beirao, J.N.; Mendes, G.; Duarte, J.; Stouffs, R.M.F.

2010-01-01

This paper shows the first results of a prototype implementation of a generative urban design tool. This implementation will form part of a design support tool for a GIS based platform defined to formulate, generate and evaluate urban designs. These three goals, formulation, generation and

Complete determination of neutron yield from 62 MeV protons on 9Be for the design of a low – power ADS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Schillaci Maria

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Within the European Partitioning & Transmutation research programs, infrastructures specifically dedicated to the study of fundamental reactor physics of future fast neutron-based reactors are very important. In this respect, an Accelerator Driven System low-power prototype, based on a 70 MeV proton beam impinging on a thick Beryllium converter, was recently proposed and designed within the INFN-E project. The world data on neutron yield from Be target are scarce in this proton energy range. This lack of data calls for a dedicated measurement which was performed at INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, covering a wide angular range, from 0 to 150 degrees, and an almost complete neutron energy interval, from thermal up to the beam energy. In this contribution the results are discussed together with the description of the proposed ADS facility.

Prostate cancer risk prediction based on complete prostate cancer family history.

Science.gov (United States)

Albright, Frederick; Stephenson, Robert A; Agarwal, Neeraj; Teerlink, Craig C; Lowrance, William T; Farnham, James M; Albright, Lisa A Cannon

2015-03-01

Prostate cancer (PC) relative risks (RRs) are typically estimated based on status of close relatives or presence of any affected relatives. This study provides RR estimates using extensive and specific PC family history. A retrospective population-based study was undertaken to estimate RRs for PC based on complete family history of PC. A total of 635,443 males, all with ancestral genealogy data, were analyzed. RRs for PC were determined based upon PC rates estimated from males with no PC family history (without PC in first, second, or third degree relatives). RRs were determined for a variety of constellations, for example, number of first through third degree relatives; named (grandfather, father, uncle, cousins, brothers); maternal, paternal relationships, and age of onset. In the 635,443 males analyzed, 18,105 had PC. First-degree RRs ranged from 2.46 (=1 first-degree relative affected, CI = 2.39-2.53) to 7.65 (=4 first-degree relatives affected, CI = 6.28-9.23). Second-degree RRs for probands with 0 affected first-degree relatives ranged from 1.51 (≥1 second-degree relative affected, CI = 1.47-1.56) to 3.09 (≥5 second-degree relatives affected, CI = 2.32-4.03). Third-degree RRs with 0 affected first- and 0 affected second-degree relatives ranged from 1.15 (≥1 affected third-degree relative, CI = 1.12-1.19) to 1.50 (≥5 affected third-degree relatives, CI = 1.35-1.66). RRs based on age at diagnosis were higher for earlier age at diagnoses; for example, RR = 5.54 for ≥1 first-degree relative diagnosed before age 50 years (CI = 1.12-1.19) and RR = 1.78 for >1 second-degree relative diagnosed before age 50 years, CI = 1.33, 2.33. RRs for equivalent maternal versus paternal family history were not significantly different. A more complete PC family history using close and distant relatives and age at diagnosis results in a wider range of estimates of individual RR that are potentially more accurate than RRs estimated

Cognitive Activity-based Design Methodology for Novice Visual Communication Designers

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Hyunjung; Lee, Hyunju

2016-01-01

The notion of design thinking is becoming more concrete nowadays, as design researchers and practitioners study the thinking processes involved in design and employ the concept of design thinking to foster better solutions to complex and ill-defined problems. The goal of the present research is to develop a cognitive activity-based design…

Assessing model-based reasoning using evidence-centered design a suite of research-based design patterns

CERN Document Server

Mislevy, Robert J; Riconscente, Michelle; Wise Rutstein, Daisy; Ziker, Cindy

2017-01-01

This Springer Brief provides theory, practical guidance, and support tools to help designers create complex, valid assessment tasks for hard-to-measure, yet crucial, science education standards. Understanding, exploring, and interacting with the world through models characterizes science in all its branches and at all levels of education. Model-based reasoning is central to science education and thus science assessment. Current interest in developing and using models has increased with the release of the Next Generation Science Standards, which identified this as one of the eight practices of science and engineering. However, the interactive, complex, and often technology-based tasks that are needed to assess model-based reasoning in its fullest forms are difficult to develop. Building on research in assessment, science education, and learning science, this Brief describes a suite of design patterns that can help assessment designers, researchers, and teachers create tasks for assessing aspects of model-based...

Visualizing Practices in Project-based Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Whyte, Jennifer; Tryggestad, Kjell; Comi, Alice

2016-01-01

Project-based design involves a variety of visual representations, which are evolved to make decisions and accomplish project objectives. Yet, such mediated and distributed ways of working are difficult to capture through ethnographies that examine situated design. A novel approach is developed t...... representations enabled participants in project-based design to develop and share understanding. The complexity of projects and their distributed and mediated nature makes this approach timely and important in addressing new research questions and practical challenges.......Project-based design involves a variety of visual representations, which are evolved to make decisions and accomplish project objectives. Yet, such mediated and distributed ways of working are difficult to capture through ethnographies that examine situated design. A novel approach is developed...... of situated design. This allows the researcher to be nimble, tracing connections across complex engineering projects; reconstructing practices through their visual representations; and observing their effects. Second, it articulates how, in these empirical cases, interaction with a cascade of visual...

A comparative evaluation of the in vitro penetration performance of the improved Crest complete toothbrush versus the Current Crest complete toothbrush, the Colgate Precision toothbrush and the Oral-B P40 toothbrush.

Science.gov (United States)

Volpenhein, D W; Handel, S E; Hughes, T J; Wild, J

1996-01-01

Removal of plaque and debris from interproximal surfaces during toothbrushing has generally been difficult to achieve, in large part because traditional flat-bristled toothbrushes do not offer good interproximal penetration. As a result, a number of varying bristle designs have been developed, with the rippled-design brush shown to be particularly effective at removing interproximal plaque. Recently, an existing brush, the original Crest Complete, was modified to offer a more deeply rippled version. This study evaluated the interproximal penetration of four bristle designs: rippled pattern (original Crest Complete), deeper rippled pattern (improved Crest Complete), multi-level (Colgate Precision), and flat-tufted (Oral-B P40). The study used a previously reported in vitro model for determining interproximal penetration of manual toothbrushes (J Clin Dent 5:27-33, 1994). In order to effectively mimic the in-use characteristics of toothbrushing, this model is based on analysis of videotaped consumer brushing habits, tooth morphology, and in vivo plaque tenacity characteristics and uses the three most predominantly used brushing techniques (circular, up-and-down, and back-and-forth, with the brush held at both 45 and 90 degrees to the tooth surface). In addition, the model's brush stroke length, brush force, and brush speed are likewise based on analysis of consumer brushing patterns. The results of the study indicate that the new Crest Complete with deeper rippled bristles provided significantly superior (p Colgate Precision and Oral-B brushes overall and for three of the four brush strokes tested. In addition, the new Crest Complete was found to provide significantly superior interproximal penetration to the original Crest Complete overall and in circular and up-and-down strokes, and the original Crest Complete provided superior overall interproximal penetration to the Colgate and Oral-B brushes.

The completed design of the SLC Final Focus System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murray, J.J.; Brown, K.L.; Fieguth, T.

1987-02-01

The design of the SLC Final Focus System has evolved from its initial conceptual design into its final form. This final design is described including a review of the critical decisions influencing the adoption of particular features. The creation of a feasible design has required that these decisions be tempered by practical considerations such as site constraints, correction of optical errors caused by imperfections, and accommodations requested by engineers and particle detector physicists. As this is the first such system to be built, it is hoped that the experience gained will be useful for the design of future systems

Rationale for reduced tornado design bases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rutherford, P.D.; Ho, H.W.; Hartung, J.A.; Kastenberg, W.E.

1985-01-01

This paper provides a rationale for relaxing the present NRC tornado design requirements, which are based on a design basis tornado (DBT) whose frequency of exceedance is 10 -7 per year. It is proposed that a reduced DBT frequency of 10 -5 to 10 -6 per year is acceptable. This change in the tornado design bases for LMFBRs (and possibly all types of nuclear plants) is justified based on (1) existing NRC regulations and guidelines, (2) probabilistic arguments, (3) consistency with NRC trial safety goals, and (4) cost-benefit analysis

Enabling Fast ASIP Design Space Exploration: An FPGA-Based Runtime Reconfigurable Prototyper

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paolo Meloni

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Application Specific Instruction-set Processors (ASIPs expose to the designer a large number of degrees of freedom. Accurate and rapid simulation tools are needed to explore the design space. To this aim, FPGA-based emulators have recently been proposed as an alternative to pure software cycle-accurate simulator. However, the advantages of on-hardware emulation are reduced by the overhead of the RTL synthesis process that needs to be run for each configuration to be emulated. The work presented in this paper aims at mitigating this overhead, exploiting a form of software-driven platform runtime reconfiguration. We present a complete emulation toolchain that, given a set of candidate ASIP configurations, identifies and builds an overdimensioned architecture capable of being reconfigured via software at runtime, emulating all the design space points under evaluation. The approach has been validated against two different case studies, a filtering kernel and an M-JPEG encoding kernel. Moreover, the presented emulation toolchain couples FPGA emulation with activity-based physical modeling to extract area and power/energy consumption figures. We show how the adoption of the presented toolchain reduces significantly the design space exploration time, while introducing an overhead lower than 10% for the FPGA resources and lower than 0.5% in terms of operating frequency.

Designing with video focusing the user-centred design process

CERN Document Server

Ylirisku, Salu Pekka

2007-01-01

Digital video for user-centered co-design is an emerging field of design, gaining increasing interest in both industry and academia. It merges the techniques and approaches of design ethnography, participatory design, interaction analysis, scenario-based design, and usability studies. This book covers the complete user-centered design project. It illustrates in detail how digital video can be utilized throughout the design process, from early user studies to making sense of video content and envisioning the future with video scenarios to provoking change with video artifacts. The text includes

Design and evaluation of the computer-based training program Calcularis for enhancing numerical cognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tanja eKäser

2013-08-01

Full Text Available This article presents the design and a first pilot evaluation of the computer-based training program Calcularis for children with developmental dyscalculia (DD or difficulties in learning mathematics. The program has been designed according to insights on the typical and atypical development of mathematical abilities. The learning process is supported through multimodal cues, which encode different properties of numbers. To offer optimal learning conditions, a user model completes the program and allows flexible adaptation to a child’s individual learning and knowledge profile. 32 children with difficulties in learning mathematics completed the 6 to 12-weeks computer training. The children played the game for 20 minutes per day for 5 days a week. The training effects were evaluated using neuropsychological tests. Generally, children benefited significantly from the training regarding number representation and arithmetic operations. Furthermore, children liked to play with the program and reported that the training improved their mathematical abilities.

Model based process-product design and analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gani, Rafiqul

This paper gives a perspective on modelling and the important role it has within product-process design and analysis. Different modelling issues related to development and application of systematic model-based solution approaches for product-process design is discussed and the need for a hybrid...... model-based framework is highlighted. This framework should be able to manage knowledge-data, models, and associated methods and tools integrated with design work-flows and data-flows for specific product-process design problems. In particular, the framework needs to manage models of different types......, forms and complexity, together with their associated parameters. An example of a model-based system for design of chemicals based formulated products is also given....

New insights into designing metallacarborane based room temperature hydrogen storage media.

Science.gov (United States)

Bora, Pankaj Lochan; Singh, Abhishek K

2013-10-28

Metallacarboranes are promising towards realizing room temperature hydrogen storage media because of the presence of both transition metal and carbon atoms. In metallacarborane clusters, the transition metal adsorbs hydrogen molecules and carbon can link these clusters to form metal organic framework, which can serve as a complete storage medium. Using first principles density functional calculations, we chalk out the underlying principles of designing an efficient metallacarborane based hydrogen storage media. The storage capacity of hydrogen depends upon the number of available transition metal d-orbitals, number of carbons, and dopant atoms in the cluster. These factors control the amount of charge transfer from metal to the cluster, thereby affecting the number of adsorbed hydrogen molecules. This correlation between the charge transfer and storage capacity is general in nature, and can be applied to designing efficient hydrogen storage systems. Following this strategy, a search for the best metallacarborane was carried out in which Sc based monocarborane was found to be the most promising H2 sorbent material with a 9 wt.% of reversible storage at ambient pressure and temperature.

A first experience with digital complete overdentures

OpenAIRE

Bajunaid, Salwa Omar

2016-01-01

The development of computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing systems for dentistry in the 1980s resulted in the successful fabrication of crowns, fixed dental prostheses, and superstructures for both natural teeth and dental implants. Today, this technology is available for constructing digitally designed and milled, completely removable dental prostheses. The procedure uses clinical and laboratory protocols that allow fabrication of completely removable prostheses within two clinica...

A reuse-based framework for the design of analog and mixed-signal ICs

Science.gov (United States)

Castro-Lopez, Rafael; Fernandez, Francisco V.; Rodriguez Vazquez, Angel

2005-06-01

Despite the spectacular breakthroughs of the semiconductor industry, the ability to design integrated circuits (ICs) under stringent time-to-market (TTM) requirements is lagging behind integration capacity, so far keeping pace with still valid Moore"s Law. The resulting gap is threatening with slowing down such a phenomenal growth. The design community believes that it is only by means of powerful CAD tools and design methodologies - and, possibly, a design paradigm shift - that this design gap can be bridged. In this sense, reuse-based design is seen as a promising solution, and concepts such as IP Block, Virtual Component, and Design Reuse have become commonplace thanks to the significant advances in the digital arena. Unfortunately, the very nature of analog and mixed-signal (AMS) design has hindered a similar level of consensus and development. This paper presents a framework for the reuse-based design of AMS circuits. The framework is founded on three key elements: (1) a CAD-supported hierarchical design flow that facilitates the incorporation of AMS reusable blocks, reduces the overall design time, and expedites the management of increasing AMS design complexity; (2) a complete, clear definition of the AMS reusable block, structured into three separate facets or views: the behavioral, structural, and layout facets, the two first for top-down electrical synthesis and bottom-up verification, the latter used during bottom-up physical synthesis; (3) the design for reusability set of tools, methods, and guidelines that, relying on intensive parameterization as well as on design knowledge capture and encapsulation, allows to produce fully reusable AMS blocks. A case study and a functional silicon prototype demonstrate the validity of the paper"s proposals.

Building a Case-Based Design Assistant for Workplace Environment Design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mallory-Hill, S.M.; Timmermans, H.J.P.

1998-01-01

This paper reports on the early stages of development of a case-based design tool. The purpose of this tool, called the Workplace Environment Design Advisor (WEDA), is to support architects in the conceptual design of workplace environments. The objective of this system is to provide electronic

AUTOMATION DESIGN FOR MONORAIL - BASED SYSTEM PROCESSES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bunda BESA

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Currently, conventional methods of decline development put enormous cost pressure on the profitability of mining operations. This is the case with narrow vein ore bodies where current methods and mine design of decline development may be too expensive to support economic extraction of the ore. According to studies, the time it takes to drill, clean and blast an end in conventional decline development can be up to 224 minutes. This is because once an end is blasted, cleaning should first be completed before drilling can commence, resulting in low advance rates per shift. Improvements in advance rates during decline development can be achieved by application of the Electric Monorail Transport System (EMTS based drilling system. The system consists of the drilling and loading components that use monorail technology to drill and clean the face during decline development. The two systems work simultaneously at the face in such a way that as the top part of the face is being drilled the pneumatic loading system cleans the face. However, to improve the efficiency of the two systems, critical processes performed by the two systems during mining operations must be automated. Automation increases safety and productivity, reduces operator fatigue and also reduces the labour costs of the system. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to describe automation designs of the two processes performed by the monorail drilling and loading systems during operations. During automation design, critical processes performed by the two systems and control requirements necessary to allow the two systems execute such processes automatically have also been identified.

A complete solution of cartographic displacement based on elastic beams model and Delaunay triangulation

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Y.; Guo, Q.; Sun, Y.

2014-04-01

In map production and generalization, it is inevitable to arise some spatial conflicts, but the detection and resolution of these spatial conflicts still requires manual operation. It is become a bottleneck hindering the development of automated cartographic generalization. Displacement is the most useful contextual operator that is often used for resolving the conflicts arising between two or more map objects. Automated generalization researches have reported many approaches of displacement including sequential approaches and optimization approaches. As an excellent optimization approach on the basis of energy minimization principles, elastic beams model has been used in resolving displacement problem of roads and buildings for several times. However, to realize a complete displacement solution, techniques of conflict detection and spatial context analysis should be also take into consideration. So we proposed a complete solution of displacement based on the combined use of elastic beams model and constrained Delaunay triangulation (CDT) in this paper. The solution designed as a cyclic and iterative process containing two phases: detection phase and displacement phase. In detection phase, CDT of map is use to detect proximity conflicts, identify spatial relationships and structures, and construct auxiliary structure, so as to support the displacement phase on the basis of elastic beams. In addition, for the improvements of displacement algorithm, a method for adaptive parameters setting and a new iterative strategy are put forward. Finally, we implemented our solution on a testing map generalization platform, and successfully tested it against 2 hand-generated test datasets of roads and buildings respectively.

A first experience with digital complete overdentures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Salwa Omar Bajunaid

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The development of computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing systems for dentistry in the 1980s resulted in the successful fabrication of crowns, fixed dental prostheses, and superstructures for both natural teeth and dental implants. Today, this technology is available for constructing digitally designed and milled, completely removable dental prostheses. The procedure uses clinical and laboratory protocols that allow fabrication of completely removable prostheses within two clinical appointments. The aim of this clinical report is to present the author’s first experience with digital complete overdentures, the practicality of this technology, and patient feedback. Compared with conventional overdentures, the fit of the digital prostheses was improved because the cameo and flanges of the prostheses were nicely shaped and rolled, and this enhanced their stability and retention. Occlusion was also excellent. However, aesthetics in terms of the alignment, shape, and size of the maxillary overdenture teeth were inacceptable. Despite some of the drawbacks identified in our study, the use of removable digital dentures does provide excellent adaptation of the denture base and requires fewer clinic visits. We anticipate that the unsatisfactory aesthetic outcomes presented in this report can be corrected with more experience. We also believe that acquiring an in-house scanning machine would be beneficial. We highly recommend including this technique in dental school curriculums at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in order to keep students and residents up to date on the latest technology available.

A first experience with digital complete overdentures.

Science.gov (United States)

Bajunaid, Salwa Omar

2016-07-01

The development of computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing systems for dentistry in the 1980s resulted in the successful fabrication of crowns, fixed dental prostheses, and superstructures for both natural teeth and dental implants. Today, this technology is available for constructing digitally designed and milled, completely removable dental prostheses. The procedure uses clinical and laboratory protocols that allow fabrication of completely removable prostheses within two clinical appointments. The aim of this clinical report is to present the author's first experience with digital complete overdentures, the practicality of this technology, and patient feedback. Compared with conventional overdentures, the fit of the digital prostheses was improved because the cameo and flanges of the prostheses were nicely shaped and rolled, and this enhanced their stability and retention. Occlusion was also excellent. However, aesthetics in terms of the alignment, shape, and size of the maxillary overdenture teeth were inacceptable. Despite some of the drawbacks identified in our study, the use of removable digital dentures does provide excellent adaptation of the denture base and requires fewer clinic visits. We anticipate that the unsatisfactory aesthetic outcomes presented in this report can be corrected with more experience. We also believe that acquiring an in-house scanning machine would be beneficial. We highly recommend including this technique in dental school curriculums at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in order to keep students and residents up to date on the latest technology available.

Linear CMOS RF power amplifiers a complete design workflow

CERN Document Server

Ruiz, Hector Solar

2013-01-01

The work establishes the design flow for the optimization of linear CMOS power amplifiers from the first steps of the design to the final IC implementation and tests. The authors also focuses on design guidelines of the inductor's geometrical characteristics for power applications and covers their measurement and characterization. Additionally, a model is proposed which would facilitate designs in terms of transistor sizing, required inductor quality factors or minimum supply voltage. The model considers limitations that CMOS processes can impose on implementation. The book also provides diffe

Pre-design mixer-settler based on phase inversion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Widiatmo, Djarot S.W

1998-01-01

The mixer settler was designed to extract uranium from organic phase by n-Dodecane and to separate heavy metal from liquid waste. The mixer settler was designed to save solvent without reducing the extraction efficiency. Extraction efficiency depend on : two phase dispersion on mixing, the type of droplet formation and completeness phase separation. The mixer settler has three main part i.e. mixer chamber, droplet formation device and phase inversion column. Mixer chamber was operated in laminar mixing, the total flow rate 200 ml.second -1 . The mixer chamber dimensions was 5 cm diameter and 7 cm height. It was completed with paddle mixer 3 cm diameter, 1 cm height and the speed rotation was 300 rpm. The droplet formation device was perforated plate 5 cm diameter with 1 mm holes. Phase Inversion column dimensions was 5 cm diameter and 50 cm height. (author)

BR-Explorer: A sound and complete FCA-based retrieval algorithm (Poster)

OpenAIRE

Messai , Nizar; Devignes , Marie-Dominique; Napoli , Amedeo; Smaïl-Tabbone , Malika

2006-01-01

In this paper we present BR-Explorer, a sound and complete biological data sources retrieval algorithm based on Formal Concept Analysis and domain ontologies. BR-Explorer addresses the problem of retrieving the relevant data sources for a given query. Initially, a formal context representing the relation between biological data sources and their metadata is provided and its corresponding concept lattice is built. Then BR-Explorer starts by generating the formal concept for the considered quer...

Design of a beam shaping assembly for an accelerator-based BNCT system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stichelbaut, F.; Forton, E.; Jongen, Y.

2006-01-01

A complete BNCT system based on a high-intensity proton accelerator is developed by the IBA company. The neutron beam is produced via the 7 Li(p,n) 7 Be reaction using a solid lithium target. The neutron energy spectrum is tailored with a beam shaping assembly surrounding the target. This device is the object of an extensive R and D project and is fully designed with the Monte Carlo simulation code MCNPX. The emphasis is put on the treatment quality, notably the radiation dose at the skin level, and the achievable neutron flux. (author)

Making Design Decisions Visible: Applying the Case-Based Method in Designing Online Instruction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heng Luo,

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The instructional intervention in this design case is a self-directed online tutorial that applies the case-based method to teach educators how to design and conduct entrepreneurship programs for elementary school students. In this article, the authors describe the major decisions made in each phase of the design and development process, explicate the rationales behind them, and demonstrate their effect on the production of the tutorial. Based on such analysis, the guidelines for designing case-based online instruction are summarized for the design case.

Performance-based Pareto optimal design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sariyildiz, I.S.; Bittermann, M.S.; Ciftcioglu, O.

2008-01-01

A novel approach for performance-based design is presented, where Pareto optimality is pursued. Design requirements may contain linguistic information, which is difficult to bring into computation or make consistent their impartial estimations from case to case. Fuzzy logic and soft computing are

Studying on design of a complete pilot plant for processing sandstone ores in Pa Lua-Pa Rong area

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Le Quang Thai; Tran Van Son; Vu Khac Tuan; Tran The Dinh; Trinh Nguyen Quynh; Doan Thi Mo; Nguyen Hong Ha; Bui Thi Bay; Pham Minh Tuan; Than Van Lien

2015-01-01

Design, construction and operation of a pilot for processing uranium containing ores are important stages in the process of project development of uranium production from ores because uranium contained minerals and the composition of minerals are unstable factors. In this case, pilot needs to be a simulation of a plant in the future, but with upgrade equipment compared that at laboratory scale. Results of lab research were used to select the most appropriate process for ore processing and selection of equipment for each stages. In the circumstance when there has been a lack of experience in processing uranium ores in Vietnam, the design and construction of such a pilot with completed technological procedures are essential. The main purpose of this work is to verify results of lab researches and optimize operational parameters of the process. In addition, several purposes were also considered such as study on the effects of solution circulation/recycling and accumulation of impurities in a long run; obtain necessary and sufficient information for design, cost estimate for investment and operation. The pilot only can achieve the expected objectives when ore sources (including reserves and characteristics) are determined; a complete technological process for obtaining technical uranium (yellowcake) is designed; investment and operational capitals are estimated and these estimates show the costs and benefits of the process. In this article, the authors will focus on the presentation of research results, including data on ore, process technology, material balance, pilot scale, the basic parameters of equipment, installation diagram of equipment, construction, power and water needs identification, preliminary calculation of investment and operational costs. (author)

Demonstration of risk-based decision analysis in remedial alternative selection and design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Evans, E.K.; Duffield, G.M.; Massmann, J.W.; Freeze, R.A.; Stephenson, D.E.

1993-01-01

This study demonstrates the use of risk-based decision analysis (Massmann and Freeze 1987a, 1987b) in the selection and design of an engineering alternative for groundwater remediation at a waste site at the Savannah River Site, a US Department of Energy facility in South Carolina. The investigation focuses on the remediation and closure of the H-Area Seepage Basins, an inactive disposal site that formerly received effluent water from a nearby production facility. A previous study by Duffield et al. (1992), which used risk-based decision analysis to screen a number of ground-water remediation alternatives under consideration for this site, indicated that the most attractive remedial option is ground-water extraction by wells coupled with surface water discharge of treated effluent. The aim of the present study is to demonstrate the iterative use of risk-based decision analysis throughout the design of a particular remedial alternative. In this study, we consider the interaction between two episodes of aquifer testing over a 6-year period and the refinement of a remedial extraction well system design. Using a three-dimensional ground-water flow model, this study employs (1) geostatistics and Monte Carlo techniques to simulate hydraulic conductivity as a stochastic process and (2) Bayesian updating and conditional simulation to investigate multiple phases of aquifer testing. In our evaluation of a remedial alternative, we compute probabilistic costs associated with the failure of an alternative to completely capture a simulated contaminant plume. The results of this study demonstrate the utility of risk-based decision analysis as a tool for improving the design of a remedial alternative through the course of phased data collection at a remedial site

Complete PCB design using OrCAD capture and layout

CERN Document Server

Mitzner, Kraig

2011-01-01

This book provides instruction on how to use the OrCAD design suite to design and manufacture printed circuit boards. The book is written for both students and practicing engineers who need a quick tutorial on how to use the software and who need in-depth knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of the software package. There are two goals the book aims to reach:The primary goal is to show the reader how to design a PCB using OrCAD Capture and OrCAD Layout. Capture is used to build the schematic diagram of the circuit, and Layout is used to design the circuit board so that

A Framework for IT-based Design Tools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hartvig, Susanne C

The thesis presents a new apprach to develop design tools that can be integrated, bypresenting a framework consisting of a set of guidelines for design tools, an integration andcommunication scheme, and a set of design tool schemes.This framework has been based onanalysis of requirements to integ...... to integrated design enviornments, and analysis of engineeringdesign and design problem solving methods. And the developed framework has been testedby applying it to development of prototype design tools for realistic design scenarios.......The thesis presents a new apprach to develop design tools that can be integrated, bypresenting a framework consisting of a set of guidelines for design tools, an integration andcommunication scheme, and a set of design tool schemes.This framework has been based onanalysis of requirements...

LCDD: A complete detector description package

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Graf, Norman, E-mail: Norman.Graf@slac.stanford.edu; McCormick, Jeremy, E-mail: Jeremy.McCormick@slac.stanford.edu

2015-07-21

LCDD has been developed to provide a complete detector description package for physics detector simulations using Geant4. All aspects of the experimental setup, such as the physical geometry, magnetic fields, and sensitive detector readouts, as well as control of the physics simulations, such as physics processes, interaction models and kinematic limits, are defined at runtime. Users are therefore able to concentrate on the design of the detector system without having to master the intricacies of C++ programming or being proficient in setting up their own Geant4 application. We describe both the XML-based file format and the processors which communicate this information to the underlying Geant4 simulation toolkit.

An Abstraction Hierarchy based mobile PC display design in NPP maintenance considering the level of expertise

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yim, Ho Bin; Kim, In; Seong, Poong Hyun

2011-01-01

Research highlights: → Six levels of Abstraction Hierarchy based information for maintenance were proposed. → Errors and workload with AH based information display were reduced for LL subjects. → Design concerns discovered can be applied to practical use of mobile maintenance aids. - Abstract: Recently, the importance of effective maintenance in nuclear power plants (NPPs) has been emphasized and research into effective maintenance by adopting mobile maintenance aids (MMAs) have been attempted. For improved and effective use of an MMA display design method based on the hierarchy is proposed and its design considerations are discussed in this study. Six levels of hierarchy are proposed in this paper to classify the maintenance information. By classifying and organizing maintenance information using the hierarchy, maintenance information can be used effectively by users with either high or low levels of expertise. When information classification has been finished, the information for MMA design is selected and designed. With the considerations of MMA design analysis and guidelines, a hierarchy-based MMA is designed for the maintenance tasks. An experiment is conducted using the hierarchy-based MMA in order to estimate the effectiveness of the proposed method for the maintenance tasks and to identify design considerations to enhance the proposed MMAs. The result indicated that a hierarchy-based manual was more effective than a conventional manual in terms of task completion time and number of errors. The workload for the hierarchy-based manual was estimated less than the conventional manual for subjects with low level of expertise. As the level of expertise increases, subjects tended to follow more abstract information while the number of navigations decreased. It is believed that when mobile devices become pervasive in NPP maintenance fields, the hierarchy model applied MMAs can be used as an effective maintenance supporting tool.

Bodystorming for Movement-Based Interaction Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Márquez Segura

2016-11-01

Full Text Available After a decade of movement-based interaction in human–computer interaction, designing for the moving body still remains a challenge. Research in this field requires methods to help access, articulate, and harness embodied experiences in ways that can inform the design process. To address this challenge, this article appropriates bodystorming, an embodied ideation method for movement-based interaction design. The proposed method allows for early consideration of the physical, collocated, and social aspects of a designed activity as illustrated with two explorative workshops in different application domains: interactive body games and interactive performances. Using a qualitative methods approach, we used video material from the workshops, feedback from participants, and our own experience as participants and facilitators to outline important characteristics of the bodystorming method in the domain of movement-based interaction. The proposed method is compared with previous ones and application implications are discussed.

Design-based research in designing the model for educating simulation facilitators.

Science.gov (United States)

Koivisto, Jaana-Maija; Hannula, Leena; Bøje, Rikke Buus; Prescott, Stephen; Bland, Andrew; Rekola, Leena; Haho, Päivi

2018-03-01

The purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of design-based research, its appropriateness in creating education-based models, and to describe the process of developing such a model. The model was designed as part of the Nurse Educator Simulation based learning project, funded by the EU's Lifelong Learning program (2013-1-DK1-LEO05-07053). The project partners were VIA University College, Denmark, the University of Huddersfield, UK and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Finland. As an outcome of the development process, "the NESTLED model for educating simulation facilitators" (NESTLED model) was generated. This article also illustrates five design principles that could be applied to other pedagogies. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Extremely Efficient Design of Organic Thin Film Solar Cells via Learning-Based Optimization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mine Kaya

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Design of efficient thin film photovoltaic (PV cells require optical power absorption to be computed inside a nano-scale structure of photovoltaics, dielectric and plasmonic materials. Calculating power absorption requires Maxwell’s electromagnetic equations which are solved using numerical methods, such as finite difference time domain (FDTD. The computational cost of thin film PV cell design and optimization is therefore cumbersome, due to successive FDTD simulations. This cost can be reduced using a surrogate-based optimization procedure. In this study, we deploy neural networks (NNs to model optical absorption in organic PV structures. We use the corresponding surrogate-based optimization procedure to maximize light trapping inside thin film organic cells infused with metallic particles. Metallic particles are known to induce plasmonic effects at the metal–semiconductor interface, thus increasing absorption. However, a rigorous design procedure is required to achieve the best performance within known design guidelines. As a result of using NNs to model thin film solar absorption, the required time to complete optimization is decreased by more than five times. The obtained NN model is found to be very reliable. The optimization procedure results in absorption enhancement greater than 200%. Furthermore, we demonstrate that once a reliable surrogate model such as the developed NN is available, it can be used for alternative analyses on the proposed design, such as uncertainty analysis (e.g., fabrication error.

A field-based approach for examining bicycle seat design effects on seat pressure and perceived stability.

Science.gov (United States)

Bressel, Eadric; Bliss, Shantelle; Cronin, John

2009-05-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of various bicycle seat designs on seat pressure and perceived stability in male and female cyclists using a unique field-based methodology. Thirty participants, comprising male and female cyclists, pedaled a bicycle at 118W over a 350m flat course under three different seat conditions: standard seat, a seat with a partial anterior cutout, and a seat with a complete anterior cutout. The pressure between the bicycle seat and perineum of the cyclist was collected with a remote pressure-sensing mat, and perceived stability was assessed using a continuous visual analogue scale. Anterior seat pressure and stability values for the complete cutout seat were significantly lower (p<0.05; 62-101%) than values for the standard and partial cutout designs. These findings were consistent between males and females. Our results would support the contention that the choice of saddle design should not be dictated by interface pressure alone since optimal anterior seat pressure and perceived seat stability appear to be inversely related.

Embracing model-based designs for dose-finding trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Love, Sharon B; Brown, Sarah; Weir, Christopher J; Harbron, Chris; Yap, Christina; Gaschler-Markefski, Birgit; Matcham, James; Caffrey, Louise; McKevitt, Christopher; Clive, Sally; Craddock, Charlie; Spicer, James; Cornelius, Victoria

2017-07-25

Dose-finding trials are essential to drug development as they establish recommended doses for later-phase testing. We aim to motivate wider use of model-based designs for dose finding, such as the continual reassessment method (CRM). We carried out a literature review of dose-finding designs and conducted a survey to identify perceived barriers to their implementation. We describe the benefits of model-based designs (flexibility, superior operating characteristics, extended scope), their current uptake, and existing resources. The most prominent barriers to implementation of a model-based design were lack of suitable training, chief investigators' preference for algorithm-based designs (e.g., 3+3), and limited resources for study design before funding. We use a real-world example to illustrate how these barriers can be overcome. There is overwhelming evidence for the benefits of CRM. Many leading pharmaceutical companies routinely implement model-based designs. Our analysis identified barriers for academic statisticians and clinical academics in mirroring the progress industry has made in trial design. Unified support from funders, regulators, and journal editors could result in more accurate doses for later-phase testing, and increase the efficiency and success of clinical drug development. We give recommendations for increasing the uptake of model-based designs for dose-finding trials in academia.

Design and implementation of distributed spatial computing node based on WPS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Liping; Li, Guoqing; Xie, Jibo

2014-01-01

Currently, the research work of SIG (Spatial Information Grid) technology mostly emphasizes on the spatial data sharing in grid environment, while the importance of spatial computing resources is ignored. In order to implement the sharing and cooperation of spatial computing resources in grid environment, this paper does a systematical research of the key technologies to construct Spatial Computing Node based on the WPS (Web Processing Service) specification by OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium). And a framework of Spatial Computing Node is designed according to the features of spatial computing resources. Finally, a prototype of Spatial Computing Node is implemented and the relevant verification work under the environment is completed

The challenge of integrating evidence-based design.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Caren S

2009-01-01

This paper discusses the integration of evidence-based design (EBD) into the design process as an innovation, illuminates the significance and progress of the diffusion of this innovation, and identifies EBD advocates and the consequences of meeting the EBD challenge. A free tool for engaging in EBD is explored. Healthcare designers are leading the EBD charge, because their clients depend on it. But not all designers engage in EBD, because it may be beyond the resources of a firm or outside its culture. However, as with other meaningful design innovations, designers who do not practice EBD could fall by the wayside. EBD is a product of the diffusion of the innovation of evidence-based medicine. The academy (i.e., the collective of institutions of higher education), design organizations, design communities, and the media all contribute to the diffusion of EBD. However, the quantity, quality, and understandability of evidence continue to challenge its broad adoption. InformeDesign®, a free, Internet-based tool, presents information to designers in a concise, understandable way. Firms must invest in EBD incrementally as a value-added component of design to meet current and future challenges. It is important for designers to realize that engaging in EBD is not a rejection of creativity, but a means by which to elevate their design solutions. ©2009 VENDOME GROUP, LLC

A Synergy-Based Optimally Designed Sensing Glove for Functional Grasp Recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Ciotti, Simone; Battaglia, Edoardo; Carbonaro, Nicola; Bicchi, Antonio; Tognetti, Alessandro; Bianchi, Matteo

2016-06-02

Achieving accurate and reliable kinematic hand pose reconstructions represents a challenging task. The main reason for this is the complexity of hand biomechanics, where several degrees of freedom are distributed along a continuous deformable structure. Wearable sensing can represent a viable solution to tackle this issue, since it enables a more natural kinematic monitoring. However, the intrinsic accuracy (as well as the number of sensing elements) of wearable hand pose reconstruction (HPR) systems can be severely limited by ergonomics and cost considerations. In this paper, we combined the theoretical foundations of the optimal design of HPR devices based on hand synergy information, i.e., the inter-joint covariation patterns, with textile goniometers based on knitted piezoresistive fabrics (KPF) technology, to develop, for the first time, an optimally-designed under-sensed glove for measuring hand kinematics. We used only five sensors optimally placed on the hand and completed hand pose reconstruction (described according to a kinematic model with 19 degrees of freedom) leveraging upon synergistic information. The reconstructions we obtained from five different subjects were used to implement an unsupervised method for the recognition of eight functional grasps, showing a high degree of accuracy and robustness.

A Synergy-Based Optimally Designed Sensing Glove for Functional Grasp Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simone Ciotti

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Achieving accurate and reliable kinematic hand pose reconstructions represents a challenging task. The main reason for this is the complexity of hand biomechanics, where several degrees of freedom are distributed along a continuous deformable structure. Wearable sensing can represent a viable solution to tackle this issue, since it enables a more natural kinematic monitoring. However, the intrinsic accuracy (as well as the number of sensing elements of wearable hand pose reconstruction (HPR systems can be severely limited by ergonomics and cost considerations. In this paper, we combined the theoretical foundations of the optimal design of HPR devices based on hand synergy information, i.e., the inter-joint covariation patterns, with textile goniometers based on knitted piezoresistive fabrics (KPF technology, to develop, for the first time, an optimally-designed under-sensed glove for measuring hand kinematics. We used only five sensors optimally placed on the hand and completed hand pose reconstruction (described according to a kinematic model with 19 degrees of freedom leveraging upon synergistic information. The reconstructions we obtained from five different subjects were used to implement an unsupervised method for the recognition of eight functional grasps, showing a high degree of accuracy and robustness.

Application of a complete factorial design for the production of zeaxanthin by Flavobacterium sp.

Science.gov (United States)

Masetto, A; Flores-Cotera, L B; Díaz, C; Langley, E; Sanchez, S

2001-01-01

Utilizing a four-liter fermentor and applying a complete factorial design 2(3), the combined effects of agitation speed, aeration rate, and corn steep liquor concentration on zeaxanthin production by Flavobacterium sp. were studied. Maximum growth and production of total carotenoids and zeaxanthin were obtained at 600 rpm, 2 vvm and 4.6% corn steep liquor. Under these conditions, zeaxanthin represented 86% of the total carotenoids produced. Lower values of the variables studied resulted in lower growth, volumetric production of zeaxanthin and total carotenoids, and favored the formation of other carotenoids such as beta-carotene and canthaxanthin. The positive effects on growth and total carotenoids and zeaxanthin formation were in a large extent due to the interaction of agitation/corn steep liquor. However, aeration also had a positive effect on growth.

Practical Example of Introductory Engineering Education Based on the Design Process and Teaching Methodology Using a Gyro Bicycle

Science.gov (United States)

Higa, Yoshikazu; Shimojima, Ken

2018-01-01

This report describes a workshop on the Dynamics of Machinery based on the fabrication of a gyro- bicycle in a summer school program for junior high school students. The workshop was conducted by engineering students who had completed "Creative Research", an engineering design course at the National Institute of Technology, Okinawa…

Capturing the design bases on Palo Verde

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rogers, A.C.; Prawlocki, F.C.

1989-01-01

Over the past several years, the nuclear power industry has been directing considerable attention to plant configuration control. Utilities have been put in difficult situations due to changes made in plants without full original design basis knowledge. Once a plant is constructed, there is often insufficient information from the reactor designer or the architect/engineer to properly support operations, especially changes to the plant. In many cases utilities do not know the design bases for their units. As a result of these concerns, many utilities have been searching for ways to define the appropriate design bases for their plant. This paper discusses steps taken by Palo Verde to produce a design bases document and how it is being used to support the operation of the three nuclear units

Design and qualification of HPD based designs for safety systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharma, Mukesh Kr.; Chavan, Madhavi A.; Sawhney, Pratibha A.; Mohanty, Ashutos; John, Ajith K.; Ganesh, G.

2014-01-01

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLD) are increasingly being used in C and I system of NPPs. The function of such an integrated circuit is not defined by the supplier of the physical component or micro-electronic technology but by the C and I designer. The hardware subsystems implemented in these devices typically use Hardware Description Language (HDL) like VHDL or Verilog to describe the functionality at the design entry level. These circuits are commonly known as 'HDL-Programmed Devices', (HPD). RCnD has developed a set of hardware boards to be used in next generation C and I systems. The boards have been designed based on present day technology and components. The intelligence of these boards has been implemented in HPDs (FPGA/CPLD) using VHDL. Since these boards are used in the safety and safety related systems, they have undergone a rigorous V and V process and qualification tests. This paper discusses the design attributes and qualification of these HPD based designs for nuclear class safety systems. (author)

Mixture design procedure for flexible base.

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-01

This document provides information on mixture design requirements for a flexible base course. Sections : design requirements, job mix formula, contractor's responsibility, and engineer's responsibility. Tables : material requirements; requirements fo...

ITER Conceptual design: Interim report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1990-01-01

This interim report describes the results of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Conceptual Design Activities after the first year of design following the selection of the ITER concept in the autumn of 1988. Using the concept definition as the basis for conceptual design, the Design Phase has been underway since October 1988, and will be completed at the end of 1990, at which time a final report will be issued. This interim report includes an executive summary of ITER activities, a description of the ITER device and facility, an operation and research program summary, and a description of the physics and engineering design bases. Included are preliminary cost estimates and schedule for completion of the project

Design of a MEMS-Based Oscillator Using 180nm CMOS Technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Roy, Sukanta; Ramiah, Harikrishnan; Reza, Ahmed Wasif; Lim, Chee Cheow; Ferrer, Eloi Marigo

2016-01-01

Micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) based oscillators are revolutionizing the timing industry as a cost effective solution, enhanced with more features, superior performance and better reliability. The design of a sustaining amplifier was triggered primarily to replenish MEMS resonator's high motion losses due to the possibility of their 'system-on-chip' integrated circuit solution. The design of a sustaining amplifier observing high gain and adequate phase shift for an electrostatic clamp-clamp (C-C) beam MEMS resonator, involves the use of an 180nm CMOS process with an unloaded Q of 1000 in realizing a fixed frequency oscillator. A net 122dBΩ transimpedance gain with adequate phase shift has ensured 17.22MHz resonant frequency oscillation with a layout area consumption of 0.121 mm2 in the integrated chip solution, the sustaining amplifier draws 6.3mW with a respective phase noise of -84dBc/Hz at 1kHz offset is achieved within a noise floor of -103dBC/Hz. In this work, a comparison is drawn among similar design studies on the basis of a defined figure of merit (FOM). A low phase noise of 1kHz, high figure of merit and the smaller size of the chip has accredited to the design's applicability towards in the implementation of a clock generative integrated circuit. In addition to that, this complete silicon based MEMS oscillator in a monolithic solution has offered a cost effective solution for industrial or biomedical electronic applications.

Design of a MEMS-Based Oscillator Using 180nm CMOS Technology.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sukanta Roy

Full Text Available Micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS based oscillators are revolutionizing the timing industry as a cost effective solution, enhanced with more features, superior performance and better reliability. The design of a sustaining amplifier was triggered primarily to replenish MEMS resonator's high motion losses due to the possibility of their 'system-on-chip' integrated circuit solution. The design of a sustaining amplifier observing high gain and adequate phase shift for an electrostatic clamp-clamp (C-C beam MEMS resonator, involves the use of an 180nm CMOS process with an unloaded Q of 1000 in realizing a fixed frequency oscillator. A net 122dBΩ transimpedance gain with adequate phase shift has ensured 17.22MHz resonant frequency oscillation with a layout area consumption of 0.121 mm2 in the integrated chip solution, the sustaining amplifier draws 6.3mW with a respective phase noise of -84dBc/Hz at 1kHz offset is achieved within a noise floor of -103dBC/Hz. In this work, a comparison is drawn among similar design studies on the basis of a defined figure of merit (FOM. A low phase noise of 1kHz, high figure of merit and the smaller size of the chip has accredited to the design's applicability towards in the implementation of a clock generative integrated circuit. In addition to that, this complete silicon based MEMS oscillator in a monolithic solution has offered a cost effective solution for industrial or biomedical electronic applications.

Analysis of a mammography teaching program based on an affordance design model.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Ping; Eikman, Edward A; Kealy, William; Qian, Wei

2006-12-01

The wide use of computer technology in education, particularly in mammogram reading, asks for e-learning evaluation. The existing media comparative studies, learner attitude evaluations, and performance tests are problematic. Based on an affordance design model, this study examined an existing e-learning program on mammogram reading. The selection criteria include content relatedness, representativeness, e-learning orientation, image quality, program completeness, and accessibility. A case study was conducted to examine the affordance features, functions, and presentations of the selected software. Data collection and analysis methods include interviews, protocol-based document analysis, and usability tests and inspection. Also some statistics were calculated. The examination of PBE identified that this educational software designed and programmed some tools. The learner can use these tools in the process of optimizing displays, scanning images, comparing different projections, marking the region of interests, constructing a descriptive report, assessing one's learning outcomes, and comparing one's decisions with the experts' decisions. Further, PBE provides some resources for the learner to construct one's knowledge and skills, including a categorized image library, a term-searching function, and some teaching links. Besides, users found it easy to navigate and carry out tasks. The users also reacted positively toward PBE's navigation system, instructional aids, layout, pace and flow of information, graphics, and other presentation design. The software provides learners with some cognitive tools, supporting their perceptual problem-solving processes and extending their capabilities. Learners can internalize the mental models in mammogram reading through multiple perceptual triangulations, sensitization of related features, semantic description of mammogram findings, and expert-guided semantic report construction. The design of these cognitive tools and the

Problem based Learning versus Design Thinking in Team based Project work

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Denise J. Stokholm, Marianne

2014-01-01

project based learning issues, which has caused a need to describe and compare the two models; in specific the understandings, approaches and organization of learning in project work. The PBL model viewing the process as 3 separate project stages including; problem analysis, problem solving and project......All educations at Aalborg University has since 1974 been rooted in Problem Based Learning (PBL). In 1999 a new education in Industrial design was set up, introducing Design Based Learning (DBL). Even though the two approaches have a lot in common they also hold different understandings of core...... report, with focus on problem solving through analysis. Design Based Learning viewing the process as series of integrated design spaces including; alignment, research, mission, vision, concept, product and process report, with focus on innovative ideation though integration. There is a need of renewing...

A framework for AI-based nuclear design support system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Furuta, Kazuo; Kondo, Shunsuke

1991-01-01

Nowadays many computer programs are being developed and used for the analytic tasks in nuclear reactor design, but experienced designers are still responsible for most of the synthetic tasks which are not amenable to algorithmic computer processes. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a promising technology to deal with these intractable tasks in design. In development of AI-based design support systems, it is desirable to choose a comprehensive framework based on the scientific theory of design. In this work a framework for AI-based design support systems for nuclear reactor design will be proposed based on an exploration model of design. The fundamental architectures of this framework will be described especially on knowledge representation, context management and design planning. (author)

Design and Implementation of Electric Steering Gear Inspection System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Based on Virtual Instruments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zheng Xing

2016-01-01

Full Text Available A kind of UAV electric servo detection system based on Virtual Instrument is designed in this paper, including the hardware platform based on PC-DAQ virtual instrument architecture and the software platform based on LabVIEW function, structure and system implementation methods. The function, structure and system implementation method of software platform is also described. The gear limits checking, zero testing, time domain characteristics test results showed that the system achieves testing requirements well, and can complete detection of electric steering gear automatically, fast, easy and accurate.

Challenges to Designing Game-Based Business

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henriksen, Thomas Duus

2014-01-01

The four categories labelled game-design, didactic design, organisational design and business design each constitute a set of challenges, each requiring a particular set of competencies. The key conclusion of the paper is that even though the learning game design constitutes the core of establish......The four categories labelled game-design, didactic design, organisational design and business design each constitute a set of challenges, each requiring a particular set of competencies. The key conclusion of the paper is that even though the learning game design constitutes the core...... of establishing game based business (GBB), the subsequent stages of development call for other kinds of competencies in order to become a viable GBB....

Value-based management of design reuse

Science.gov (United States)

Carballo, Juan Antonio; Cohn, David L.; Belluomini, Wendy; Montoye, Robert K.

2003-06-01

Effective design reuse in electronic products has the potential to provide very large cost savings, substantial time-to-market reduction, and extra sources of revenue. Unfortunately, critical reuse opportunities are often missed because, although they provide clear value to the corporation, they may not benefit the business performance of an internal organization. It is therefore crucial to provide tools to help reuse partners participate in a reuse transaction when the transaction provides value to the corporation as a whole. Value-based Reuse Management (VRM) addresses this challenge by (a) ensuring that all parties can quickly assess the business performance impact of a reuse opportunity, and (b) encouraging high-value reuse opportunities by supplying value-based rewards to potential parties. In this paper we introduce the Value-Based Reuse Management approach and we describe key results on electronic designs that demonstrate its advantages. Our results indicate that Value-Based Reuse Management has the potential to significantly increase the success probability of high-value electronic design reuse.

A Web-Based Graphical Food Frequency Assessment System: Design, Development and Usability Metrics.

Science.gov (United States)

Franco, Rodrigo Zenun; Alawadhi, Balqees; Fallaize, Rosalind; Lovegrove, Julie A; Hwang, Faustina

2017-05-08

Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) are well established in the nutrition field, but there remain important questions around how to develop online tools in a way that can facilitate wider uptake. Also, FFQ user acceptance and evaluation have not been investigated extensively. This paper presents a Web-based graphical food frequency assessment system that addresses challenges of reproducibility, scalability, mobile friendliness, security, and usability and also presents the utilization metrics and user feedback from a deployment study. The application design employs a single-page application Web architecture with back-end services (database, authentication, and authorization) provided by Google Firebase's free plan. Its design and responsiveness take advantage of the Bootstrap framework. The FFQ was deployed in Kuwait as part of the EatWellQ8 study during 2016. The EatWellQ8 FFQ contains 146 food items (including drinks). Participants were recruited in Kuwait without financial incentive. Completion time was based on browser timestamps and usability was measured using the System Usability Scale (SUS), scoring between 0 and 100. Products with a SUS higher than 70 are considered to be good. A total of 235 participants created accounts in the system, and 163 completed the FFQ. Of those 163 participants, 142 reported their gender (93 female, 49 male) and 144 reported their date of birth (mean age of 35 years, range from 18-65 years). The mean completion time for all FFQs (n=163), excluding periods of interruption, was 14.2 minutes (95% CI 13.3-15.1 minutes). Female participants (n=93) completed in 14.1 minutes (95% CI 12.9-15.3 minutes) and male participants (n=49) completed in 14.3 minutes (95% CI 12.6-15.9 minutes). Participants using laptops or desktops (n=69) completed the FFQ in an average of 13.9 minutes (95% CI 12.6-15.1 minutes) and participants using smartphones or tablets (n=91) completed in an average of 14.5 minutes (95% CI 13.2-15.8 minutes). The median SUS

Framework for AI-based nuclear reactor design support system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Furuta, Kazuo; Kondo, Shunsuke

1992-01-01

Nowadays many computer programs are being developed and used for the analytic tasks in nuclear reactor design, but experienced designers are still responsible for most of the synthetic tasks which are not amenable to algorithmic computer processes. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a promising technology to deal with these intractable tasks in design. In development of AI-based design support systems, it is desirable to choose a comprehensive framework based on the scientific theory of design. In this work a framework for AI-based design support systems for nuclear reactor design will be proposed based on an explorative abduction model of design. The fundamental architectures of this framework will be described especially on knowledge representation, context management and design planning. (author)

Using a Design Science Perspective to Understand a Complex Design-Based Research Process

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bækgaard, Lars

2012-01-01

The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate how a design science perspective can be used to describe and understand a set of related design-based research processes. We describe and analyze a case study in a manner that is inspired by design science. The case study involves the design of modeling......-based research processes. And we argue that a design science perspective may be useful for both researchers and practitioners....... tools and the redesign of an information service in a library. We use a set of guidelines from a design science perspective to organize the description and analysis of the case study. By doing this we demonstrate the usefulness of design science as an analytical tool for understanding related design...

Design Concepts for Muon-Based Accelerators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ryne, R. D. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Berg, J. S. [Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Kirk, H. G. [Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Palmer, R. B. [Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Stratkis, D. [Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Alexahin, Y. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Bross, A. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Gollwitzer, K. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Mokhov, N. V. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Neuffer, D. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Palmer, M. A. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Yonehara, K. [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Snopok, P. [IIT, Chicago, IL (United States); Bogacz, A. [Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), Newport News, VA (United States); Roberts, T. J. [Muons Inc., Batavia, IL (United States); Delahaye, J. -P. [SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)

2015-05-01

Muon-based accelerators have the potential to enable facilities at both the Intensity and the Energy Frontiers. Muon storage rings can serve as high precision neutrino sources, and a muon collider is an ideal technology for a TeV or multi-TeV collider. Progress in muon accelerator designs has advanced steadily in recent years. In regard to 6D muon cooling, detailed and realistic designs now exist that provide more than 5 order-of-magnitude emittance reduction. Furthermore, detector performance studies indicate that with suitable pixelation and timing resolution, backgrounds in the collider detectors can be significantly reduced, thus enabling high-quality physics results. Thanks to these and other advances in design & simulation of muon systems, technology development, and systems demonstrations, muon storage-ring-based neutrino sources and a muon collider appear more feasible than ever before. A muon collider is now arguably among the most compelling approaches to a multi-TeV lepton collider. This paper summarizes the current status of design concepts for muon-based accelerators for neutrino factories and a muon collider.

The Nutrient Digestibility of Locally Sheep Fed with Amofer Palm Oil Byproduct-Based Complete Feed

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamdi Mayulu

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Normal 0 false false false IN X-NONE X-NONE Utilization of palm oil by-product such as palm fronds, leaves, empty fruit bunches (EFB, fiber fruit juice (FFJ, palm kernel cake (PKC, and palm oil sludge (POS as the source of energy and protein for ruminants, especially sheep is an efficient effort to make a new opportunities in term of economical and beneficial product that will reduce environmental pollution. The objectives of this research were to analyze the effect of palm oil’s byproduct-based complete feed on sheep’s nutrient digestibility. Sixteen male sheeps of nine month old with average body weight 14.69+0.82 kg were used. The complete feed was formulated by ammoniated-fermented technology from palm fronds and leaves, EFB and FFJ, also Centrosema sp., PKC, POS, ground corn, rice bran, cassava, molasses, urea, mineral mix and salt. The complete feed with different levels of crude protein (CP and TDN were used in this research which consisted of T1=10,63% CP; 63.46% TDN; T2=12.27% CP; 62.38% TDN; T3=13.70% CP; 64.11% TDN; and T4=15.90% CP; 61.28% TDN. The study used a completely randomized design (CRD which consisted of four treatments and four replications. Data was analyzed using ANOVA with significance level at 95% and followed by Duncan Multiple Range Test. The experimental results showed that the protein level affected the feed digestibility. The highest digestibility of dry matter, organic matter and crude protein were 65.79%, 70.30%, and 84.34% respectively, resulting in 14% protein level (T3 were significantly different with treatment at protein level 10% (T1, 12% (T2 and 16% (T4 at p <0.05. It can be concluded that by-product of palm oil plantation and mill had good nutritional value. Therefore, this feedstuff can be used to formulate complete feed for sheep and it successfully increased the nutrient digestibility /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso

Reliability-based design of wind turbine blades

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toft, Henrik Stensgaard; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

2011-01-01

Reliability-based design of wind turbine blades requires identification of the important failure modes/limit states along with stochastic models for the uncertainties and methods for estimating the reliability. In the present paper it is described how reliability-based design can be applied to wi...

Knowledge Representation and Inference for Analysis and Design of Database and Tabular Rule-Based Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antoni Ligeza

2001-01-01

Full Text Available Rulebased systems constitute a powerful tool for specification of knowledge in design and implementation of knowledge based systems. They provide also a universal programming paradigm for domains such as intelligent control, decision support, situation classification and operational knowledge encoding. In order to assure safe and reliable performance, such system should satisfy certain formal requirements, including completeness and consistency. This paper addresses the issue of analysis and verification of selected properties of a class of such system in a systematic way. A uniform, tabular scheme of single-level rule-based systems is considered. Such systems can be applied as a generalized form of databases for specification of data pattern (unconditional knowledge, or can be used for defining attributive decision tables (conditional knowledge in form of rules. They can also serve as lower-level components of a hierarchical multi-level control and decision support knowledge-based systems. An algebraic knowledge representation paradigm using extended tabular representation, similar to relational database tables is presented and algebraic bases for system analysis, verification and design support are outlined.

Complete PCB design using OrCAD capture and PCB editor

CERN Document Server

Mitzner, Kraig

2009-01-01

This book provides instruction on how to use the OrCAD design suite to design and manufacture printed circuit boards. The primary goal is to show the reader how to design a PCB using OrCAD Capture and OrCAD Editor. Capture is used to build the schematic diagram of the circuit, and Editor is used to design the circuit board so that it can be manufactured. The book is written for both students and practicing engineers who need in-depth instruction on how to use the software, and who need background knowledge of the PCB design process. KEY FEATURES:* Beginning to end cove

Multi performance option in direct displacement based design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muljati Ima

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Compare to traditional method, direct displacement based design (DDBD offers the more rational design choice due to its compatibility with performance based design which is controlled by the targeted displacement in design. The objectives of this study are: 1 to explore the performance of DDBD for design Level-1, -2 and -3; 2 to determine the most appropriate design level based on material efficiency and damage risk; and 3 to verify the chosen design in order to check its performance under small-, moderate- and severe earthquake. As case study, it uses regular concrete frame structures consists of fourand eight-story with typical plan, located in low- and high-risk seismicity area. The study shows that design Level-2 (repairable damage is the most appropriate choice. Nonlinear time history analysis is run for each case study in order to verify their performance based on parameter: story drift, damage indices, and plastic mechanism. It can be concluded that DDBD performed very well in predicting seismic demand of the observed structures. Design Level-2 can be chosen as the most appropriate design level. Structures are in safe plastic mechanism under all level of seismicity although some plastic hinges formed at some unexpected locations.

Guiding Device for Precision Grafting of Peripheral Nerves in Complete Thoracic Spinal Cord Injury: Design and Sizing for Clinical Trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arvid Frostell

2018-05-01

Full Text Available BackgroundIn an effort to translate preclinical success in achieving spinal cord regeneration through peripheral nerve grafts, this study details the design and sizing of a guiding device for precision grafting of peripheral nerves for use in a clinical trial in complete (AIS-A thoracic spinal cord injury (SCI. The device’s design and sizing are compared to a simulation of human spinal cord sizes based on the best available data.MethodsSpinal cord segmental sizes were generated by computer simulation based on data from a meta-analysis recently published by our group. Thoracic segments T2–T12 were plotted, and seven elliptical shapes were positioned across the center of the distribution of sizes. Geometrical measures of error-of-fit were calculated. CAD modeling was used to create cranial and caudal interfaces for the human spinal cord, aiming to guide descending white matter tracts to gray matter at the caudal end of the device and ascending white matter tracts to gray matter at the cranial end of the device. The interfaces were compared qualitatively to the simulated spinal cord sizes and gray-to-white matter delineations.ResultsThe mean error-of-fit comparing simulated spinal cord segments T2–T12 to the best elliptical shape was 0.41 and 0.36 mm, and the 95th percentile was found at 1.3 and 0.98 mm for transverse and anteroposterior diameter, respectively. A guiding device design was reached for capturing the majority of corticospinal axons at the cranial end of the device and guiding them obliquely to gray matter at the caudal end of the device. Based on qualitative comparison, the vast majority of spinal cord sizes generated indicate an excellent fit to the device’s interfaces.ConclusionA set of SCI guiding devices of seven sizes can cover the variability of human thoracic spinal cord segments T2–T12 with an acceptable error-of-fit for the elliptical shape as well as guiding channels. The computational framework developed can

Ideal Point Design and Operation of CO2-Based Transcritical Rankine Cycle (CTRC System Based on High Utilization of Engine’s Waste Heats

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lingfeng Shi

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This research conducted a study specially to systematically analyze combined recovery of exhaust gas and engine coolant and related influence mechanism, including a detailed theoretical study and an assistant experimental study. In this research, CO2-based transcritical Rankine cycle (CTRC was used for fully combining the wastes heats. The main objective of theoretical research was to search an ‘ideal point’ of the recovery system and related influence mechanism, which was defined as operating condition of complete recovery of two waste heats. The theoretical methodology of this study could also provide a design reference for effective combined recovery of two or multiple waste heats in other fields. Based on a kW-class preheated CTRC prototype that was designed by the ‘ideal point’ method, an experimental study was conducted to verify combined utilization degree of two engine waste heats by the CTRC system. The operating results showed that the prototype can gain 44.4–49.8 kW and 22.7–26.7 kW heat absorption from exhaust gas and engine coolant, respectively. To direct practical operation, an experimental optimization work on the operating process was conducted for complete recovery of engine coolant exactly, which avoided deficient or excessive recovery.

Overview of Performance Based Practical Design

Science.gov (United States)

2018-03-01

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13023/KTC.RR.2018.03 State transportation agencies (STAs) have increasingly turned to practical design and performance based practical design(PBPD) to inform project development and implementation and to reduce project cos...

Allergy is associated with suicide completion with a possible mediating role of mood disorder - a population-based study.

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, P; Mortensen, P B; Waltoft, B L; Postolache, T T

2011-05-01

With increasing research suggesting a role of allergy on suicidality, this study, on a population level, delved into how allergy affects risk for suicide completion in the context of mood disorder and other factors. Based on the entire population of Denmark, we included 27,096 completed suicides and 467,571 live controls matched on sex and age with a nested case-control design. We retrieved personal information on hospital contacts for allergy and other variables from various Danish longitudinal registries and analyzed the data with conditional logistic regression. We noted that 1.17% suicide victims, compared with 0.79% matched controls, had a history of hospital contact for allergy and that a history of allergy predicted an increased risk for suicide completion; however, the effect was confined to allergy that led to inpatient treatment (IRR: 1.59, 95% CI: 1.41-1.80). The increased risk was attenuated somewhat but remained significant when adjusted for personal psychiatric history and socioeconomic status. Meanwhile, we observed a nonsignificantly stronger effect in women than in men, and a significant age difference with a stronger effect for individuals at high ages. Moreover, we detected a significant interaction between allergy and mood disorder - even an antagonism effect of the two exposures. Allergy increased suicide risk only in persons with no history of mood disorder, whereas it eliminated suicide risk in those with a history of mood disorder. The findings support a link between allergy and suicidality, with a possible mediating role of mood disorder. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

An Approach to Assist Designers With Their Queries and Designs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ahmed, Saeema

2006-01-01

Recent research investigating how engineers search for information has concluded that engineering designers acquire assistance when formulating queries. An approach to assist designers with their queries is presented. This approach forms part of a knowledge management system, where indexed...... documents are entered into the system (or are automatically indexed by tools within a system). The method builds up a network based upon indices assigned to documents. The network (or chunk) is presented back to the user once a search for knowledge has been completed. The network is build up as indexed...... documents are entered in to a knowledge-based system and is generated dynamically. The network can be used to assist a designer in searching for information; reformulating a query and; to prompt design tasks. This paper presents an approach to prompt designers with their design queries, along with some...

Design configuration for Cernavoda - 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lindsay, R.I.; Keil, H.; Hapwood, J.M.; Hum, J.

1998-01-01

The Cernavoda - 2 NPP project is based on a repeat of the recently completed plant, Cernavoda - 1 NPP which has been operating well, and the other CANDU 6 units in Canada, Argentina and Korea, which have had an excellent operating record. The reference plant design for Cernavoda - 2 is Cernavoda - 1 with appropriate design enhancements incorporating lessons learned from CANDU 6 and other nuclear operations, and including appropriate design enhancements from the most recent CANDU 6 projects at Wolsung in Korea, and Qinshan in China, while recognizing the significant degree of project completion. The results of this combination of proven design with systematic design feedback, will be a unit which combines reliability supported by the many years of successful operation of CANDU 6 units, together with a significant number of design enhancements. (authors)

Displacement Based Seismic Design Criteria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Costello, J.F.; Hofmayer, C.; Park, Y.J.

1999-01-01

The USNRC has initiated a project to determine if any of the likely revisions to traditional earthquake engineering practice are relevant to seismic design of the specialized structures, systems and components of nuclear power plants and of such significance to suggest that a change in design practice might be warranted. As part of the initial phase of this study, a literature survey was conducted on the recent changes in seismic design codes/standards, on-going activities of code-writing organizations/communities, and published documents on displacement-based design methods. This paper provides a summary of recent changes in building codes and on-going activities for future codes. It also discusses some technical issues for further consideration

Modelling and design of complete photonic band gaps in two ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Photonic crystal; complete photonic band gap; plane-wave expansion method. ... lies in the possibility of the substantial control of the radiation field by means of ... research. To prevent the propagation of the waves, whatever its direction is, the.

Materials data base and design equations for the UCLA solid breeder blanket

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharafat, S.; Amodeo, R.; Ghoniem, N.M.

1986-01-01

The need for a complete and coherent material data base for fusion reactor systems has been an important issue for some time now. Since the choices for materials used in fusion reactors are becoming more apparent, it is important to be able to quickly access this data to facilitate reactor design. The philosophy of a data base is one of expansion and modification. This will lead to a constantly growing collection of most recently acquired information. Based on this philosophy special care has been given to the structure, the accessibility and ease of modification. The data base is developed primarily for use on Personal Computers (PC's). In Section 10.2. materials and properties investigated for this blanket study are listed. Section 10.3. is a list of phenomenological equations and mathematical fits for all materials and properties considered. Section 10.4. describes the authors efforts to develop a swelling equations based on the few experimental data points available for breeder materials. In Section 10.5. the sintering phenomena for ceramics is investigated

Waste analysis plan for confirmation or completion of Tank Farms backlog waste designation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-10-01

On January 23, 1992, waste management problems in the Tank Farms were acknowledged through an Unusual Occurrence (UO) Report No. RL-WHC-TANKFARM-19920007 (DOE-RL 1992). On March 10, 1993, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) issued Order 93NM-201 (Order) to the US Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office (DOE-RL) and the Westinghouse Hanford Company (Westinghouse Hanford) asserting that ''DOE-RL and Westinghouse Hanford have failed to designate approximately 2,000 containers of solid waste in violation of WAC 173-303170(l)(a) and the procedures of WAC 173-303-070'' (Ecology 1993). On June 30, 1993, a Settlement Agreement and Order Thereon (Settlement Agreement) among Ecology, DOE-RL, and Westinghouse Hanford was approved by the Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB). Item 3 of the Settlement Agreement requires that DOE-RL and Westinghouse Hanford submit a waste analysis plan (WAP) for the waste subject to the Order by September 1, 1993 (PCHB 1993). This WAP satisfies the requirements of Item 3 of the Order as amended per the Settlement Agreement. Item 3 states: ''Within forty (40) calendar days of receipt of this Order, DOE-RL and WHC provide Ecology with a waste analysis plan for review and approval detailing the established criteria and procedures for waste inspection, segregation, sampling, designation, and repackaging of all containers reported in item No. 1. The report shall include sampling plan criteria for different contaminated media, i.e., soils, compactable waste, high-efficiency particular air (HEPA) filters, etc., and a schedule for completing the work within the time allowed under this Order.''

Impact of a computerized system for evidence-based diabetes care on completeness of records: a before–after study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roshanov Pavel S

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Physicians practicing in ambulatory care are adopting electronic health record (EHR systems. Governments promote this adoption with financial incentives, some hinged on improvements in care. These systems can improve care but most demonstrations of successful systems come from a few highly computerized academic environments. Those findings may not be generalizable to typical ambulatory settings, where evidence of success is largely anecdotal, with little or no use of rigorous methods. The purpose of our pilot study was to evaluate the impact of a diabetes specific chronic disease management system (CDMS on recording of information pertinent to guideline-concordant diabetes care and to plan for larger, more conclusive studies. Methods Using a before–after study design we analyzed the medical record of approximately 10 patients from each of 3 diabetes specialists (total = 31 who were seen both before and after the implementation of a CDMS. We used a checklist of key clinical data to compare the completeness of information recorded in the CDMS record to both the clinical note sent to the primary care physician based on that same encounter and the clinical note sent to the primary care physician based on the visit that occurred prior to the implementation of the CDMS, accounting for provider effects with Generalized Estimating Equations. Results The CDMS record outperformed by a substantial margin dictated notes created for the same encounter. Only 10.1% (95% CI, 7.7% to 12.3% of the clinically important data were missing from the CDMS chart compared to 25.8% (95% CI, 20.5% to 31.1% from the clinical note prepared at the time (p p  Conclusions The CDMS chart captured information important for the management of diabetes more often than dictated notes created with or without its use but we were unable to detect a difference in completeness between notes dictated in CDMS-associated and usual-care encounters. Our sample of

Design and validation of a standards-based science teacher efficacy instrument

Science.gov (United States)

Kerr, Patricia Reda

National standards for K--12 science education address all aspects of science education, with their main emphasis on curriculum---both science subject matter and the process involved in doing science. Standards for science teacher education programs have been developing along a parallel plane, as is self-efficacy research involving classroom teachers. Generally, studies about efficacy have been dichotomous---basing the theoretical underpinnings on the work of either Rotter's Locus of Control theory or on Bandura's explanations of efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancy. This study brings all three threads together---K--12 science standards, teacher education standards, and efficacy beliefs---in an instrument designed to measure science teacher efficacy with items based on identified critical attributes of standards-based science teaching and learning. Based on Bandura's explanation of efficacy being task-specific and having outcome expectancy, a developmental, systematic progression from standards-based strategies and activities to tasks to critical attributes was used to craft items for a standards-based science teacher efficacy instrument. Demographic questions related to school characteristics, teacher characteristics, preservice background, science teaching experience, and post-certification professional development were included in the instrument. The instrument was completed by 102 middle level science teachers, with complete data for 87 teachers. A principal components analysis of the science teachers' responses to the instrument resulted in two components: Standards-Based Science Teacher Efficacy: Beliefs About Teaching (BAT, reliability = .92) and Standards-Based Science Teacher Efficacy: Beliefs About Student Achievement (BASA, reliability = .82). Variables that were characteristic of professional development activities, science content preparation, and school environment were identified as members of the sets of variables predicting the BAT and BASA

Development of an ICT in IBSE course for science teachers: A design-based research

Science.gov (United States)

Tran, Trinh-Ba

2018-01-01

Integration of ICT tools for measuring with sensors, analyzing video, and modelling into Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) is a need globally recognized. The challenge to teachers is how to turn manipulation of equipment and software into manipulation of ideas. We have developed a short ICT in IBSE course to prepare and support science teachers to teach inquiry-based activities with ICT tools. Within the framework of design-based research, we first defined the pedagogical principles from the literature, developed core materials for teacher learning, explored boundary conditions of the training in different countries, and elaborated set-ups of the course for the Dutch, Slovak, and Vietnamese contexts. Next, we taught and evaluated three iterative cycles of the Dutch course set-ups for pre-service science teachers from four teacher-education institutes nationwide. In each cycle, data on the teacher learning was collected via observations, questionnaires, interviews, and documents. These data were then analyzed for the questions about faithful implementation and effectiveness of the course. Following the same approach, we taught and evaluated two cycles of the Slovak course set-ups for in-service science teachers in the context of the national accreditation programme for teacher professional development. In addition, we investigated applicability of the final Dutch course set-up in the context of the physics-education master program in Vietnam with adaptations geared to educational and cultural difference. Through the iterations of implementation, evaluation, and revision, eventually the course objectives were achieved to certain extent; the pedagogical principles and core materials proved to be effective and applicable in different contexts. We started this research and design project with the pedagogical principles and concluded it with these principles (i.e. complete theory-practice cycle, depth first, distributed learning, and ownership of learning) as the

Web-based Core Design System Development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moon, So Young; Kim, Hyung Jin; Yang, Sung Tae; Hong, Sun Kwan

2011-01-01

The selection of a loading pattern is one of core design processes in the operation of a nuclear power plant. A potential new loading pattern is identified by selecting fuels that to not exceed the major limiting factors of the design and that satisfy the core design conditions for employing fuel data from the existing loading pattern of the current operating cycle. The selection of a loading pattern is also related to the cycle plan of an operating nuclear power plant and must meet safety and economic requirements. In selecting an appropriate loading pattern, all aspects, such as input creation, code runs and result processes are processed as text forms manually by a designer, all of which may be subject to human error, such as syntax or running errors. Time-consuming results analysis and decision-making processes are the most significant inefficiencies to avoid. A web-based nuclear plant core design system was developed here to remedy the shortcomings of an existing core design system. The proposed system adopts the general methodology of OPR1000 (Korea Standard Nuclear Power Plants) and Westinghouse-type plants. Additionally, it offers a GUI (Graphic User Interface)-based core design environment with a user-friendly interface for operators. It reduces human errors related to design model creation, computation, final reload core model selection, final output confirmation, and result data validation and verification. Most significantly, it reduces the core design time by more than 75% compared to its predecessor

A SAS-based solution to evaluate study design efficiency of phase I pediatric oncology trials via discrete event simulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Barrett, Jeffrey S; Jayaraman, Bhuvana; Patel, Dimple; Skolnik, Jeffrey M

2008-06-01

Previous exploration of oncology study design efficiency has focused on Markov processes alone (probability-based events) without consideration for time dependencies. Barriers to study completion include time delays associated with patient accrual, inevaluability (IE), time to dose limiting toxicities (DLT) and administrative and review time. Discrete event simulation (DES) can incorporate probability-based assignment of DLT and IE frequency, correlated with cohort in the case of DLT, with time-based events defined by stochastic relationships. A SAS-based solution to examine study efficiency metrics and evaluate design modifications that would improve study efficiency is presented. Virtual patients are simulated with attributes defined from prior distributions of relevant patient characteristics. Study population datasets are read into SAS macros which select patients and enroll them into a study based on the specific design criteria if the study is open to enrollment. Waiting times, arrival times and time to study events are also sampled from prior distributions; post-processing of study simulations is provided within the decision macros and compared across designs in a separate post-processing algorithm. This solution is examined via comparison of the standard 3+3 decision rule relative to the "rolling 6" design, a newly proposed enrollment strategy for the phase I pediatric oncology setting.

Reliability Based Ship Structural Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dogliani, M.; Østergaard, C.; Parmentier, G.

1996-01-01

This paper deals with the development of different methods that allow the reliability-based design of ship structures to be transferred from the area of research to the systematic application in current design. It summarises the achievements of a three-year collaborative research project dealing...... with developments of models of load effects and of structural collapse adopted in reliability formulations which aim at calibrating partial safety factors for ship structural design. New probabilistic models of still-water load effects are developed both for tankers and for containerships. New results are presented...... structure of several tankers and containerships. The results of the reliability analysis were the basis for the definition of a target safety level which was used to asses the partial safety factors suitable for in a new design rules format to be adopted in modern ship structural design. Finally...

SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE DESIGN OF GIS WEB SERVICE AGGREGATION BASED ON SERVICE GROUP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J.-C. Liu

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Based on the analysis of research status of domestic and international GIS web service aggregation and development tendency of public platform of GIS web service, the paper designed software architecture of GIS web service aggregation based on GIS web service group. Firstly, using heterogeneous GIS services model, the software architecture converted a variety of heterogeneous services to a unified interface of GIS services, and divided different types of GIS services into different service groups referring to description of GIS services. Secondly, a service aggregation process model was designed. This model completed the task of specific service aggregation instance, by automatically selecting member GIS Web services in the same service group. Dynamic capabilities and automatic adaptation of GIS Web services aggregation process were achieved. Thirdly, this paper designed a service evaluation model of GIS web service aggregation based on service group from three aspects, i.e. GIS Web Service itself, networking conditions and service consumer. This model implemented effective quality evaluation and performance monitoring of GIS web service aggregation. It could be used to guide the execution, monitor and service selection of aggregation process. Therefore, robustness of aggregated GIS web service was improved. Finally, the software architecture has been widely used in public platform of GIS web service and a number of geo-spatial framework constructions for digital city in Sichuan Province, and aggregated various GIS web services such as World Map(National Public Platform of Geo-spatial Service, ArcGIS, SuperMap, MapGIS, NewMap etc. Applications of items showed that this software architecture was practicability.

Exploration of a capability-focused aerospace system of systems architecture alternative with bilayer design space, based on RST-SOM algorithmic methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zhifei; Qin, Dongliang; Yang, Feng

2014-01-01

In defense related programs, the use of capability-based analysis, design, and acquisition has been significant. In order to confront one of the most challenging features of a huge design space in capability based analysis (CBA), a literature review of design space exploration was first examined. Then, in the process of an aerospace system of systems design space exploration, a bilayer mapping method was put forward, based on the existing experimental and operating data. Finally, the feasibility of the foregoing approach was demonstrated with an illustrative example. With the data mining RST (rough sets theory) and SOM (self-organized mapping) techniques, the alternative to the aerospace system of systems architecture was mapping from P-space (performance space) to C-space (configuration space), and then from C-space to D-space (design space), respectively. Ultimately, the performance space was mapped to the design space, which completed the exploration and preliminary reduction of the entire design space. This method provides a computational analysis and implementation scheme for large-scale simulation.

Software design specification and analysis(NuFDS) approach for the safety critical software based on porgrammable logic controller(PLC)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koo, Seo Ryong; Seong, Poong Hyun; Jung, Jin Yong; Choi, Seong Soo

2004-01-01

This paper introduces the software design specification and analysis technique for the safety-critical system based on Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). During software development phases, the design phase should perform an important role to connect between requirements phase and implementation phase as a process of translating problem requirements into software structures. In this work, the Nuclear FBD-style Design Specification and analysis (NuFDS) approach was proposed. The NuFDS approach for nuclear Instrumentation and Control (I and C) software are suggested in a straight forward manner. It consists of four major specifications as follows; Database, Software Architecture, System Behavior, and PLC Hardware Configuration. Additionally, correctness, completeness, consistency, and traceability check techniques are also suggested for the formal design analysis in NuFDS approach. In addition, for the tool supporting, we are developing NuSDS tool based on the NuFDS approach which is a tool, especially for the software design specification in nuclear fields

A Contradiction-Based Approach for Innovative Product Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ko Yao-Tsung

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Without creativity in design there is no potential for innovation. This paper investigates the role of contradictions in enhancing creativity in product design. Based on the inventive principles of TRIZ, this paper presents a novel design method by integrating technical and physical contradiction analysis methods into the conceptual design activities of new product development (NPD. Despite the recognized importance of innovative design, there is a lack of the systematic and effective design-thinking process that can covers all conceptual design activities. To address this gap, a sharper and fundamental model of the problem-solving is created for innovative product design based on the contradiction-oriented concept. Eventually, one case study is employed to illustrate the method and the result validates that it can help designers produce more creative outcomes in product design.

SLS Model Based Design: A Navigation Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Oliver, T. Emerson; Anzalone, Evan; Park, Thomas; Geohagan, Kevin

2018-01-01

The SLS Program has implemented a Model-based Design (MBD) and Model-based Requirements approach for managing component design information and system requirements. This approach differs from previous large-scale design efforts at Marshall Space Flight Center where design documentation alone conveyed information required for vehicle design and analysis and where extensive requirements sets were used to scope and constrain the design. The SLS Navigation Team is responsible for the Program-controlled Design Math Models (DMMs) which describe and represent the performance of the Inertial Navigation System (INS) and the Rate Gyro Assemblies (RGAs) used by Guidance, Navigation, and Controls (GN&C). The SLS Navigation Team is also responsible for navigation algorithms. The navigation algorithms are delivered for implementation on the flight hardware as a DMM. For the SLS Block 1B design, the additional GPS Receiver hardware model is managed as a DMM at the vehicle design level. This paper describes the models, and discusses the processes and methods used to engineer, design, and coordinate engineering trades and performance assessments using SLS practices as applied to the GN&C system, with a particular focus on the navigation components.

A supportive architecture for CFD-based design optimisation

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ni; Su, Zeya; Bi, Zhuming; Tian, Chao; Ren, Zhiming; Gong, Guanghong

2014-03-01

Multi-disciplinary design optimisation (MDO) is one of critical methodologies to the implementation of enterprise systems (ES). MDO requiring the analysis of fluid dynamics raises a special challenge due to its extremely intensive computation. The rapid development of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) technique has caused a rise of its applications in various fields. Especially for the exterior designs of vehicles, CFD has become one of the three main design tools comparable to analytical approaches and wind tunnel experiments. CFD-based design optimisation is an effective way to achieve the desired performance under the given constraints. However, due to the complexity of CFD, integrating with CFD analysis in an intelligent optimisation algorithm is not straightforward. It is a challenge to solve a CFD-based design problem, which is usually with high dimensions, and multiple objectives and constraints. It is desirable to have an integrated architecture for CFD-based design optimisation. However, our review on existing works has found that very few researchers have studied on the assistive tools to facilitate CFD-based design optimisation. In the paper, a multi-layer architecture and a general procedure are proposed to integrate different CFD toolsets with intelligent optimisation algorithms, parallel computing technique and other techniques for efficient computation. In the proposed architecture, the integration is performed either at the code level or data level to fully utilise the capabilities of different assistive tools. Two intelligent algorithms are developed and embedded with parallel computing. These algorithms, together with the supportive architecture, lay a solid foundation for various applications of CFD-based design optimisation. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed architecture and algorithms, the case studies on aerodynamic shape design of a hypersonic cruising vehicle are provided, and the result has shown that the proposed architecture

System Design and Implementation of Intelligent Fire Engine Path Planning based on SAT Algorithm

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

CAI Li-sha[1; ZENG Wei-peng[1; HAN Bao-ru[1

2016-01-01

In this paper, in order to make intelligent fi re car complete autonomy path planning in simulation map. Proposed system design of intelligent fi re car path planning based on SAT. The system includes a planning module, a communication module, a control module. Control module via the communication module upload the initial state and the goal state to planning module. Planning module solve this planning solution,and then download planning solution to control module, control the movement of the car fi re. Experiments show this the system is tracking short time, higher planning effi ciency.

Design and Implementation of Pointer-Type Multi Meters Intelligent Recognition Device Based on ARM Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Yang; Luo, Wang; Fan, Qiang; Peng, Qiwei; Cai, Yiting; Yao, Yiyang; Xu, Changfu

2018-01-01

This paper adopts a low power consumption ARM Hisilicon mobile processing platform and OV4689 camera, combined with a new skeleton extraction based on distance transform algorithm and the improved Hough algorithm for multi meters real-time reading. The design and implementation of the device were completed. Experimental results shows that The average error of measurement was 0.005MPa, and the average reading time was 5s. The device had good stability and high accuracy which meets the needs of practical application.

Norm based design of fault detectors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rank, Mike Lind; Niemann, Hans Henrik

1999-01-01

The design of fault detectors for fault detection and isolation (FDI) in dynamic systems is considered in this paper from a norm based point of view. An analysis of norm based threshold selection is given based on different formulations of FDI problems. Both the nominal FDI problem as well...

Design of Technical Support System for Retail Company Based on Cloud

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shao Ping

2017-01-01

Full Text Available With the retail side of the market in China, the sale of electricity companies as a new source of power retail, they participate in the electricity market business. National and local governments subsequently introduced the corresponding policies and rules, the technical support system becomes one of the necessary conditions for the access of the retail company. Retail electricity companies have started the system construction, but has not yet formed a standardized, complete architecture. This paper analyzes the business and data interaction requirements of retail electricity companies, and then designs the functional architecture based on basic application, advanced application and value-added application, and the technical architecture based on “cloud”. On this basis, the paper discusses the selection of private cloud, public cloud and mixed cloud model, and the rationalization suggestion of system construction. Which can provide reference for the construction of the technical support system of the domestic retail enterprises.

Knowledge base rule partitioning design for CLIPS

Science.gov (United States)

Mainardi, Joseph D.; Szatkowski, G. P.

1990-01-01

This describes a knowledge base (KB) partitioning approach to solve the problem of real-time performance using the CLIPS AI shell when containing large numbers of rules and facts. This work is funded under the joint USAF/NASA Advanced Launch System (ALS) Program as applied research in expert systems to perform vehicle checkout for real-time controller and diagnostic monitoring tasks. The Expert System advanced development project (ADP-2302) main objective is to provide robust systems responding to new data frames of 0.1 to 1.0 second intervals. The intelligent system control must be performed within the specified real-time window, in order to meet the demands of the given application. Partitioning the KB reduces the complexity of the inferencing Rete net at any given time. This reduced complexity improves performance but without undo impacts during load and unload cycles. The second objective is to produce highly reliable intelligent systems. This requires simple and automated approaches to the KB verification & validation task. Partitioning the KB reduces rule interaction complexity overall. Reduced interaction simplifies the V&V testing necessary by focusing attention only on individual areas of interest. Many systems require a robustness that involves a large number of rules, most of which are mutually exclusive under different phases or conditions. The ideal solution is to control the knowledge base by loading rules that directly apply for that condition, while stripping out all rules and facts that are not used during that cycle. The practical approach is to cluster rules and facts into associated 'blocks'. A simple approach has been designed to control the addition and deletion of 'blocks' of rules and facts, while allowing real-time operations to run freely. Timing tests for real-time performance for specific machines under R/T operating systems have not been completed but are planned as part of the analysis process to validate the design.

Design information verification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnson, Shirley

2001-01-01

The paper provides the bases to complete a Design Information Questionnaire (DIQ) for a research reactor. The IAEA requirements for provision of design information for nuclear facility is described. The role of the provided information for the development of the safeguards approach and for planning of the IAEA's general inspection program for a specific facility is emphasized. Content and preparation of the IAEA DIQ by the State is presented

Transducers for Sound and Vibration - FEM Based Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Bin

2001-01-01

Design of transducers for measurement of vibration (piezoelectric accelerometers) and sound (condenser microphones) is a very labour intensive work. The design work is mostly based on experience and on simple analogies to electrical circuit design. Often a time consuming itterative loop is used......: Specification of the transducer, production of a physical prototype, measurements on the prototype, changed specification of the transducer etc. Furthermore are many transducers made based on customer requirements which also increases the amount of required design work. For these reasons there is a need...... for methods that can reduce the design time consumption and the number of itterations. The present work proposes to use finite element based programs for simulating the behaviour of a transducer with a given set of specifications. A simulation program for accelerometers was developed and has been tested...

Embracing First-Person Perspectives in Soma-Based Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kristina Höök

2018-02-01

Full Text Available A set of prominent designers embarked on a research journey to explore aesthetics in movement-based design. Here we unpack one of the design sensitivities unique to our practice: a strong first person perspective—where the movements, somatics and aesthetic sensibilities of the designer, design researcher and user are at the forefront. We present an annotated portfolio of design exemplars and a brief introduction to some of the design methods and theory we use, together substantiating and explaining the first-person perspective. At the same time, we show how this felt dimension, despite its subjective nature, is what provides rigor and structure to our design research. Our aim is to assist researchers in soma-based design and designers wanting to consider the multiple facets when designing for the aesthetics of movement. The applications span a large field of designs, including slow introspective, contemplative interactions, arts, dance, health applications, games, work applications and many others.

An evidential reasoning-based AHP approach for the selection of environmentally-friendly designs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NG, C.Y., E-mail: ng.cy@cityu.edu.hk

2016-11-15

Due to the stringent environmental regulatory requirements being imposed by cross-national bodies in recent years, manufacturers have to minimize the environmental impact of their products. Among those environmental impact evaluation tools available, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is often employed to quantify the product's environmental impact throughout its entire life cycle. However, owing to the requirements of expert knowledge in environmental science and vast effort for data collection in carrying out LCA, as well as the common absence of complete product information during product development processes, there is a need to develop a more suitable tool for product designers. An evidential reasoning-based approach, which aims at providing a fast-track method to perform design alternative evaluations for non-LCA experts, is therefore introduced as a new initiative to deal with the incomplete or uncertain information. The proposed approach also enables decision makers to quantitatively assess the life cycle phases and design alternatives by comparing their potential environmental impacts, thus effectively and efficiently facilitates the identification of greener designs. A case application is carried out to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach.

Conceptual design of jewellery: a space-based aesthetics approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tzintzi Vaia

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Conceptual design is a field that offers various aesthetic approaches to generation of nature-based product design concepts. Essentially, Conceptual Product Design (CPD uses similarities based on the geometrical forms and functionalities. Furthermore, the CAD-based freehand sketch is a primary conceptual tool in the early stages of the design process. The proposed Conceptual Product Design concept is dealing with jewelleries that are inspired from space. Specifically, a number of galaxy features, such as galaxy shapes, wormholes and graphical representation of planet magnetic field are used as inspirations. Those space-based design ideas at a conceptual level can lead to further opportunities for research and economic success of the jewellery industry. A number of illustrative case studies are presented and new opportunities can be derived for economic success.

Modelling and design of complete photonic band gaps in two ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

In this paper, we investigate the existence and variation of complete photonic band gap size with the introduction of asymmetry in the constituent dielectric rods with honeycomb lattices in two-dimensional photonic crystals (PhC) using the plane-wave expansion (PWE) method. Two examples, one consisting of elliptical rods ...

Manufacturing system design based on axiomatic design: Case of assembly line

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hager, T.; Wafik, H.; Faouzi, M.

2017-07-01

In this paper, a combined Production Line Design (PLD) process which includes many design aspects is presented, developed and validated. Design/methodology/approach: The PLD process is based on the SADT (Structured Analysis and Design Technique) diagram and the Axiomatic Design (AD) method. Practical implications: For a purpose of validation, this proposed process has been applied in a manufacturing company and it has been validated by simulation. Findings: The results of the validation indicated that the production line designed by this process is outperformed the initial line of the company. Originality/value: Recently, the problems of production line design (PLD) have attracted the attention of many researchers. However, only a few studies have treated the PLD which includes all design aspects. In this work, a combined PLD process is presented. It should be noted that the proposed process is simple and effective.

Manufacturing system design based on axiomatic design: Case of assembly line

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hager, T.; Wafik, H.; Faouzi, M.

2017-01-01

In this paper, a combined Production Line Design (PLD) process which includes many design aspects is presented, developed and validated. Design/methodology/approach: The PLD process is based on the SADT (Structured Analysis and Design Technique) diagram and the Axiomatic Design (AD) method. Practical implications: For a purpose of validation, this proposed process has been applied in a manufacturing company and it has been validated by simulation. Findings: The results of the validation indicated that the production line designed by this process is outperformed the initial line of the company. Originality/value: Recently, the problems of production line design (PLD) have attracted the attention of many researchers. However, only a few studies have treated the PLD which includes all design aspects. In this work, a combined PLD process is presented. It should be noted that the proposed process is simple and effective.

Accelerator-based conversion (ABC) of weapons plutonium: Plant layout study and related design issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cowell, B.S.; Fontana, M.H.; Krakowski, R.A.; Beard, C.A.; Buksa, J.J.; Davidson, J.W.; Sailor, W.C.; Williamson, M.A.

1995-01-01

In preparation for and in support of a detailed R and D Plan for the Accelerator-Based Conversion (ABC) of weapons plutonium, an ABC Plant Layout Study was conducted at the level of a pre-conceptual engineering design. The plant layout is based on an adaptation of the Molten-Salt Breeder Reactor (MSBR) detailed conceptual design that was completed in the early 1070s. Although the ABC Plant Layout Study included the Accelerator Equipment as an essential element, the engineering assessment focused primarily on the Target; Primary System (blanket and all systems containing plutonium-bearing fuel salt); the Heat-Removal System (secondary-coolant-salt and supercritical-steam systems); Chemical Processing; Operation and Maintenance; Containment and Safety; and Instrumentation and Control systems. Although constrained primarily to a reflection of an accelerator-driven (subcritical) variant of MSBR system, unique features and added flexibilities of the ABC suggest improved or alternative approaches to each of the above-listed subsystems; these, along with the key technical issues in need of resolution through a detailed R ampersand D plan for ABC are described on the bases of the ''strawman'' or ''point-of-departure'' plant layout that resulted from this study

Product design pattern based on big data-driven scenario

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Conggang Yu

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This article discusses about new product design patterns in the big data era, gives designer a new rational thinking way, and is a new way to understand the design of the product. Based on the key criteria of the product design process, category, element, and product are used to input the data, which comprises concrete data and abstract data as an enlargement of the criteria of product design process for the establishment of a big data-driven product design pattern’s model. Moreover, an experiment and a product design case are conducted to verify the feasibility of the new pattern. Ultimately, we will conclude that the data-driven product design has two patterns: one is the concrete data supporting the product design, namely “product–data–product” pattern, and the second is based on the value of the abstract data for product design, namely “data–product–data” pattern. Through the data, users are involving themselves in the design development process. Data and product form a huge network, and data plays a role of connection or node. So the essence of the design is to find a new connection based on element, and to find a new node based on category.

Ultra-high-speed all-channel serial-to-parallel conversion based on complete optical fourier transformation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Guan, Pengyu; Røge, Kasper Meldgaard; Morioka, Toshio

2016-01-01

We propose a serial-to-parallel conversion scheme based on complete OFT, allowing simultaneous conversion of all channels. We demonstrate all 32-channel simultaneous OTDM to WDM conversion of 320-Gbit/s DPSK and of 640-Gbit/s DQPSK signal, respectively....

Program completion of a web-based tailored lifestyle intervention for adults: differences between a sequential and a simultaneous approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Schulz, Daniela N; Schneider, Francine; de Vries, Hein; van Osch, Liesbeth A D M; van Nierop, Peter W M; Kremers, Stef P J

2012-03-08

Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors often co-occur and are related to chronic diseases. One effective method to change multiple lifestyle behaviors is web-based computer tailoring. Dropout from Internet interventions, however, is rather high, and it is challenging to retain participants in web-based tailored programs, especially programs targeting multiple behaviors. To date, it is unknown how much information people can handle in one session while taking part in a multiple behavior change intervention, which could be presented either sequentially (one behavior at a time) or simultaneously (all behaviors at once). The first objective was to compare dropout rates of 2 computer-tailored interventions: a sequential and a simultaneous strategy. The second objective was to assess which personal characteristics are associated with completion rates of the 2 interventions. Using an RCT design, demographics, health status, physical activity, vegetable consumption, fruit consumption, alcohol intake, and smoking were self-assessed through web-based questionnaires among 3473 adults, recruited through Regional Health Authorities in the Netherlands in the autumn of 2009. First, a health risk appraisal was offered, indicating whether respondents were meeting the 5 national health guidelines. Second, psychosocial determinants of the lifestyle behaviors were assessed and personal advice was provided, about one or more lifestyle behaviors. Our findings indicate a high non-completion rate for both types of intervention (71.0%; n = 2167), with more incompletes in the simultaneous intervention (77.1%; n = 1169) than in the sequential intervention (65.0%; n = 998). In both conditions, discontinuation was predicted by a lower age (sequential condition: OR = 1.04; P simultaneous condition: OR = 1.04; P sequential condition: OR = 0.86; P = .01; CI = 0.76-0.97; simultaneous condition: OR = 0.49; P sequential intervention, being male (OR = 1.27; P = .04; CI = 1.01-1.59) also predicted dropout

Probability-based load combinations for design of category I structures - overview of research program and recent results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reich, M.; Hwang, H.

1984-01-01

This paper discusses the probability-based load combinations for the program dealing with the design of Category I structures, currently being worked on at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) for the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The objective of this program is to develop a probabilistic approach for the safety evaluations of reactor containments and other seismic Category I structures subjected to multiple static and dynamic loadings. Furthermore, on the basis of the developed probabilistic approach, a load combination methodology for the design of seismic Category I structures will also be established. The major tasks of this program are: (1) establish probabilistic representations for various loads and structural resistance, (2) select appropriate structural analysis methods and identify limit states of structures, (3) develop a reliability analysis method applicable to nuclear structures, (4) apply the developed methodology to existing Category I structures in order to evaluate the reliability levels implied in the current design criteria, and (5) recommend load combination design criteria for Category I structures. When the program is completed, it will be possible to (1) provide a method that can evaluate the safety margins of existing containment and other Category I structures and (2) recommended probability-based load combinations and load factors for the design of Category I structures. At the present time, a reliability analysis method for seismic Category I concrete structures has been completed. By utilizing this method, it is possible to evaluate the safety of structures under various static and dynamic loads. In this paper, results of a reliability analysis of a realistic reinforced concrete containment structure under dead load, accidental pressure, and earthquake ground acceleration are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the methodology. (orig.)

Is function-based control room design human-centered?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Norros, L.; Savioja, P.

2006-01-01

Function-based approaches to system interface design appears an appealing possibility in helping designers and operators to cope with the vast amount of information needed to control complex processes. In this paper we provide evidence of operator performance analyses showing that outcome-centered performance measures may not be sufficiently informative for design. We need analyses indicating habitual patterns of using information, operator practices. We argue that practices that portray functional orienting to the task support mastery of the process. They also create potential to make use of function-based information presentation. We see that functional design is not an absolute value. Instead, such design should support communication of the functional significance of the process information to the operators in variable situations. Hence, it should facilitate development of practices that focus to interpreting this message. Successful function-based design facilitates putting operations into their contexts and is human-centered in an extended sense: It aids making sense in the complex, dynamic and uncertain environment. (authors)

The Algorithm for Algorithms: An Evolutionary Algorithm Based on Automatic Designing of Genetic Operators

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dazhi Jiang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available At present there is a wide range of evolutionary algorithms available to researchers and practitioners. Despite the great diversity of these algorithms, virtually all of the algorithms share one feature: they have been manually designed. A fundamental question is “are there any algorithms that can design evolutionary algorithms automatically?” A more complete definition of the question is “can computer construct an algorithm which will generate algorithms according to the requirement of a problem?” In this paper, a novel evolutionary algorithm based on automatic designing of genetic operators is presented to address these questions. The resulting algorithm not only explores solutions in the problem space like most traditional evolutionary algorithms do, but also automatically generates genetic operators in the operator space. In order to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm, comprehensive experiments on 23 well-known benchmark optimization problems are conducted. The results show that the proposed algorithm can outperform standard differential evolution algorithm in terms of convergence speed and solution accuracy which shows that the algorithm designed automatically by computers can compete with the algorithms designed by human beings.

A Completely New Type of Actuator -or- This Ain't Your Grandfather's Internal Combustion Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Gore, Brian W.; Hawkins, Gary F.; Hess, Peter A.; Moore, Teresa A.; Fournier, Eric W.

2010-01-01

A completely new type of actuator - one that is proposed for use in a variety of environments from sea to land to air to space - has been designed, patented, built, and tested. The actuator is loosely based on the principle of the internal combustion engine, except that it is a completely closed system, only requiring electrical input, and the working fuel is water. This paper outlines the theory behind the electrolysis- and ignition-based cycle upon which the actuator operates and describes the performance capability test apparatus and results for the actuator. A mechanism application that harnessed the unit s power to twist a scaled rotor blade is also highlighted.

A game-based decision support methodology for competitive systems design

Science.gov (United States)

Briceno, Simon Ignacio

This dissertation describes the development of a game-based methodology that facilitates the exploration and selection of research and development (R&D) projects under uncertain competitive scenarios. The proposed method provides an approach that analyzes competitor positioning and formulates response strategies to forecast the impact of technical design choices on a project's market performance. A critical decision in the conceptual design phase of propulsion systems is the selection of the best architecture, centerline, core size, and technology portfolio. This selection can be challenging when considering evolving requirements from both the airframe manufacturing company and the airlines in the market. Furthermore, the exceedingly high cost of core architecture development and its associated risk makes this strategic architecture decision the most important one for an engine company. Traditional conceptual design processes emphasize performance and affordability as their main objectives. These areas alone however, do not provide decision-makers with enough information as to how successful their engine will be in a competitive market. A key objective of this research is to examine how firm characteristics such as their relative differences in completing R&D projects, differences in the degree of substitutability between different project types, and first/second-mover advantages affect their product development strategies. Several quantitative methods are investigated that analyze business and engineering strategies concurrently. In particular, formulations based on the well-established mathematical field of game theory are introduced to obtain insights into the project selection problem. The use of game theory is explored in this research as a method to assist the selection process of R&D projects in the presence of imperfect market information. The proposed methodology focuses on two influential factors: the schedule uncertainty of project completion times and

Design of reactor alarm instrument based on SOPC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Meng; Lu Yi; Rong Ru

2008-01-01

The design of embedded alarm instrument in reactors based on Nios II CPU is introduced in this paper. This design uses the SOPC technology based on the Cyclone series FPGA as a digital bench, and connects the MPU and drivers and interface of times, RS232, sdram,and etc. into a FPGA chip. It is proved that the system achieves the design goals in primary experimentation. (authors)

Effectiveness of community-based rehabilitation after traumatic brain injury for 489 program completers compared with those precipitously discharged.

Science.gov (United States)

Altman, Irwin M; Swick, Shannon; Parrot, Devan; Malec, James F

2010-11-01

To evaluate outcomes of home- and community-based postacute brain injury rehabilitation (PABIR). Retrospective analysis of program evaluation data for treatment completers and noncompleters. Home- and community-based PABIR conducted in 7 geographically distinct U.S. cities. Patients (N=489) with traumatic brain injury who completed the prescribed course of rehabilitation (completed-course-of-treatment [CCT] group) compared with 114 who were discharged precipitously before program completion (precipitous-discharge [PD] group). PABIR delivered in home and community settings by certified professional staff on an individualized basis. Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory (MPAI-4) completed by means of professional consensus on admission and at discharge; MPAI-4 Participation Index at 3- and 12-month follow-up through telephone contact. Analysis of covariance (CCT vs PD group as between-subjects variable, admission MPAI-4 score as covariate) showed significant differences between groups at discharge on the full MPAI-4 (F=82.25; P<.001), Ability Index (F=50.24; P<.001), Adjustment Index (F=81.20; P<.001), and Participation Index (F=59.48; P<.001). A large portion of the sample was lost to follow-up; however, available data showed that group differences remained statistically significant at follow-up. Results provided evidence of the effectiveness of home- and community-based PABIR and that treatment effects were maintained at follow-up. Copyright © 2010 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Design of reinforced concrete members based on structural mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diaz, B.E.; Schulz, M.

1984-01-01

Up to now the design of reinforced concrete linear members is performed with the help of an inconsistent design theory, which nevertherless is sufficiently safe and simple to be used in the practice. The purpose of this paper is to present a rational reinforced concrete design method which is not too dissimilar to the present design rules, but is capable of defining consistently internal stresses along a reinforced concrete section. The present status of the completed computer procedures allows the analysis of linear reinforced concrete members formed by laminar reinforced concrete plates presenting variable thickness. A practical approach is presented for which the concrete and steel section is constant along the member axis. In this case, the concept of the equivalent section is introduced, which allows a simple analysis of the stress pattern along the member section. (Author) [pt

Status report groundwater: the challenge for UMTRA completion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

D'Antonio, J.R.

1988-01-01

UMTRA is working aggressively towards meeting the intent of the draft EPA Groundwater Protection Standards. Since September 1987, the major UMTRA thrust has been threefold: (1) perform special studies directed towards design enhancements; (2) provide design enhancements, where possible for projects under construction; and (3) evaluate the remaining sites under design for design enhancements under the proposed standards. At the time, the NRC has taken a very guarded approach towards approving proposed cover systems. UMTRA believes current cell designs will meet proposed standards. UMTRA is working closely with the NRC towards understanding the resolution of issues related to the acceptability of designs to meet the EPA groundwater standards. UMTRA met with NRC the week of October 17, 1988 to discuss results of recent special studies. Recent studies include: field moisture content validations of completed covers, soil/rock covers, rock durability, soil amendments, freeze-thaw, and erosion protection and constructability questions. When completed, UMTRA will issue final special study reports. Two of the above areas, freeze-thaw and rock durability, will be presented in the presentations which follow this one. Another of the special studies addressing design approaches to cell designs is presented in Session V

Using Mathematical Modeling and Set-Based Design Principles to Recommend an Existing CVL Design

Science.gov (United States)

2017-09-01

MATHEMATICAL MODELING AND SET-BASED DESIGN PRINCIPLES TO RECOMMEND AN EXISTING CVL DESIGN by William H. Ehlies September 2017 Thesis Advisor...Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (0704-0188) Washington, DC 20503. 1. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank) 2. REPORT DATE...September 2017 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED Master’s thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE USING MATHEMATICAL MODELING AND SET-BASED DESIGN PRINCIPLES

The design preparation for radiation monitoring system in the frame of completion NPP Mochovce Units 3 and 4

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sevecka, S.; Slavik, O.; Kapisovsky, V.

2009-01-01

In 1985 a Basic Design of Radiation Monitoring System (RMS) has been elaborated for Mochovce NPP unit 3 and 4 construction. Due to construction interruption in the following years this design solution became obsolete. A new solution of RMS have been developed with conception following that of original Basic Design accommodating also safety measures implemented in RMS of NPP EMO units 1 and 2, and based on modem instrumentation and computer technique. Following the updating of Basic Design documentation the preparation of elaboration of RMS detailed design was carried on. In the frame of this preparation a review of possible suppliers of instrumentation satisfying the conception of radiation monitoring system and the extension of required deliveries has been made. Also criteria on RMS suppliers selection have been determined. The types of monitoring systems and equipment, as well as their quantities, have been specified based on updated Basic Design requirements and production profiles and possibilities of potential suppliers. The required parameters of measurements (including measurement geometry) have been evaluated, as well as requirements of legislation and requirements of proposed RMS architecture. (authors)

Reliability based Design of Coastal Structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Burcharth, H. F.

2003-01-01

Conventional design practice for coastal structures is deterministic in nature and is based on the concept of a design load which should not exceed the resistance (carrying capacity) of the structure. The design load is usually defined on a probabilistic basis as a characteristic value of the load......, for example the expectation (mean) value of the 100-year return period event. However, this selection is often made without consideration of the involved uncertainties. In most cases the resistance is defined in terms of the load that causes a certain design impact or damage to the structure...

Design of coin sorter counter based on MCU

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Yahan; Si, Xu

2018-04-01

With unmanned tickets, vending machines promotion, greatly increased the circulation of coins, especially bus companies, the financial sector need to classify a large number of coins every day, inventory, a huge workload. The design of the microcontroller as the control center, combined with the sensor technology and the corresponding mechanical structure to complete the separation of coins and finishing the packaging work and real-time monitoring and display of the type and number of coins function, this article details the system hardware and software design, and The test adjustment shows that the system can achieve the function of separating and sorting coins and monitoring the type and quantity of coins displayed on the coin.

CRBRP structural and thermal margin beyond the design base

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strawbridge, L.E.

1979-01-01

Prudent margins beyond the design base have been included in the design of Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant to further reduce the risk to the public from highly improbable occurrences. These margins include Structural Margin Beyond the Design Base to address the energetics aspects and Thermal Margin Beyond the Design Base to address the longer term thermal and radiological consequences. The assessments that led to the specification of these margins are described, along with the experimental support for those assessments. 8 refs

A Distributed Feature-based Environment for Collaborative Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei-Dong Li

2003-02-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a client/server design environment based on 3D feature-based modelling and Java technologies to enable design information to be shared efficiently among members within a design team. In this environment, design tasks and clients are organised through working sessions generated and maintained by a collaborative server. The information from an individual design client during a design process is updated and broadcast to other clients in the same session through an event-driven and call-back mechanism. The downstream manufacturing analysis modules can be wrapped as agents and plugged into the open environment to support the design activities. At the server side, a feature-feature relationship is established and maintained to filter the varied information of a working part, so as to facilitate efficient information update during the design process.

Tooth preparations for complete crowns: an art form based on scientific principles.

Science.gov (United States)

Goodacre, C J; Campagni, W V; Aquilino, S A

2001-04-01

No recent literature has reviewed the current scientific knowledge on complete coverage tooth preparations. This article traces the historic evolution of complete coverage tooth preparations and identifies guidelines for scientific tooth preparations. Literature covering 250 years of clinical practice was reviewed with emphasis on scientific data acquired during the last 50 years. Both a MEDLINE search and an extensive manual search were used to locate relevant articles written in English in the last 50 years. Teeth should be prepared so that they exhibit the following characteristics: 10 to 20 degrees of total occlusal convergence, a minimal occlusocervical dimension of 4 mm for molars and 3 mm for other teeth, and an occlusocervical-to-faciolingual dimension ratio of 0.4 or greater. Facioproximal and linguoproximal line angles should be preserved whenever possible. When the above features are missing, the teeth should be modified with auxiliary resistance features such as axial grooves or boxes, preferably on proximal surfaces. Finish line selection should be based on the type of crown/retainer, esthetic requirements, ease of formation, and personal experience. Expectations of enhanced marginal fit with certain finish lines could not be validated by recent research. Esthetic requirements and tooth conditions determine finish line locations relative to the gingiva, with a supragingival location being more acceptable. Line angles should be rounded, and a reasonable degree of surface smoothness is desired. Nine scientific principles have been developed that ensure mechanical, biologic, and esthetic success for tooth preparation of complete coverage restorations.

A conceptual design and structural stabilities of in-pit assembly tools for the completion of final sector assembly at tokamak hall

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nam, K.O.; Park, H.K.; Kim, D.J.; Ahn, H.J.; Kim, K.K.; Im, K.; Shaw, R.

2010-01-01

The final assembly of main components of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) tokamak, Vacuum Vessel (VV) and Toroidal Field Coils (TFCs), is achieved by the sequential assembly of the nine sub-assembled 40 o sectors in tokamak pit. Each sub-assembled 40 o sector is composed of one VV 40 o sector, two TFCs, and in-between Vacuum Vessel Thermal Shield (VVTS) segments. Sub-assembly is carried out in the assembly building and then the sub-assembled sectors are transferred into tokamak pit, in sequence, to complete sector assembly. The role of in-pit assembly tool is to support and align the sub-assembled sectors in tokamak pit. It also plays the role of reference datum during assembly until the completion of main components assembly. Korea Domestic Agency (KO DA) has developed the conceptual design of most ITER purpose-built assembly tools under the collaboration with the ITER Organization. Among the conceptual designs carried out, this paper describes the function, the structure, the selected material and the design results of the in-pit assembly tools comprising central column, radial beams and their supports, TF inner supports and in-pit working floor. The results of structural analysis using ANSYS for the various loading cases are given as well. The resultant stresses and deflections turned out to fall within the allowable ranges.

A knowledge-based design framework for airplane conceptual and preliminary design

Science.gov (United States)

Anemaat, Wilhelmus A. J.

The goal of work described herein is to develop the second generation of Advanced Aircraft Analysis (AAA) into an object-oriented structure which can be used in different environments. One such environment is the third generation of AAA with its own user interface, the other environment with the same AAA methods (i.e. the knowledge) is the AAA-AML program. AAA-AML automates the initial airplane design process using current AAA methods in combination with AMRaven methodologies for dependency tracking and knowledge management, using the TechnoSoft Adaptive Modeling Language (AML). This will lead to the following benefits: (1) Reduced design time: computer aided design methods can reduce design and development time and replace tedious hand calculations. (2) Better product through improved design: more alternative designs can be evaluated in the same time span, which can lead to improved quality. (3) Reduced design cost: due to less training and less calculation errors substantial savings in design time and related cost can be obtained. (4) Improved Efficiency: the design engineer can avoid technically correct but irrelevant calculations on incomplete or out of sync information, particularly if the process enables robust geometry earlier. Although numerous advancements in knowledge based design have been developed for detailed design, currently no such integrated knowledge based conceptual and preliminary airplane design system exists. The third generation AAA methods are tested over a ten year period on many different airplane designs. Using AAA methods will demonstrate significant time savings. The AAA-AML system will be exercised and tested using 27 existing airplanes ranging from single engine propeller, business jets, airliners, UAV's to fighters. Data for the varied sizing methods will be compared with AAA results, to validate these methods. One new design, a Light Sport Aircraft (LSA), will be developed as an exercise to use the tool for designing a new airplane

Computer-based Creativity Enhanced Conceptual Design Model for Non-routine Design of Mechanical Systems

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

LI Yutong; WANG Yuxin; DUFFY Alex H B

2014-01-01

Computer-based conceptual design for routine design has made great strides, yet non-routine design has not been given due attention, and it is still poorly automated. Considering that the function-behavior-structure(FBS) model is widely used for modeling the conceptual design process, a computer-based creativity enhanced conceptual design model(CECD) for non-routine design of mechanical systems is presented. In the model, the leaf functions in the FBS model are decomposed into and represented with fine-grain basic operation actions(BOA), and the corresponding BOA set in the function domain is then constructed. Choosing building blocks from the database, and expressing their multiple functions with BOAs, the BOA set in the structure domain is formed. Through rule-based dynamic partition of the BOA set in the function domain, many variants of regenerated functional schemes are generated. For enhancing the capability to introduce new design variables into the conceptual design process, and dig out more innovative physical structure schemes, the indirect function-structure matching strategy based on reconstructing the combined structure schemes is adopted. By adjusting the tightness of the partition rules and the granularity of the divided BOA subsets, and making full use of the main function and secondary functions of each basic structure in the process of reconstructing of the physical structures, new design variables and variants are introduced into the physical structure scheme reconstructing process, and a great number of simpler physical structure schemes to accomplish the overall function organically are figured out. The creativity enhanced conceptual design model presented has a dominant capability in introducing new deign variables in function domain and digging out simpler physical structures to accomplish the overall function, therefore it can be utilized to solve non-routine conceptual design problem.

Computer-based creativity enhanced conceptual design model for non-routine design of mechanical systems

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yutong; Wang, Yuxin; Duffy, Alex H. B.

2014-11-01

Computer-based conceptual design for routine design has made great strides, yet non-routine design has not been given due attention, and it is still poorly automated. Considering that the function-behavior-structure(FBS) model is widely used for modeling the conceptual design process, a computer-based creativity enhanced conceptual design model(CECD) for non-routine design of mechanical systems is presented. In the model, the leaf functions in the FBS model are decomposed into and represented with fine-grain basic operation actions(BOA), and the corresponding BOA set in the function domain is then constructed. Choosing building blocks from the database, and expressing their multiple functions with BOAs, the BOA set in the structure domain is formed. Through rule-based dynamic partition of the BOA set in the function domain, many variants of regenerated functional schemes are generated. For enhancing the capability to introduce new design variables into the conceptual design process, and dig out more innovative physical structure schemes, the indirect function-structure matching strategy based on reconstructing the combined structure schemes is adopted. By adjusting the tightness of the partition rules and the granularity of the divided BOA subsets, and making full use of the main function and secondary functions of each basic structure in the process of reconstructing of the physical structures, new design variables and variants are introduced into the physical structure scheme reconstructing process, and a great number of simpler physical structure schemes to accomplish the overall function organically are figured out. The creativity enhanced conceptual design model presented has a dominant capability in introducing new deign variables in function domain and digging out simpler physical structures to accomplish the overall function, therefore it can be utilized to solve non-routine conceptual design problem.

Mochovce Unit 3 and 4 Completion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aquilanti, G.

2007-01-01

Purpose of the Feasibility Study was to define in detail all technical, economic, financial, legal and authorization aspects of Mochovce NPP Unit 3 and 4 completion in order to provide Slovenske Elektrarne, a. s. (SE) and ENEL Top Management with all the necessary information for a final decision on Mochovce Unit 3 and 4. Feasibility study has started in January 2006. SE had the commitment to complete the Feasibility Study within 12 months from Closing of SE acquisition (April 2007). In order not to delay completion of Mochovce Unit 3 and 4, SE has decided to perform, in parallel to the Feasibility study, also all design and permitting activities which are required for the completion of Plant. This has involved anticipation of expenses for approximately 700 MSKK (or approx. 20 MEuro). SE was able to announce the positive decision about completion on Mochovce NPP Unit 3 and 4, two months in advance of the deadline.

Design of an Emulsion-based Personal Detergent through a Model-based Chemical Product Design Methodology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mattei, Michele; Hill, Michael; Kontogeorgis, Georgios

2013-01-01

An extended systematic methodology for the design of emulsion-based Chemical products is presented. The methodology consists of a model-based framework involving seven sequential hierarchical steps: starting with the identification of the needs to be satisfied by the product and then adding one-b...... to obtain one or more candidate formulations. A conceptual casestudy representing a personal detergent is presented to highlight the methodology....

Design of an Emulsion-based Personal Detergent through a Model-based Chemical Product Design Methodology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mattei, Michele; Hill, Michael; Kontogeorgis, Georgios

2013-01-01

An extended systematic methodology for the design of emulsion-based Chemical products is presented. The methodology consists of a model-based framework involving seven sequential hierarchical steps: starting with the identification of the needs to be satisfied by the product and then adding one...... to obtain one or more candidate formulations. A conceptual casestudy representing a personal detergent is presented to highlight the methodology....

Design and Fabrication of a Reconfigurable MEMS-Based Antenna

KAUST Repository

Martinez, Miguel Angel Galicia

2011-06-22

This thesis presents the design and fabrication of a customized in house Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) process based on-chip antenna that is both frequency and polarization reconfigurable. It is designed to work at both 60 GHz and 77 GHz through MEMS switches. This antenna can also work in both horizontal and vertical linear polarizations by utilizing a moveable plate. The design is intended for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) and automotive radar applications. Typical on-chip antennas are inefficient and difficult to reconfigure. Therefore, the focus of this work is to develop an efficient on-chip antenna solution, which is reconfigurable in frequency and in polarization. A fractal bowtie antenna is employed for this thesis, which achieves frequency reconfigurability through MEMS switches. The design is simulated in industry standard Electromagnetic (EM) simulator Ansoft HFSS. A novel concept for horizontal to vertical linear polarization agility is introduced which incorporates a moveable polymer plate. For this work, a microprobe is used to move the plate from the horizontal to vertical position. For testing purposes, a novel mechanism has been designed in order to feed the antenna with RF-probes in both horizontal and vertical positions. A simulated gain of approximately 0 dB is achieved at both target frequencies (60 and 77 GHz), in both horizontal and vertical positions. In all the cases mentioned above (both frequencies and positions), the antenna is well matched (< -10 dB) to the 50 Ω system impedance. Similarly, the radiation nulls are successfully shifted by changing the position of the antenna from horizontal to vertical. The complete design and fabrication of the reconfigurable MEMS antenna has been done at KAUST facilities. Some challenges have been encountered during its realization due to the immaturity of the customized MEMS fabrication process. Nonetheless, a first fabrication attempt has highlighted such shortcomings. According

Design and Realization for the Environmental Protection Type of Pig-Farm Model Based on the Sensor Technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liu Ming Dan

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Starting from the purpose of building a factoring pigs breeding system, a new conception of pig farm is designed in this paper which considered the reality and development level of productive forces in our country. This design is based on the sensor technology. After that, the corresponding model is built up. This model is mainly used the photoelectric transistor and contact sensor to receive light signal, then change it into electrical signal and send it to the control system. The control program which written in ROBOPRO make all process which include the controlled of food- feeding, droppings-cleaning, temperature-controlled completely automatically.

Interactive Reliability-Based Optimal Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, John Dalsgaard; Thoft-Christensen, Palle; Siemaszko, A.

1994-01-01

Interactive design/optimization of large, complex structural systems is considered. The objective function is assumed to model the expected costs. The constraints are reliability-based and/or related to deterministic code requirements. Solution of this optimization problem is divided in four main...... tasks, namely finite element analyses, sensitivity analyses, reliability analyses and application of an optimization algorithm. In the paper it is shown how these four tasks can be linked effectively and how existing information on design variables, Lagrange multipliers and the Hessian matrix can...

Making Theory Come Alive through Practice-based Design Research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Markussen, Thomas; Knutz, Eva; Rind Christensen, Poul

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how practice-based design research is able not only to challenge, but also to push toward further development of some of the basic assumpstions in emotion theories as used within design research. In so doing, we wish to increase knolwedge on a central...... epistemological question for design research, namely how practice-based design research can be a vehicle for the construction of new theory for design research....

Research on performance-based seismic design criteria

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

谢礼立; 马玉宏

2002-01-01

The seismic design criterion adopted in the existing seismic design codes is reviewed. It is pointed out that the presently used seismic design criterion is not satisfied with the requirements of nowadays social and economic development. A new performance-based seismic design criterion that is composed of three components is presented in this paper. It can not only effectively control the economic losses and casualty, but also ensure the building(s function in proper operation during earthquakes. The three components are: classification of seismic design for buildings, determination of seismic design intensity and/or seismic design ground motion for controlling seismic economic losses and casualties, and determination of the importance factors in terms of service periods of buildings. For controlling the seismic human losses, the idea of socially acceptable casualty level is presented and the (Optimal Economic Decision Model( and (Optimal Safe Decision Model( are established. Finally, a new method is recommended for calculating the importance factors of structures by adjusting structures service period on the base of more important structure with longer service period than the conventional ones. Therefore, the more important structure with longer service periods will be designed for higher seismic loads, in case the exceedance probability of seismic hazard in different service period is same.

TP-model transformation-based-control design frameworks

CERN Document Server

Baranyi, Péter

2016-01-01

This book covers new aspects and frameworks of control, design, and optimization based on the TP model transformation and its various extensions. The author outlines the three main steps of polytopic and LMI based control design: 1) development of the qLPV state-space model, 2) generation of the polytopic model; and 3) application of LMI to derive controller and observer. He goes on to describe why literature has extensively studied LMI design, but has not focused much on the second step, in part because the generation and manipulation of the polytopic form was not tractable in many cases. The author then shows how the TP model transformation facilitates this second step and hence reveals new directions, leading to powerful design procedures and the formulation of new questions. The chapters of this book, and the complex dynamical control tasks which they cover, are organized so as to present and analyze the beneficial aspect of the family of approaches (control, design, and optimization). Additionally, the b...

Design of dual DC motor control system based on DSP

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Peicheng; Wang, Suo; Xu, Zengwei; Xiao, Ping

2017-08-01

Multi-motor control systems are widely used in actual production and life, such as lifting stages, robots, printing systems. This paper through serial communication between PC and DSP, dual DC motor control system consisting of PC as the host computer, DSP as the lower computer with synchronous PWM speed regulation, commutation and selection functions is designed. It sends digital control instructions with host computer serial debugger to lower computer, to instruct the motor to complete corresponding actions. The hardware and software design of the control system are given, and feasibility and validity of the control system are verified by experiments. The expected design goal is achieved.

Development of an event-driven parser for active document and web-based nuclear design system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Yong Soo

2005-02-15

Nuclear design works consist of extensive unit job modules in which many computer codes are used. Each unit module requires time-consuming and erroneous input preparation, code run, output analysis and quality assurance process. The task for safety evaluation of reload core is especially the most man-power intensive and time-consuming due to the large amount of calculations and data exchanges. The purpose of this study is to develop a new nuclear design system called Innovative Design Processor (IDP) in order to minimize human effort and maximize design quality and productivity, and then to achieve an ultimately optimized core loading pattern. Two new basic principles of IDP are the document-oriented design and the web based design. Contrary to the conventional code-oriented or procedure-oriented design, the document-oriented design is human-oriented in that the final document is automatically prepared with complete analysis, table and plots, if the designer writes a design document called active document and feeds it to a parser. This study defined a number of active components and developed an event-driven parser for the active document in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) or XML (Extensible Markup Language). The active documents can be created on the web, which is another framework of IDP. Using proper mix-up of server side and client side programming under the HAMP (HP-UX/Apache/MySQL/PHP) environment, the document-oriented design process on the web is modeled as a design wizard for designer's convenience and platform independency. This automation using IDP was tested for the reload safety evaluation of Korea Standard Nuclear Power Plant (KSNP) type PWRs. Great time saving was confirmed and IDP can complete several-month jobs in a few days. More optimized core loading pattern, therefore, can be obtained since it takes little time to do the reload safety evaluation tasks with several core loading pattern candidates. Since the technology is also applicable to

Development of an event-driven parser for active document and web-based nuclear design system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Yong Soo

2005-02-01

Nuclear design works consist of extensive unit job modules in which many computer codes are used. Each unit module requires time-consuming and erroneous input preparation, code run, output analysis and quality assurance process. The task for safety evaluation of reload core is especially the most man-power intensive and time-consuming due to the large amount of calculations and data exchanges. The purpose of this study is to develop a new nuclear design system called Innovative Design Processor (IDP) in order to minimize human effort and maximize design quality and productivity, and then to achieve an ultimately optimized core loading pattern. Two new basic principles of IDP are the document-oriented design and the web based design. Contrary to the conventional code-oriented or procedure-oriented design, the document-oriented design is human-oriented in that the final document is automatically prepared with complete analysis, table and plots, if the designer writes a design document called active document and feeds it to a parser. This study defined a number of active components and developed an event-driven parser for the active document in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) or XML (Extensible Markup Language). The active documents can be created on the web, which is another framework of IDP. Using proper mix-up of server side and client side programming under the HAMP (HP-UX/Apache/MySQL/PHP) environment, the document-oriented design process on the web is modeled as a design wizard for designer's convenience and platform independency. This automation using IDP was tested for the reload safety evaluation of Korea Standard Nuclear Power Plant (KSNP) type PWRs. Great time saving was confirmed and IDP can complete several-month jobs in a few days. More optimized core loading pattern, therefore, can be obtained since it takes little time to do the reload safety evaluation tasks with several core loading pattern candidates. Since the technology is also applicable to the

Design and System Analysis of Quad-Generation Plant Based on Biomass Gasification Integrated with District Heating

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rudra, Souman

alternative by upgrading existing district heating plant. It provides a generic modeling framework to design flexible energy system in near future. These frameworks address the three main issues arising in the planning and designing of energy system: a) socio impact at both planning and proses design level; b...... in this study. The overall aim of this work is to provide a complete assessment of the technical potential of biomass gasification for local heat and power supply in Denmark and replace of natural gas for the production. This study also finds and defines the future areas of research in the gasification......, it possible to lay a foundation for future gasification based power sector to produce flexible output such as electricity, heat, chemicals or bio-fuels by improving energy system of existing DHP(district heating plant) integrating gasification technology. The present study investigate energy system...

Complete achromatic and robustness electro-optic switch between two integrated optical waveguides

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Wei; Kyoseva, Elica

2018-01-01

In this paper, we present a novel design of electro-optic modulator and optical switching device, based on current integrated optics technique. The advantages of our optical switching device are broadband of input light wavelength, robustness against varying device length and operation voltages, with reference to previous design. Conforming to our results of previous paper [Huang et al, phys. lett. a, 90, 053837], the coupling of the waveguides has a hyperbolic-secant shape. while detuning has a sign flip at maximum coupling, we called it as with a sign flip of phase mismatch model. The a sign flip of phase mismatch model can produce complete robust population transfer. In this paper, we enhance this device to switch light intensity controllable, by tuning external electric field based on electro-optic effect.

Design and development of microblaze processor based Remote Terminal Units for Fast Breeder Reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gour, Aditya; Santhanaraj, A.; Behera, R.P.; Murali, N.; Satyamurty, S.A.V.

2013-01-01

Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) are single board remote data acquisition and control systems that are widely used in FBRs during all states of plant operation. Distributed Digital Control System (DDCS) architecture is being followed for the plant control and operation, which mandates the need for multiple sockets support in TCPIP Ethernet communication in an embedded system. Existing RTUs are 89C51 microcontroller based systems where the TCPIP communication is done using Wiznet Module. These modules can support maximum of four sockets and are already obsolete from the market. In this paper a new RTU design is described where the complete digital logic of a board is implemented in one single FPGA device using Soft-core processor and EMAC controller with multiple socket support for the Ethernet communication. This makes design more reliable and immune to obsolescence. (author)

[Complete genome sequencing and sequence analysis of BCG Tice].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhiming; Pan, Yuanlong; Wu, Jun; Zhu, Baoli

2012-10-04

The objective of this study is to obtain the complete genome sequence of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin Tice (BCG Tice), in order to provide more information about the molecular biology of BCG Tice and design more reasonable vaccines to prevent tuberculosis. We assembled the data from high-throughput sequencing with SOAPdenovo software, with many contigs and scaffolds obtained. There are many sequence gaps and physical gaps remained as a result of regional low coverage and low quality. We designed primers at the end of contigs and performed PCR amplification in order to link these contigs and scaffolds. With various enzymes to perform PCR amplification, adjustment of PCR reaction conditions, and combined with clone construction to sequence, all the gaps were finished. We obtained the complete genome sequence of BCG Tice and submitted it to GenBank of National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The genome of BCG Tice is 4334064 base pairs in length, with GC content 65.65%. The problems and strategies during the finishing step of BCG Tice sequencing are illuminated here, with the hope of affording some experience to those who are involved in the finishing step of genome sequencing. The microarray data were verified by our results.

3 tons pure electric vehicles power system design based on Cruise

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xinyu Liu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The pure electric minivan is different from electric car. Combined with a given vehicle, vehicle simulation model established in Cruise software, complete simulation by setting tasks for the selected models designed drivetrain. Simulation results show that: The design of the transmission ratio can best meet the performance requirements of the matching target power analysis and simulation of electric minivan provides a new way, with practical guidance.

Design Criteria Based on Aesthetic Considerations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomsen, Bente Dahl

2009-01-01

Aesthetic criteria for designs are often debated in a very subjective manner which makes it difficult to reach consensus. In order to have a more rational and transparent process, in particular in industrial design, we propose a procedure based on Baumgarten's aesthetic considerations and Thommesen......'s dividing of a form into form elements. The procedure has been tested in student projects....

Design development and testing of high voltage power supply with crowbar protection for IOT based RF amplifier system in VECC

Science.gov (United States)

Thakur, S. K.; Kumar, Y.

2018-05-01

This paper described the detailed design, development and testing of high voltage power supply (‑30 kV, 3.2 A) and different power supplies for biasing electrodes of Inductive Output Tube (IOT) based high power Radio Frequency (RF) amplifier. This IOT based RF amplifier is further used for pursuing research and development activity in superconducting RF cavity project at Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) Kolkata. The state-of-the-art technology of IOT-based high power RF amplifier is designed, developed, and tested at VECC which is the first of its kind in India. A high voltage power supply rated at negative polarity of 30 kV dc/3.2 A is required for biasing cathode of IOT with crowbar protection circuit. This power supply along with crowbar protection system is designed, developed and tested at VECC for testing the complete setup. The technical difficulties and challenges occured during the design of cathode power supply, its crowbar protection techniques along with other supported power supplies i.e. grid and ion pump power supplies are discussed in this paper.

Beautiful from the Inside Out: A School-Based Programme Designed to Increase Self-Esteem and Positive Body Image among Preadolescents

Science.gov (United States)

Norwood, Sarah Jane; Murray, Marisa; Nolan, Amanda; Bowker, Anne

2011-01-01

The goal of the present study was to design, implement, and evaluate a school-based programme that aimed to increase self-esteem and positive body image among preadolescent boys and girls. Participants in grades five and six (N = 77; M [subscript age] = 10.86, 53.2% girls) from a public school in Eastern Ontario completed a battery of validated…

A model-based framework for design of intensified enzyme-based processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Román-Martinez, Alicia

This thesis presents a generic and systematic model-based framework to design intensified enzyme-based processes. The development of the presented methodology was motivated by the needs of the bio-based industry for a more systematic approach to achieve intensification in its production plants...... in enzyme-based processes which have found significant application in the pharmaceutical, food, and renewable fuels sector. The framework uses model-based strategies for (bio)-chemical process design and optimization, including the use of a superstructure to generate all potential reaction......(s)-separation(s) options according to a desired performance criteria and a generic mathematical model represented by the superstructure to derive the specific models corresponding to a specific process option. In principle, three methods of intensification of bioprocess are considered in this thesis: 1. enzymatic one...

Adaptation from Paper-Pencil to Web-Based Administration of a Parent-Completed Developmental Questionnaire for Young Children

Science.gov (United States)

Yovanoff, Paul; Squires, Jane; McManus, Suzanne

2013-01-01

Adapting traditional paper-pencil instruments to computer-based environments has received considerable attention from the research community due to the possible administration mode effects on obtained measures. When differences due to mode of completion (i.e., paper-pencil, computer-based) are present, threats to measurement validity are posed. In…

Completion of designing and manufacturing of the coil support structure of W7-X

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chauvin, Didier; Koppe, Torsten; Cardella, Antonio; Missal, Bernd; Pilopp, Dirk; Di Bartolo, Giovanni; Camin, Rocio; Gonzales, Ivan; Giordano, Luca; Langone, Stefano

2011-01-01

In February 2000, the project called coil support structure for the Wendelstein 7-X fusion machine was started. Since October 2009 the full production of this big (80 tons) and complex component is now completed and delivered at IPP Greifswald. The W7-X coil system consists of 20 planar and 50 non-planar coils. They are supported by a pentagonal 10 m diameter, 2.5 m high called coil support structure (CSS). The CSS is divided into five modules and each module consists of two equal half modules around the radial axis. Currently, the five modules were successfully assembled with the coils meeting the tight manufacturing tolerances. Designing, structural calculation, raw material procurement, welding and soldering technologies, milling, drilling, accurate machining, helium cooling pipe forming, laser metrology, ultra sonic cleaning and vacuum test are some of the key points used all along this successful manufacturing process. The lessons learned in the large scale production of this difficult kind of support structure will be presented as relevant experience for the realization of similar systems for future fusion devices, such as ITER.

Computer-Aided Test Flow in Core-Based Design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zivkovic, V.; Tangelder, R.J.W.T.; Kerkhoff, Hans G.

2000-01-01

This paper copes with the test-pattern generation and fault coverage determination in the core based design. The basic core-test strategy that one has to apply in the core-based design is stated in this work. A Computer-Aided Test (CAT) flow is proposed resulting in accurate fault coverage of

Online adaptive optimal control for continuous-time nonlinear systems with completely unknown dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Lv, Yongfeng; Na, Jing; Yang, Qinmin; Wu, Xing; Guo, Yu

2016-01-01

An online adaptive optimal control is proposed for continuous-time nonlinear systems with completely unknown dynamics, which is achieved by developing a novel identifier-critic-based approximate dynamic programming algorithm with a dual neural network (NN) approximation structure. First, an adaptive NN identifier is designed to obviate the requirement of complete knowledge of system dynamics, and a critic NN is employed to approximate the optimal value function. Then, the optimal control law is computed based on the information from the identifier NN and the critic NN, so that the actor NN is not needed. In particular, a novel adaptive law design method with the parameter estimation error is proposed to online update the weights of both identifier NN and critic NN simultaneously, which converge to small neighbourhoods around their ideal values. The closed-loop system stability and the convergence to small vicinity around the optimal solution are all proved by means of the Lyapunov theory. The proposed adaptation algorithm is also improved to achieve finite-time convergence of the NN weights. Finally, simulation results are provided to exemplify the efficacy of the proposed methods.

Methodology for cloud-based design of robots

Science.gov (United States)

Ogorodnikova, O. M.; Vaganov, K. A.; Putimtsev, I. D.

2017-09-01

This paper presents some important results for cloud-based designing a robot arm by a group of students. Methodology for the cloud-based design was developed and used to initiate interdisciplinary project about research and development of a specific manipulator. The whole project data files were hosted by Ural Federal University data center. The 3D (three-dimensional) model of the robot arm was created using Siemens PLM software (Product Lifecycle Management) and structured as a complex mechatronics product by means of Siemens Teamcenter thin client; all processes were performed in the clouds. The robot arm was designed in purpose to load blanks up to 1 kg into the work space of the milling machine for performing student's researches.

Reflection: Research by Design: Design-Based Research and the Higher Degree Research Student

Science.gov (United States)

Kennedy-Clark, Shannon

2015-01-01

The article "Research by design: Design-based research and the higher degree research student" (Kennedy-Clark, 2013) appeared in the "Journal of Learning Design" Volume 6, Issue 2 in 2013. Two years on, Shannon Kennedy-Clark reflects upon her original article. Upon being asked to revisit this article the author reflected upon…

A Complete Design Flow of a General Purpose Wireless GPS/Inertial Platform for Motion Data Monitoring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gianluca Borgese

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This work illustrates a complete design flow of an electronic system developed to support applications in which there are the need to measure motion parameters and transmit them to a remote unit for real-time teleprocessing. In order to be useful in many operative contexts, the system is flexible, compact, and lightweight. It integrates a tri-axial inertial sensor, a GPS module, a wireless transceiver and can drive a pocket camera. Data acquisition and packetization are handled in order to increase data throughput on Radio Bridge and to minimize power consumption. A trajectory reconstruction algorithm, implementing the Kalman-filter technique, allows obtaining real-time body tracking using only inertial sensors. Thanks to a graphical user interface it is possible to remotely control the system operations and to display the motion data.

Front end design of smartphone-based mobile health

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Changfan; He, Lingsong; Gao, Zhiqiang; Ling, Cong; Du, Jianhao

2015-02-01

Mobile health has been a new trend all over the world with the rapid development of intelligent terminals and mobile internet. It can help patients monitor health in-house and is convenient for doctors to diagnose remotely. Smart-phone-based mobile health has big advantages in cost and data sharing. Front end design of it mainly focuses on two points: one is implementation of medical sensors aimed at measuring kinds of medical signal; another is acquisition of medical signal from sensors to smart phone. In this paper, the above two aspects were both discussed. First, medical sensor implementation was proposed to refer to mature measurement solutions with ECG (electrocardiograph) sensor design taken for example. And integrated chip using can simplify design. Then second, typical data acquisition architecture of smart phones, namely Bluetooth and MIC (microphone)-based architecture, were compared. Bluetooth architecture should be equipped with an acquisition card; MIC design uses sound card of smart phone instead. Smartphone-based virtual instrument app design corresponding to above acquisition architecture was discussed. In experiments, Bluetooth and MIC architecture were used to acquire blood pressure and ECG data respectively. The results showed that Bluetooth design can guarantee high accuracy during the acquisition and transmission process, and MIC design is competitive because of low cost and convenience.

Symmetric Informationally-Complete Quantum States as Analogues to Orthonormal Bases and Minimum-Uncertainty States

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Marcus Appleby

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Recently there has been much effort in the quantum information community to prove (or disprove the existence of symmetric informationally complete (SIC sets of quantum states in arbitrary finite dimension. This paper strengthens the urgency of this question by showing that if SIC-sets exist: (1 by a natural measure of orthonormality, they are as close to being an orthonormal basis for the space of density operators as possible; and (2 in prime dimensions, the standard construction for complete sets of mutually unbiased bases and Weyl-Heisenberg covariant SIC-sets are intimately related: The latter represent minimum uncertainty states for the former in the sense of Wootters and Sussman. Finally, we contribute to the question of existence by conjecturing a quadratic redundancy in the equations for Weyl-Heisenberg SIC-sets.

Advancing Integrated STEM Learning through Engineering Design: Sixth-Grade Students' Design and Construction of Earthquake Resistant Buildings

Science.gov (United States)

English, Lyn D.; King, Donna; Smeed, Joanna

2017-01-01

As part of a 3-year longitudinal study, 136 sixth-grade students completed an engineering-based problem on earthquakes involving integrated STEM learning. Students employed engineering design processes and STEM disciplinary knowledge to plan, sketch, then construct a building designed to withstand earthquake damage, taking into account a number of…

Evaluation of a web-based lifestyle coach designed to maintain a healthy bodyweight.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelders, Saskia M; van Gemert-Pijnen, Julia E W C; Werkman, Andrea; Seydel, Erwin R

2010-01-01

We evaluated a web-based intervention, the Healthy Weight Assistant (HWA), which was designed to help people with a healthy bodyweight, or those who are slightly overweight, to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Four evaluation methods were used: (1) pre- and post-test questionnaires; (2) real time usability-tests; (3) log-file analysis; (4) qualitative analysis of forum posts, email messages and free-text responses in the questionnaires. A total of 703 respondents received access to the HWA. Six weeks after receiving access, 431 respondents completed a second questionnaire. The enthusiastic responses showed that many people were interested in using an interactive online application to support achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. The preliminary results suggest that improvements with respect to motivation may lead to large effects, yet require only small changes in the design of the HWA. Sending automatic tailored reminders may enhance motivation to keep using the application. Motivation to change behaviour may be enhanced by emphasizing goal setting and visualizing progress.

Optimized Controller Design for a 12-Pulse Voltage Source Converter Based HVDC System

Science.gov (United States)

Agarwal, Ruchi; Singh, Sanjeev

2017-12-01

The paper proposes an optimized controller design scheme for power quality improvement in 12-pulse voltage source converter based high voltage direct current system. The proposed scheme is hybrid combination of golden section search and successive linear search method. The paper aims at reduction of current sensor and optimization of controller. The voltage and current controller parameters are selected for optimization due to its impact on power quality. The proposed algorithm for controller optimizes the objective function which is composed of current harmonic distortion, power factor, and DC voltage ripples. The detailed designs and modeling of the complete system are discussed and its simulation is carried out in MATLAB-Simulink environment. The obtained results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme under different transient conditions such as load perturbation, non-linear load condition, voltage sag condition, and tapped load fault under one phase open condition at both points-of-common coupling.

Differences between Lab Completion and Non-Completion on Student Performance in an Online Undergraduate Environmental Science Program

Science.gov (United States)

Corsi, Gianluca

2011-12-01

Web-based technology has revolutionized the way education is delivered. Although the advantages of online learning appeal to large numbers of students, some concerns arise. One major concern in online science education is the value that participation in labs has on student performance. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships between lab completion and student academic success as measured by test grades, scientific self-confidence, scientific skills, and concept mastery. A random sample of 114 volunteer undergraduate students, from an online Environmental Science program at the American Public University System, was tested. The study followed a quantitative, non-experimental research design. Paired sample t-tests were used for statistical comparison between pre-lab and post-lab test grades, two scientific skills quizzes, and two scientific self-confidence surveys administered at the beginning and at the end of the course. The results of the paired sample t-tests revealed statistically significant improvements on all post-lab test scores: Air Pollution lab, t(112) = 6.759, p virtual reality platforms and digital animations. Future research is encouraged to investigate possible correlations between socio-demographic attributes and academic success of students enrolled in online science programs in reference to lab completion.

Fragment-based drug design.

Science.gov (United States)

Feyfant, Eric; Cross, Jason B; Paris, Kevin; Tsao, Désirée H H

2011-01-01

Fragment-based drug design (FBDD), which is comprised of both fragment screening and the use of fragment hits to design leads, began more than 15 years ago and has been steadily gaining in popularity and utility. Its origin lies on the fact that the coverage of chemical space and the binding efficiency of hits are directly related to the size of the compounds screened. Nevertheless, FBDD still faces challenges, among them developing fragment screening libraries that ensure optimal coverage of chemical space, physical properties and chemical tractability. Fragment screening also requires sensitive assays, often biophysical in nature, to detect weak binders. In this chapter we will introduce the technologies used to address these challenges and outline the experimental advantages that make FBDD one of the most popular new hit-to-lead process.

Climate Based Façade Design for Business Buildings with Examples from Central London

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Napier

2015-01-01

Full Text Available There is a disconnection between commercial architecture and environmental thinking, where green features can be included as part of a strategy for gaining approvals and marketing projects, but those features are not reviewed after completion and occupation of the building and knowledge is not shared. High levels of air conditioning are still considered unavoidable. Elaborate double skin façades and complex motorized shading systems are adopted; often masking an underlying lack of basic environmental thinking. This article returns (in principle to the physics of comfort in buildings and the passive strategies which can help achieve this with a low energy and carbon footprint. Passive and active façade design strategies are outlined as the basis of a critical tool and a design methodology for new projects. A new architectural sensibility can arise based on modeling the inputs of sunlight, daylight and air temperature in time and space at the early stages of design. Early but sound strategies can be tested and refined using advanced environmental modeling techniques. Architecture and environmental thinking can proceed hand in hand through the design process.

Conceptual design of distillation-based hybrid separation processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Skiborowski, Mirko; Harwardt, Andreas; Marquardt, Wolfgang

2013-01-01

Hybrid separation processes combine different separation principles and constitute a promising design option for the separation of complex mixtures. Particularly, the integration of distillation with other unit operations can significantly improve the separation of close-boiling or azeotropic mixtures. Although the design of single-unit operations is well understood and supported by computational methods, the optimal design of flowsheets of hybrid separation processes is still a challenging task. The large number of operational and design degrees of freedom requires a systematic and optimization-based design approach. To this end, a structured approach, the so-called process synthesis framework, is proposed. This article reviews available computational methods for the conceptual design of distillation-based hybrid processes for the separation of liquid mixtures. Open problems are identified that must be addressed to finally establish a structured process synthesis framework for such processes.

Use of Model-Based Design Methods for Enhancing Resiliency Analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Knox, Lenora A.

The most common traditional non-functional requirement analysis is reliability. With systems becoming more complex, networked, and adaptive to environmental uncertainties, system resiliency has recently become the non-functional requirement analysis of choice. Analysis of system resiliency has challenges; which include, defining resilience for domain areas, identifying resilience metrics, determining resilience modeling strategies, and understanding how to best integrate the concepts of risk and reliability into resiliency. Formal methods that integrate all of these concepts do not currently exist in specific domain areas. Leveraging RAMSoS, a model-based reliability analysis methodology for Systems of Systems (SoS), we propose an extension that accounts for resiliency analysis through evaluation of mission performance, risk, and cost using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) modeling and design trade study variability modeling evaluation techniques. This proposed methodology, coined RAMSoS-RESIL, is applied to a case study in the multi-agent unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) domain to investigate the potential benefits of a mission architecture where functionality to complete a mission is disseminated across multiple UAVs (distributed) opposed to being contained in a single UAV (monolithic). The case study based research demonstrates proof of concept for the proposed model-based technique and provides sufficient preliminary evidence to conclude which architectural design (distributed vs. monolithic) is most resilient based on insight into mission resilience performance, risk, and cost in addition to the traditional analysis of reliability.

Advanced Information Technology in Simulation Based Life Cycle Design

Science.gov (United States)

Renaud, John E.

2003-01-01

In this research a Collaborative Optimization (CO) approach for multidisciplinary systems design is used to develop a decision based design framework for non-deterministic optimization. To date CO strategies have been developed for use in application to deterministic systems design problems. In this research the decision based design (DBD) framework proposed by Hazelrigg is modified for use in a collaborative optimization framework. The Hazelrigg framework as originally proposed provides a single level optimization strategy that combines engineering decisions with business decisions in a single level optimization. By transforming this framework for use in collaborative optimization one can decompose the business and engineering decision making processes. In the new multilevel framework of Decision Based Collaborative Optimization (DBCO) the business decisions are made at the system level. These business decisions result in a set of engineering performance targets that disciplinary engineering design teams seek to satisfy as part of subspace optimizations. The Decision Based Collaborative Optimization framework more accurately models the existing relationship between business and engineering in multidisciplinary systems design.

Assessment of legibility and completeness of handwritten and electronic prescriptions.

Science.gov (United States)

Albarrak, Ahmed I; Al Rashidi, Eman Abdulrahman; Fatani, Rwaa Kamil; Al Ageel, Shoog Ibrahim; Mohammed, Rafiuddin

2014-12-01

To assess the legibility and completeness of handwritten prescriptions and compare with electronic prescription system for medication errors. Prospective study. King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Handwritten prescriptions were received from clinical units of Medicine Outpatient Department (MOPD), Primary Care Clinic (PCC) and Surgery Outpatient Department (SOPD) whereas electronic prescriptions were collected from the pediatric ward. The handwritten prescription was assessed for completeness by the checklist designed according to the hospital prescription and evaluated for legibility by two pharmacists. The comparison between handwritten and electronic prescription errors was evaluated based on the validated checklist adopted from previous studies. Legibility and completeness of prescriptions. 398 prescriptions (199 handwritten and 199 e-prescriptions) were assessed. About 71 (35.7%) of handwritten and 5 (2.5%) of electronic prescription errors were identified. A significant statistical difference (P prescriptions in omitted dose and omitted route of administration category of error distribution. The rate of completeness in patient identification in handwritten prescriptions was 80.97% in MOPD, 76.36% in PCC and 85.93% in SOPD clinic units. Assessment of medication prescription completeness was 91.48% in MOPD, 88.48% in PCC, and 89.28% in SOPD. This study revealed a high incidence of prescribing errors in handwritten prescriptions. The use of e-prescription system showed a significant decline in the incidence of errors. The legibility of handwritten prescriptions was relatively good whereas the level of completeness was very low.

Design and Development of Polysilicon-based Microhotplate for Gas Sensing Application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahanth PRASAD

2009-04-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the design and development of a polysilicon-based microhotplate (MHP on a SiO2 membrane formed by bulk micromachining in orientation P-type silicon. The chip comprises four microheater cells, which can be used separately or in series combination. The chip size is 2.1 × 2.1 sq. mm. The design and simulation of a single-cell microhotplate is carried out using ANSYS. The complete fabrication process is described in this paper. The temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR of polysilicon resistors of values 5.7 kW and 3.36 kW has been measured as 0.69 × 10-3 and 0.5 × 10-3 per °C respectively. These values are used to estimate the temperature of the polysilicon heater by measuring the change in resistance value of the resistor on applying a voltage to it. Temperatures up to 367 °C have been calculated at low bias voltages. As the sensitivity of the gas sensing film is temperature dependent, the developed hotplate will be used as a platform for fabricating the gas sensors.

Designing and Evaluating Conative Game-Based Learning Scenarios

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schønau-Fog, Henrik

2014-01-01

It is an essential prerequisite to design for motivation in game-based learning applications, tools and activities. However, how is it possible to design and evaluate motivational game-based learning scenarios in a systematic process-oriented manner based on conation and player engagement? While...... of ‘continuation desire’ such as interfacing with the scenario, exploration and socialising. This paper aims to combine the concepts of Player Engagement, Conation and Continuation Desire by focusing on the conative aspects which are the essential drivers for the desire to continue any learning activity......-based learning scenarios....

Structural design systems using knowledge-based techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Orsborn, K.

1993-01-01

Engineering information management and the corresponding information systems are of a strategic importance for industrial enterprises. This thesis treats the interdisciplinary field of designing computing systems for structural design and analysis using knowledge-based techniques. Specific conceptual models have been designed for representing the structure and the process of objects and activities in a structural design and analysis domain. In this thesis, it is shown how domain knowledge can be structured along several classification principles in order to reduce complexity and increase flexibility. By increasing the conceptual level of the problem description and representation of the domain knowledge in a declarative form, it is possible to enhance the development, maintenance and use of software for mechanical engineering. This will result in a corresponding increase of the efficiency of the mechanical engineering design process. These ideas together with the rule-based control point out the leverage of declarative knowledge representation within this domain. Used appropriately, a declarative knowledge representation preserves information better, is more problem-oriented and change-tolerant than procedural representations. 74 refs

Using a web-based game to prevent posttraumatic stress in children following medical events: design of a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Marsac, Meghan L; Kohser, Kristen L; Winston, Flaura K; Kenardy, Justin; March, Sonja; Kassam-Adams, Nancy

2013-01-01

Medical events including acute illness and injury are among the most common potentially traumatic experiences for children. Despite the scope of the problem, only limited resources are available for prevention of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) after pediatric medical events. Web-based programs provide a low-cost, accessible means to reach a wide range of families and show promise in related areas of child mental health. To describe the design of a randomized controlled trial that will evaluate feasibility and estimate preliminary efficacy of Coping Coach, a web-based preventive intervention to prevent or reduce PTSS after acute pediatric medical events. Seventy children and their parents will be randomly assigned to either an intervention or a waitlist control condition. Inclusion criteria require that children are aged 8-12 years, have experienced a medical event, have access to Internet and telephone, and have sufficient competency in the English language to complete measures and understand the intervention. Participants will complete baseline measures and will then be randomized to the intervention or waitlist control condition. Children in the intervention condition will complete module 1 (Feelings Identification) in the hospital and will be instructed on how to complete modules 2 (Appraisals) and 3 (Avoidance) online. Follow-up assessments will be conducted via telephone at 6, 12, and 18 weeks after the baseline assessment. Following the 12-week assessment, children in the waitlist control condition will receive instructions for completing the intervention. Primary study outcomes include data on intervention feasibility and outcomes (child appraisals, coping, PTSS and health-related quality of life). Results will provide data on the feasibility of the implementation of the Coping Coach intervention and study procedures as well as estimations of efficacy to determine sample size for a larger study. Potential strengths and limitations of this design are

Using a web-based game to prevent posttraumatic stress in children following medical events: design of a randomized controlled trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nancy Kassam-Adams

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Background: Medical events including acute illness and injury are among the most common potentially traumatic experiences for children. Despite the scope of the problem, only limited resources are available for prevention of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS after pediatric medical events. Web-based programs provide a low-cost, accessible means to reach a wide range of families and show promise in related areas of child mental health. Objectives: To describe the design of a randomized controlled trial that will evaluate feasibility and estimate preliminary efficacy of Coping Coach, a web-based preventive intervention to prevent or reduce PTSS after acute pediatric medical events. Method: Seventy children and their parents will be randomly assigned to either an intervention or a waitlist control condition. Inclusion criteria require that children are aged 8–12 years, have experienced a medical event, have access to Internet and telephone, and have sufficient competency in the English language to complete measures and understand the intervention. Participants will complete baseline measures and will then be randomized to the intervention or waitlist control condition. Children in the intervention condition will complete module 1 (Feelings Identification in the hospital and will be instructed on how to complete modules 2 (Appraisals and 3 (Avoidance online. Follow-up assessments will be conducted via telephone at 6, 12, and 18 weeks after the baseline assessment. Following the 12-week assessment, children in the waitlist control condition will receive instructions for completing the intervention. Results: Primary study outcomes include data on intervention feasibility and outcomes (child appraisals, coping, PTSS and health-related quality of life. Discussion: Results will provide data on the feasibility of the implementation of the Coping Coach intervention and study procedures as well as estimations of efficacy to determine sample size for a

DENA: A Configurable Microarchitecture and Design Flow for Biomedical DNA-Based Logic Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Beiki, Zohre; Jahanian, Ali

2017-10-01

DNA is known as the building block for storing the life codes and transferring the genetic features through the generations. However, it is found that DNA strands can be used for a new type of computation that opens fascinating horizons in computational medicine. Significant contributions are addressed on design of DNA-based logic gates for medical and computational applications but there are serious challenges for designing the medium and large-scale DNA circuits. In this paper, a new microarchitecture and corresponding design flow is proposed to facilitate the design of multistage large-scale DNA logic systems. Feasibility and efficiency of the proposed microarchitecture are evaluated by implementing a full adder and, then, its cascadability is determined by implementing a multistage 8-bit adder. Simulation results show the highlight features of the proposed design style and microarchitecture in terms of the scalability, implementation cost, and signal integrity of the DNA-based logic system compared to the traditional approaches.

Design for mood : Twenty activity-based opportunities to design for mood regulation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Desmet, P.M.A.

2015-01-01

This paper introduces a theory-based approach to design for mood regulation. The main proposition is that design can best influence mood by enabling and stimulating people to engage in a broad range of mood-regulating activities. The first part of the manuscript reviews state-of-the art mood-focused

Designing Task-Based Syllabus For Writing Class

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sundari Hanna

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Writing is viewed as the most complex skill to learn and to teach. Beside learner factors, teacher, materials and syllabus may also affect the process of learning language as foreign language. Syllabus, in general, can be defined as a set of what is taught (content and the way it is taught (procedure. This current research aims to design a task-based syllabus for writing class at university level. This study was conducted by qualitative descriptive design with 92 students and 4 lecturers as respondents. As part of research and development project in one private university in Jakarta, a developed task-based syllabus was based on need analysis and the principles of task-based language teaching. Students’ proficiency levels are fair with sentence patterns and grammar as the most difficult aspects. Academic writing is more preferable orientation with the small portions of creative writing. Then, the developed task-based syllabus has been proposed for writing class which covers the components of goal (learning outcome, course description and objectives, a set of writing tasks, features of content focus and language focus and course evaluation. The developed syllabus, then, can guide the lecturers in designing lesson plan and selecting materials for writing class.

Assessing Gains in Science Teaching Self-Efficacy after Completing an Inquiry-Based Earth Science Course

Science.gov (United States)

Gray, Kyle

2017-01-01

Preservice elementary teachers are often required to take an Earth Science content course as part of their teacher education program but typically enter the course with little knowledge of key Earth Science concepts and are uncertain in their ability to teach science. This study investigated whether completing an inquiry-based Earth Science course…

Design and analysis of environmental information monitoring system based on ZigBee technology

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Kenan; Zhou, Bing; Yang, Qiliang; Guo, Hao; Ge, Zhenyang

Farm field data information timely access is an important foundation of the modern precise management. A environmental information monitoring system was proposed based on Zigbee wireless sensor networks and field characteristics of environmental monitoring data information in this paper. The data acquisition by the sensor nodes of the monitoring regional, and a wireless network was constitute by multiple sensor node and network structure using a star topology, network coordinator is responsible for data collection and complete on-site data collection, processing, transmission and storage by RS232 interface connecting to a PC-side data management center. Practical application shows: the system has basically reached the design requirements provided some advantages with data transmission reliability and performance stability.

Design of resonant converter based DC power supply for RF amplifier

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohan, Kartik; Suthar, Gajendra; Dalicha, Hrushikesh; Agarwal, Rohit; Trivedi, R.G.; Mukherjee, Aparajita

2017-01-01

ITER require 20 MW of RF power to a large variety of plasmas in the Ion Cyclotron frequency range for heating and driving plasma current. Nine RF sources of 2.5MW RF power level each collectively will accomplish the above requirement. Each RF source consists of SSPA, driver and end stage, above which driver and end stage amplifier are tube (Tetrode/Diacrode) based which requires auxiliary DC power source viz. filament, screen grid and control grid DC power supply. DC power supply has some stringent requirements like low stored energy, fast turn off, and low ripple value, etc. This paper will focus only on Zero Current Switching (ZCS) resonant converter based buck converter. This can serve the purpose of control grid and screen grid DC power supply for above requirement. IGBT switch will be used at 20 kHz so as to lower the filter requirement hence low stored energy and ripple in the output voltage. ZCS operation will also assist us in reducing EMI/EMC effect. Design of resonant tank circuit is important aspect of the converter as it forms the backbone of the complete system and basis of selection of other important parameters as well hence mathematical model analysis with the help of circuit equations for various modes have been shown as a part of selection criteria. Peak current through the switch, duty cycle, switching frequency will be the design parameters for selecting resonant tank circuit

Grasping completions: Towards a new paradigm

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lommertzen, J.; Meulenbroek, R.G.J.; Lier, R.J. van

2006-01-01

We studied contextual effects of amodal completion in both a primed-matching task, and a grasping task in a within-subjects design with twenty-nine participants. Stimuli were partly occluded cylindrical objects that could have indentations (or protrusions) at regular intervals along the contour. The

Adherence of Candida to complete denture surfaces in vitro: A comparison of conventional and CAD/CAM complete dentures.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Fouzan, Afnan F; Al-Mejrad, Lamya A; Albarrag, Ahmed M

2017-10-01

The goal of this study was to compare the adhesion of Candida albicans to the surfaces of CAD/CAM and conventionally fabricated complete denture bases. Twenty discs of acrylic resin poly (methyl methacrylate) were fabricated with CAD/CAM and conventional procedures (heat-polymerized acrylic resin). The specimens were divided into two groups: 10 discs were fabricated using the CAD/CAM procedure (Wieland Digital Denture Ivoclar Vivadent), and 10 discs were fabricated using a conventional flasking and pressure-pack technique. Candida colonization was performed on all the specimens using four Candida albicans isolates. The difference in Candida albicans adhesion on the discs was evaluated. The number of adherent yeast cells was calculated by the colony-forming units (CFU) and by Fluorescence microscopy. There was a significant difference in the adhesion of Candida albicans to the complete denture bases created with CAD/CAM and the adhesion to those created with the conventional procedure. The CAD/CAM denture bases exhibited less adhesion of Candida albicans than did the denture bases created with the conventional procedure ( P CAD/CAM procedure for fabricating complete dentures showed promising potential for reducing the adherence of Candida to the denture base surface. Clinical Implications. Complete dentures made with the CAD/CAM procedure might decrease the incidence of denture stomatitis compared with conventional dentures.

Hydraulic performance numerical simulation of high specific speed mixed-flow pump based on quasi three-dimensional hydraulic design method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Y X; Su, M; Hou, H C; Song, P F

2013-01-01

This research adopts the quasi three-dimensional hydraulic design method for the impeller of high specific speed mixed-flow pump to achieve the purpose of verifying the hydraulic design method and improving hydraulic performance. Based on the two families of stream surface theory, the direct problem is completed when the meridional flow field of impeller is obtained by employing iterative calculation to settle the continuity and momentum equation of fluid. The inverse problem is completed by using the meridional flow field calculated in the direct problem. After several iterations of the direct and inverse problem, the shape of impeller and flow field information can be obtained finally when the result of iteration satisfies the convergent criteria. Subsequently the internal flow field of the designed pump are simulated by using RANS equations with RNG k-ε two-equation turbulence model. The static pressure and streamline distributions at the symmetrical cross-section, the vector velocity distribution around blades and the reflux phenomenon are analyzed. The numerical results show that the quasi three-dimensional hydraulic design method for high specific speed mixed-flow pump improves the hydraulic performance and reveal main characteristics of the internal flow of mixed-flow pump as well as provide basis for judging the rationality of the hydraulic design, improvement and optimization of hydraulic model

Managing the Complexity of Design Problems through Studio-Based Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Cennamo, Katherine; Brandt, Carol; Scott, Brigitte; Douglas, Sarah; McGrath, Margarita; Reimer, Yolanda; Vernon, Mitzi

2011-01-01

The ill-structured nature of design problems makes them particularly challenging for problem-based learning. Studio-based learning (SBL), however, has much in common with problem-based learning and indeed has a long history of use in teaching students to solve design problems. The purpose of this ethnographic study of an industrial design class,…

Designers' Cognitive Thinking Based on Evolutionary Algorithms

OpenAIRE

Zhang Shutao; Jianning Su; Chibing Hu; Peng Wang

2013-01-01

The research on cognitive thinking is important to construct the efficient intelligent design systems. But it is difficult to describe the model of cognitive thinking with reasonable mathematical theory. Based on the analysis of design strategy and innovative thinking, we investigated the design cognitive thinking model that included the external guide thinking of "width priority - depth priority" and the internal dominated thinking of "divergent thinking - convergent thinking", built a reaso...

3D Printing the Complete CubeSat

Science.gov (United States)

Kief, Craig

2015-01-01

The 3D Printing the Complete CubeSat project is designed to advance the state-of-the-art in 3D printing for CubeSat applications. Printing in 3D has the potential to increase reliability, reduce design iteration time and provide greater design flexibility in the areas of radiation mitigation, communications, propulsion, and wiring, among others. This project is investigating the possibility of including propulsion systems into the design of printed CubeSat components. One such concept, an embedded micro pulsed plasma thruster (mPPT), could provide auxiliary reaction control propulsion for a spacecraft as a means to desaturate momentum wheels.

User Experience Design in Professional Map-Based Geo-Portals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bastian Zimmer

2013-10-01

Full Text Available We have recently been witnessing the growing establishment of map-centered web-based geo-portals on national, regional and local levels. However, a particular issue with these geo-portals is that each instance has been implemented in different ways in terms of design, usability, functionality, interaction possibilities, map size and symbologies. In this paper, we try to tackle these shortcomings by analyzing and formalizing the requirements for map-based geo-portals in a user experience based approach. First, we propose a holistic definition the term of a “geo-portal”. Then, we present our approach to user experience design for map-based geo-portals by defining the functional requirements of a geo-portal, by analyzing previous geo-portal developments, by distilling the results of our empirical user study to perform practically-oriented user requirements, and finally by establishing a set of user experience design guidelines for the creation of map-based geo-portals. These design guidelines have been extracted for each of the main components of a geo-portal, i.e., the map, the search dialogue, the presentation of the search results, symbologies, and other aspects. These guidelines shall constitute the basis for future geo-portal developments to achieve standardization in the user-experience design of map-based geo-portals.

Designing with the mind in mind simple guide to understanding user interface design guidelines

CERN Document Server

Johnson, Jeff

2014-01-01

In this completely updated and revised edition of Designing with the Mind in Mind, Jeff Johnson provides you with just enough background in perceptual and cognitive psychology that user interface (UI) design guidelines make intuitive sense rather than being just a list or rules to follow. Early UI practitioners were trained in cognitive psychology, and developed UI design rules based on it. But as the field has evolved since the first edition of this book, designers enter the field from many disciplines. Practitioners today have enough experience in UI design that they have been exposed to

Heuristic decision model for intelligent nuclear power systems design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nassersharif, B.; Portal, M.G.; Gaeta, M.J.

1989-01-01

The objective of this project was to investigate intelligent nuclear power systems design. A theoretical model of the design process has been developed. A fundamental process in this model is the heuristic decision making for design (i.e., selection of methods, components, materials, etc.). Rule-based expert systems do not provide the completeness that is necessary to generate good design. A new method, based on the fuzzy set theory, has been developed and is presented here. A feedwater system knowledge base (KB) was developed for a prototype software experiment to benchmark the theory

The effect of implementing cognitive load theory-based design principles in virtual reality simulation training of surgical skills: a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Andersen, Steven Arild Wuyts; Mikkelsen, Peter Trier; Konge, Lars; Cayé-Thomasen, Per; Sørensen, Mads Sølvsten

2016-01-01

Cognitive overload can inhibit learning, and cognitive load theory-based instructional design principles can be used to optimize learning situations. This study aims to investigate the effect of implementing cognitive load theory-based design principles in virtual reality simulation training of mastoidectomy. Eighteen novice medical students received 1 h of self-directed virtual reality simulation training of the mastoidectomy procedure randomized for standard instructions (control) or cognitive load theory-based instructions with a worked example followed by a problem completion exercise (intervention). Participants then completed two post-training virtual procedures for assessment and comparison. Cognitive load during the post-training procedures was estimated by reaction time testing on an integrated secondary task. Final-product analysis by two blinded expert raters was used to assess the virtual mastoidectomy performances. Participants in the intervention group had a significantly increased cognitive load during the post-training procedures compared with the control group (52 vs. 41 %, p  = 0.02). This was also reflected in the final-product performance: the intervention group had a significantly lower final-product score than the control group (13.0 vs. 15.4, p  virtual reality surgical simulation training of novices.

Design of area array CCD image acquisition and display system based on FPGA

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Lei; Zhang, Ning; Li, Tianting; Pan, Yue; Dai, Yuming

2014-09-01

With the development of science and technology, CCD(Charge-coupled Device) has been widely applied in various fields and plays an important role in the modern sensing system, therefore researching a real-time image acquisition and display plan based on CCD device has great significance. This paper introduces an image data acquisition and display system of area array CCD based on FPGA. Several key technical challenges and problems of the system have also been analyzed and followed solutions put forward .The FPGA works as the core processing unit in the system that controls the integral time sequence .The ICX285AL area array CCD image sensor produced by SONY Corporation has been used in the system. The FPGA works to complete the driver of the area array CCD, then analog front end (AFE) processes the signal of the CCD image, including amplification, filtering, noise elimination, CDS correlation double sampling, etc. AD9945 produced by ADI Corporation to convert analog signal to digital signal. Developed Camera Link high-speed data transmission circuit, and completed the PC-end software design of the image acquisition, and realized the real-time display of images. The result through practical testing indicates that the system in the image acquisition and control is stable and reliable, and the indicators meet the actual project requirements.

A contig-based strategy for the genome-wide discovery of microRNAs without complete genome resources.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun-Zhi Wen

Full Text Available MicroRNAs (miRNAs are important regulators of many cellular processes and exist in a wide range of eukaryotes. High-throughput sequencing is a mainstream method of miRNA identification through which it is possible to obtain the complete small RNA profile of an organism. Currently, most approaches to miRNA identification rely on a reference genome for the prediction of hairpin structures. However, many species of economic and phylogenetic importance are non-model organisms without complete genome sequences, and this limits miRNA discovery. Here, to overcome this limitation, we have developed a contig-based miRNA identification strategy. We applied this method to a triploid species of edible banana (GCTCV-119, Musa spp. AAA group and identified 180 pre-miRNAs and 314 mature miRNAs, which is three times more than those were predicted by the available dataset-based methods (represented by EST+GSS. Based on the recently published miRNA data set of Musa acuminate, the recall rate and precision of our strategy are estimated to be 70.6% and 92.2%, respectively, significantly better than those of EST+GSS-based strategy (10.2% and 50.0%, respectively. Our novel, efficient and cost-effective strategy facilitates the study of the functional and evolutionary role of miRNAs, as well as miRNA-based molecular breeding, in non-model species of economic or evolutionary interest.

Case-based reasoning support for engineering design

Science.gov (United States)

Lees, Brian; Hamza, Meer; Irgens, Chris

2000-10-01

The potential application of case-based reasoning (CBR) in design support is illustrated through examples drawn from research at the University of Paisley, demonstrating the suitability of CBR for different aspects of design, different problem areas, and different design goals. A quality advisory system has been developed for the early stages of mechanical engineering design, the aim of which is to provide quality advice in a variant design situation. In the domain of software engineering CBR has been applied to advise on which metrics are appropriate fora assessing the quality of the software currently under design. The system integrates CBR with concepts from quality function deployment (QFD) and incorporates a case library holding past software quality histories. CBR has been applied in support of conceptual design: to capture detailed design histories by monitoring designer actions, and thereby support design reuse through the evaluation of designs, through the provision of query, browsing and replay facilities. The resulting system is aimed to support the design of safety critical systems, by assisting in the construction of safety arguments, and cooperative design.

Discovery and design of carbohydrate-based therapeutics.

Science.gov (United States)

Cipolla, Laura; Araújo, Ana C; Bini, Davide; Gabrielli, Luca; Russo, Laura; Shaikh, Nasrin

2010-08-01

Till now, the importance of carbohydrates has been underscored, if compared with the two other major classes of biopolymers such as oligonucleotides and proteins. Recent advances in glycobiology and glycochemistry have imparted a strong interest in the study of this enormous family of biomolecules. Carbohydrates have been shown to be implicated in recognition processes, such as cell-cell adhesion, cell-extracellular matrix adhesion and cell-intruder recognition phenomena. In addition, carbohydrates are recognized as differentiation markers and as antigenic determinants. Due to their relevant biological role, carbohydrates are promising candidates for drug design and disease treatment. However, the growing number of human disorders known as congenital disorders of glycosylation that are being identified as resulting from abnormalities in glycan structures and protein glycosylation strongly indicates that a fast development of glycobiology, glycochemistry and glycomedicine is highly desirable. The topics give an overview of different approaches that have been used to date for the design of carbohydrate-based therapeutics; this includes the use of native synthetic carbohydrates, the use of carbohydrate mimics designed on the basis of their native counterpart, the use of carbohydrates as scaffolds and finally the design of glyco-fused therapeutics, one of the most recent approaches. The review covers mainly literature that has appeared since 2000, except for a few papers cited for historical reasons. The reader will gain an overview of the current strategies applied to the design of carbohydrate-based therapeutics; in particular, the advantages/disadvantages of different approaches are highlighted. The topic is presented in a general, basic manner and will hopefully be a useful resource for all readers who are not familiar with it. In addition, in order to stress the potentialities of carbohydrates, several examples of carbohydrate-based marketed therapeutics are given

Organic Acid Salt from Complete Feed Silage Corn Based by Product as an Alternative to Substitute Antibiotic Function as a Growth Promotor for Broiler

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W Negara

2009-11-01

Full Text Available This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of organic acid salt Zn from complete feed silage based on corn by product as an alternative to subtitute antibiotic function as a growth promotor for broiler. Ninety day old commercial Cobb broiler chickens were randomly distributed into six groups having three replicates of five birds in each group. Negative control (R0 birds were offered standard basal diet and no challenged, positive control (R1 birds were offered standard basal diet and challenged with 107 Salmonella typhimurium. Treatment R2, R3, R4 and R5 were challenged by 107 CFU of Salmonella typhimurium which added in feed with 0.1% flouroquinolone, 0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.3% of organic acid salts. The result showed that dietary of organic acid salts affect consumption, weight gain, and final body weight (P<0.05. Meanwhile, feed conversion (FCR was not affected by antibiotics nor organic acids. Our conclusion, Dietary organic acid salt from complete feed silage corn based by product until dose 0.2% can improve the performance of broiler chickens infected Salmonella typhimurium. (Animal Production 11(3: 170-175 (2009 Key Words: broiler, organic acid, Salmonella typhimurium

Tile-based rigidization surface parametric design study

Science.gov (United States)

Giner Munoz, Laura; Luntz, Jonathan; Brei, Diann; Kim, Wonhee

2018-03-01

Inflatable technologies have proven useful in consumer goods as well as in more recent applications including civil structures, aerospace, medical, and robotics. However, inflatable technologies are typically lacking in their ability to provide rigid structural support. Particle jamming improves upon this by providing structures which are normally flexible and moldable but become rigid when air is removed. Because these are based on an airtight bladder filled with loose particles, they always occupy the full volume of its rigid state, even when not rigidized. More recent developments in layer jamming have created thin, compact rigidizing surfaces replacing the loose volume of particles with thinly layered surface materials. Work in this area has been applied to several specific applications with positive results but have not generally provided the broader understanding of the rigidization performance as a function of design parameters required for directly adapting layer rigidization technology to other applications. This paper presents a parametric design study of a new layer jamming vacuum rigidization architecture: tile-based vacuum rigidization. This form of rigidization is based on layers of tiles contained within a thin vacuum bladder which can be bent, rolled, or otherwise compactly stowed, but when deployed flat, can be vacuumed and form a large, flat, rigid plate capable of supporting large forces both localized and distributed over the surface. The general architecture and operation detailing rigidization and compliance mechanisms is introduced. To quantitatively characterize the rigidization behavior, prototypes rigidization surfaces are fabricated and an experimental technique is developed based on a 3-point bending test. Performance evaluation metrics are developed to describe the stiffness, load-bearing capacity, and internal slippage of tested prototypes. A set of experimental parametric studies are performed to better understand the impact of

Research by Design: Design-Based Research and the Higher Degree Research student

Science.gov (United States)

Kennedy-Clark, Shannon

2013-01-01

Design-based research lends itself to educational research as the aim of this approach is to develop and refine the design of artefacts, tools and curriculum and to advance existing theory or develop new theories that can support and lead to a deepened understanding of learning. This paper provides an overview of the potential benefits of using a…

Computer vision based room interior design

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmad, Nasir; Hussain, Saddam; Ahmad, Kashif; Conci, Nicola

2015-12-01

This paper introduces a new application of computer vision. To the best of the author's knowledge, it is the first attempt to incorporate computer vision techniques into room interior designing. The computer vision based interior designing is achieved in two steps: object identification and color assignment. The image segmentation approach is used for the identification of the objects in the room and different color schemes are used for color assignment to these objects. The proposed approach is applied to simple as well as complex images from online sources. The proposed approach not only accelerated the process of interior designing but also made it very efficient by giving multiple alternatives.

IPE Data Base: Plant design, core damage frequency and containment performance information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lehner, J.; Lin, C.C.; Pratt, W.T.; Su, T.; Danziger, L.

1995-01-01

This data base stores data obtained from the Individual Plant Examinations (IPEs) which licensees of nuclear power plants have conducted in response to NRC's Generic Letter GL88-20. The IPE Data Base is a collection of linked files which store information about plant design, core damage frequency, and containment performance in a uniform, structured way. The information contined in the various files is based on data contained in the IPE submittals. The information extracted from the submittals and entered into the IPE Data Base can be maniulated so that queries regarding individual or groups of plants can be answered using the IPE Data Base. The IPE Data Base supports detailed inquiries into the characteristics of individual plants or classes of plants. Progress has been made on the IPE Data Base and it is largely complete. Recent focus has been the development of a user friendly version which is menu driven and allows the user to ask queries of varying complexity easily, without the need to become familiar with particular data base formats or conventions such as those of DBase IV or Microsoft Access. The user can obtain the information he desired by quickly moving through a series of on-screen menus and ''clicking'' on appropriate choices. In this way even a first time user can benefit from the large amount of information stored in the IPE Data Base without the need of a learning period

Increasing Completion Rate of an M4 Emergency Medicine Student End-of-Shift Evaluation Using a Mobile Electronic Platform and Real-Time Completion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthew C. Tews

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Medical students on an emergency medicine rotation are traditionally evaluated at the end of each shift with paper-based forms, and data are often missing due to forms not being turned in or completed. Because students’ grades depend on these evaluations, change was needed to increase form rate of return. We analyzed a new electronic evaluation form and modified completion process to determine if it would increase the completion rate without altering how faculty scored student performance. Methods: During fall 2013, 29 faculty completed paper N=339 evaluations consisting of seven competencies for 33 students. In fall 2014, an electronic evaluation form with the same competencies was designed using an electronic platform and completed N=319 times by 27 faculty using 25 students’ electronic devices. Feedback checkboxes were added to facilitate collection of common comments. Data was analyzed with IBM® SPSS® 21.0 using multi-factor analysis of variance with the students’ global rating (GR as an outcome. Inter-item reliability was determined with Cronbach alpha. Results: There was a significantly higher completion rate (p=0.001 of 98% electronic vs. 69% paper forms, lower (p=0.001 missed GR rate (1% electronic. vs 12% paper, and higher mean scores (p=0.001 for the GR with the electronic (7.0±1.1 vs. paper (6.8±1.2 form. Feedback checkboxes were completed on every form. The inter-item reliability for electronic and paper forms was each alpha=0.95. Conclusion: The use of a new electronic form and modified completion process for evaluating students at the end of shift demonstrated a higher faculty completion rate, a lower missed data rate, a higher global rating and consistent collection of common feedback. The use of the electronic form and the process for obtaining the information made our end-of-shift evaluation process for students more reliable and provided more accurate, up-to-date information for student feedback and when

Design Transformations for Rule-based Procedural Modeling

KAUST Repository

Lienhard, Stefan; Lau, Cheryl; Mü ller, Pascal; Wonka, Peter; Pauly, Mark

2017-01-01

We introduce design transformations for rule-based procedural models, e.g., for buildings and plants. Given two or more procedural designs, each specified by a grammar, a design transformation combines elements of the existing designs to generate new designs. We introduce two technical components to enable design transformations. First, we extend the concept of discrete rule switching to rule merging, leading to a very large shape space for combining procedural models. Second, we propose an algorithm to jointly derive two or more grammars, called grammar co-derivation. We demonstrate two applications of our work: we show that our framework leads to a larger variety of models than previous work, and we show fine-grained transformation sequences between two procedural models.

Design Transformations for Rule-based Procedural Modeling

KAUST Repository

Lienhard, Stefan

2017-05-24

We introduce design transformations for rule-based procedural models, e.g., for buildings and plants. Given two or more procedural designs, each specified by a grammar, a design transformation combines elements of the existing designs to generate new designs. We introduce two technical components to enable design transformations. First, we extend the concept of discrete rule switching to rule merging, leading to a very large shape space for combining procedural models. Second, we propose an algorithm to jointly derive two or more grammars, called grammar co-derivation. We demonstrate two applications of our work: we show that our framework leads to a larger variety of models than previous work, and we show fine-grained transformation sequences between two procedural models.

Online Graph Completion: Multivariate Signal Recovery in Computer Vision.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Won Hwa; Jalal, Mona; Hwang, Seongjae; Johnson, Sterling C; Singh, Vikas

2017-07-01

The adoption of "human-in-the-loop" paradigms in computer vision and machine learning is leading to various applications where the actual data acquisition (e.g., human supervision) and the underlying inference algorithms are closely interwined. While classical work in active learning provides effective solutions when the learning module involves classification and regression tasks, many practical issues such as partially observed measurements, financial constraints and even additional distributional or structural aspects of the data typically fall outside the scope of this treatment. For instance, with sequential acquisition of partial measurements of data that manifest as a matrix (or tensor), novel strategies for completion (or collaborative filtering) of the remaining entries have only been studied recently. Motivated by vision problems where we seek to annotate a large dataset of images via a crowdsourced platform or alternatively, complement results from a state-of-the-art object detector using human feedback, we study the "completion" problem defined on graphs, where requests for additional measurements must be made sequentially. We design the optimization model in the Fourier domain of the graph describing how ideas based on adaptive submodularity provide algorithms that work well in practice. On a large set of images collected from Imgur, we see promising results on images that are otherwise difficult to categorize. We also show applications to an experimental design problem in neuroimaging.

Property Based Process and Product Synthesis and Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eden, Mario Richard

2003-01-01

in terms of the constitutive (synthesis/design) variables instead of the process variables, thus providing the synthesis/design targets. The second reverse problem (reverse property prediction) solves the constitutive equations to identify unit operations, operating conditions and/or products by matching......This thesis describes the development of a general framework for solving process and product design problems. Targeting the desired performance of the system in a systematic manner relieves the iterative nature of conventional design techniques. Furthermore, conventional component based methods...... are not capable of handling problems, where the process or product objectives are driven by functionalities or properties rather than chemical constituency. The framework is meant to complement existing composition based methods by being able to handle property driven problems. By investigating the different...

Complete diagnostics of pyroactive structures for smart systems of optoelectronics

Science.gov (United States)

Bravina, Svetlana L.; Morozovsky, Nicholas V.

1998-04-01

The results of study of pyroelectric phenomena in ferroelectric materials for evidence of the possibility to embody the functions promising for creation of smart systems for optoelectronic applications are presented. Designing such systems requires the development of methods for non- destructive complete diagnostics preferably by developing the self-diagnostic ability inherent in materials with the features of smart/intelligent ones. The complex method of complete non-destructive qualification of pyroactive materials based on the method of dynamic photopyroelectric effect allows the determination of pyroelectric, piezoelectric, ferroelectric, dielectric and thermophysical characteristics. The measuring system which allows the study of these characteristics and also memory effects, switching effects, fatigue and degradation process, self-repair process and others is presented. Sample pyroactive system with increased intelligence, such as systems with built-in adaptive controllable domain structure promising for functional optics are developed and peculiarities of their characterization are discussed.

CompTIA A+ complete lab manual

CERN Document Server

Pyles, James

2012-01-01

Boost your understanding of CompTIA A+ exam principles with practical, real-world exercises Designed to complement CompTIA A+ Complete Study Guide, this hands-on companion book takes you step by step through the tasks a PC technician is likely to face on any given day. It supports the theory explained in the test-prep guide with additional practical application, increasing a new PC technician's confidence and marketability. Various scenarios incorporate roadblocks that may occur on the job and explain ways to successfully complete the task at hand. In addition, each task is mapped to a specif

FED/INTOR reactor design studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, T.G.; Cramer, B.A.; Davisson, J.P.; Kunselman, M.H.; Reiersen, W.T.; Sager, P.H.; Strickler, D.J.

1982-03-01

Upon completing the design studies identified in this report, an overall assessment of the design options is made that will form the bases to define the configuration of the next major Tokamak device. The TF coil size will be defined, along with the vacuum boundary, the PF coil arrangement, and the torus configuration. After the configuration is established, an overall performance and cost re-assessment should be made to finally trade off device performance with machine capital and operating costs to establish a reactor design point for a given set of design requirements

Design Scheme of Remote Monitoring System Based on Qt

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xu Dawei

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This paper introduces a design scheme of remote monitoring system based on Qt, the scheme of remote monitoring system based on S3C2410 and Qt, with the aid of cross platform development tools Qt and powerful ARM platform design and implementation. The development of remote video surveillance system based on embedded terminal has practical significance and value.

Designing Spreadsheet-Based Tasks for Purposeful Algebra

Science.gov (United States)

Ainley, Janet; Bills, Liz; Wilson, Kirsty

2005-01-01

We describe the design of a sequence of spreadsheet-based pedagogic tasks for the introduction of algebra in the early years of secondary schooling within the Purposeful Algebraic Activity project. This design combines two relatively novel features to bring a different perspective to research in the use of spreadsheets for the learning and…

Teaching Database Design with Constraint-Based Tutors

Science.gov (United States)

Mitrovic, Antonija; Suraweera, Pramuditha

2016-01-01

Design tasks are difficult to teach, due to large, unstructured solution spaces, underspecified problems, non-existent problem solving algorithms and stopping criteria. In this paper, we comment on our approach to develop KERMIT, a constraint-based tutor that taught database design. In later work, we re-implemented KERMIT as EER-Tutor, and…

Experiences in Preserving Design Bases & Knowledge Management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koshy, Thomas

2013-01-01

Purpose: • To build repository of information on design and development in a retrievable manner to: • Establish licensing/design bases of the plant; • Identify the known vulnerabilities and how they are to be addressed; • Prevent undoing the lessons learned; • Facilitate advancement without repeating the undesirable incidents of the past

Design Based Research: the Way of Developing and Implementing Educational Innovation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tina Štemberger

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The appropriate implementation of innovation is a crucial factor in improving educational practice. In the implementation process, there is, however, often a lack of interaction between designers and practitioners that would enable the latter to become competent enough to implement theoretical knowledge into practice and to have an ongoing support from designers. Design-based research is based on close cooperation between researchers, practitioners and designers which consequently allows greater integration of research and practice in education. In the present paper, the beginnings, development, basic characteristics, advantages, disadvantages and the research process of design-based research are reviewed and an example of design-based research is presented.

The ERL-based Design of Electron-Hadron Collider eRHIC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ptitsyn, Vadim [et al.

2016-06-01

Recent developments of the ERL-based design of future high-luminosity electron-hadron collider eRHIC focused on balancing technological risks present in the design versus the design cost. As a result a lower risk design has been adopted at moderate cost increase. The modifications include a change of the main linac RF frequency, reduced number of SRF cavity types and modified electron spin transport using a spin rotator. A luminosity-staged approach is being explored with a Nominal design ($L \\sim 10^{33} {\\rm cm}^2 {\\rm s}^{-1}$) that employs reduced electron current and could possibly be based on classical electron cooling, and then with the Ultimate design ($L \\gt 10^{34} {\\rm cm}^{-2} {\\rm s}^{-1}$) that uses higher electron current and an innovative cooling technique (CeC). The paper describes the recent design modifications, and presents the full status of the eRHIC ERL-based design.

Michelson interferometer based interleaver design using classic IIR filter decomposition.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Chi-Hao; Tang, Shasha

2013-12-16

An elegant method to design a Michelson interferometer based interleaver using a classic infinite impulse response (IIR) filter such as Butterworth, Chebyshev, and elliptic filters as a starting point are presented. The proposed design method allows engineers to design a Michelson interferometer based interleaver from specifications seamlessly. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed design method.

Hardware design of the median filter based on window structure and batcher′s oddeven sort network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SUN Kaimin

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Area and speed are two important factors to be considered in designing Median Filter with digital circuits.Area consideration requires the use of logical resources as little as possible,while speed consideration requires the system capable of working on higher clock frequencies,with as few clock cycles as possible to complete a frame filtering or real time filtering.This paper gives a new design of Median Filter,the hardware structure of which is a 3×3 window structure with two buffers.The filter function module is based on Batcher′s Odd-Even Sort network theory.Structural design is implemented in FPGA,verified by ModelSim software and realizes video image filtering.The experimental analysis shows that this new structure of Median Filter effectively decreases logical resources (merely using 741 Logic Elements,and accelerates the pixel processing speed up to 27MHz.This filter achieves realtime processing of video images of 30 frames/s.This design not only has a certain practicality,but also provides a reference for the hardware structure design ideas in digital image processing.

Robins Air Force Base Solar Cogeneration Facility design

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pierce, B.L.; Bodenschatz, C.A.

1982-06-01

A conceptual design and a cost estimate have been developed for a Solar Cogeneration Facility at Robins Air Force Base. This demonstration solar facility was designed to generate and deliver electrical power and process steam to the existing base distribution systems. The facility was to have the potential for construction and operation by 1986 and make use of existing technology. Specific objectives during the DOE funded conceptual design program were to: prepare a Solar Cogeneration Facility (overall System) Specification, select a preferred configuration and develop a conceptual design, establish the performance and economic characteristics of the facility, and prepare a development plan for the demonstration program. The Westinghouse team, comprised of the Westinghouse Advanced Energy Systems Division, Heery and Heery, Inc., and Foster Wheeler Solar Development Corporation, in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force Logistics Command and Georgia Power Company, has selected a conceptual design for the facility that will utilize the latest DOE central receiver technology, effectively utilize the energy collected in the application, operate base-loaded every sunny day of the year, and be applicable to a large number of military and industrial facilities throughout the country. The design of the facility incorporates the use of a Collector System, a Receiver System, an Electrical Power Generating System, a Balance of Facility - Steam and Feedwater System, and a Master Control System.

Computer-Aided Test Flow in Core-Based Design

OpenAIRE

Zivkovic, V.; Tangelder, R.J.W.T.; Kerkhoff, Hans G.

2000-01-01

This paper copes with the test-pattern generation and fault coverage determination in the core based design. The basic core-test strategy that one has to apply in the core-based design is stated in this work. A Computer-Aided Test (CAT) flow is proposed resulting in accurate fault coverage of embedded cores. The CAT now is applied to a few cores within the Philips Core Test Pilot IC project

Design of complete software GPS signal simulator with low complexity and precise multipath channel model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Arul Elango

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The need for GPS data simulators have become important due to the tremendous growth in the design of versatile GPS receivers. Commercial hardware and software based GPS simulators are expensive and time consuming. In this work, a low cost simple novel GPS L1 signal simulator is designed for testing and evaluating the performance of software GPS receiver in a laboratory environment. A typical real time paradigm, similar to actual satellite derived GPS signal is created on a computer generated scenario. In this paper, a GPS software simulator is proposed that may offer a lot of analysis and testing flexibility to the researchers and developers as it is totally software based primarily running on a laptop/personal computer without the requirement of any hardware. The proposed GPS simulator allows provision for re-configurability and test repeatability and is developed in VC++ platform to minimize the simulation time. It also incorporates Rayleigh multipath channel fading model under non-line of sight (NLOS conditions. In this work, to efficiently design the simulator, several Rayleigh fading models viz. Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT, Filtering White Gaussian Noise (FWFN and modified Sum of Sinusoidal (SOS simulators are tested and compared in terms of accuracy of its first and second order statistical metrics, execution time and the later one is found to be as the best appropriate Rayleigh multipath model suitable for incorporating with GPS simulator. The fading model written in ‘MATLAB’ engine has been linked with software GPS simulator module enable to test GPS receiver’s functionality in different fading environments.

Reliability-Based Robust Design Optimization of Structures Considering Uncertainty in Design Variables

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shujuan Wang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the structural design optimization to cover both the reliability and robustness under uncertainty in design variables. The main objective is to improve the efficiency of the optimization process. To address this problem, a hybrid reliability-based robust design optimization (RRDO method is proposed. Prior to the design optimization, the Sobol sensitivity analysis is used for selecting key design variables and providing response variance as well, resulting in significantly reduced computational complexity. The single-loop algorithm is employed to guarantee the structural reliability, allowing fast optimization process. In the case of robust design, the weighting factor balances the response performance and variance with respect to the uncertainty in design variables. The main contribution of this paper is that the proposed method applies the RRDO strategy with the usage of global approximation and the Sobol sensitivity analysis, leading to the reduced computational cost. A structural example is given to illustrate the performance of the proposed method.

Changes in nursing students' perceptions of research and evidence-based practice after completing a research course.

Science.gov (United States)

Keib, Carrie N; Cailor, Stephanie M; Kiersma, Mary E; Chen, Aleda M H

2017-07-01

Nurses need a sound education in research and evidence-based practice (EBP) to provide patients with optimal care, but current teaching methods could be more effective. To evaluate the changes in nursing students 1) perceptions of research and EBP, 2) confidence in research and EBP, and 3) interest in research participation after completing a course in research and EBP. A pre-post assessment design was utilized to compare changes in students. This project was conducted at a small, private liberal arts institution with Bachelor of Science (BSN) students. Two cohorts of third-year BSN students (Year 1 N=55, Year 2 N=54) who were taking a required, semester-long Nursing Research and EBP course. Students' perceptions of and confidence in research and EBP were assessed pre- and post-semester using the Confidence in Research and EBP survey, which contained 7 demographic items, 9 Research Perceptions items, and 19 Confidence in Research items (5-point Likert scale; 1=Not at all confident, 5=Extremely confident). Two years of data were collected and analyzed in SPSS v.24.0. Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests and Mann-Whitney-U tests were utilized to examine the data. Students had significant improvements in perceptions of and confidence in research and EBP (pnursing practice. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Implementation of knowledge-based engineering methodology in hydraulic generator design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Guo

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Hydraulic generator design companies are always being exhorted to become more competitive by reducing the lead time and costs for their products for survival. Knowledge-based engineering technology is a rapidly developing technology with competitive advantage for design application to reduce time and cost in product development. This article addresses the structure of the hydraulic generator design system based on the knowledge-based engineering technology in detail. The system operates by creating a unified knowledge base to store the scattered knowledge among the whole life of the design process, which was contained in the expert’s brain and technical literature. It helps designers to make appropriate decisions by supplying necessary information at the right time through query and inference engine to represent the knowledge within the knowledge-based engineering application framework. It also integrates the analysis tools into one platform to help achieve global optimum solutions. Finally, an example of turbine-type selection was given to illustrate the operation process and prove its validity.

Understandings of the Concept of Iteration in Design-Based Research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gundersen, Peter Bukovica

2017-01-01

The paper is the first in a series of papers addressing design in Design-based research. The series looks into the question of how this research approach is connected to design. What happens when educational researchers adopt designerly ways of working? This paper provides an overview of design......-based research and from there on discuss one key characteristic, namely iterations, which are fundamental to educational design research in relation to how designers operate and why. The paper concludes that in general iteration is not a particularly well-described aspect in the reporting of DBR-projects. Half...... and usually after long periods of testing design solutions in practice....

Design and development of the mobile game based on the J2ME technology

Science.gov (United States)

He, JunHua

2012-01-01

With the continuous improvement of mobile performance, mobile entertainment applications market trend has been increasingly clear, mobile entertainment applications will be after the PC entertainment applications is another important business growth. Through the full analysis of the current mobile entertainment applications market demand and trends, the author has accumulated a lot of theoretical knowledge and practical experience. Rational, using of some new technology for a mobile entertainment games design, and described the development of key technologies required for mobile game an analysis and design of the game, and to achieve a complete game development. Light of the specific mobile game project - "Battle City", detailed the development of a mobile game based on the J2ME platform, the basic steps and the various key elements, focusing on how to use object-oriented thinking on the role of mobile phones in the abstract and Game Animation package, the source code with specific instructions.

Judgement of Design Scheme Based on Flexible Constraint in ICAD

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2000-01-01

The conception of flexible constraint is proposed in the paper. The solution of flexible constraint is in special range, and maybe different in different instances of same design scheme. The paper emphasis on how to evaluate and optimize a design scheme with flexible constraints based on the satisfaction degree function defined on flexible constraints. The conception of flexible constraint is used to solve constraint conflict and design optimization in complicated constraint-based assembly design by the PFM parametrization assembly design system. An instance of gear-box design is used for verifying optimization method.

Optimal design of multi-state weighted k-out-of-n systems based on component design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Wei; Zuo, Ming J.

2008-01-01

This paper presents a study on design optimization of multi-state weighted k-out-of-n systems. The studied system reliability model is more general than the traditional k-out-of-n system model. The system and its components are capable of assuming a whole range of performance levels, varying from perfect functioning to complete failure. A utility value corresponding to each state is used to indicate the corresponding performance level. A widely studied reliability optimization problem is the 'component selection problem', which involves selection of components with known reliability and cost characteristics. Less adequately addressed has been the problem of determining system cost and utility based on the relationships between component reliability, cost and utility. This paper addresses this topic. All the optimization problems dealt with in this paper can be categorized as either minimizing the expected total system cost subject to system reliability requirements, or maximizing system reliability subject to total system cost limitation. The resulting optimization problems are too complicated to be solved by traditional optimization approaches; therefore, genetic algorithm (GA) is used to solve them. Our results show that GA is a powerful tool for solving these kinds of problems

Scenario-based design: a method for connecting information system design with public health operations and emergency management.

Science.gov (United States)

Reeder, Blaine; Turner, Anne M

2011-12-01

Responding to public health emergencies requires rapid and accurate assessment of workforce availability under adverse and changing circumstances. However, public health information systems to support resource management during both routine and emergency operations are currently lacking. We applied scenario-based design as an approach to engage public health practitioners in the creation and validation of an information design to support routine and emergency public health activities. Using semi-structured interviews we identified the information needs and activities of senior public health managers of a large municipal health department during routine and emergency operations. Interview analysis identified 25 information needs for public health operations management. The identified information needs were used in conjunction with scenario-based design to create 25 scenarios of use and a public health manager persona. Scenarios of use and persona were validated and modified based on follow-up surveys with study participants. Scenarios were used to test and gain feedback on a pilot information system. The method of scenario-based design was applied to represent the resource management needs of senior-level public health managers under routine and disaster settings. Scenario-based design can be a useful tool for engaging public health practitioners in the design process and to validate an information system design. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Adjoint-Based Aerodynamic Design of Complex Aerospace Configurations

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, Eric J.

2016-01-01

An overview of twenty years of adjoint-based aerodynamic design research at NASA Langley Research Center is presented. Adjoint-based algorithms provide a powerful tool for efficient sensitivity analysis of complex large-scale computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Unlike alternative approaches for which computational expense generally scales with the number of design parameters, adjoint techniques yield sensitivity derivatives of a simulation output with respect to all input parameters at the cost of a single additional simulation. With modern large-scale CFD applications often requiring millions of compute hours for a single analysis, the efficiency afforded by adjoint methods is critical in realizing a computationally tractable design optimization capability for such applications.

Place-Based Learning: Interactive Learning and Net-Zero Design

Science.gov (United States)

Holser, Alec; Becker, Michael

2011-01-01

Food and conservation science curriculum, net-zero design and student-based building performance monitoring have come together in the unique and innovative new Music and Science Building for Oregon's Hood River Middle School. The school's Permaculture-based curriculum both informed the building design and was also transformed through the…

Completion of Units 3 and 4 at Mochovce NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aquilanti, G.

2009-01-01

After the completion of a feasibility study, SE/ENEL decided to complete Mochovce Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 and 4 in April 2007. In July 2008, after a revision of the Basic Design that led to the inclusion of additional safety improvements, the European Commission issued a positive viewpoint on the decision. In August 2008 the Slovak Nuclear Regulatory Authority issued a permit for 'modification of a construction project prior to its completion', approving the Basic Design modifications: the kick-off of site activities was on November 2008. In December 2008, SE initiated the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure aimed at obtaining the Operational License by submitting the EIA intent to the Ministry of Environment. A multi contractual strategy was adopted for the completion works: the total number of foreseen contracts is about 250 (90 main and additional 160 minor). In the following the present status of the project is presented: in particular, the Project Management system implemented by SE/ENEL is described and the progress of the engineering, fabrication and construction activities is analyzed. (author)

Design and implementation of a project-based active/cooperative engineering design course for freshmen

Science.gov (United States)

Abdulaal, R. M.; Al-Bahi, A. M.; Soliman, A. Y.; Iskanderani, F. I.

2011-08-01

A project-based active/cooperative design course is planned, implemented, assessed and evaluated to achieve several desired engineering outcomes. The course allows freshman-level students to gain professional hands-on engineering design experience through an opportunity to practise teamwork, quality principles, communication skills, life-long learning, realistic constraints and awareness of current domestic and global challenges. Throughout successive design reports and in-class assignments, the students are required by the end of the semester to communicate, clearly and concisely, the details of their design both orally and in writing through a functional artefact/prototype, a design notebook, an A0 project poster and a final oral presentation. In addition to these direct assessment tools, several indirect measures are used to ensure triangulation. Assignments are based on customer expectations using a detailed checklist. This paper shows the direct and indirect assessment tools that indicated a high level of achievement of course learning outcomes and a high level of student satisfaction.

Three-dimensional design methodologies for tree-based FPGA architecture

CERN Document Server

Pangracious, Vinod; Mehrez, Habib

2015-01-01

This book focuses on the development of 3D design and implementation methodologies for Tree-based FPGA architecture. It also stresses the needs for new and augmented 3D CAD tools to support designs such as, the design for 3D, to manufacture high performance 3D integrated circuits and reconfigurable FPGA-based systems. This book was written as a text that covers the foundations of 3D integrated system design and FPGA architecture design. It was written for the use in an elective or core course at the graduate level in field of Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering and Doctoral Research programs. No previous background on 3D integration is required, nevertheless fundamental understanding of 2D CMOS VLSI design is required. It is assumed that reader has taken the core curriculum in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering, with courses like CMOS VLSI design, Digital System Design and Microelectronics Circuits being the most important. It is accessible for self-study by both senior students and profe...

The Research of Design Based on Social Commerce

OpenAIRE

Juhua Wu; Meng Xu; Zan Mo; Luo Liao

2015-01-01

Based on previous design theories which focus only on artifacts, we study the factors of social commerce design with application environment and human capabilities. By comparing social commerce design model and information model, we develop a new social commerce design model, further exploring user requirements after shopping, including the exploration of brand community, sharing offline social shopping experience and the improvement of user social skills. According to the new model, we revea...

Analysis and Design of Web-Based Database Application for Culinary Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Choirul Huda

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This research is based on the rapid development of the culinary and information technology. The difficulties in communicating with the culinary expert and on recipe documentation make a proper support for media very important. Therefore, a web-based database application for the public is important to help the culinary community in communication, searching and recipe management. The aim of the research was to design a web-based database application that could be used as social media for the culinary community. This research used literature review, user interviews, and questionnaires. Moreover, the database system development life cycle was used as a guide for designing a database especially for conceptual database design, logical database design, and physical design database. Web-based application design used eight golden rules for user interface design. The result of this research is the availability of a web-based database application that can fulfill the needs of users in the culinary field related to communication and recipe management.

Computer aided design of nickel-base superalloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lawrence, P.J.

1988-01-01

This paper describes a computer aided design process for Ni-base superalloys developed and employed at ASEA Brown Boveri. The technique involves a series of modules each of which predicts a particular property of a hypothetical new composition. In the first stage of the development of this design techniques modules were produced to predict phase stability, using PHACOMP, and high temperature creep strength and hot corrosion resistance, using multiple linear regression equations derived from the data in the literature. Alloys designed using these technique are also discussed and, in particular, shortcomings of the design process are highlighted. This information was then used to produce a revamped design methodology involving extra modules, including prediction of an alloy's gamma-prime content. (orig.)

[In silico CRISPR-based sgRNA design].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yuanli; Chuai, Guohui; Yan, Jifang; Shi, Lei; Liu, Qi

2017-10-25

CRISPR-based genome editing has been widely implemented in various cell types. In-silico single guide RNA (sgRNA) design is a key step for successful gene editing using CRISPR system. Continuing efforts are made to refine in-silico sgRNA design with high on-target efficacy and reduced off-target effects. In this paper, we summarize the present sgRNA design tools, and show that efficient in-silico models can be built that integrate current heterogeneous genome-editing data to derive unbiased sgRNA design rules and identify key features for improving sgRNA design. Our review shows that systematic comparisons and evaluation of on-target and off-target effects of sgRNA will allow more precise genome editing and gene therapies using the CRISPR system.

Probability based load factors for design of concrete containment structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hwang, H.; Kagami, S.; Reich, M.; Ellingwood, B.; Shinozuka, M.

1985-01-01

This paper describes a procedure for developing probability-based load combinations for the design of concrete containments. The proposed criteria are in a load and resistance factor design (LRFD) format. The load factors and resistance factors are derived for use in limit states design and are based on a target limit state probability. In this paper, the load factors for accident pressure and safe shutdown earthquake are derived for three target limit state probabilities. Other load factors are recommended on the basis of prior experience with probability-based design criteria for ordinary building construction. 6 refs

Influence of Different Patellofemoral Design Variations Based on Genesis II Total Knee Endoprosthesis on Patellofemoral Pressure and Kinematics.

Science.gov (United States)

Leichtle, Ulf G; Lange, Barbara; Herzog, Yvonne; Schnauffer, Peter; Leichtle, Carmen I; Wülker, Nikolaus; Lorenz, Andrea

2017-01-01

In total knee arthroplasty (TKA), patellofemoral groove design varies greatly and likely has a distinct influence on patellofemoral biomechanics. To analyse the selective influence, five patellofemoral design variations were developed based on Genesis II total knee endoprosthesis (original design, being completely flat, being laterally elevated, being medially elevated, and both sides elevated) and made from polyamide using rapid prototyping. Muscle-loaded knee flexion was simulated on 10 human knee specimens using a custom-made knee simulator, measuring the patellofemoral pressure distribution and tibiofemoral and patellofemoral kinematics. The measurements were carried out in the native knee as well as after TKA with the 5 design prototypes. The overall influence of the different designs on the patellofemoral kinematics was small, but we found detectable effects for mediolateral tilt ( p patellofemoral pressures, major interindividual differences were seen between the designs, which, on average, largely cancelled each other out. These results suggest that the elevation of the lateral margin of the patellofemoral groove is essential for providing mediolateral guidance, but smooth contouring as with original Genesis II design seems to be sufficient. The pronounced interindividual differences identify a need for more patellofemoral design options in TKA.

The Basic Design Report of the 40M SANS Instrument

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Han, Young Soo; Lee, Chang Hee; Hwang, Dong Gil; Kim, Hak Rho [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Tae Hwan; Choi, Sung Min [Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2006-04-15

The HANARO cold neutron research facility project was launched on July 1, 2003. A state of the art SANS instrument was selected as a top-priority instrument by an instrument selection committee, which consisted of domestic users and HANARO personnel. An instrument development team and an international and domestic instrument advisory team were formulated. The guide and the instrument simulation were performed using Vitess software and the optimum basic design was completed based on the simulation results and the international advisory team reviews. The optimum design of the guide for the 40M SANS instrument was completed and the optimum basic design of the 40M the SANS instrument was also completed based on the Vitess simulation results. The Q range of the instrument will cover from 0.0008 to 1.0 A-1 and the maximum flux at a sample position can reach about 5.5x10 7 n/cm2sec. The simulation results and the basic design product will be used for the detailed design and the construction of the SANS instrument. The simulation results could be applied to the development of the other instrument.

Design and Prototyping Flow of Flexible and Efficient NISC-Based Architectures for MIMO Turbo Equalization and Demapping

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mostafa Rizk

2016-08-01

Full Text Available In the domain of digital wireless communication, flexible design implementations are increasingly explored for different applications in order to cope with diverse system configurations imposed by the emerging wireless communication standards. In fact, shrinking the design time to meet market pressure, on the one hand, and adding the emerging flexibility requirement and, hence, increasing system complexity, on the other hand, require a productive design approach that also ensures final design quality. The no instruction set computer (NISC approach fulfills these design requirements by eliminating the instruction set overhead. The approach offers static scheduling of the datapath, automated register transfer language (RTLsynthesis and allows the designer to have direct control of hardware resources. This paper presents a complete NISC-based design and prototype flow, from architecture specification till FPGA implementation. The proposed design and prototype flow is illustrated through two case studies of flexible implementations, which are dedicated to low-complexity MIMO turbo-equalizer and a universal turbo-demapper. Moreover, the flexibility of the proposed prototypes allows supporting all communication modes defined in the emerging wireless communication standards, such LTE, LTE-Advanced, WiMAX, WiFi and DVB-RCS. For each prototype, its functionality is evaluated, and the resultant performance is verified for all system configurations.

Data base pertinent to earthquake design basis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharma, R.D.

1988-01-01

Mitigation of earthquake risk from impending strong earthquakes is possible provided the hazard can be assessed, and translated into appropriate design inputs. This requires defining the seismic risk problem, isolating the risk factors and quantifying risk in terms of physical parameters, which are suitable for application in design. Like all other geological phenomena, past earthquakes hold the key to the understanding of future ones. Quantificatio n of seismic risk at a site calls for investigating the earthquake aspects of the site region and building a data base. The scope of such investigations is il lustrated in Figure 1 and 2. A more detailed definition of the earthquake problem in engineering design is given elsewhere (Sharma, 1987). The present document discusses the earthquake data base, which is required to support a seismic risk evaluation programme in the context of the existing state of the art. (author). 8 tables, 10 figs., 54 refs

Novel measurement-based indoor cellular radio system design

OpenAIRE

Aragón-Zavala, A

2008-01-01

A scaleable, measurement-based radio methodology has been created to use for the design, planing and optimisation of in door cellular radio systems. The development of this measurement-based methodology was performed having in mind that measurements are of ten required to valiate radio coverage in a building. Therefore, the concept of using care fully calibrated measurements to design and optimise a system is feasible since these measurements can easily be obtained prior to system deployment ...

Implementing Project Based Learning Approach to Graphic Design Course

Science.gov (United States)

Riyanti, Menul Teguh; Erwin, Tuti Nuriah; Suriani, S. H.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a learning model based Commercial Graphic Design Drafting project-based learning approach, was chosen as a strategy in the learning product development research. University students as the target audience of this model are the students of the fifth semester Visual Communications Design Studies Program…

Computational Protein Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johansson, Kristoffer Enøe

Proteins are the major functional group of molecules in biology. The impact of protein science on medicine and chemical productions is rapidly increasing. However, the greatest potential remains to be realized. The fi eld of protein design has advanced computational modeling from a tool of support...... to a central method that enables new developments. For example, novel enzymes with functions not found in natural proteins have been de novo designed to give enough activity for experimental optimization. This thesis presents the current state-of-the-art within computational design methods together...... with a novel method based on probability theory. With the aim of assembling a complete pipeline for protein design, this work touches upon several aspects of protein design. The presented work is the computational half of a design project where the other half is dedicated to the experimental part...

Property Model-based Tailor-made Design of Chemical-based Products

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kalakul, Sawitree

Computer-aided model-based methods and tools are increasingly playing important roles in chemical product design. They have the potential to very quickly search for and identify reliable product candidates that can then be verified through experiments. Inthis way, the time and resources spent...... on experiment are reduced leading to faster and cheaper to market the products. The tools also help to manage the solution of product design problems, which usually require efficient handling of model-data-knowledge from different sources and at different time and size scales. The main contribution...... the needed template for a desired product is not available. VPPD-Lab employs a suite of algorithms(such as database search, molecular and mixture blend design) and toolboxes (such asproperty calculations and property model consistency tests) for specific product property prediction, design, and/or analysis...

Community-based co-design in Okomakuara

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kapuire, Gereon Koch; Winschiers-Theophilus, Heike; Chivuno-Kuria, Shilumbe

2014-01-01

Although the wider motivation and principles of Participatory Design (PD) are universal its concepts and techniques are highly contextual. Community-based codesign is a variation of PD, where processes are negotiated within the interaction. Thus this workshop gives participants the opportunity...

A Representation System User Interface for Knowledge Base Designers

OpenAIRE

Fikes, Richard E.

1982-01-01

A major strength of frame-based knowledge representation languages is their ability to provide the knowledge base designer with a concise and intuitively appealing means expression. The claim of intuitive appeal is based on the observation that the object -centered style of description provided by these languages often closely matches a designer's understanding of the domain being modeled and therefore lessens the burden of reformulation involved in developing a formal description. To be effe...

Functional Testing of Wireless Sensor Node Designs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Virk, Kashif M.; Madsen, Jan

2007-01-01

Wireless sensor networks are networked embedded computer systems with stringent power, performance, cost and form-factor requirements along with numerous other constraints related to their pervasiveness and ubiquitousness. Therefore, only a systematic design methdology coupled with an efficient...... test approach can enable their conformance to design and deployment specifications. We discuss off-line, hierarchical, functional testing of complete wireless sensor nodes containing configurable logic through a combination of FPGA-based board test and Software-Based Self-Test (SBST) techniques...

Influence of Motivational Design on Completion Rates in Online Self-Study Pharmacy-Content Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Pittenger, Amy; Doering, Aaron

2010-01-01

Student retention rates are a constant concern in higher education, but this concern has become especially challenging as online courses become more common and there are widespread reports of low completion rates for online, self-study courses. We evaluated four self-study online pharmacy courses with a history of very high completion rates for…

A Simulation-Based LED Design Project in Photonics Instruction Based on Industry-University Collaboration

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, S. -H.; Chen, M. -L.; Kuo, Y. -K.; Shen, Y. -C.

2011-01-01

In response to the growing industrial demand for light-emitting diode (LED) design professionals, based on industry-university collaboration in Taiwan, this paper develops a novel instructional approach: a simulation-based learning course with peer assessment to develop students' professional skills in LED design as required by industry as well as…

Ropossum: An Authoring Tool for Designing, Optimizing and Solving Cut the Rope Levels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shaker, Mohammad; Shaker, Noor; Togelius, Julian

2013-01-01

We present a demonstration of Ropossum, an authoring tool for the generation and testing of levels of the physics-based game, Cut the Rope. Ropossum integrates many features: (1) automatic design of complete solvable content, (2) incorporation of designer’s input through the creation of complete...... or partial designs, (3) automatic check for playability and (4) optimization of a given design based on playability. The system includes a physics engine to simulate the game and an evolutionary framework to evolve content as well as an AI reasoning agent to check for playability. The system is optimised...

Risk based seismic design criteria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kennedy, R.P.

1999-01-01

In order to develop a risk based seismic design criteria the following four issues must be addressed: (1) What target annual probability of seismic induced unacceptable performance is acceptable? (2) What minimum seismic margin is acceptable? (3) Given the decisions made under Issues 1 and 2, at what annual frequency of exceedance should the safe-shutdown-earthquake (SSE) ground motion be defined? (4) What seismic design criteria should be established to reasonably achieve the seismic margin defined under Issue 2? The first issue is purely a policy decision and is not addressed in this paper. Each of the other three issues are addressed. Issues 2 and 3 are integrally tied together so that a very large number of possible combinations of responses to these two issues can be used to achieve the target goal defined under Issue 1. Section 2 lays out a combined approach to these two issues and presents three potentially attractive combined resolutions of these two issues which reasonably achieves the target goal. The remainder of the paper discusses an approach which can be used to develop seismic design criteria aimed at achieving the desired seismic margin defined in resolution of Issue 2. Suggestions for revising existing seismic design criteria to more consistently achieve the desired seismic margin are presented. (orig.)

Target based drug design - a reality in virtual sphere.

Science.gov (United States)

Verma, Saroj; Prabhakar, Yenamandra S

2015-01-01

The target based drug design approaches are a series of computational procedures, including visualization tools, to support the decision systems of drug design/discovery process. In the essence of biological targets shaping the potential lead/drug molecules, this review presents a comprehensive position of different components of target based drug design which include target identification, protein modeling, molecular dynamics simulations, binding/catalytic sites identification, docking, virtual screening, fragment based strategies, substructure treatment of targets in tackling drug resistance, in silico ADMET, structural vaccinology, etc along with the key issues involved therein and some well investigated case studies. The concepts and working of these procedures are critically discussed to arouse interest and to advance the drug research.

Model-Based Engineering Design for Trade Space Exploration throughout the Design Cycle

Science.gov (United States)

Lamassoure, Elisabeth S.; Wall, Stephen D.; Easter, Robert W.

2004-01-01

This paper presents ongoing work to standardize model-based system engineering as a complement to point design development in the conceptual design phase of deep space missions. It summarizes two first steps towards practical application of this capability within the framework of concurrent engineering design teams and their customers. The first step is standard generation of system sensitivities models as the output of concurrent engineering design sessions, representing the local trade space around a point design. A review of the chosen model development process, and the results of three case study examples, demonstrate that a simple update to the concurrent engineering design process can easily capture sensitivities to key requirements. It can serve as a valuable tool to analyze design drivers and uncover breakpoints in the design. The second step is development of rough-order- of-magnitude, broad-range-of-validity design models for rapid exploration of the trade space, before selection of a point design. At least one case study demonstrated the feasibility to generate such models in a concurrent engineering session. The experiment indicated that such a capability could yield valid system-level conclusions for a trade space composed of understood elements. Ongoing efforts are assessing the practicality of developing end-to-end system-level design models for use before even convening the first concurrent engineering session, starting with modeling an end-to-end Mars architecture.

Design Transformation based on Nature and Identity Formation in the Design of Landscape Elements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zulkifli Muslim

2016-01-01

Full Text Available There is a lack of initiative from the designers to integrate the environmental resources in the material and design production of local urban landscape elements that reflects human culture and lifestyle. Based on criteria and principles of symbol design and transformation process, this paper describes the symbiotic relationship between local plants (flower and designs of landscape elements. Using visual analysis, the researcher manipulated shapes and forms of local plant images in producing possible shapes and forms for a design of landscape element (lamp post. The results indicate that the design transformation is a systematic process that allows for variations in design without losing the core characteristics and identity of the basic elements of nature.

Optimal Design of Rectification Circuit in Electronic Circuit Fault Self-repair Based on EHW and RBT

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

ZHANG Junbin; CAI Jinyan; MENG Yafeng

2018-01-01

Reliability of traditional electronic circuit is improved mainly by redundant fault-tolerant technol-ogy with large hardware resource consumption and limited fault self-repair capability. In complicated environment, electronic circuit faults appear easily. If on-site immedi-ate repair is not implemented, normal running of elec-tronic system will be directly affected. In order to solve these problems, Evolvable hardware (EHW) technology is widely used. The conventional EHW has some bottlenecks. The optimal design of Rectification circuit (RTC) is fur-ther researched on the basis of the previously proposed fault self-repair based on EHW and Reparation balance technology (RBT). Fault sets are selected by fault danger degree and fault coverage rate. The optimal designed RTC can completely repair faults in the fault set. Simulation re-sults prove that it has higher self-repair capability and less hardware resource.

Reliability-Based Design Optimization of Trusses with Linked-Discrete Design Variables using the Improved Firefly Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. M. Okasha

2016-04-01

Full Text Available In this paper, an approach for conducting a Reliability-Based Design Optimization (RBDO of truss structures with linked-discrete design variables is proposed. The sections of the truss members are selected from the AISC standard tables and thus the design variables that represent the properties of each section are linked. Latin hypercube sampling is used in the evaluation of the structural reliability. The improved firefly algorithm is used for the optimization solution process. It was found that in order to use the improved firefly algorithm for efficiently solving problems of reliability-based design optimization with linked-discrete design variables; it needs to be modified as proposed in this paper to accelerate its convergence.

Urban Environment Development based on Universal Design Principles

Science.gov (United States)

Harsritanto, Bangun Ir

2018-02-01

Universal Design is a design which facilitated full range of human diversity. By applying Universal design principles, urban environment can be more functional and more user-friendly for everyone. This study examined five urban streets of South Korea as a country experienced on developing various urban street designs based on universal design. This study aimed to examine and compare the South Korea cases using seven principles of universal design. The research methods of this study are literature study, case study, and site observation. The results of this study are: South Korea cases are good practices, urgency of implementing the direction into local regulations; and change of urban development paradigm.

Complete genome sequence of Klebsiella pneumoniae J1, a protein-based microbial flocculant-producing bacterium.

Science.gov (United States)

Pang, Changlong; Li, Ang; Cui, Di; Yang, Jixian; Ma, Fang; Guo, Haijuan

2016-02-20

Klebsiella pneumoniae J1 is a Gram-negative strain, which belongs to a protein-based microbial flocculant-producing bacterium. However, little genetic information is known about this species. Here we carried out a whole-genome sequence analysis of this strain and report the complete genome sequence of this organism and its genetic basis for carbohydrate metabolism, capsule biosynthesis and transport system. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Towards a Development Environment for Model Based Test Design

OpenAIRE

Jing, Han

2008-01-01

Within the UP IP I&V organization there is high focus on increasing the ability to predict product quality in a cost efficient way. Test automation has therefore been an important enabler for us. The IP test design environment is continuously evolving and the investigations will show which improvements that is most important to implement in short and long term. In Ericsson UP IP I&V, the test automation framework environments are severed to complete some process by automated method, f...

Effectiveness of design-based learning in engineering education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gomez Puente, S.M.; Eijck, van M.W.; Jochems, W.M.G.

2011-01-01

Design-based learning (DBL) has been introduced as an educational concept at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in 1997, in which students work co-operatively and actively on multidisciplinary design tasks (Wijnen, 2000). Theoretically DBL is not well underpinned. It has been researched

Designing Dexter-based cooperative hypermedia systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grønbæk, Kaj; Madsen, Ole Lehrmann; Sloth, Lennard

1993-01-01

This paper discusses issues for the design of a Dexter-based cooperative hypermedia architecture and a specific system, DeVise Hypermedia (DHM), developed from this architecture. The Dexter Hypertext Reference Model [Hala90] was used as basis for designing the architecture. The Dexter model...... provides a general and solid foundation for designing a general hypermedia architecture. It introduces central concepts and proposes a layering of the architecture. However, to handle cooperative work aspects, such as sharing material and cooperative authoring, we have to go beyond the Dexter model...... concepts. To deal with such aspects we have extended our implementation of the Dexter concepts with support for long-term transactions, locking and event notification as called for by Halasz [Hala88]. The result is a platform independent architecture for developing cooperative hypermedia systems...

Design and development of Pc-based TOFD ultrasonic scanning system for welds inspection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suhairy Sani; Mohamad Pauzi Ismai; Muhammad Faiz Mohd Shukri; Amry Amin Abas

2010-01-01

This paper describes the design and development of a portable PC-based ultrasonic scanning system for industrial applications. The system which is called TOFD Ultrasonic Scanning System (TOFUSS) is used to create a gray scale imaging techniques are applied to the RF (AC) signal phase and enables weld integrity to be observed in real time. TOFD consists of a separate ultrasonic transmitter and receiver. The Probes are aimed at the same point in the weld volume. The entire weld is flooded with ultrasound allowing inspection of the weld. With a time of flight path, the ultrasonic velocity and the spatial relationship of the two probes, location and height of the defects can be very accurately calculated. The algorithm and complete system were implemented in a computer software developed using Microsoft Visual BASIC 6.0. (author)

Introducing Project-Based Learning to Design Enterprises for Creativity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Feng; Zhou, Chunfang; Chen, Hongbing

2013-01-01

This paper aims to emphasize the necessity of introducing Project-Based Learning (PBL) to design enterprises in order to foster designers creativity and facilitate innovation of design enterprises. According to the literature review, creativity can be viewed as the first stage of innovation; PBL...

Computer aided fixture design - A case based approach

Science.gov (United States)

Tanji, Shekhar; Raiker, Saiesh; Mathew, Arun Tom

2017-11-01

Automated fixture design plays important role in process planning and integration of CAD and CAM. An automated fixture setup design system is developed where when fixturing surfaces and points are described allowing modular fixture components to get automatically select for generating fixture units and placed into position with satisfying assembled conditions. In past, various knowledge based system have been developed to implement CAFD in practice. In this paper, to obtain an acceptable automated machining fixture design, a case-based reasoning method with developed retrieval system is proposed. Visual Basic (VB) programming language is used in integrating with SolidWorks API (Application programming interface) module for better retrieval procedure reducing computational time. These properties are incorporated in numerical simulation to determine the best fit for practical use.

Model-based design of self-Adapting networked signal processing systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oliveira Filho, J.A. de; Papp, Z.; Djapic, R.; Oostveen, J.C.

2013-01-01

The paper describes a model based approach for architecture design of runtime reconfigurable, large-scale, networked signal processing applications. A graph based modeling formalism is introduced to describe all relevant aspects of the design (functional, concurrency, hardware, communication,

Facilitating Transition to Team Based Design Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tollestrup, Christian

2014-01-01

profession, but at the same time it becomes very difficult to identify where and how the design is created since form-giving now becomes a group effort. So as a way to ease the transition from highly framed and facilitated high school learning context to university self-driven learning context a small...... given to two set of students; one set that received the survival kit in 2011 and 2012 and one set that did not. The questionnaire inquires the students’ attitude towards 4 aspects: 1.General level of preparedness for team and problem based project work 2.Level of information of expectations from...... supervisors and programme 3.Reflection of the role in a team, problem based project work 4.The level of information of special expectations from the Industrial Design program towards team and problem based project work. Results indicates that Class receiving the “Survival Kit” improved in the calibration...

Design automation of switching mode high voltage power supply for nuclear instruments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El-araby, S.M.S.

1999-01-01

This paper presents an automation procedure for the design of switching mode high voltage power supplies, using Pc programming facility. The procedure permits the selection of a ready made or designed ferrite transformer. This selection could be achieved according to the designer desire; as the program includes complete information about ready made ferrite transformer through complete database. The procedure is based on suggested template circuit. Micro-Cap IV simulation package is used to verify the desired high voltage power supply design. Simulation results agree quite well with suggested procedure's results. Design aspects and development needed to increase automation capabilities are also discussed

Estimation Model of Spacecraft Parameters and Cost Based on a Statistical Analysis of COMPASS Designs

Science.gov (United States)

Gerberich, Matthew W.; Oleson, Steven R.

2013-01-01

The Collaborative Modeling for Parametric Assessment of Space Systems (COMPASS) team at Glenn Research Center has performed integrated system analysis of conceptual spacecraft mission designs since 2006 using a multidisciplinary concurrent engineering process. The set of completed designs was archived in a database, to allow for the study of relationships between design parameters. Although COMPASS uses a parametric spacecraft costing model, this research investigated the possibility of using a top-down approach to rapidly estimate the overall vehicle costs. This paper presents the relationships between significant design variables, including breakdowns of dry mass, wet mass, and cost. It also develops a model for a broad estimate of these parameters through basic mission characteristics, including the target location distance, the payload mass, the duration, the delta-v requirement, and the type of mission, propulsion, and electrical power. Finally, this paper examines the accuracy of this model in regards to past COMPASS designs, with an assessment of outlying spacecraft, and compares the results to historical data of completed NASA missions.

Feasibility design study. Land-based OTEC plants. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brewer, J. H.; Minor, J.; Jacobs, R.

1979-01-01

The purpose of this study has been to determine the feasibility of installing 10 MWe (MegaWatt-electric) and 40 MWe land-based OTEC demonstration power plants at two specific sites: Keahole Point on the western shore of the island of Hawaii; and Punta Tuna, on the southeast coast of the main island of Puerto Rico. In addition, the study has included development of design parameters, schedules and budgets for the design, construction and operation of these plants. Seawater systems (intake and discharge pipes) were to be sized so that flow losses were equivalent to those expected with a platform-based OTEC power plant. The power module (components and general arrangement was established based on the TRW design. Results are presented in detail. (WHK)

Knowledge representation and knowledge base design for operator advisor system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hangos, K.M.; Sziano, T.; Tapolcai, L.

1990-01-01

The problems of knowledge representation, knowledge base handling and design has been described for an Operator Advisor System in the Paks Nuclear Power Plant. The Operator Advisor System is to be implemented as a part of the 5th and 6th unit. The knowledge of the Operator Advisor system is described by a few elementary knowledge items (diagnostic event functions, fault graph, action trees), weighted directed graphs have been found as their common structure. List-type and relational representation of these graphs have been used for the on-line and off-line part of the knowledge base respectively. A uniform data base design and handling has been proposed which consists of a design system, a knowledge base editor and a knowledge base compiler

Process-based organization design and hospital efficiency.

Science.gov (United States)

Vera, Antonio; Kuntz, Ludwig

2007-01-01

The central idea of process-based organization design is that organizing a firm around core business processes leads to cost reductions and quality improvements. We investigated theoretically and empirically whether the implementation of a process-based organization design is advisable in hospitals. The data came from a database compiled by the Statistical Office of the German federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz and from a written questionnaire, which was sent to the chief executive officers (CEOs) of all 92 hospitals in this federal state. We used data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure hospital efficiency, and factor analysis and regression analysis to test our hypothesis. Our principal finding is that a high degree of process-based organization has a moderate but significant positive effect on the efficiency of hospitals. The main implication is that hospitals should implement a process-based organization to improve their efficiency. However, to actually achieve positive effects on efficiency, it is of paramount importance to observe some implementation rules, in particular to mobilize physician participation and to create an adequate organizational culture.

A G-function-based reliability-based design methodology applied to a cam roller system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, W.; Sui, P.; Wu, Y.T.

1996-01-01

Conventional reliability-based design optimization methods treats the reliability function as an ordinary function and applies existing mathematical programming techniques to solve the design problem. As a result, the conventional approach requires nested loops with respect to g-function, and is very time consuming. A new reliability-based design method is proposed in this paper that deals with the g-function directly instead of the reliability function. This approach has the potential of significantly reducing the number of calls for g-function calculations since it requires only one full reliability analysis in a design iteration. A cam roller system in a typical high pressure fuel injection diesel engine is designed using both the proposed and the conventional approach. The proposed method is much more efficient for this application

Conceptual Design of GRIG (GUI Based RETRAN Input Generator)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Gyung Jin; Hwang, Su Hyun; Hong, Soon Joon; Lee, Byung Chul; Jang, Chan Su; Um, Kil Sup

2007-01-01

and archival of results. But it has no capability to interconnect database of NPP design material. RETRANUI (RETRAN User Interface) developed by Computer Simulation and Analysis, Inc. is a PC-based graphical user interface designed to assist the RETRAN analyst with execution of the RETRAN computer programs and to provide convenient automated editing and plotting features. The RETRAN calculation is monitored and controlled by the RETRANUI. Once the analysis is complete, the results can be conveniently plotted or the output file viewed by selecting the appropriate RETRANUI toolbar button. But the function is limited to post-processing. Therefore, GRIG (Graphical User Interface based RETRAN Input Generator) is being developed to generate the basic input of transient analysis code from the database of NPP design manual, to minimize the faults induced in the progress of input generation, and to enhance the user convenience. The methodology of GRIG interconnecting the input generator with the database and calculation note is new approach that has never been tried until now

Completely automated modal analysis procedure based on the combination of different OMA methods

Science.gov (United States)

Ripamonti, Francesco; Bussini, Alberto; Resta, Ferruccio

2018-03-01

In this work a completely automated output-only Modal Analysis procedure is presented and all its benefits are listed. Based on the merging of different Operational Modal Analysis methods and a statistical approach, the identification process has been improved becoming more robust and giving as results only the real natural frequencies, damping ratios and mode shapes of the system. The effect of the temperature can be taken into account as well, leading to the creation of a better tool for automated Structural Health Monitoring. The algorithm has been developed and tested on a numerical model of a scaled three-story steel building present in the laboratories of Politecnico di Milano.

Consequence Based Design. An approach for integrating computational collaborative models (Integrated Dynamic Models) in the building design phase

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Negendahl, Kristoffer

relies on various advancements in the area of integrated dynamic models. It also relies on the application and test of the approach in practice to evaluate the Consequence based design and the use of integrated dynamic models. As a result, the Consequence based design approach has been applied in five...... and define new ways to implement integrated dynamic models for the following project. In parallel, seven different developments of new methods, tools and algorithms have been performed to support the application of the approach. The developments concern: Decision diagrams – to clarify goals and the ability...... affect the design process and collaboration between building designers and simulationists. Within the limits of applying the approach of Consequence based design to five case studies, followed by documentation based on interviews, surveys and project related documentations derived from internal reports...

Completion of the Radioactive Materials Packaging Handbook

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shappert, L.B.

1998-02-01

The Radioactive Materials Packaging Handbook: Design, Operation and Maintenance, which will serve as a replacement for the Cask Designers Guide (Shappert, 1970), has now been completed and submitted to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) electronics publishing group for layout and printing; it is scheduled to be printed in late spring 1998. The Handbook, written by experts in their particular fields, is a compilation of technical chapters that address the design aspects of a package intended for transporting radioactive material in normal commerce; it was prepared under the direction of M. E. Wangler of the US Department of Energy (DOE) and is intended to provide a wealth of technical guidance that will give designers a better understanding of the regulatory approval process, preferences of regulators on specific aspects of package design, and the types of analyses that should be considered when designing a package to carry radioactive materials

Complete synchronization of uncertain chaotic systems via a single proportional adaptive controller: A comparative study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ahmad, Israr, E-mail: iak-2000plus@yahoo.com; Saaban, Azizan Bin, E-mail: azizan.s@uum.edu.my; Ibrahim, Adyda Binti, E-mail: adyda@uum.edu.my [School of Quantitative Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences, UUM (Malaysia); Shahzad, Mohammad, E-mail: dmsinfinite@gmail.com [College of Applied Sciences Nizwa, Ministry of Higher Education, Sultanate of Oman (Oman)

2015-12-11

This paper addresses a comparative computational study on the synchronization quality, cost and converging speed for two pairs of identical chaotic and hyperchaotic systems with unknown time-varying parameters. It is assumed that the unknown time-varying parameters are bounded. Based on the Lyapunov stability theory and using the adaptive control method, a single proportional controller is proposed to achieve the goal of complete synchronizations. Accordingly, appropriate adaptive laws are designed to identify the unknown time-varying parameters. The designed control strategy is easy to implement in practice. Numerical simulations results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed synchronization scheme.

Above-knee prosthesis design based on fatigue life using finite element method and design of experiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Phanphet, Suwattanarwong; Dechjarern, Surangsee; Jomjanyong, Sermkiat

2017-05-01

The main objective of this work is to improve the standard of the existing design of knee prosthesis developed by Thailand's Prostheses Foundation of Her Royal Highness The Princess Mother. The experimental structural tests, based on the ISO 10328, of the existing design showed that a few components failed due to fatigue under normal cyclic loading below the required number of cycles. The finite element (FE) simulations of structural tests on the knee prosthesis were carried out. Fatigue life predictions of knee component materials were modeled based on the Morrow's approach. The fatigue life prediction based on the FE model result was validated with the corresponding structural test and the results agreed well. The new designs of the failed components were studied using the design of experimental approach and finite element analysis of the ISO 10328 structural test of knee prostheses under two separated loading cases. Under ultimate loading, knee prosthesis peak von Mises stress must be less than the yield strength of knee component's material and the total knee deflection must be lower than 2.5mm. The fatigue life prediction of all knee components must be higher than 3,000,000 cycles under normal cyclic loading. The design parameters are the thickness of joint bars, the diameter of lower connector and the thickness of absorber-stopper. The optimized knee prosthesis design meeting all the requirements was recommended. Experimental ISO 10328 structural test of the fabricated knee prosthesis based on the optimized design confirmed the finite element prediction. Copyright © 2017 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Designing for Diverse Learning: Case Study of Place-Based Learning in Design and Technologies Pre-Service Teacher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Best, Marnie; MacGregor, Denise; Price, Deborah

2017-01-01

Place-based learning experiences in Design and Technologies education connect people and place with design processes and products. Drawing on place-based learning, this case study shares the experiences of eight final year pre-service Design and Technologies education students from the University of South Australia as they collaborated with…

Reference task-based design of crisis management games

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Link, Daniel; Meesters, Kenny; Hellingrath, Bernd; van de Walle, B.A.; Hiltz, S.R.; Pfaff, M.S.; Plotnick, L.; Shih, P.C.

Serious games are an effective tool for giving players a hands-on, immersive experience of crisis situations. To simplify the design of such games while ensuring their relevance, we propose a design method that is based on reference tasks. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated by the

Generation of TALE-Based Designer Epigenome Modifiers.

Science.gov (United States)

Nitsch, Sandra; Mussolino, Claudio

2018-01-01

Manipulation of gene expression can be facilitated by editing the genome or the epigenome. Precise genome editing is traditionally achieved by using designer nucleases which are generally exploited to eliminate a specific gene product. Upon the introduction of a site-specific DNA double-strand break (DSB) by the nuclease, endogenous DSB repair mechanisms are in turn harnessed to induce DNA sequence changes that can result in target gene inactivation. Minimal off-target effects can be obtained by endowing designer nucleases with the highly specific DNA-binding domain (DBD) derived from transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs). In contrast, epigenome editing allows gene expression control without inducing changes in the DNA sequence by specifically altering epigenetic marks, as histone tails modifications or DNA methylation patterns within promoter or enhancer regions. Importantly, this approach allows both up- and downregulation of the target gene expression, and the effect is generally reversible. TALE-based designer epigenome modifiers combine the high specificity of TALE-derived DBDs with the power of epigenetic modifier domains to induce fast and long-lasting changes in the epigenetic landscape of a target gene and control its expression. Here we provide a detailed description for the generation of TALE-based designer epigenome modifiers and of a suitable reporter cell line to easily monitor their activity.

User-Centred BCI Videogame Design

OpenAIRE

Loup-Escande , Emilie; Lotte , Fabien; Loup , Guillaume; Lécuyer , Anatole

2015-01-01

International audience; This chapter aims to offer a user-centred methodological framework to guide the design and evaluation of Brain-Computer Interface videogames. This framework is based on the contributions of ergonomics to ensure these games are well suited for their users (i.e., players). It provides methods, criteria and metrics to complete the different phases required by ae human-centred design process. This aims to understand the context of use, specify the user needs and evaluate t...

User Preferences for Web-Based Module Design Layout and Design Impact on Information Recall Considering Age

Science.gov (United States)

Pomales-García, Cristina; Rivera-Nivar, Mericia

2015-01-01

Research in design of Web-based modules should incorporate aging as an important factor given the diversity of the current workforce. This work aims to understand how Web-Based Learning modules can be designed to accommodate young (25-35 years) as well as older (55-65 years) users by: (1) identifying how information sources (instructor video,…

The analysis of probability task completion; Taxonomy of probabilistic thinking-based across gender in elementary school students

Science.gov (United States)

Sari, Dwi Ivayana; Budayasa, I. Ketut; Juniati, Dwi

2017-08-01

Formulation of mathematical learning goals now is not only oriented on cognitive product, but also leads to cognitive process, which is probabilistic thinking. Probabilistic thinking is needed by students to make a decision. Elementary school students are required to develop probabilistic thinking as foundation to learn probability at higher level. A framework of probabilistic thinking of students had been developed by using SOLO taxonomy, which consists of prestructural probabilistic thinking, unistructural probabilistic thinking, multistructural probabilistic thinking and relational probabilistic thinking. This study aimed to analyze of probability task completion based on taxonomy of probabilistic thinking. The subjects were two students of fifth grade; boy and girl. Subjects were selected by giving test of mathematical ability and then based on high math ability. Subjects were given probability tasks consisting of sample space, probability of an event and probability comparison. The data analysis consisted of categorization, reduction, interpretation and conclusion. Credibility of data used time triangulation. The results was level of boy's probabilistic thinking in completing probability tasks indicated multistructural probabilistic thinking, while level of girl's probabilistic thinking in completing probability tasks indicated unistructural probabilistic thinking. The results indicated that level of boy's probabilistic thinking was higher than level of girl's probabilistic thinking. The results could contribute to curriculum developer in developing probability learning goals for elementary school students. Indeed, teachers could teach probability with regarding gender difference.

Risk-informed design of a pebble bed gas reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ritterbusch, Stanley; Dimitrijevic, Vesna; Simic Zdenko; Savkina Marina

2003-01-01

One of the major challenges to the successful deployment of new nuclear plants in the United States is the regulatory process, which is largely based on water-reactor design technology and operating experience. While ongoing and expected efforts to license new LWR designs are based primarily on current regulations, guidance, and past experience, the pre-application review of the gas-cooled Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) has shown that efforts are being made to provide additional 'risk-informed' improvements to the licensing process. These improvements are aimed at resolving new design and regulatory issues using a plant-wide integrated evaluation method - state-of-the-art Probabilistic Risk Assessment - which addresses all significant design features and operating modes. The integrated PRA evaluation is supported by the usual deterministic design analyses, engineering judgments, and margins added to address uncertainties (i.e., defense-in-depth). The work performed for this paper was completed as part of the United States Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy Research Initiative. The purpose of this particular project was to develop the methods for a new 'highly risk-informed' design and regulatory process. In this work. PRA techniques were applied in order to provide an integrated and systematic analysis of the plant design, to quantify uncertainties and explicitly account for defense-in-depth features. This work concentrates on the application of the risk-informed principles to a new plant design such as the PBMR. The implementation example completed for this project included specification of the design configuration, use of the PRA to evaluate the design, and iterations to identify design changes that improve the overall level of safety and system reliability. This paper summarizes the new 'highly risk-informed' design process, the design of the PBMR, and the results obtained. These results, consistent with the known inherent safety features of a pebble