WorldWideScience

Sample records for reliable sdi service

  1. Transformation of Library Services in Nuclear Malaysia: e-SDI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mohd Hafizal Yusof; Nasaruddin Ahmad; Habibah Adnan

    2015-01-01

    In order to deliver its services to the public, library must have initiatives to attract the public on using their services. One of the services offered by the library is information packaging or Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI). SDI is services that enable the librarian to serve the user on upcoming information according to the users interest. Before this, librarian will package new publication or information regarding certain topics of the user need and deliver it to the target user frequently. Theorically, this service is connection between library and user and back to library again. Nuclear Malaysia Library has used Integrated Library Management Utilities (ILMU) since 2005. Through this system, there is one module known as Article Browsing where its function same with SDI. This paper will elaborate on transformation of SDI services from conventional to the electronic form. (author)

  2. SDI: Is it a reliable fouling index?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Al-Hadidi, A.M.M.; Kemperman, Antonius J.B.; Schippers, J.C.; Wessling, Matthias; van der Meer, Walterus Gijsbertus Joseph

    2012-01-01

    The ASTM considers the silt density index (SDI) test as a standard test for fouling potential of RO and NF feed waters. Up to date, the SDI is used at many full- and pilot-scale installations. The design and choice of the applied RO pretreatment is to a large extent based on the SDI test on the raw

  3. Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) services in a Nigerian ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... of providing current information but personalized to the faculty, and keeps them abreast of the latest development. One of the major challenges of the operations in RUN is that certain search engines being used in the provision of SDI services e.g yahoo and AltaVista are not good enough for effective information retrieval.

  4. Assessment of Silt Density Index (SDI) as Fouling Propensity Parameter in Reverse Osmosis Desalination

    KAUST Repository

    Rachman, Rinaldi

    2011-07-01

    Reverse osmosis operations are facing persistent fouling phenomenon that has challenged the integrity of these processes. Prediction of fouling potential by measuring a fouling index toward feed water is essential to ensure robust operation. Moreover, employing a reliable fouling index with good reproducibility and precision is necessary. Silt density index (SDI) is considered insufficient in terms of reliability and empirical theory, among other limitations. Nevertheless due its simplicity, SDI measurement is utilized extensively in RO desalination systems. The aim of this research is to assess the reliability of SDI. Methods include the investigation of different SDI membranes and study of the nature of the SDI filtration. Results demonstrate the existence of the membrane properties\\' variation within manufacturers, which then causes a lack of accuracy in fouling risk estimation. The nature of particles during SDI filtration provides information that particle concentration and size play a significant role on SDI quantification with substantial representation given by particles with size close to membrane nominal pore size. Moreover, turbidity assisted SDI measurements along with determination of UF pretreated and clean water fouling potential, establishes the indication of non-fouling related phenomena involved on SDI measurement such as a natural organic matter adsorption and hydrodynamic condition that alters during filtration. Additionally, it was found that the latter affects the sensitivity of SDI by being represented by some portions of SDI value. Keywords: Reverse Osmosis, Fouling index, Particulate Fouling, Silt Density Index (SDI), and Assessment of SDI.

  5. An in-house alternative to traditional SDI services at Argonne National Laboratory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Noel, R.E.; Dominiak, R.R.

    1997-02-20

    Selective Dissemination of Information (SDIs) are based on automated, well-defined programs that regularly produce precise, relevant bibliographic information. Librarians have typically turned to information vendors such as Dialog or STN international to design and implement these searches for their users in business, academia, and the science community. Because Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) purchases the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Current Contents tapes (all subject areas excluding Humanities). ANL scientists enjoy the benefit of in-house developments with BASISplus software programming and no longer need to turn to outside companies for reliable SDI service. The database and its customized services are known as ACCESS (Argonne Current Contents Electronic Search Service). Through collaboration with librarians on Boolean logic and selection of terms, users can now design their own personal profiles to comb the new data, thereby avoiding service fees from outside providers. Based on the feedback from scientists, it seems that this new service can help transform the ANL distributed libraries into more efficient central functioning entities that better serve the users. One goal is to eliminate the routing of paper copies of many new journal issues to different library locations for users to browse; instead users may be expected to rely more on electronic dissemination of both table of contents and customized SDIs for new scientific and technical information.

  6. Assessment of silt density index (SDI) as fouling propensity parameter in reverse osmosis (RO) desalination systems

    KAUST Repository

    Rachman, Rinaldi

    2013-01-01

    Due to its simplicity, silt density index (SDI) is extensively used in reverse osmosis systems despite its limitations in predicting membrane fouling. Employing a reliable fouling index with good reproducibility and precision is necessary. The aim of this investigation is to assess the reliability of SDI in order to understand the reasons for the low level of precision and accuracy. Different commercial SDI membranes and feed water quality were used in this study. Results showed the existence of membrane properties\\' variation within manufacturers, which then causes a lack of accuracy in fouling risk estimation. The nature of particles during SDI filtration provides information that particle concentration and size play a significant role in SDI quantification with substantial representation given by particles with size close to membrane nominal pore size. Moreover, turbidity-assisted SDI measurements along with determination of ultrafiltration permeate and clean water fouling potential, establish the indication of nonfouling-related phenomena involved on SDI measurement such as natural organic matter adsorption and hydrodynamic conditions that alters during filtration. Additionally, it was found that the latter affects the sensitivity of SDI by being represented by some portions of SDI values. © 2013 Desalination Publications.

  7. Assessment of silt density index (SDI) as fouling propensity parameter in reverse osmosis (RO) desalination systems

    KAUST Repository

    Rachman, Rinaldi; Ghaffour, NorEddine; Wali, F.; Amy, Gary L.

    2013-01-01

    Due to its simplicity, silt density index (SDI) is extensively used in reverse osmosis systems despite its limitations in predicting membrane fouling. Employing a reliable fouling index with good reproducibility and precision is necessary. The aim of this investigation is to assess the reliability of SDI in order to understand the reasons for the low level of precision and accuracy. Different commercial SDI membranes and feed water quality were used in this study. Results showed the existence of membrane properties' variation within manufacturers, which then causes a lack of accuracy in fouling risk estimation. The nature of particles during SDI filtration provides information that particle concentration and size play a significant role in SDI quantification with substantial representation given by particles with size close to membrane nominal pore size. Moreover, turbidity-assisted SDI measurements along with determination of ultrafiltration permeate and clean water fouling potential, establish the indication of nonfouling-related phenomena involved on SDI measurement such as natural organic matter adsorption and hydrodynamic conditions that alters during filtration. Additionally, it was found that the latter affects the sensitivity of SDI by being represented by some portions of SDI values. © 2013 Desalination Publications.

  8. CAN-SDI: experience with multi-source computer based current awareness services in the National Science Library, Ottawa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaffney, I M

    1973-07-01

    CAN/SDI is Canada's national Selective Dissemination of Information Service offering a choice of nine data bases to its scientific and technical community. The system is based on central processing at the National Science Library combined with the utilization of decentralized expertise and resources for profile formulation and user education. Its greatest strength lies in its wide interdisciplinary quality. The major advantage of centralized processing of many data bases is that Canadians need learn only one method of profile formulation to access many files. A breakdown of services used confirms that a single tape service does not cover all the information requirements of most users. On the average each profile accesses approximately 1.5 data bases. Constant subscriber growth and a low cancellation rate indicate that CAN/SDI is and will continue to be an important element in Canada's information system.

  9. Transformation of Selective Dissemination of Information: e-SDI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mohd Hafizal Yusof; Ruzilah Ehsan; Habibah Adnan; Iberahim Ali

    2013-01-01

    ILMU or Integrated Library Management Utilities are first used by Malaysian Nuclear Agency's Library since 2005. The purpose of implementation of this system is to catalogue publications in the library. It uses languages of MARC 21 (Machine Readable Cataloging). One of services offered by this system are IRS Module where it used for indexing publication such as journal articles, patent, thesis, and newspaper articles. Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) was a famous services offered by libraries around the world to their user. User just updated their forms called user profile in order to apply the literature based on interested keywords or type of publications. The librarian will effort to get those publication wanted by the user. Nowadays, as technology developed, this services also transformed into the digital version. This paper work prepared to discuss e-SDI service in Malaysian Nuclear Agency's Library using ILMU system. (author)

  10. A contextual ICA stakeholder model approach for the Namibian spatial data infrastructure (NamSDI)

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Sinvula, KM

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available In 2011, the Namibian parliament presented and promulgated the Namibian Spatial Data Infrastructure (NamSDI) with the aim of promoting the sharing and improved access and use of geospatial data and services across Namibia. Notable SDI models...

  11. Evaluation of up-posting influence on the performance of an SDI service

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barros, A.C.T.M. de

    1980-01-01

    Up-posting as a tool in information retrieval is analysed for the CIN/CNEN - SDI system based on INIS tapes. Two SDI versions were processed at a time for a random sample of 200 interest profiles: one using up-posting, another one disregarding it. Results were compared and statistical analyses were done to estimate the effects of up-posting and to set criteria for proper use. The influence of up-posting in the average SONAR performance may be neglected while for individual profiles significant variations in precision and/or recall were found. (Author) [pt

  12. The STIG : A new SDI assessment method

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nushi, B.; Van Loenen, B.; Crompvoets, J.

    2015-01-01

    To stimulate the Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) development effectively and efficiently, it is key to assess the progress and benefits of the SDI. Currently, several SDI assessment methods exist. However, these are still in an infant stage and none of these appear to meet the requirements of

  13. The magnetic tape-based INIS-SDI information retrieval service in Czechoslovakia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blazek, J.

    1980-01-01

    The activities are described of the SDI department of the Czechoslovak Nuclear Information Centre. It performs retrospective and current searches to order. Statistical data are given on the amount and quality of output. (M.S.)

  14. OneGeology Web Services and Portal as a global geological SDI - latest standards and technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duffy, Tim; Tellez-Arenas, Agnes

    2014-05-01

    The global coverage of OneGeology Web Services (www.onegeology.org and portal.onegeology.org) achieved since 2007 from the 120 participating geological surveys will be reviewed and issues arising discussed. Recent enhancements to the OneGeology Web Services capabilities will be covered including new up to 5 star service accreditation scheme utilising the ISO/OGC Web Mapping Service standard version 1.3, core ISO 19115 metadata additions and Version 2.0 Web Feature Services (WFS) serving the new IUGS-CGI GeoSciML V3.2 geological web data exchange language standard (http://www.geosciml.org/) with its associated 30+ IUGS-CGI available vocabularies (http://resource.geosciml.org/ and http://srvgeosciml.brgm.fr/eXist2010/brgm/client.html). Use of the CGI simpelithology and timescale dictionaries now allow those who wish to do so to offer data harmonisation to query their GeoSciML 3.2 based Web Feature Services and their GeoSciML_Portrayal V2.0.1 (http://www.geosciml.org/) Web Map Services in the OneGeology portal (http://portal.onegeology.org). Contributing to OneGeology involves offering to serve ideally 1:1000,000 scale geological data (in practice any scale now is warmly welcomed) as an OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standard based WMS (Web Mapping Service) service from an available WWW server. This may either be hosted within the Geological Survey or a neighbouring, regional or elsewhere institution that offers to serve that data for them i.e. offers to help technically by providing the web serving IT infrastructure as a 'buddy'. OneGeology is a standards focussed Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and works to ensure that these standards work together and it is now possible for European Geological Surveys to register their INSPIRE web services within the OneGeology SDI (e.g. see http://www.geosciml.org/geosciml/3.2/documentation/cookbook/INSPIRE_GeoSciML_Cookbook%20_1.0.pdf). The Onegeology portal (http://portal.onegeology.org) is the first port of call for anyone

  15. Application of SDI technology in space propulsion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Klein, A.J.

    1992-01-01

    Numerous technologies developed by the DOD within the SDI program are now available for adaptation to the requirements of commercial spacecraft; SDI has accordingly organized the Technology Applications Information System data base, which contains nearly 2000 nonproprietary abstracts on SDI technology. Attention is here given to such illustrative systems as hydrogen arcjets, ammonia arcjets, ion engines, SSTO launch vehicles, gel propellants, lateral thrusters, pulsed electrothermal thrusters, laser-powered rockets, and nuclear propulsion

  16. Why SDI failed: A different perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Codevilla, A.

    1990-01-01

    Conventional wisdom is wrong. SDI did not fail simply because science could not supply the means to build an anti-missile shield. Rather, it floundered on a combination of unsatisfiable technical requirements and technical boondoggles, charges the author. Rather than building on current technology and doing what could be done with what was at hand, those who shaped SDI policy - both military and civilian - insisted on virtually starting over. He also charges they were either passionately against building anti-missile weapons or lacking in intellectual self-confidence and interest with regard to the subject. Work on using modern optics and computers for anti-missile purposes began in the late 1970s, and the technology already was in use in intelligence satellites - a fact either unknown or ignored by most SDI officials. As a result of the conflicting interests among officials and the organizational structure they put into place, the author says the SDI program could not possibly develop any weapon, even if the people involved wanted to, which they did not

  17. Sonar: a multibase and parametric interface software for SDI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fonseca Passos, M.C.J. da

    1986-01-01

    Sonar - an automated service for selective dissemination of information (SDI) - developed by the Centro de Informacoes Nucleares (CIN) of the Comissao Nacional de Energia Nuclear (CNEN) is described. Emphasis is given to the multibase feature of the system based on the parametric interface between the system and an external data base reading subroutine. (Author) [pt

  18. Full utilization of silt density index (SDI) measurements for seawater pre-treatment

    KAUST Repository

    Wei, Chunhai

    2012-07-01

    In order to clarify the fouling mechanism during silt density index (SDI) measurements of seawater in the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination process, 11 runs were conducted under constant-pressure (207kPa) dead-end filtration mode according to the standard protocol for SDI measurement, in which two kinds of 0.45μm membranes of different material and seawater samples from the Mediterranean including raw seawater and seawater pre-treated by coagulation followed by sand filtration (CSF) and coagulation followed by microfiltration (CMF) technologies were tested. Fouling mechanisms based on the constant-pressure filtration equation were fully analyzed. For all runs, only t/(V/A)∼t showed very good linearity (correlation coefficient R 2>0.99) since the first moment of the filtration, indicating that standard blocking rather than cake filtration was the dominant fouling mechanism during the entire filtration process. The very low concentration of suspended solids rejected by MF of 0.45μm in seawater was the main reason why a cake layer was not formed. High turbidity removal during filtration indicated that organic colloids retained on and/or adsorbed in membrane pores governed the filtration process (i.e., standard blocking) due to the important contribution of organic substances to seawater turbidity in this study. Therefore the standard blocking coefficient k s, i.e., the slope of t/(V/A)∼t, could be used as a good fouling index for seawater because it showed good linearity with feed seawater turbidity. The correlation of SDI with k s and feed seawater quality indicated that SDI could be reliably used for seawater with low fouling potential (SDI 15min<5) like pre-treated seawater in this study. From both k s and SDI, the order of fouling potential was raw seawater>seawater pre-treated by CSF>seawater pre-treated by CMF, indicating the better performance of CMF than CSF. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

  19. SDI-based business processes: A territorial analysis web information system in Spain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Béjar, Rubén; Latre, Miguel Á.; Lopez-Pellicer, Francisco J.; Nogueras-Iso, Javier; Zarazaga-Soria, F. J.; Muro-Medrano, Pedro R.

    2012-09-01

    Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) provide access to geospatial data and operations through interoperable Web services. These data and operations can be chained to set up specialized geospatial business processes, and these processes can give support to different applications. End users can benefit from these applications, while experts can integrate the Web services in their own business processes and developments. This paper presents an SDI-based territorial analysis Web information system for Spain, which gives access to land cover, topography and elevation data, as well as to a number of interoperable geospatial operations by means of a Web Processing Service (WPS). Several examples illustrate how different territorial analysis business processes are supported. The system has been established by the Spanish National SDI (Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales de España, IDEE) both as an experimental platform for geoscientists and geoinformation system developers, and as a mechanism to contribute to the Spanish citizens knowledge about their territory.

  20. Artificial intelligence applications in space and SDI: A survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fiala, Harvey E.

    1988-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to survey existing and planned Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications to show that they are sufficiently advanced for 32 percent of all space applications and SDI (Space Defense Initiative) software to be AI-based software. To best define the needs that AI can fill in space and SDI programs, this paper enumerates primary areas of research and lists generic application areas. Current and planned NASA and military space projects in AI will be reviewed. This review will be largely in the selected area of expert systems. Finally, direct applications of AI to SDI will be treated. The conclusion covers the importance of AI to space and SDI applications, and conversely, their importance to AI.

  1. Evaluating a public sector organisation for SDI Readiness – The ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper establishes the availability of geographic information within the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) by describing DEA's contribution to the South African SDI objectives and by assessing DEA's SDI readiness. The qualitative method was used to collect data. The techniques used in this research were ...

  2. SDI: Fallacy of last move in arms race

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lakoff, S.

    1990-01-01

    The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), sold to the American people by a persuasive president as the weapons system to end all weapons systems, turned out to be only another step in the continuing arms race, contends the author. It might already have been terminated if President Bush did not fear the conservatives who see SDI as the strategic centerpiece of the Reagan legacy. He says the project was ill-conceived from the start because it was grounded in the simple-minded faith that technology can provide the answer to the arms race. The reason it got as far as it did was because this simple-minded faith had an adherent in an exceptionally popular president who sensed correctly that the voters shared the same naive confidence. He lists several factors that contributed to the unraveling of SDI: technical opposition based upon growing evidence that the system would not work; loss of the 1986 congressional elections and a subsequent drop in appropriations; and the dramatic improvement of relations between the superpowers. He concludes that SDI is but the latest in a series of fundamentally misguided efforts by both superpowers to achieve advantage; if it proves to be the final instance of the fallacy of the last move in the annals of the Cold War, at least it will not have been altogether in vain

  3. Science, politics, and origins of SDI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Steinberg, G.M.

    1990-01-01

    President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) proposal, made in a speech in 1983, surprised most of the administration, including the secretaries of Defense and state, most of the president's senior aides and advisers, and the scientific and technological community, says the author. Unlike most new weapons systems, this one did not bubble up from the bureaucracy but, rather, was sprung on the bureaucracy. Reagan spoke of SDI as part of a broader effort to restore American pride and self-confidence and as a symbol of national determination to regain technological preeminence in the world. After 5 years and some $20 billion, the project has made little progress the author states. The program continues more as a result of bureaucratic inertia and the investment already made than from a conviction that the initial vision still can be realized

  4. ExpI and PhzI are descendants of the long lost cognate signal synthase for SdiA.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anice Sabag-Daigle

    Full Text Available SdiA of E. coli and Salmonella is a LuxR homolog that detects N-acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs. Most LuxR homologs function together with a cognate AHL synthase (a LuxI homolog, but SdiA does not. Instead, SdiA detects AHLs produced by other bacterial species. In this report, we performed a phylogenetic analysis of SdiA. The results suggest that one branch of the Enterobacteriaceae obtained a rhlR/rhlI pair by horizontal transfer. The Erwinia and Pantoea branches still contain the complete pair where it is known as expR/expI and phzR/phzI, respectively. A deletion event removed the luxI homolog from the remainder of the group, leaving just the luxR homolog known as sdiA. Thus ExpR and PhzR are SdiA orthologs and ExpI and PhzI are descendants of the long lost cognate signal synthase of SdiA.

  5. Design of a Corporate SDI in Power Sector Using a Formal Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Italo L. Oliveira

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Geospatial data are essential for the decision-making process. However, obtaining and keeping such data up to date usually require much time and many financial resources. In order to minimize the production costs and incentivize sharing these data, countries are promoting the implementation of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI at the different public administration levels. The International Cartographic Association (ICA proposes a formal model that describes the main concepts of an SDI based on three of the five viewpoints of the Reference Model for Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP. Afterwards, researchers extended ICA’s model to describe, more properly, the actors, hierarchical relationship and interactions related to the policies that drive an SDI. However, the proposed extensions are semantically inconsistent with the original proposal. Moreover, the use of ICA’s formal model and its extensions has not been assessed yet to specify a corporate-level SDI. This study describes the merger of actors and policies proposed by the ICA and its extensions in order to eliminate differences in the semantics or terminology among them. This unified model was applied to specify a corporate SDI for a large Brazilian corporation, the Minas Gerais Power Company (Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais (Cemig, which is comprised of about 200 companies in the power sector. The case study presents part of the specification of the five RM-ODP viewpoints, i.e., the three viewpoints featured in ICA’s formal model (Enterprise, Information, and Computation and the other two viewpoints that make up the RM-ODP (Engineering and Technology. The adapted ICA’s model proved adequate to describe SDI-Cemig. In addition, the case study may serve as an example of the specification and implementation of new SDIs, not only corporate ones, but also of public agencies at any hierarchical level.

  6. The value of service reliability

    OpenAIRE

    Benezech , Vincent; Coulombel , Nicolas

    2013-01-01

    International audience; This paper studies the impact of service frequency and reliability on the choice of departure time and the travel cost of transit users. When the user has (α, β, γ) scheduling preferences, we show that the optimal head start decreases with service reliability, as expected. It does not necessarily decrease with service frequency, however. We derive the value of service headway (VoSH) and the value of service reliability (VoSR), which measure the marginal effect on the e...

  7. An open-source wireless sensor stack: from Arduino to SDI-12 to Water One Flow

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hicks, S.; Damiano, S. G.; Smith, K. M.; Olexy, J.; Horsburgh, J. S.; Mayorga, E.; Aufdenkampe, A. K.

    2013-12-01

    Implementing a large-scale streaming environmental sensor network has previously been limited by the high cost of the datalogging and data communication infrastructure. The Christina River Basin Critical Zone Observatory (CRB-CZO) is overcoming the obstacles to large near-real-time data collection networks by using Arduino, an open source electronics platform, in combination with XBee ZigBee wireless radio modules. These extremely low-cost and easy-to-use open source electronics are at the heart of the new DIY movement and have provided solutions to countless projects by over half a million users worldwide. However, their use in environmental sensing is in its infancy. At present a primary limitation to widespread deployment of open-source electronics for environmental sensing is the lack of a simple, open-source software stack to manage streaming data from heterogeneous sensor networks. Here we present a functioning prototype software stack that receives sensor data over a self-meshing ZigBee wireless network from over a hundred sensors, stores the data locally and serves it on demand as a CUAHSI Water One Flow (WOF) web service. We highlight a few new, innovative components, including: (1) a versatile open data logger design based the Arduino electronics platform and ZigBee radios; (2) a software library implementing SDI-12 communication protocol between any Arduino platform and SDI12-enabled sensors without the need for additional hardware (https://github.com/StroudCenter/Arduino-SDI-12); and (3) 'midStream', a light-weight set of Python code that receives streaming sensor data, appends it with metadata on the fly by querying a relational database structured on an early version of the Observations Data Model version 2.0 (ODM2), and uses the WOFpy library to serve the data as WaterML via SOAP and REST web services.

  8. Treatment with the Self-Discovery Camp (SDiC) improves Internet gaming disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakuma, Hiroshi; Mihara, Satoko; Nakayama, Hideki; Miura, Kumiko; Kitayuguchi, Takashi; Maezono, Masaki; Hashimoto, Takuma; Higuchi, Susumu

    2017-01-01

    Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is a novel behavioral addiction that influences the physical, mental, and social aspects of health due to excessive Internet gaming. One type of intensive treatment for IGD is the therapeutic residential camp (TRC), which comprises many types of therapies, including psychotherapy, psychoeducational therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy. The TRC was developed in South Korea and has been administered to many patients with IGD; however, its efficacy in other countries remains unknown. We investigated the efficacy of the Self-Discovery Camp (SDiC), a Japanese version of a TRC, and the correlations between individual characteristics and outcome measures. We recruited 10 patients with IGD (all male, mean age=16.2years, diagnosed using the DSM-5) to spend 8 nights and 9days at the SDiC. We measured gaming time as well as self-efficacy (using the Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale, a measure of therapeutic motivation and problem recognition). Total gaming time was significantly lower 3months after the SDiC. Problem recognition and self-efficacy towards positive change also improved. Furthermore, there was a correlation between age of onset and problem recognition score. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of the SDiC for IGD, especially regarding gaming time and self-efficacy. Additionally, age of onset may be a useful predictor of IGD prognosis. Further studies with larger sample sizes and control groups, and that target long-term outcomes, are needed to extend our understanding of SDiC efficacy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Determination of Slake Durability Index (Sdi) Values on Different Shape of Laminated Marl Samples

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ankara, Hüseyin; Çiçek, Fatma; Talha Deniz, İsmail; Uçak, Emre; Yerel Kandemir, Süheyla

    2016-10-01

    The slake durability index (SDI) test is widely used to determine the disintegration characteristic of the weak and clay-bearing rocks in geo-engineering problems. However, due to the different shapes of sample pieces, such as, irregular shapes displayed mechanical breakages in the slaking process, the SDI test has some limitations that affect the index values. In addition, shape and surface roughness of laminated marl samples have a severe influence on the SDI. In this study, a new sample preparation method called Pasha Method was used to prepare spherical specimens from the laminated marl collected from Seyitomer collar (SLI). Moreover the SDI tests were performed on equal size and weight specimens: three sets with different shapes were used. The three different sets were prepared as the test samples which had sphere shape, parallel to the layers in irregular shape, and vertical to the layers in irregular shape. Index values were determined for the three different sets subjected to the SDI test for 4 cycles. The index values at the end of fourth cycle were found to be 98.43, 98.39 and 97.20 %, respectively. As seen, the index values of the sphere sample set were found to be higher than irregular sample sets.

  10. Contribution to the study of aerosol aerodynamic behaviour - development of a diffusional and inertial spectrometer (SDI 2000)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Diouri, M.

    1987-09-01

    A theoretical and experimental study of cascade impactor and particle diffusion on granular beds was carried out. It resulted in the development of a diffusional and inertial spectrometer (SDI 2000) covering a large particle size range (0.0075 - 15 μm). The second part of the study is devoted to an overview on data reduction and to a comparative study of linear, non-linear and simulation inversion methods adapted to cascade impactors. The inversion problem for SDI 2000 was solved. Finally, the particle size distributions of Diesel exhausts was determined. The possibility to characterize a radioactive aerosol with SDI 20000 was demonstrated, and the results of dust sampling with SDI 2000 inside the JET vessel (Joint European Torus) are presented [fr

  11. SdiA, an N-acylhomoserine lactone receptor, becomes active during the transit of Salmonella enterica through the gastrointestinal tract of turtles.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jenee N Smith

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available LuxR-type transcription factors are typically used by bacteria to determine the population density of their own species by detecting N-acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs. However, while Escherichia and Salmonella encode a LuxR-type AHL receptor, SdiA, they cannot synthesize AHLs. In vitro, it is known that SdiA can detect AHLs produced by other bacterial species.In this report, we tested the hypothesis that SdiA detects the AHL-production of other bacterial species within the animal host. SdiA did not detect AHLs during the transit of Salmonella through the gastrointestinal tract of a guinea pig, a rabbit, a cow, 5 mice, 6 pigs, or 12 chickens. However, SdiA was activated during the transit of Salmonella through turtles. All turtles examined were colonized by the AHL-producing species Aeromonas hydrophila.We conclude that the normal gastrointestinal microbiota of most animal species do not produce AHLs of the correct type, in an appropriate location, or in sufficient quantities to activate SdiA. However, the results obtained with turtles represent the first demonstration of SdiA activity in animals.

  12. Evaluating a public sector organisation for SDI readiness – the case of a South African government department

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Hlela, S

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available within the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) by describing DEA’s contribution to the South African SDI objectives and by assessing DEA’s SDI readiness.The qualitative method was used to collect data. The techniques used in this research were...

  13. SDI HDTV video transmission unit; SDI high vision eizo denso sochi

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1999-03-01

    The number is increasing of broadcasting stations who use HDTV (high-definition television) signals for program formulation for the improvement of video quality for general broadcasting programs. The above-named unit, which transmits HDTV signals which are broadcasting materials over a long distance with their high quality well preserved, is capable of the optical transmission of SDI (serial digital interface) signals meeting the standards of BTA (Broadcasting Technologies Association) on 1 video channel and 2 digital audio channels. It can also work on the light wavelength multiplex system. It was developed under the guidance of TTNet (Tokyo Telecommunication Network Co., Inc.), and gained public favor when it successfully transmitted programs over a distance of approximately 400km from Nagano to Tokyo during the Nagano Olympic Games. It now transmits various high-quality video signals for instance in the relay of baseball games, thereby contributing to the improvement of video quality for broadcasting. (translated by NEDO)

  14. User-driven generation of standard data services

    Science.gov (United States)

    Díaz, Laura; Granell, Carlos; Gould, Michael; Huerta, Joaquín.

    2010-05-01

    Geospatial Information systems are experiencing the shift from monolithic to distributed environments (Bernard, 2003). Current research trends for discover and access of geospatial resources, in these distributed environments, are being addressed by deployment of interconnected Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) nodes at different scales to build a global spatial information infrastructure (Masser et al., 2008; Rajabifard et al., 2002). One of the challenges for implementing these global and multiscale SDIs is to agree with common standards in consideration with heterogeneity of various stakeholders [Masser 2005]. In Europe, the European Commission took the INSPIRE initiative to monitor the development of European SDIs. INSPIRE Directive addresses the need for web services to discover, view, transform, invoke, and download geospatial resources, which enable various stakeholders to share resources in an interoperable manner [INSPIRE 2007]. Such web services require technical specifications for the interoperability and harmonization of their SDIs [INSPIRE 2007]. Moreover, interoperability is ensured by a number of specification efforts, in the geo domain most prominently by ISO/TC 211 and the OpenGIS Consortium (OGC) (Bernard, 2003). Other research challenges regarding SDI are on one hand how to handle complexity by users in charge of maintaining SDIs as they grow, and on the other hand the fact the SDI maintenance and evolution should be guided (Bejar et al, 2009). So there is a motivation to improve the complex deployment mechanisms in SDI since there is a need of expertise and time to deploy resources and integrate them by means of standard services. In this context we present an architecture following the INSPIRE technical guidelines and therefore based on SDI principles. This architecture supports distributed applications and provides components to assist users in deploying and updating SDI resources. Therefore mechanisms and components for the automatic

  15. Pulsed power, ICF, and SDI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Devender, J.P.

    1986-01-01

    Pulsed power technology has been developed over many years for nuclear weapon effects simulation, inertial fusion, and directed energy. Every four years there is a factor of ten increase in power available, and we are now near the 100 TW, couple of million joule (MJ) mark, according to the author. 100 TW is sufficient for studying physics relevant to Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) or the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Pulsed power can be viewed as a basic technology for making electron beams, X-rays, and ion beams. Applications include ICF, plasmoid-directed energy weapons, and microwave weapons. The author presents a set of tentative requirements for an effective defense, a concept for deploying the defense, and a strategy for making the transition to a defense-dominated world

  16. THE DATA AND SERVICES ANALYSIS OF CHINESE NSDI BASED ON BACKX MODEL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    W. Wang

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The data and services analysis are indispensable for the refined development of SDI. This paper, taking Chinese NSDI as a study case, analyzed the data and services advantages and shortcomings of Chinese NSDI and developed a recommendable data and services framework which could improve the Chinese NSDI better services for public and private sectors from known, attainable and usable aspects by using Backx model. And the recommendation framework can also be referenced by other national and local SDI for its better services and applications.

  17. Enhancing discovery in spatial data infrastructures using a search engine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paolo Corti

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available A spatial data infrastructure (SDI is a framework of geospatial data, metadata, users and tools intended to provide an efficient and flexible way to use spatial information. One of the key software components of an SDI is the catalogue service which is needed to discover, query and manage the metadata. Catalogue services in an SDI are typically based on the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW standard which defines common interfaces for accessing the metadata information. A search engine is a software system capable of supporting fast and reliable search, which may use ‘any means necessary’ to get users to the resources they need quickly and efficiently. These techniques may include full text search, natural language processing, weighted results, fuzzy tolerance results, faceting, hit highlighting, recommendations and many others. In this paper we present an example of a search engine being added to an SDI to improve search against large collections of geospatial datasets. The Centre for Geographic Analysis (CGA at Harvard University re-engineered the search component of its public domain SDI (Harvard WorldMap which is based on the GeoNode platform. A search engine was added to the SDI stack to enhance the CSW catalogue discovery abilities. It is now possible to discover spatial datasets from metadata by using the standard search operations of the catalogue and to take advantage of the new abilities of the search engine, to return relevant and reliable content to SDI users.

  18. Impaired long-term memory retention and working memory in sdy mutant mice with a deletion in Dtnbp1, a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Takao Keizo

    2008-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Schizophrenia is a complex genetic disorder caused by multiple genetic and environmental factors. The dystrobrevin-binding protein 1 (DTNBP1: dysbindin-1 gene is a major susceptibility gene for schizophrenia. Genetic variations in DTNBP1 are associated with cognitive functions, general cognitive ability and memory function, and clinical features of patients with schizophrenia including negative symptoms and cognitive decline. Since reduced expression of dysbindin-1 has been observed in postmortem brains of patients with schizophrenia, the sandy (sdy mouse, which has a deletion in the Dtnbp1 gene and expresses no dysbindin-1 protein, could be an animal model of schizophrenia. To address this issue, we have carried out a comprehensive behavioral analysis of the sdy mouse in this study. Results In a rotarod test, sdy mice did not exhibit motor learning whilst the wild type mice did. In a Barnes circular maze test both sdy mice and wild type mice learned to selectively locate the escape hole during the course of the training period and in the probe trial conducted 24 hours after last training. However, sdy mice did not locate the correct hole in the retention probe tests 7 days after the last training trial, whereas wild type mice did, indicating impaired long-term memory retention. A T-maze forced alternation task, a task of working memory, revealed no effect of training in sdy mice despite the obvious effect of training in wild type mice, suggesting a working memory deficit. Conclusion Sdy mouse showed impaired long-term memory retention and working memory. Since genetic variation in DTNBP1 is associated with both schizophrenia and memory function, and memory function is compromised in patients with schizophrenia, the sdy mouse may represent a useful animal model to investigate the mechanisms of memory dysfunction in the disorder.

  19. Full utilization of silt density index (SDI) measurements for seawater pre-treatment

    KAUST Repository

    Wei, Chunhai; Laborie, Sté phanie; Ben Aï m, Roger M.; Amy, Gary L.

    2012-01-01

    according to the standard protocol for SDI measurement, in which two kinds of 0.45μm membranes of different material and seawater samples from the Mediterranean including raw seawater and seawater pre-treated by coagulation followed by sand filtration (CSF

  20. Service validity and service reliability of search, experience and credence services. A scenario study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Galetzka, Mirjam; Verhoeven, J.W.M.; Pruyn, Adriaan T.H.

    2006-01-01

    The purpose of this research is to add to our understanding of the antecedents of customer satisfaction by examining the effects of service reliability (Is the service “correctly” produced?) and service validity (Is the “correct” service produced?) of search, experience and credence services.

  1. The Role of Congress in the Strategic Posture of the United States, 1980-1990: Force Modernization and SDI

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-02-01

    for the program was a fiction. The senator “salute[d] the Commission for shooting down essentially the ‘window of vulnerability’ bugaboo that has...this is a formidable technical task. …But isn’t it worth every investment necessary to free the world from the threat of nuclear war? We know...the first five years of the SDI, Congress regularly halved administration funding requests for SDI, reducing investment in the program from $28

  2. History and operation of INIS magnetic tape retrieval service in CSSR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blazek, J.

    The Nuclear Information Centre is responsible for the utilization of the INIS magnetic tape in Czechoslovakia as the country's national INIS centre. The tape has been used since 1974 for selective dissemination of information using an EC 1040 computer. Currently, users are provided with SDI searches, their copies (the so-called parasite searches) and retrospective searches. The organization of INIS-SDI services is described and the results are reported of the poll among the users of the services. (Ha)

  3. Reliability Engineering for Service Oriented Architectures

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-02-01

    Common Object Request Broker Architecture Ecosystem In software , an ecosystem is a set of applications and/or services that grad- ually build up over time...Enterprise Service Bus Foreign In an SOA context: Any SOA, service or software which the owners of the calling software do not have control of, either...SOA Service Oriented Architecture SRE Software Reliability Engineering System Mode Many systems exhibit different modes of operation. E.g. the cockpit

  4. Data reliability in home healthcare services

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vavilis, S.; Zannone, N.; Petkovic, M.

    2013-01-01

    Home healthcare services are emerging as a new frontier in healthcare practices. Data reliability, however, is crucial for the acceptance of these new services. This work presents a semi-automated system to evaluate the quality of medical measurements taken by patients. The system relies on data

  5. IT enabled service delivery innovation from quality perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yao-Chin Lin

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available The objective is to understand how information and service quality to influence of IT enabled service (ITeS, then to enhance service delivery innovation (SDI. This study bases ITeS to elaborate two research questions by adopting Rodosek’s business reference model. Consequently, we conduct a case study approach, by deriving proposals concerning the relationships among two quality perspectives, ITeS, and SDI in a Taiwanese publishing company. In the end, we concluded three related findings. Firstly, the company based on service orientated to provide basic service functions to encourage more users to enjoy their services, as well as facilitating collaborative work via the online discussion area. Secondly, the company adopted advanced service functions to extend their service scopes to end-users, such as download the news into handheld devices. Finally, the company utilized the supporting service functions to assist customers integrating the ideas and plans.

  6. Product quality, service reliability and management of operations at ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    High product quality, service reliability, and management of operations are key factors in business growth and sustainability. Analyzing “The Starbucks Experience” is a pedagogical approach to reinforcing the concepts of control and management of quality, service reliability, and efficient operations in action. The objective ...

  7. Cyber security for greater service reliability

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vickery, P. [N-Dimension Solutions Inc., Richmond Hill, ON (Canada)

    2008-05-15

    Service reliability in the electricity transmission and distribution (T and D) industry is being challenged by increased equipment failures, harsher climatic conditions, and computer hackers who aim to disrupt services by gaining access to transmission and distribution resources. This article discussed methods of ensuring the cyber-security of T and D operators. Weak points in the T and D industry include remote terminal units; intelligent electronic devices; distributed control systems; programmable logic controllers; and various intelligent field devices. An increasing number of interconnection points exist between an operator's service control system and external systems. The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) standards specify that cyber security strategies should ensure that all cyber assets are protected, and that access points must be monitored to detect intrusion attempts. The introduction of new advanced metering initiatives must also be considered. Comprehensive monitoring systems should be available to support compliance with cyber security standards. It was concluded that senior management should commit to a periodic cyber security re-assessment program in order to keep up-to-date.

  8. Assessment of Information and Communication Technology for Selective Dissemination of Information and Current Awareness Services: A Case Study of University Libraries in the South-West Zone of Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saturday U. Omeluzor

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Objective – To assess the use of information and communication technology (ICT for selective dissemination of information (SDI and current awareness services (CAS in university libraries in the South-West zone of Nigeria. Methods – A descriptive research design was adopted. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire administered to a population consisting of 379 librarians, with 353 usable questionnaires retrieved. Results – Findings revealed that most university libraries in the South-West zone of Nigeria do not use ICT in delivery of SDI and CAS. It is evident in this study that despite the known positive effects of ICT in library services, traditional methods were predominantly used for SDI and CAS to the library users. The study revealed that erratic Internet services, insufficient training, inadequate ICT skills, and low support for ICT were hindrances towards ICT use for SDI and CAS. Conclusions – The integration of ICT features in library services for the delivery of CAS and SDI has been a challenge in university libraries in South-West Nigeria. Only a few libraries and a low percentage of librarians had adopted the use of ICT in the delivery of CAS and SDI, while a larger number of libraries resorted to the use of traditional methods. The level of ICT literacy among the librarians in this study is low, as a higher percentage of librarians did not have adequate ICT skill to use available online resources on the Internet and other ICT tools to deliver SDI and CAS in South-West, Nigeria. This is not unconnected to the fact that the training and technical support received by the librarians is inadequate, and the level of support that academic libraries received from their university managements in South-West Nigeria in terms of funding for ICT development is inadequate, which led to low Internet services.

  9. Architecture-Based Reliability Analysis of Web Services

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahmani, Cobra Mariam

    2012-01-01

    In a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), the hierarchical complexity of Web Services (WS) and their interactions with the underlying Application Server (AS) create new challenges in providing a realistic estimate of WS performance and reliability. The current approaches often treat the entire WS environment as a black-box. Thus, the sensitivity…

  10. Using SDI-12 with ST microelectronics MCU's

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Saari, Alexandra [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Hinzey, Shawn Adrian [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Frigo, Janette Rose [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Proicou, Michael Chris [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Borges, Louis [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2015-09-03

    ST Microelectronics microcontrollers and processors are readily available, capable and economical processors. Unfortunately they lack a broad user base like similar offerings from Texas Instrument, Atmel, or Microchip. All of these devices could be useful in economical devices for remote sensing applications used with environmental sensing. With the increased need for environmental studies, and limited budgets, flexibility in hardware is very important. To that end, and in an effort to increase open support of ST devices, I am sharing my teams' experience in interfacing a common environmental sensor communication protocol (SDI-12) with ST devices.

  11. Social Development in Hong Kong: Development Issues Identified by Social Development Index (SDI)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chua, Hoi-wai; Wong, Anthony K. W.; Shek, Daniel T. L.

    2010-01-01

    Surviving the aftermaths of the Asian Financial Crisis and SARS in 2003, Hong Kong's economy has re-gained its momentum and its economic growth has been quite remarkable too in recent few years. Nevertheless, as reflected by the Social Development Index (SDI), economic growth in Hong Kong does not seem to have benefited the people of the city at…

  12. RSAM: An enhanced architecture for achieving web services reliability in mobile cloud computing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amr S. Abdelfattah

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The evolution of the mobile landscape is coupled with the ubiquitous nature of the internet with its intermittent wireless connectivity and the web services. Achieving the web service reliability results in low communication overhead and retrieving the appropriate response. The middleware approach (MA is highly tended to achieve the web service reliability. This paper proposes a Reliable Service Architecture using Middleware (RSAM that achieves the reliable web services consumption. The enhanced architecture focuses on ensuring and tracking the request execution under the communication limitations and service temporal unavailability. It considers the most measurement factors including: request size, response size, and consuming time. We conducted experiments to compare the enhanced architecture with the traditional one. In these experiments, we covered several cases to prove the achievement of reliability. Results also show that the request size was found to be constant, the response size is identical to the traditional architecture, and the increase in the consuming time was less than 5% of the transaction time with the different response sizes. Keywords: Reliable web service, Middleware architecture, Mobile cloud computing

  13. Push technology at Argonne National Laboratory.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Noel, R. E.; Woell, Y. N.

    1999-04-06

    Selective dissemination of information (SDI) services, also referred to as current awareness searches, are usually provided by periodically running computer programs (personal profiles) against a cumulative database or databases. This concept of pushing relevant content to users has long been integral to librarianship. Librarians traditionally turned to information companies to implement these searches for their users in business, academia, and the science community. This paper describes how a push technology was implemented on a large scale for scientists and engineers at Argonne National Laboratory, explains some of the challenges to designers/maintainers, and identifies the positive effects that SDI seems to be having on users. Argonne purchases the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Current Contents data (all subject areas except Humanities), and scientists no longer need to turn to outside companies for reliable SDI service. Argonne's database and its customized services are known as ACCESS (Argonne-University of Chicago Current Contents Electronic Search Service).

  14. Health Service Quality Scale: Brazilian Portuguese translation, reliability and validity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rocha, Luiz Roberto Martins; Veiga, Daniela Francescato; e Oliveira, Paulo Rocha; Song, Elaine Horibe; Ferreira, Lydia Masako

    2013-01-17

    The Health Service Quality Scale is a multidimensional hierarchical scale that is based on interdisciplinary approach. This instrument was specifically created for measuring health service quality based on marketing and health care concepts. The aim of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the Health Service Quality Scale into Brazilian Portuguese and to assess the validity and reliability of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the instrument. We conducted a cross-sectional, observational study, with public health system patients in a Brazilian university hospital. Validity was assessed using Pearson's correlation coefficient to measure the strength of the association between the Brazilian Portuguese version of the instrument and the SERVQUAL scale. Internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient; the intraclass (ICC) and Pearson's correlation coefficients were used for test-retest reliability. One hundred and sixteen consecutive postoperative patients completed the questionnaire. Pearson's correlation coefficient for validity was 0.20. Cronbach's alpha for the first and second administrations of the final version of the instrument were 0.982 and 0.986, respectively. For test-retest reliability, Pearson's correlation coefficient was 0.89 and ICC was 0.90. The culturally adapted, Brazilian Portuguese version of the Health Service Quality Scale is a valid and reliable instrument to measure health service quality.

  15. Enhancing Experiment Central Service Reliability: from delivery to security and virtualization

    CERN Document Server

    Donno, Flavia; Buzykaev, Alexey; Saiz Santos, Maria Dolores

    2011-01-01

    The four LHC experiments rely on experiment specific services running on machines mainly located at CERN. Some of these services have been rated by the experiments as very critical: any loss or degradation of performance has a major impact on the experiment's production and analysis activities. It is therefore important to provide a reliable and robust operational environment. In this work we describe the strategy based on service deployment, security and virtualization adopted to enhance the reliability of ATLAS and CMS central services.

  16. Health service quality scale: Brazilian Portuguese translation, reliability and validity

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Background The Health Service Quality Scale is a multidimensional hierarchical scale that is based on interdisciplinary approach. This instrument was specifically created for measuring health service quality based on marketing and health care concepts. The aim of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the Health Service Quality Scale into Brazilian Portuguese and to assess the validity and reliability of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the instrument. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional, observational study, with public health system patients in a Brazilian university hospital. Validity was assessed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient to measure the strength of the association between the Brazilian Portuguese version of the instrument and the SERVQUAL scale. Internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient; the intraclass (ICC) and Pearson’s correlation coefficients were used for test-retest reliability. Results One hundred and sixteen consecutive postoperative patients completed the questionnaire. Pearson’s correlation coefficient for validity was 0.20. Cronbach's alpha for the first and second administrations of the final version of the instrument were 0.982 and 0.986, respectively. For test-retest reliability, Pearson’s correlation coefficient was 0.89 and ICC was 0.90. Conclusions The culturally adapted, Brazilian Portuguese version of the Health Service Quality Scale is a valid and reliable instrument to measure health service quality. PMID:23327598

  17. The impact of scheduling on service reliability : Trip-time determination and holding points in long-headway services

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van Oort, N.; Boterman, J.W.; Van Nes, R.

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents research on optimizing service reliability of longheadway services in urban public transport. Setting the driving time, and thus the departure time at stops, is an important decision when optimizing reliability in urban public transport. The choice of the percentile out of

  18. Construction of nuclear special information service

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oh, Jeong Hoon; Kim, Tae Whan; Yi, Ji Ho; Chun, Young Choon; Yoo, Jae Bok; Yoo, An Na; Choi, Heon Soo

    2012-01-01

    Domestic INIS project has carried out various activities on supporting a decision-making for INIS Secretariat, exchanges of the statistical information between INIS and the country, and technical assistance for domestic end-users using INIS database. Based on the construction of INIS database sent by member states, the data published in the country has been gathered, collected, and inputted to INIS database according to the INIS reference series. Using the INIS output data, it has provided domestic users with searching INIS CD-ROM DB, INIS online database, INIS SDI service, and non-conventional literature delivery services. INIS2 DB Host site in Korea has serviced users of domestic and INIS member countries. In order to maintain the same data as Vienna center, the data update process has been performed. Also, publicity information activities were performed by many ways. To construct digital information infrastructure, we changed web server of KORNIS21 and we reconstruct digital library system as separation of KAERI network system. We constructed patent trend analysis system and new SDI service system. Also we collected Web DB, digital journals and so on and made an effort on operation of knowledge management system and research documents management. We have inputted over 4,000 records per year since 2009 and the input amount this year has reached 4,284 records. In order to input the comprehensive domestic publication related to nuclear energy, and rise in position of the national center, it is necessary to continue efforts and support budgets. We expect the INIS2 DB Host site will make a contribution to the improvement of productivity in the nuclear energy research as well as the diffusion of information about nuclear energy. We provided users with stable services changing web server of KORNIS21. Also we contributed to the improvement of researcher's productivity by constructing patent trend analysis system, new SDI service system and provided users with services

  19. Novel approach for evaluation of service reliability for electricity customers

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    JIANG; John; N

    2009-01-01

    Understanding reliability value for electricity customer is important to market-based reliability management. This paper proposes a novel approach to evaluate the reliability for electricity customers by using indifference curve between economic compensation for power interruption and service reliability of electricity. Indifference curve is formed by calculating different planning schemes of network expansion for different reliability requirements of customers, which reveals the information about economic values for different reliability levels for electricity customers, so that the reliability based on market supply demand mechanism can be established and economic signals can be provided for reliability management and enhancement.

  20. SERVIR's Contributions and Benefits to Belize thru Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irwin, Daniel E.

    2006-01-01

    Dan Irwin, the SERVIR Project Manager is being honored with the privilege of delivering the opening remarks at Belize s second celebration of GIS Day, a weeklong event to be held at the University of Belize's campus in the nation s capital, Belmopan. The request has been extended by the GIS Day Planning Committee which operates under the auspices of Belize s Ministry of Natural Resources & the Environment, which is the focal ministry for SERVIR. In the 20-30 min. allotted for the opening remarks, the SERVIR Project Manager will expound on how SERVIR, operating under the auspices of NASA s Ecological Forecasting Program, contributes to spatial data infrastructure (SDI) development in Belize. NASA s contributions to the region - particularly work under the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor - will be highlighted. Continuing, the remarks will discuss SERVIR s role in Belize s steadily expanding SDI, particularly in the context of delivering integrated decision support products via web-based infrastructure. The remarks will close with a call to the parties assembled to work together in the application of Earth Observation Systems technologies for the benefit of Belizean society as a whole. NASA s strong presence in Belize s GIS Day celebrations will be highlighted as sustained goodwill of the American people - in partial fulfillment of goals set forth under the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).

  1. Reliability in individual monitoring service.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mod Ali, N

    2011-03-01

    As a laboratory certified to ISO 9001:2008 and accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, the Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory (SSDL)-Nuclear Malaysia has incorporated an overall comprehensive system for technical and quality management in promoting a reliable individual monitoring service (IMS). Faster identification and resolution of issues regarding dosemeter preparation and issuing of reports, personnel enhancement, improved customer satisfaction and overall efficiency of laboratory activities are all results of the implementation of an effective quality system. Review of these measures and responses to observed trends provide continuous improvement of the system. By having these mechanisms, reliability of the IMS can be assured in the promotion of safe behaviour at all levels of the workforce utilising ionising radiation facilities. Upgradation of in the reporting program through a web-based e-SSDL marks a major improvement in Nuclear Malaysia's IMS reliability on the whole. The system is a vital step in providing a user friendly and effective occupational exposure evaluation program in the country. It provides a higher level of confidence in the results generated for occupational dose monitoring of the IMS, thus, enhances the status of the radiation protection framework of the country.

  2. Detailed services in a spatial data infrastructure from the computation viewpoint

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Cooper, Antony K

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available the detailed services that are performed within each of these components, and the roles played by these components in the different phases of establishing and using an SDI. The matrix of these detailed services is too large for inclusion in this conference...

  3. Assessing the Impact of Imperfect Diagnosis on Service Reliability

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grønbæk, Lars Jesper; Schwefel, Hans-Peter; Kjærgaard, Jens Kristian

    2010-01-01

    , representative diagnosis performance metrics have been defined and their closed-form solutions obtained for the Markov model. These equations enable model parameterization from traces of implemented diagnosis components. The diagnosis model has been integrated in a reliability model assessing the impact...... of the diagnosis functions for the studied reliability problem. In a simulation study we finally analyze trade-off properties of diagnosis heuristics from literature, map them to the analytic Markov model, and investigate its suitability for service reliability optimization....

  4. An evaluation of commissioning arrangements for intrauterine and subdermal contraception services from general practitioners in London, UK.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Richard; Brown, Eleanor

    2015-01-01

    General practitioners (GPs) in the UK may be commissioned to provide long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), which may have a role in reducing rates of abortion and unintended pregnancies. Primary care trusts (PCTs) in England had commissioning arrangements with GPs to provide LARC but little is known about such contractual arrangements. We studied the commissioning arrangements in some London PCTs to evaluate the cost and clinical governance of these contracts. We requested commissioning contract specifications and activities for intrauterine contraception (IUC) and subdermal implants (SDI) from responsible officers in each PCT in London relating to activities in three financial years, namely 2009/2010 to 2011/2012. We evaluated each contract using a structure, process and outcome approach. Half (15/31) the PCTs responded and submitted 20 contracts used to commission their GPs to provide IUC, SDI or a combination of these with testing for sexually transmitted infections. The information regarding service activity was inadequate and inconsistent so had to be abandoned. Information from 20 contracts suggested there was a variation in clinical governance and quality assurance mechanisms; there was also a range in the reimbursement for IUC insertion (£77.50 to £105.00), SDI insertion (£25.00 to £81.31) and SDI removal (£30.00 to £100.00) at 2011 prices. It was not clear from non-responders if these PCTs had a service in place. Of those that did commission IUC and SDI services, some specifications were lacking in detail regarding aspects of clinical governance. New commissioners should make explicit references to quality and safety criteria as poor-quality specifications can give rise to serious untoward incidents and litigation. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

  5. Reliability and service life of wood structures and buildings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zdeňka Havířová

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Service life of constructions and buildings of wood is dependent on temperature and moisture conditions in layers of the building cladding where the wood framework is built in. Temperature/moisture conditions or the corresponding equilibrium moisture content (EMC of the construction show considerable effects on the functional reliability of the whole building from the viewpoint of mechanical resistance and stability (ER1, energy savings and thermal protection (ER6 and hygiene, health and environment protection (ER3. To ensure the reliability of constructions and buildings for the period of their supposed service life a more profound analysis of constructions is necessary from the aspect of a global thermal/technical evaluation.

  6. Excavations at Vunavaung (SDI), Rakival Village, Watom Island, Papua New Guinea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anson, D.

    1998-01-01

    At Vunavaung (SDI) in the coastal settlement of Ravikal, two of a series of four test pits just in front of the raised coral cliff at the rear of the present-day village revealed an undisturbed 1.4-m-deep cultural deposit, sealed by about 1.8 to 2.2 m of redeposited and primary volcanic ash. The excavations, although of limited extent, provided four securely dated pottery assemblages spaced over 1000 years from 800 BC to after AD 200. These document the stratigraphic relationship between highly decorated Lapita pottery at the beginning of the sequence and ceramics minimally decorated with applied-relief and nail incision at the end. (author)

  7. A Novel Analytic Technique for the Service Station Reliability in a Discrete-Time Repairable Queue

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renbin Liu

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a decomposition technique for the service station reliability in a discrete-time repairable GeomX/G/1 queueing system, in which the server takes exhaustive service and multiple adaptive delayed vacation discipline. Using such a novel analytic technique, some important reliability indices and reliability relation equations of the service station are derived. Furthermore, the structures of the service station indices are also found. Finally, special cases and numerical examples validate the derived results and show that our analytic technique is applicable to reliability analysis of some complex discrete-time repairable bulk arrival queueing systems.

  8. Reliability analysis of service water system under earthquake

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yu Yu; Qian Xiaoming; Lu Xuefeng; Wang Shengfei; Niu Fenglei

    2013-01-01

    Service water system is one of the important safety systems in nuclear power plant, whose failure probability is always gained by system reliability analysis. The probability of equipment failure under the earthquake is the function of the peak acceleration of earthquake motion, while the occurrence of earthquake is of randomicity, thus the traditional fault tree method in current probability safety assessment is not powerful enough to deal with such case of conditional probability problem. An analysis frame was put forward for system reliability evaluation in seismic condition in this paper, in which Monte Carlo simulation was used to deal with conditional probability problem. Annual failure probability of service water system was calculated, and failure probability of 1.46X10 -4 per year was obtained. The analysis result is in accordance with the data which indicate equipment seismic resistance capability, and the rationality of the model is validated. (authors)

  9. A Fast Optimization Method for Reliability and Performance of Cloud Services Composition Application

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhao Wu

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available At present the cloud computing is one of the newest trends of distributed computation, which is propelling another important revolution of software industry. The cloud services composition is one of the key techniques in software development. The optimization for reliability and performance of cloud services composition application, which is a typical stochastic optimization problem, is confronted with severe challenges due to its randomness and long transaction, as well as the characteristics of the cloud computing resources such as openness and dynamic. The traditional reliability and performance optimization techniques, for example, Markov model and state space analysis and so forth, have some defects such as being too time consuming and easy to cause state space explosion and unsatisfied the assumptions of component execution independence. To overcome these defects, we propose a fast optimization method for reliability and performance of cloud services composition application based on universal generating function and genetic algorithm in this paper. At first, a reliability and performance model for cloud service composition application based on the multiple state system theory is presented. Then the reliability and performance definition based on universal generating function is proposed. Based on this, a fast reliability and performance optimization algorithm is presented. In the end, the illustrative examples are given.

  10. Semi-Automatic Operational Service for Drought Monitoring and Forecasting in the Tuscany Region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ramona Magno

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available A drought-monitoring and forecasting system developed for the Tuscany region was improved in order to provide a semi-automatic, more detailed, timely and comprehensive operational service for decision making, water authorities, researchers and general stakeholders. Ground-based and satellite data from different sources (regional meteorological stations network, MODIS Terra satellite and CHIRPS/CRU precipitation datasets are integrated through an open-source, interoperable SDI (spatial data infrastructure based on PostgreSQL/PostGIS to produce vegetation and precipitation indices that allow following of the occurrence and evolution of a drought event. The SDI allows the dissemination of comprehensive, up-to-date and customizable information suitable for different end-users through different channels, from a web page and monthly bulletins, to interoperable web services, and a comprehensive climate service. The web services allow geospatial elaborations on the fly, and the geo-database can be increased with new input/output data to respond to specific requests or to increase the spatial resolution.

  11. Reliability analysis of the service water system of Angra 1 reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tayt-Sohn, L.C.; Oliveira, L.F.S. de.

    1984-01-01

    A reliability analysis of the service water system is done aiming to use in the evaluation of the non reliability of the Component Cooling System (SRC) for great loss of cooling accidents in nuclear power plants. (E.G.) [pt

  12. Reliability analysis of the service water system of Angra 1 reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oliveira, L.F.S. de; Fleming, P.V.; Frutuoso e Melo, P.F.F.; Tayt-Sohn, L.C.

    1983-01-01

    A reliability analysis of the service water system is done aiming to use in the evaluation of the non reliability of the component cooling system (SRC) for great loss of cooling accidents in nuclear power plants. (E.G.) [pt

  13. Reliability of piping system components. Framework for estimating failure parameters from service data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nyman, R.; Hegedus, D.; Tomic, B.; Lydell, B.

    1997-12-01

    This report summarizes results and insights from the final phase of a R and D project on piping reliability sponsored by the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI). The technical scope includes the development of an analysis framework for estimating piping reliability parameters from service data. The R and D has produced a large database on the operating experience with piping systems in commercial nuclear power plants worldwide. It covers the period 1970 to the present. The scope of the work emphasized pipe failures (i.e., flaws/cracks, leaks and ruptures) in light water reactors (LWRs). Pipe failures are rare events. A data reduction format was developed to ensure that homogenous data sets are prepared from scarce service data. This data reduction format distinguishes between reliability attributes and reliability influence factors. The quantitative results of the analysis of service data are in the form of conditional probabilities of pipe rupture given failures (flaws/cracks, leaks or ruptures) and frequencies of pipe failures. Finally, the R and D by SKI produced an analysis framework in support of practical applications of service data in PSA. This, multi-purpose framework, termed 'PFCA'-Pipe Failure Cause and Attribute- defines minimum requirements on piping reliability analysis. The application of service data should reflect the requirements of an application. Together with raw data summaries, this analysis framework enables the development of a prior and a posterior pipe rupture probability distribution. The framework supports LOCA frequency estimation, steam line break frequency estimation, as well as the development of strategies for optimized in-service inspection strategies

  14. Reliability of piping system components. Framework for estimating failure parameters from service data

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nyman, R [Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate, Stockholm (Sweden); Hegedus, D; Tomic, B [ENCONET Consulting GesmbH, Vienna (Austria); Lydell, B [RSA Technologies, Vista, CA (United States)

    1997-12-01

    This report summarizes results and insights from the final phase of a R and D project on piping reliability sponsored by the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI). The technical scope includes the development of an analysis framework for estimating piping reliability parameters from service data. The R and D has produced a large database on the operating experience with piping systems in commercial nuclear power plants worldwide. It covers the period 1970 to the present. The scope of the work emphasized pipe failures (i.e., flaws/cracks, leaks and ruptures) in light water reactors (LWRs). Pipe failures are rare events. A data reduction format was developed to ensure that homogenous data sets are prepared from scarce service data. This data reduction format distinguishes between reliability attributes and reliability influence factors. The quantitative results of the analysis of service data are in the form of conditional probabilities of pipe rupture given failures (flaws/cracks, leaks or ruptures) and frequencies of pipe failures. Finally, the R and D by SKI produced an analysis framework in support of practical applications of service data in PSA. This, multi-purpose framework, termed `PFCA`-Pipe Failure Cause and Attribute- defines minimum requirements on piping reliability analysis. The application of service data should reflect the requirements of an application. Together with raw data summaries, this analysis framework enables the development of a prior and a posterior pipe rupture probability distribution. The framework supports LOCA frequency estimation, steam line break frequency estimation, as well as the development of strategies for optimized in-service inspection strategies. 63 refs, 30 tabs, 22 figs.

  15. Reliability theory for repair service organization simulation and increase of innovative attraction of industrial enterprises

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dolzhenkova, E. V.; Iurieva, L. V.

    2018-05-01

    The study presents the author's algorithm for the industrial enterprise repair service organization simulation based on the reliability theory, as well as the results of its application. The monitoring of the industrial enterprise repair service organization is proposed to perform on the basis of the enterprise's state indexes for the main resources (equipment, labour, finances, repair areas), which allows quantitative evaluation of the reliability level as a resulting summary rating of the said parameters and the ensuring of an appropriate level of the operation reliability of the serviced technical objects. Under the conditions of the tough competition, the following approach is advisable: the higher efficiency of production and a repair service itself, the higher the innovative attractiveness of an industrial enterprise. The results of the calculations show that in order to prevent inefficient losses of production and to reduce the repair costs, it is advisable to apply the reliability theory. The overall reliability rating calculated on the basis of the author's algorithm has low values. The processing of the statistical data forms the reliability characteristics for the different workshops and services of an industrial enterprise, which allows one to define the failure rates of the various units of equipment and to establish the reliability indexes necessary for the subsequent mathematical simulation. The proposed simulating algorithm contributes to an increase of the efficiency of the repair service organization and improvement of the innovative attraction of an industrial enterprise.

  16. Developing a Web-based system by integrating VGI and SDI for real estate management and marketing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Salajegheh

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Property importance of various aspects, especially the impact on various sectors of the economy and the country's macroeconomic is clear. Because of the real, multi-dimensional and heterogeneous nature of housing as a commodity, the lack of an integrated system includes comprehensive information of property, the lack of awareness of some actors in this field about comprehensive information about property and the lack of clear and comprehensive rules and regulations for the trading and pricing, several problems arise for the people involved in this field. In this research implementation of a crowd-sourced Web-based real estate support system is desired. Creating a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI in this system for collecting, updating and integrating all official data about property is also desired in this study. In this system a Web2.0 broker and technologies such as Web services and service composition has been used. This work aims to provide comprehensive and diverse information about property from different sources. For this purpose five-level real estate support system architecture is used. PostgreSql DBMS is used to implement the desired system. Geoserver software is also used as map server and reference implementation of OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium standards. And Apache server is used to run web pages and user interfaces. Integration introduced methods and technologies provide a proper environment for various users to use the system and share their information. This goal is only achieved by cooperation between all involved organizations in real estate with implementation their required infrastructures in interoperability Web services format.

  17. Developing a Web-based system by integrating VGI and SDI for real estate management and marketing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salajegheh, J.; Hakimpour, F.; Esmaeily, A.

    2014-10-01

    Property importance of various aspects, especially the impact on various sectors of the economy and the country's macroeconomic is clear. Because of the real, multi-dimensional and heterogeneous nature of housing as a commodity, the lack of an integrated system includes comprehensive information of property, the lack of awareness of some actors in this field about comprehensive information about property and the lack of clear and comprehensive rules and regulations for the trading and pricing, several problems arise for the people involved in this field. In this research implementation of a crowd-sourced Web-based real estate support system is desired. Creating a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) in this system for collecting, updating and integrating all official data about property is also desired in this study. In this system a Web2.0 broker and technologies such as Web services and service composition has been used. This work aims to provide comprehensive and diverse information about property from different sources. For this purpose five-level real estate support system architecture is used. PostgreSql DBMS is used to implement the desired system. Geoserver software is also used as map server and reference implementation of OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standards. And Apache server is used to run web pages and user interfaces. Integration introduced methods and technologies provide a proper environment for various users to use the system and share their information. This goal is only achieved by cooperation between all involved organizations in real estate with implementation their required infrastructures in interoperability Web services format.

  18. Reliable execution based on CPN and skyline optimization for Web service composition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Liping; Ha, Weitao; Zhang, Guojun

    2013-01-01

    With development of SOA, the complex problem can be solved by combining available individual services and ordering them to best suit user's requirements. Web services composition is widely used in business environment. With the features of inherent autonomy and heterogeneity for component web services, it is difficult to predict the behavior of the overall composite service. Therefore, transactional properties and nonfunctional quality of service (QoS) properties are crucial for selecting the web services to take part in the composition. Transactional properties ensure reliability of composite Web service, and QoS properties can identify the best candidate web services from a set of functionally equivalent services. In this paper we define a Colored Petri Net (CPN) model which involves transactional properties of web services in the composition process. To ensure reliable and correct execution, unfolding processes of the CPN are followed. The execution of transactional composition Web service (TCWS) is formalized by CPN properties. To identify the best services of QoS properties from candidate service sets formed in the TCSW-CPN, we use skyline computation to retrieve dominant Web service. It can overcome that the reduction of individual scores to an overall similarity leads to significant information loss. We evaluate our approach experimentally using both real and synthetically generated datasets.

  19. Inequity in access to dental care services explains current socioeconomic disparities in oral health: the Swedish National Surveys of Public Health 2004-2005.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wamala, Sarah; Merlo, Juan; Boström, Gunnel

    2006-12-01

    To analyse the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage on access to dental care services and on oral health. Design, setting and outcomes: Cross-sectional data from the Swedish National Surveys of Public Health 2004 and 2005. Outcomes were poor oral health (self-rated oral health and symptoms of periodontal disease) and lack of access to dental care services. A socioeconomic disadvantage index (SDI) was developed, consisting of social welfare beneficiary, being unemployed, financial crisis and lack of cash reserves. Swedish population-based sample of 17 362 men and 20 037 women. Every instance of increasing levels of socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with worsened oral health but, simultaneously, with decreased utilisation of dental care services. After adjusting for age, men with a mild SDI compared with those with no SDI had 2.7 (95% confidence interval (CI) 2.5 to 3.0) times the odds for self-rated poor oral health, whereas odds related to severe SDI were 6.8 (95% CI 6.2 to 7.5). The corresponding values among women were 2.3 (95% CI 2.1 to 2.5) and 6.8 (95% CI 6.3 to 7.5). Nevertheless, people with severe socioeconomic disparities were 7-9 times as likely to refrain from seeking the required dental treatment. These associations persisted even after controlling for living alone, education, occupational status and lifestyle factors. Lifestyle factors explained only 29% of the socioeconomic differences in poor oral health among men and women, whereas lack of access to dental care services explained about 60%. The results of the multilevel regression analysis indicated no additional effect of the administrative boundaries of counties or of municipalities in Sweden. Results call for urgent public health interventions to increase equitable access to dental care services.

  20. Reliability assessment of serviceability performance of braced retaining walls using a neural network approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goh, A. T. C.; Kulhawy, F. H.

    2005-05-01

    In urban environments, one major concern with deep excavations in soft clay is the potentially large ground deformations in and around the excavation. Excessive movements can damage adjacent buildings and utilities. There are many uncertainties associated with the calculation of the ultimate or serviceability performance of a braced excavation system. These include the variabilities of the loadings, geotechnical soil properties, and engineering and geometrical properties of the wall. A risk-based approach to serviceability performance failure is necessary to incorporate systematically the uncertainties associated with the various design parameters. This paper demonstrates the use of an integrated neural network-reliability method to assess the risk of serviceability failure through the calculation of the reliability index. By first performing a series of parametric studies using the finite element method and then approximating the non-linear limit state surface (the boundary separating the safe and failure domains) through a neural network model, the reliability index can be determined with the aid of a spreadsheet. Two illustrative examples are presented to show how the serviceability performance for braced excavation problems can be assessed using the reliability index.

  1. 2 SDI, alliance coherence, and East-West nuclear stability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kolodzie, E.A.

    1988-01-01

    The nuclear modernization programme, offensive and defensive, now being implemented or seriously proposed by the Western nuclear states and the Soviet Union pose critical problems for the stability of the European and global nuclear balance. The Reagan administration's Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) and the dramatic growth of British and French nuclear capabilities add new strains on the arms race now underway between the superpowers. Current and emerging instabilities must be addressed promptly along a broad political front, within and outside the framework of the Atlantic Alliance, before they further split the alliance and damage efforts---principally those being pursued at Geneva in the superpower arms control talks---to manage the nuclear balance and the conflicts that divide the two blocs in Europe and elsewhere. The first part of this paper diagnoses the disturbing elements of the evolving nuclear environment which promotes instability. The second suggests an approach -- complex bilateralism -- that might be employed to bring these destabilizing trends under control to promote the development of more coherent, cohesive, and mutually confident alliance strategic policies than exist today and to enhance East-West stability

  2. Estimated Value of Service Reliability for Electric Utility Customers in the United States

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sullivan, M.J.; Mercurio, Matthew; Schellenberg, Josh

    2009-06-01

    Information on the value of reliable electricity service can be used to assess the economic efficiency of investments in generation, transmission and distribution systems, to strategically target investments to customer segments that receive the most benefit from system improvements, and to numerically quantify the risk associated with different operating, planning and investment strategies. This paper summarizes research designed to provide estimates of the value of service reliability for electricity customers in the US. These estimates were obtained by analyzing the results from 28 customer value of service reliability studies conducted by 10 major US electric utilities over the 16 year period from 1989 to 2005. Because these studies used nearly identical interruption cost estimation or willingness-to-pay/accept methods it was possible to integrate their results into a single meta-database describing the value of electric service reliability observed in all of them. Once the datasets from the various studies were combined, a two-part regression model was used to estimate customer damage functions that can be generally applied to calculate customer interruption costs per event by season, time of day, day of week, and geographical regions within the US for industrial, commercial, and residential customers. Estimated interruption costs for different types of customers and of different duration are provided. Finally, additional research and development designed to expand the usefulness of this powerful database and analysis are suggested.

  3. Reliability of the SF-36 in Japanese patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and its associations with disease activity and damage: a two-consecutive year prospective study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baba, S; Katsumata, Y; Okamoto, Y; Kawaguchi, Y; Hanaoka, M; Kawasumi, H; Yamanaka, H

    2018-03-01

    We aimed to validate the reliability of the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36) among Japanese patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Japanese patients with SLE ( n = 233) completed the SF-36 and other related demographic questionnaires, and physicians simultaneously completed the SLE Disease Activity Index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K) and the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics Damage Index (SDI). Patients were prospectively followed for a repeat assessment the following year. The SF-36 subscales demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's α of 0.85-0.89), and an overall good test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient >0.70). The average baseline SF-36 subscale/summary scores except for "bodily pain" were significantly lower than those of the Japanese general population ( p 36 subscale/summary scores except for "vitality" and "mental component summary" at baseline, whereas the SLEDAI-2K did not. In the second year, "social functioning" and "mental component summary" of the SF-36 deteriorated among patients whose SDI or SLEDAI-2K score increased (effect sizes 36 demonstrated acceptable reliability among Japanese patients with SLE. Health-related quality of life measured by the SF-36 was reduced in Japanese patients with SLE and associated with disease damage, rather than disease activity.

  4. Reliability Evaluation of Service-Oriented Architecture Systems Considering Fault-Tolerance Designs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kuan-Li Peng

    2014-01-01

    strategies. Sensitivity analysis of SOA at both coarse and fine grain levels is also studied, which can be used to efficiently identify the critical parts within the system. Two SOA system scenarios based on real industrial practices are studied. Experimental results show that the proposed SOA model can be used to accurately depict the behavior of SOA systems. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis that quantizes the effects of system structure as well as fault tolerance on the overall reliability is also studied. On the whole, the proposed reliability modeling and analysis framework may help the SOA system service provider to evaluate the overall system reliability effectively and also make smarter improvement plans by focusing resources on enhancing reliability-sensitive parts within the system.

  5. Reliability analysis of structures under periodic proof tests in service

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, J.-N.

    1976-01-01

    A reliability analysis of structures subjected to random service loads and periodic proof tests treats gust loads and maneuver loads as random processes. Crack initiation, crack propagation, and strength degradation are treated as the fatigue process. The time to fatigue crack initiation and ultimate strength are random variables. Residual strength decreases during crack propagation, so that failure rate increases with time. When a structure fails under periodic proof testing, a new structure is built and proof-tested. The probability of structural failure in service is derived from treatment of all the random variables, strength degradations, service loads, proof tests, and the renewal of failed structures. Some numerical examples are worked out.

  6. Verification criteria on the reliability of personal dosimetric services from x and gamma radiations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Borasi, G.; Benco, A.; Kaftal, S.

    1990-07-01

    The paper presents the methods used by Working Group ENEA-EDP (Experts in Personal Dosimetry) to control the reliability of the Dosimetric Services operating in Italy and asking for the above controls on voluntary basis. Testing and irradiation test methods are explained as well as the evaluation criteria. The paper includes suggestions and guide-lines to gain the status of 'Reliable Service'. Technical equipment and operating procedures needed to pass the test are also illustrated. (author)

  7. Services of the Czechoslovak Nuclear Information Centre, based on IAEA information sources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dufkova, M.

    1987-01-01

    Information services provided by the Nuclear Information Centre (NIC) as the sector information centre for the Czechoslovak nuclear programme proceed primarily from its membership of INIS. From INIS Atomindex tapes are computer-processed SDI searches, their price for one query is 3,948 Czechoslovak crowns per year. The user can at any time put forward a request for tuning or for a change of the initially requested query formulation. A copy of SDI searches is provided for 1,200 Czechoslovak crowns per annum to other interested persons or institutions who cannot, however, influence the query formulation. Since 1979, the NIC has been processing retrospective searches by direct online access to the INIS data base. The price of these searches ranges between 1,000 and 1,500 Czechoslovak crowns. Under the same conditions the NIC also provides retrospective searches from AGRIS. Since 1986, the NIC has extended its services by providing data from the UVTEI-UTZ data base centre in Prague. Retrospective searches can since 1985 be processed directly at the workplace of those interested, this through mobile terminals. All said services are followed up by services provided by the NIC library which contains more than 215,000 microfiches with full texts of nonconventional documents incorporated in INIS. (Z.M.)

  8. Reliability-based service life assessment of concrete structures in nuclear power plants: optimum inspection and repair

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ellingwood, B.R.; Mori, Y.

    1995-01-01

    Research is being conducted to address aging management of safety-related reinforced concrete structures in nuclear power plants (NPPs). Documentation is being prepared to identify potential structural safety issues and to recommend criteria for use in evaluating reinforced concrete structures for continued service. Time-dependent reliability analysis provides the framework and quantitative tools for the condition assessment. The role of in-service inspection and repair in ensuring continued reliability in-service is examined. (author). 19 refs., 4 figs

  9. Architecture of a spatial data service system for statistical analysis and visualization of regional climate changes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Titov, A. G.; Okladnikov, I. G.; Gordov, E. P.

    2017-11-01

    The use of large geospatial datasets in climate change studies requires the development of a set of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) elements, including geoprocessing and cartographical visualization web services. This paper presents the architecture of a geospatial OGC web service system as an integral part of a virtual research environment (VRE) general architecture for statistical processing and visualization of meteorological and climatic data. The architecture is a set of interconnected standalone SDI nodes with corresponding data storage systems. Each node runs a specialized software, such as a geoportal, cartographical web services (WMS/WFS), a metadata catalog, and a MySQL database of technical metadata describing geospatial datasets available for the node. It also contains geospatial data processing services (WPS) based on a modular computing backend realizing statistical processing functionality and, thus, providing analysis of large datasets with the results of visualization and export into files of standard formats (XML, binary, etc.). Some cartographical web services have been developed in a system’s prototype to provide capabilities to work with raster and vector geospatial data based on OGC web services. The distributed architecture presented allows easy addition of new nodes, computing and data storage systems, and provides a solid computational infrastructure for regional climate change studies based on modern Web and GIS technologies.

  10. Project for Establishing a Selected Dissemination of Information Service for the Faculty Members at Education and Psychology Faculty, University of Tehran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gholamreza Fadaei

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available The project aim was to establish an SDI (Selected Dissemination of Information service for the faculty members at University of Tehran, faculty of psychology and education. The project was carried out during the 2006-2007 period. First, a three stage survey was conducted to identify the information needs which were then served using a current awareness service over the period. Findings confirmed that the SDI project significantly impacted on the faculty information seeking behavior. Furthermore, there had been evidence supporting the fact that it has also influenced the quality of instruction by facilitating the overall efficacy of information sources collected. It was the intent of researchers to expand this project at later stages to include all humanities faculties in the university and if possible at a national level.

  11. Evaluation and improvement in nondestructive examination (NDE) reliability for in-service inspection of light water reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deffenbaugh, J.D.; Good, M.S.; Green, E.R.; Heasler, P.G.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.

    1988-01-01

    The evaluation and improvement of NDE Reliability for In-service Inspection (ISI) of Light Water Reactors (NDE Reliability) Program at Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) was established to determine the reliability of current ISI techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this NRC program are to: determine the reliability of ultrasonic ISI performed on commercial light-water reactor (LWR) primary systems; determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety and determine the level of inspection reliability required to ensure a suitably low failure probability using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis; evaluate the degree of reliability improvement that could be achieved using improved and advanced NDE technique; and recommend revisions to ASME Code, Section XI, and Regulatory Requirements, based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties, that will ensure suitably low failure probabilities. The program consists of three basic tasks: a Piping task, a Pressure Vessel task, and an Evaluation and Improvement in NDE Reliability task. The major efforts were concentrated in the Piping task and the Evaluation and Improvement in NDE Reliability task

  12. DESIGN FOR CONNECTING SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURES WITH SENSOR WEB (SENSDI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Bhattacharya

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Integrating Sensor Web With Spatial Data Infrastructures (SENSDI aims to extend SDIs with sensor web enablement, converging geospatial and built infrastructure, and implement test cases with sensor data and SDI. It is about research to harness the sensed environment by utilizing domain specific sensor data to create a generalized sensor webframework. The challenges being semantic enablement for Spatial Data Infrastructures, and connecting the interfaces of SDI with interfaces of Sensor Web. The proposed research plan is to Identify sensor data sources, Setup an open source SDI, Match the APIs and functions between Sensor Web and SDI, and Case studies like hazard applications, urban applications etc. We take up co-operative development of SDI best practices to enable a new realm of a location enabled and semantically enriched World Wide Web - the "Geospatial Web" or "Geosemantic Web" by setting up one to one correspondence between WMS, WFS, WCS, Metadata and 'Sensor Observation Service' (SOS; 'Sensor Planning Service' (SPS; 'Sensor Alert Service' (SAS; a service that facilitates asynchronous message interchange between users and services, and between two OGC-SWE services, called the 'Web Notification Service' (WNS. Hence in conclusion, it is of importance to geospatial studies to integrate SDI with Sensor Web. The integration can be done through merging the common OGC interfaces of SDI and Sensor Web. Multi-usability studies to validate integration has to be undertaken as future research.

  13. Selective dissemination of information of library in scientific research institution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Wenping

    2010-01-01

    Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) Service, which is an important component of intelligence, is the intelligence researcher to select key subjects and major issues and key technology or innovation goals under the actual needs of scientific research personnel issues, using network communication technology and database technology and information retrieval technologies, sustained and in a timely manner to track all kinds of literature for the front-line services, until the completion of research topics or key problem-solving. Library of China Institute of Atomic Energy is struggling to meet the diverse needs of customers, targeted to provide a lot of useful information for scientific researchers to use less time as possible to obtain as much intelligence information, and to research workers and leading to the successful completion of research tasks, and various decisions. The implementation of SDI services to identify clients and scope, to format SDI service team, to determine the SDI service principles and service mode. SDI services Selective demand intelligence researchers have been asked to improve their quality, to improve their interpersonal communication skills. (author)

  14. Reliability of buildings in service limit state for maximum horizontal displacements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. G. B. Corelhano

    Full Text Available Brazilian design code ABNT NBR6118:2003 - Design of Concrete Structures - Procedures - [1] proposes the use of simplified models for the consideration of non-linear material behavior in the evaluation of horizontal displacements in buildings. These models penalize stiffness of columns and beams, representing the effects of concrete cracking and avoiding costly physical non-linear analyses. The objectives of the present paper are to investigate the accuracy and uncertainty of these simplified models, as well as to evaluate the reliabilities of structures designed following ABNT NBR6118:2003[1&] in the service limit state for horizontal displacements. Model error statistics are obtained from 42 representative plane frames. The reliabilities of three typical (4, 8 and 12 floor buildings are evaluated, using the simplified models and a rigorous, physical and geometrical non-linear analysis. Results show that the 70/70 (column/beam stiffness reduction model is more accurate and less conservative than the 80/40 model. Results also show that ABNT NBR6118:2003 [1] design criteria for horizontal displacement limit states (masonry damage according to ACI 435.3R-68(1984 [10] are conservative, and result in reliability indexes which are larger than those recommended in EUROCODE [2] for irreversible service limit states.

  15. Reliability and service life of wood structures and buildings

    OpenAIRE

    Zdeňka Havířová; Pavel Kubů

    2005-01-01

    Service life of constructions and buildings of wood is dependent on temperature and moisture conditions in layers of the building cladding where the wood framework is built in. Temperature/moisture conditions or the corresponding equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of the construction show considerable effects on the functional reliability of the whole building from the viewpoint of mechanical resistance and stability (ER1), energy savings and thermal protection (ER6) and hygiene, health and e...

  16. Beliefs concerning the reliability of nuclear power plant in-service inspections

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kettunen, J.

    1997-01-01

    The aim of the study was to investigate belief systems held by the officials responsible for the planning and supervision of NDT operations within the Finnish nuclear industry. They were asked to express their opinions on (1) the reliability of NDT methods in general, (2) the factors influencing the reliability of in-service inspections, and (3) the degree of reliability of the current inspections operations conducted by means of NDT methods in the Finnish nuclear power plants. Another goal of the study was to assess the adequacy of officials' beliefs (or belief systems). The research data was collected by interviewing representatives from Finnish power companies (Imatran Voima Oy and Teollisuuden Voima Oy), independent inspection organisations, and the Finnish Centre for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (STUK). The adequacy of the beliefs expressed was assessed by means of the results obtained from international NDT reliability studies and on the basis of interviewees' own justification. (refs.)

  17. Development and initial validation of the Localized Scleroderma Skin Damage Index and Physician Global Assessment of disease Damage: a proof-of-concept study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vilaiyuk, Soamarat; Torok, Kathryn S.; Medsger, Thomas A.

    2010-01-01

    Objective. To develop and assess the psychometric properties of the Localized Scleroderma (LS) Skin Damage Index (LoSDI) and Physician Global Assessment of disease Damage (PGA-D). Methods. Damage was defined as irreversible/persistent changes (>6 months) due to previous active disease/complications of therapy. Eight rheumatologists assessed the importance of 17 variables in formulating the PGA-D/LoSDI. LS patients were evaluated by two rheumatologists using both tools to assess their psychometric properties. LoSDI was calculated by summing three scores for cutaneous features of damage [dermal atrophy (DAT), subcutaneous atrophy (SAT) and dyspigmentation (DP)] measured at 18 anatomic sites. Patient GA of disease severity (PtGA-S), Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI) and PGA-D were recorded at the time of each examination. Results. Thirty LS patients (112 lesions) and nine patient-visit pairs (18 lesions) were included for inter- and intra-rater reliability study. LoSDI and its domains DAT, SAT, DP and PGA-D demonstrated excellent inter- and intra-rater reliability (reliability coefficients 0.86–0.99 and 0.74–0.96, respectively). LoSDI correlated moderately with PGA-D and poorly with PtGA-S and CDLQI. PGA-D correlated moderately with PtGA-S, but poorly with CDLQI. Conclusions. To complete the LS Cutaneous Assessment Tool (LoSCAT), we developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of the LoSDI and PGA-D in addition to the LS Skin Severity Index (LoSSI). These instruments will facilitate evaluation of LS patients for individual patient management and clinical trials. LoSDI and PGA-D demonstrated excellent reliability and high validity. LoSCAT provides an improved understanding of LS natural history. Further study in a larger group of patients is needed to confirm these preliminary findings. PMID:20008472

  18. Modeling Message Queueing Services with Reliability Guarantee in Cloud Computing Environment Using Colored Petri Nets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jing Li

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Motivated by the need for loosely coupled and asynchronous dissemination of information, message queues are widely used in large-scale application areas. With the advent of virtualization technology, cloud-based message queueing services (CMQSs with distributed computing and storage are widely adopted to improve availability, scalability, and reliability; however, a critical issue is its performance and the quality of service (QoS. While numerous approaches evaluating system performance are available, there is no modeling approach for estimating and analyzing the performance of CMQSs. In this paper, we employ both the analytical and simulation modeling to address the performance of CMQSs with reliability guarantee. We present a visibility-based modeling approach (VMA for simulation model using colored Petri nets (CPN. Our model incorporates the important features of message queueing services in the cloud such as replication, message consistency, resource virtualization, and especially the mechanism named visibility timeout which is adopted in the services to guarantee system reliability. Finally, we evaluate our model through different experiments under varied scenarios to obtain important performance metrics such as total message delivery time, waiting number, and components utilization. Our results reveal considerable insights into resource scheduling and system configuration for service providers to estimate and gain performance optimization.

  19. Toward Real-time Multi-criteria Decision Making for Bus Service Reliability Optimisation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tran, Vu The; Eklund, Peter; Cook, Chris

    2015-01-01

    factors (such as traffic congestion and bad weather) in high frequency transit operations often cause irregular headway that can result in decreased service reliability. The approach proposed in this paper, which has the capability of handling the uncertainty of transit operations based on Multi...

  20. Analysis and Optimization of Sparse Random Linear Network Coding for Reliable Multicast Services

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tassi, Andrea; Chatzigeorgiou, Ioannis; Roetter, Daniel Enrique Lucani

    2016-01-01

    Point-to-multipoint communications are expected to play a pivotal role in next-generation networks. This paper refers to a cellular system transmitting layered multicast services to a multicast group of users. Reliability of communications is ensured via different random linear network coding (RLNC......) techniques. We deal with a fundamental problem: the computational complexity of the RLNC decoder. The higher the number of decoding operations is, the more the user's computational overhead grows and, consequently, the faster the battery of mobile devices drains. By referring to several sparse RLNC...... techniques, and without any assumption on the implementation of the RLNC decoder in use, we provide an efficient way to characterize the performance of users targeted by ultra-reliable layered multicast services. The proposed modeling allows to efficiently derive the average number of coded packet...

  1. Improving Reliability of Service Operation Using FMEA Review and New Opportunity for Investigations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sutrisno, Agung; Gunawan, Indra

    2016-01-01

    Despite its growing contribution to the global economy, investigation on the application status of service FMEA study to support realization of reliable service operation is very limited in literature. Motivated by such situation, the paper presented an initial survey on the status and research gaps in developing and applying FMEA in service sectors. Systematic preliminary survey using specific criteria are undertaken. Our study indicated that development and application of service FMEA are partially addressing the characteristics of service operations and it is still applied into the good deed and profit oriented operations. Opportunities for further investigation pertaining to advancement of its decision supporting tool for service risk appraisal, its modification to cope with sustainability related requirements and application of service FMEA in not for profit oriented operations are presented as new avenues for further investigation

  2. Data Publishing Services in a Scientific Project Platform

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schroeder, Matthias; Stender, Vivien; Wächter, Joachim

    2014-05-01

    Data-intensive science lives from data. More and more interdisciplinary projects are aligned to mutually gain access to their data, models and results. In order to achieving this, an umbrella project GLUES is established in the context of the "Sustainable Land Management" (LAMA) initiative funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The GLUES (Global Assessment of Land Use Dynamics, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Ecosystem Services) project supports several different regional projects of the LAMA initiative: Within the framework of GLUES a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is implemented to facilitate publishing, sharing and maintenance of distributed global and regional scientific data sets as well as model results. The GLUES SDI supports several OGC webservices like the Catalog Service Web (CSW) which enables it to harvest data from varying regional projects. One of these regional projects is SuMaRiO (Sustainable Management of River Oases along the Tarim River) which aims to support oasis management along the Tarim River (PR China) under conditions of climatic and societal changes. SuMaRiO itself is an interdisciplinary and spatially distributed project. Working groups from twelve German institutes and universities are collecting data and driving their research in disciplines like Hydrology, Remote Sensing, and Agricultural Sciences among others. Each working group is dependent on the results of another working group. Due to the spatial distribution of participating institutes the data distribution is solved by using the eSciDoc infrastructure at the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). Further, the metadata based data exchange platform PanMetaDocs will be used by participants collaborative. PanMetaDocs supports an OAI-PMH interface which enables an Open Source metadata portal like GeoNetwork to harvest the information. The data added in PanMetaDocs can be labeled with a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) to publish the data and to

  3. Flexible, Secure, and Reliable Data Sharing Service Based on Collaboration in Multicloud Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qiang Wei

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Due to the abundant storage resources and high reliability data service of cloud computing, more individuals and enterprises are motivated to outsource their data to public cloud platform and enable legal data users to search and download what they need in the outsourced dataset. However, in “Paid Data Sharing” model, some valuable data should be encrypted before outsourcing for protecting owner’s economic benefits, which is an obstacle for flexible application. Specifically, if the owner does not know who (user will download which data files in advance and even does not know the attributes of user, he/she has to either remain online all the time or import a trusted third party (TTP to distribute the file decryption key to data user. Obviously, making the owner always remain online is too inflexible, and wholly depending on the security of TTP is a potential risk. In this paper, we propose a flexible, secure, and reliable data sharing scheme based on collaboration in multicloud environment. For securely and instantly providing data sharing service even if the owner is offline and without TTP, we distribute all encrypted split data/key blocks together to multiple cloud service providers (CSPs, respectively. An elaborate cryptographic protocol we designed helps the owner verify the correctness of data exchange bills, which is directly related to the owner’s economic benefits. Besides, in order to support reliable data service, the erasure-correcting code technic is exploited for tolerating multiple failures among CSPs, and we offer a secure keyword search mechanism that makes the system more close to reality. Extensive security analyses and experiments on real-world data show that our scheme is secure and efficient.

  4. Reliability assessment of hydraulic cylinders considering service loads and flaw distribution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Altamura, Alessandra; Beretta, Stefano

    2012-01-01

    Manufacturing process, service conditions and material properties are all necessary requirements to a good design of tubular mechanical components subjected to fatigue. The most common approach to this design is usually deterministic, where a fixed NDT threshold, related to flaw acceptance limit, is set. However many uncertainties are left aside, i.e. the failure probability related to the fatigue strength under applied loads. This paper addresses the reliability evaluation of tubular mechanical components carrying some flaws and subjected to cyclic internal pressure variation. The aim is comparing the probability of failure obtained under several assumptions. A reliability assessment model, based on a random variable approach, has been implemented by using the Monte Carlo method. The analysis of the results, from a case study based on load spectra measurements of hydraulic cylinders of earth moving machines, has consented to evaluate the most important factors influencing the fatigue life prediction of these components. Highlights: ► Reliability evaluation of tubular components subjected to variable internal pressure. ► The dispersion of the threshold controls the stochasticity of crack growth. ► A random variable model has been developed using Monte Carlo. ► Initial crack size and spectrum shape are key factors in reliability evaluation.

  5. Assessing rural small community water supply in Limpopo, South Africa: water service benchmarks and reliability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Majuru, Batsirai; Jagals, Paul; Hunter, Paul R

    2012-10-01

    Although a number of studies have reported on water supply improvements, few have simultaneously taken into account the reliability of the water services. The study aimed to assess whether upgrading water supply systems in small rural communities improved access, availability and potability of water by assessing the water services against selected benchmarks from the World Health Organisation and South African Department of Water Affairs, and to determine the impact of unreliability on the services. These benchmarks were applied in three rural communities in Limpopo, South Africa where rudimentary water supply services were being upgraded to basic services. Data were collected through structured interviews, observations and measurement, and multi-level linear regression models were used to assess the impact of water service upgrades on key outcome measures of distance to source, daily per capita water quantity and Escherichia coli count. When the basic system was operational, 72% of households met the minimum benchmarks for distance and water quantity, but only 8% met both enhanced benchmarks. During non-operational periods of the basic service, daily per capita water consumption decreased by 5.19l (pwater sources were 639 m further (p ≤ 0.001, 95% CI 560-718). Although both rudimentary and basic systems delivered water that met potability criteria at the sources, the quality of stored water sampled in the home was still unacceptable throughout the various service levels. These results show that basic water services can make substantial improvements to water access, availability, potability, but only if such services are reliable. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. Demonstration of Essential Reliability Services by a 300-MW Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Loutan, Clyde; Klauer, Peter; Chowdhury, Sirajul; Hall, Stephen; Morjaria, Mahesh; Chadliev, Vladimir; Milam, Nick; Milan, Christopher; Gevorgian, Vahan

    2017-03-24

    The California Independent System Operator (CAISO), First Solar, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a demonstration project on a large utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) power plant in California to test its ability to provide essential ancillary services to the electric grid. With increasing shares of solar- and wind-generated energy on the electric grid, traditional generation resources equipped with automatic governor control (AGC) and automatic voltage regulation controls -- specifically, fossil thermal -- are being displaced. The deployment of utility-scale, grid-friendly PV power plants that incorporate advanced capabilities to support grid stability and reliability is essential for the large-scale integration of PV generation into the electric power grid, among other technical requirements. A typical PV power plant consists of multiple power electronic inverters and can contribute to grid stability and reliability through sophisticated 'grid-friendly' controls. In this way, PV power plants can be used to mitigate the impact of variability on the grid, a role typically reserved for conventional generators. In August 2016, testing was completed on First Solar's 300-MW PV power plant, and a large amount of test data was produced and analyzed that demonstrates the ability of PV power plants to use grid-friendly controls to provide essential reliability services. These data showed how the development of advanced power controls can enable PV to become a provider of a wide range of grid services, including spinning reserves, load following, voltage support, ramping, frequency response, variability smoothing, and frequency regulation to power quality. Specifically, the tests conducted included various forms of active power control such as AGC and frequency regulation; droop response; and reactive power, voltage, and power factor controls. This project demonstrated that advanced power electronics and solar generation can be

  7. Towards Reliable Integrated Services for Dependable Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schiøler, Henrik; Ravn, Anders Peter; Izadi-Zamanabadi, Roozbeh

    Reliability issues for various technical systems are discussed and focus is directed towards distributed systems, where communication facilities are vital to maintain system functionality. Reliability in communication subsystems is considered as a resource to be shared among a number of logical c...... applications residing on alternative routes. Details are provided for the operation of RRRSVP based on reliability slack calculus. Conclusions summarize the considerations and give directions for future research....... connections and a reliability management framework is suggested. We suggest a network layer level reliability management protocol RRSVP (Reliability Resource Reservation Protocol) as a counterpart of the RSVP for bandwidth and time resource management. Active and passive standby redundancy by background...

  8. Towards Reliable Integrated Services for Dependable Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schiøler, Henrik; Ravn, Anders Peter; Izadi-Zamanabadi, Roozbeh

    2003-01-01

    Reliability issues for various technical systems are discussed and focus is directed towards distributed systems, where communication facilities are vital to maintain system functionality. Reliability in communication subsystems is considered as a resource to be shared among a number of logical c...... applications residing on alternative routes. Details are provided for the operation of RRRSVP based on reliability slack calculus. Conclusions summarize the considerations and give directions for future research....... connections and a reliability management framework is suggested. We suggest a network layer level reliability management protocol RRSVP (Reliability Resource Reservation Protocol) as a counterpart of the RSVP for bandwidth and time resource management. Active and passive standby redundancy by background...

  9. 76 FR 73608 - Reliability Technical Conference, North American Electric Reliability Corporation, Public Service...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-11-29

    ... or municipal authority play in forming your bulk power system reliability plans? b. Do you support..., North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Nick Akins, CEO of American Electric Power (AEP..., EL11-62-000] Reliability Technical Conference, North American Electric Reliability Corporation, Public...

  10. In-service inspection as an aid to steel pressure vessel reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nichols, R.W.

    1975-01-01

    In-service inspection has played an important role in non-nuclear pressure vessel technology, being a legal requirement in many countries. Evidence from surveys of reliability of non-nuclear plant has suggested that such inspections can be effective in reducing the risk of subsequent failures. Recent requirements of the ASME XI code which will be summarised have important implications on the techniques to be used for in-service inspection, and so on design and fabrication aspects. Moreover, in-service inspection can only be an effective procedure if its possible weaknesses are recognised. The first problem is to ensure that an ultrasonic technique is used which is capable of detecting defects of an order of magnitude smaller than the critical size for each particular situation, in whatever defect orientation is important. The potential of different ultrasonic techniques will be compared. Next it is necessary to ensure coverage of all the relevant material. In this respect machine operation is superior to manual scanning, so that manipulation and scanning devices have to be developed. Problems of local geometry and of deviations in geometry have to be discussed with designer and fabricator; plate and clad quality have to be controlled (with respect to surface contour, metallurgical condition and freedom from interfering defects) to ensure inspectability in depth. The reliability of the mechanical and electronic equipment has to be assessed and designed to meet high requirements. Some presentational aids to detection and interpretation will be discussed. Having located a potential defect, the application of fracture mechanics treatments requires knowledge of size, shape and orientation. Some of the problems will be discussed together with possible solutions. (author)

  11. Some reliability targets affecting the necessary provisions for in-service inspection and monitoring of LMFBR engineering components

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bolt, P.R.

    1980-01-01

    The possible consequences of failure of primary and secondary sodium circuit components are discussed with particular reference to post incident fault diagnosis, remedial procedures and outage durations. The core support structures and steam generator units are identified as particularly important components in terms of economic consequence of their failure. Important safety considerations may also apply. Levels of reliability for core support and steam generator integrity, necessary to meet economic and certain safety criteria, are discussed and quantitative data is given. Possible failure and deterioration mechanisms which could result in unacceptable reductions in reliability are then identified for the core support and steam generator units. Following a consideration of the reliability targets and possible causes of loss of reliability, an appraisal is made of the necessary extent of in-service data to be obtained on component behaviour and condition. In-service inspection and monitoring methods that could be used to obtain this data are described. Consideration is given to UK and overseas inspection experience on LMFBR and other nuclear plant. (author)

  12. Some reliability targets affecting the necessary provisions for in-service inspection and monitoring of LMFBR engineering components

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bolt, P R [Fast Reactor Engineering, Plant Engineering Department, CEGB, Barnwood, Gloucester (United Kingdom)

    1980-11-01

    The possible consequences of failure of primary and secondary sodium circuit components are discussed with particular reference to post incident fault diagnosis, remedial procedures and outage durations. The core support structures and steam generator units are identified as particularly important components in terms of economic consequence of their failure. Important safety considerations may also apply. Levels of reliability for core support and steam generator integrity, necessary to meet economic and certain safety criteria, are discussed and quantitative data is given. Possible failure and deterioration mechanisms which could result in unacceptable reductions in reliability are then identified for the core support and steam generator units. Following a consideration of the reliability targets and possible causes of loss of reliability, an appraisal is made of the necessary extent of in-service data to be obtained on component behaviour and condition. In-service inspection and monitoring methods that could be used to obtain this data are described. Consideration is given to UK and overseas inspection experience on LMFBR and other nuclear plant. (author)

  13. Geo-communication, web-services, and spatial data infrastructure

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brodersen, Lars; Nielsen, Anders

    2007-01-01

    The introduction of web-services as index-portals based on geo-information has changed the conditions for both content and form of geo-communication. A high number of players and interactions as well as a very high number of all kinds of information and combinations of these caracterise web...... looks very complex, and it will get even more complex. Therefore, there is a strong need for theories and models that can describe this complex web in the SDI and geo-communication consisting of active components, passive components, users, and information in order to make it possible to handle...

  14. Reliability and Validity of SERVQUAL Scores Used To Evaluate Perceptions of Library Service Quality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Bruce; Cook, Colleen

    Research libraries are increasingly supplementing collection counts with perceptions of service quality as indices of status and productivity. The present study was undertaken to explore the reliability and validity of scores from the SERVQUAL measurement protocol (A. Parasuraman and others, 1991), which has previously been used in this type of…

  15. Beyond redundancy how geographic redundancy can improve service availability and reliability of computer-based systems

    CERN Document Server

    Bauer, Eric; Eustace, Dan

    2012-01-01

    "While geographic redundancy can obviously be a huge benefit for disaster recovery, it is far less obvious what benefit is feasible and likely for more typical non-catastrophic hardware, software, and human failures. Georedundancy and Service Availability provides both a theoretical and practical treatment of the feasible and likely benefits of geographic redundancy for both service availability and service reliability. The text provides network/system planners, IS/IT operations folks, system architects, system engineers, developers, testers, and other industry practitioners with a general discussion about the capital expense/operating expense tradeoff that frames system redundancy and georedundancy"--

  16. Implementing eco friendly highly reliable upload feature using multi 3G service

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanutama, Lukas; Wijaya, Rico

    2017-12-01

    The current trend of eco friendly Internet access is preferred. In this research the understanding of eco friendly is minimum power consumption. The devices that are selected have operationally low power consumption and normally have no power consumption as they are hibernating during idle state. To have the reliability a router of a router that has internal load balancing feature will provide the improvement of previous research on multi 3G services for broadband lines. Previous studies emphasized on accessing and downloading information files from Public Cloud residing Web Servers. The demand is not only for speed but high reliability of access as well. High reliability will mean mitigating both direct and indirect high cost due to repeated attempts of uploading and downloading the large files. Nomadic and mobile computer users need viable solution. Following solution for downloading information has been proposed and tested. The solution is promising. The result is now extended to providing reliable access line by means of redundancy and automatic reconfiguration for uploading and downloading large information files to a Web Server in the Cloud. The technique is taking advantage of internal load balancing feature to provision a redundant line acting as a backup line. A router that has the ability to provide load balancing to several WAN lines is chosen. The WAN lines are constructed using multiple 3G lines. The router supports the accessing Internet with more than one 3G access line which increases the reliability and availability of the Internet access as the second line immediately takes over if the first line is disturbed.

  17. SDI and Markov Chains for Regional Drought Characteristics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chen-Feng Yeh

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, global climate change has altered precipitation patterns, causing uneven spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation that gradually induces precipitation polarization phenomena. Taiwan is located in the subtropical climate zone, with distinct wet and dry seasons, which makes the polarization phenomenon more obvious; this has also led to a large difference between river flows during the wet and dry seasons, which is significantly influenced by precipitation, resulting in hydrological drought. Therefore, to effectively address the growing issue of water shortages, it is necessary to explore and assess the drought characteristics of river systems. In this study, the drought characteristics of northern Taiwan were studied using the streamflow drought index (SDI and Markov chains. Analysis results showed that the year 2002 was a turning point for drought severity in both the Lanyang River and Yilan River basins; the severity of rain events in the Lanyang River basin increased after 2002, and the severity of drought events in the Yilan River basin exhibited a gradual upward trend. In the study of drought severity, analysis results from periods of three months (November to January and six months (November to April have shown significant drought characteristics. In addition, analysis of drought occurrence probabilities using the method of Markov chains has shown that the occurrence probabilities of drought events are higher in the Lanyang River basin than in the Yilan River basin; particularly for extreme events, the occurrence probability of an extreme drought event is 20.6% during the dry season (November to April in the Lanyang River basin, and 3.4% in the Yilan River basin. This study shows that for analysis of drought/wet occurrence probabilities, the results obtained for the drought frequency and occurrence probability using short-term data with the method of Markov chains can be used to predict the long-term occurrence

  18. A Fast and Reliable Broadcast Service for LTE-Advanced Exploiting Multihop Device-to-Device Transmissions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giovanni Nardini

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Several applications, from the Internet of Things for smart cities to those for vehicular networks, need fast and reliable proximity-based broadcast communications, i.e., the ability to reach all peers in a geographical neighborhood around the originator of a message, as well as ubiquitous connectivity. In this paper, we point out the inherent limitations of the LTE (Long-Term Evolution cellular network, which make it difficult, if possible at all, to engineer such a service using traditional infrastructure-based communications. We argue, instead, that network-controlled device-to-device (D2D communications, relayed in a multihop fashion, can efficiently support this service. To substantiate the above claim, we design a proximity-based broadcast service which exploits multihop D2D. We discuss the relevant issues both at the UE (User Equipment, which has to run applications, and within the network (i.e., at the eNodeBs, where suitable resource allocation schemes have to be enforced. We evaluate the performance of a multihop D2D broadcasting using system-level simulations, and demonstrate that it is fast, reliable and economical from a resource consumption standpoint.

  19. Description of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) using the Unified Modelling Language (UML)

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Cooper, Antony K

    2003-08-01

    Full Text Available ; boxshadowdwn Pay for something; boxshadowdwn Provide something; boxshadowdwn Invoice for something; boxshadowdwn Offer something; boxshadowdwn Service somebody; and boxshadowdwn Register something. All interactions should be described in text form... as scenarios of these interactions. Table 1: Interactions between an SDI and actors. No. Name Interaction Ia End user barb2right SDI - ask for metadata - ask for data - ask for services - ask for integrated services - ask for standards - pay...

  20. Story damage index of seismically-excited buildings based on modal parameters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang J.-F.; Lin, C.-C.; Yen, S.-M.

    2005-01-01

    In this paper, a story damage index (SDI) for buildings is developed and expressed as a simple formula based on modal parameters extracted from real earthquake response records. It is useful because only one set of modal parameters is required for the calculation of the SDI to show the degree of damage of the story in question. According to numerical simulation results of five-story buildings with various story stiffness reductions and floor mass distributions, it is proven that the proposed SDI has both high accuracy and high reliability. This SDI is also applied to the damage assessment of a 7-story reinforced concrete hotel building in Van Nuys, California, which experienced severe structural damage during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. With both its fundamental frequency and mode shape identified by the SRIM (System Realization using Information Matrix) identification technique, it is shown that the SDI agrees fairly well with the results of the visual inspection, and is valuable in practical application. (authors)

  1. Reliability constrained decision model for energy service provider incorporating demand response programs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mahboubi-Moghaddam, Esmaeil; Nayeripour, Majid; Aghaei, Jamshid

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • The operation of Energy Service Providers (ESPs) in electricity markets is modeled. • Demand response as the cost-effective solution is used for energy service provider. • The market price uncertainty is modeled using the robust optimization technique. • The reliability of the distribution network is embedded into the framework. • The simulation results demonstrate the benefits of robust framework for ESPs. - Abstract: Demand response (DR) programs are becoming a critical concept for the efficiency of current electric power industries. Therefore, its various capabilities and barriers have to be investigated. In this paper, an effective decision model is presented for the strategic behavior of energy service providers (ESPs) to demonstrate how to participate in the day-ahead electricity market and how to allocate demand in the smart distribution network. Since market price affects DR and vice versa, a new two-step sequential framework is proposed, in which unit commitment problem (UC) is solved to forecast the expected locational marginal prices (LMPs), and successively DR program is applied to optimize the total cost of providing energy for the distribution network customers. This total cost includes the cost of purchased power from the market and distributed generation (DG) units, incentive cost paid to the customers, and compensation cost of power interruptions. To obtain compensation cost, the reliability evaluation of the distribution network is embedded into the framework using some innovative constraints. Furthermore, to consider the unexpected behaviors of the other market participants, the LMP prices are modeled as the uncertainty parameters using the robust optimization technique, which is more practical compared to the conventional stochastic approach. The simulation results demonstrate the significant benefits of the presented framework for the strategic performance of ESPs.

  2. Beliefs concerning the reliability of nuclear power plant in-service inspections; Uskomuksia ydinvoimalaitoksissa suoritettavien tarkastusten luotettavuudesta

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kettunen, J. [VTT Automation, Espoo (Finland)

    1997-01-01

    The aim of the study was to investigate belief systems held by the officials responsible for the planning and supervision of NDT operations within the Finnish nuclear industry. They were asked to express their opinions on (1) the reliability of NDT methods in general, (2) the factors influencing the reliability of in-service inspections, and (3) the degree of reliability of the current inspections operations conducted by means of NDT methods in the Finnish nuclear power plants. Another goal of the study was to assess the adequacy of officials` beliefs (or belief systems). The research data was collected by interviewing representatives from Finnish power companies (Imatran Voima Oy and Teollisuuden Voima Oy), independent inspection organisations, and the Finnish Centre for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (STUK). The adequacy of the beliefs expressed was assessed by means of the results obtained from international NDT reliability studies and on the basis of interviewees` own justification. (refs.).

  3. A Scalable and Reliable Message Transport Service for the ATLAS Trigger and Data Acquisition System

    CERN Document Server

    Kazarov, A; The ATLAS collaboration; Kolos, S; Lehmann Miotto, G; Soloviev, I

    2014-01-01

    The ATLAS Trigger and Data Acquisition (TDAQ) is a large distributed computing system composed of several thousands of interconnected computers and tens of thousands applications. During a run, TDAQ applications produce a lot of control and information messages with variable rates, addressed to TDAQ operators or to other applications. Reliable, fast and accurate delivery of the messages is important for the functioning of the whole TDAQ system. The Message Transport Service (MTS) provides facilities for the reliable transport, the filtering and the routing of the messages, basing on publish-subscribe-notify communication pattern with content-based message filtering. During the ongoing LHC shutdown, the MTS was re-implemented, taking into account important requirements like reliability, scalability and performance, handling of slow subscribers case and also simplicity of the design and the implementation. MTS uses CORBA middleware, a common layer for TDAQ infrastructure, and provides sending/subscribing APIs i...

  4. A pilot study to explore the feasibility of using theClinical Care Classification System for developing a reliable costing method for nursing services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dykes, Patricia C; Wantland, Dean; Whittenburg, Luann; Lipsitz, Stuart; Saba, Virginia K

    2013-01-01

    While nursing activities represent a significant proportion of inpatient care, there are no reliable methods for determining nursing costs based on the actual services provided by the nursing staff. Capture of data to support accurate measurement and reporting on the cost of nursing services is fundamental to effective resource utilization. Adopting standard terminologies that support tracking both the quality and the cost of care could reduce the data entry burden on direct care providers. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility of using a standardized nursing terminology, the Clinical Care Classification System (CCC), for developing a reliable costing method for nursing services. Two different approaches are explored; the Relative Value Unit RVU and the simple cost-to-time methods. We found that the simple cost-to-time method was more accurate and more transparent in its derivation than the RVU method and may support a more consistent and reliable approach for costing nursing services.

  5. Standardizzazione e validazione dei dati della pianificazione urbanistica locale nella regione del Veneto

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francesco Tomaello

    2013-06-01

    their GIS datasets using a web service so the data uploaded by Municipalities into the Central GeoDatabase of Region Veneto’s SDI will be ready for automated mosaicking , remodelling (using local data models and INSPIRE Land Use data model and SDI-sharing.

  6. Problematics of Reliability of Road Rollers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stawowiak, Michał; Kuczaj, Mariusz

    2018-06-01

    This article refers to the reliability of road rollers used in a selected roadworks company. Information on the method of road rollers service and how the service affects the reliability of these rollers is presented. Attention was paid to the process of the implemented maintenance plan with regard to the machine's operational time. The reliability of road rollers was analyzed by determining and interpreting readiness coefficients.

  7. Reliability and Availability of Cloud Computing

    CERN Document Server

    Bauer, Eric

    2012-01-01

    A holistic approach to service reliability and availability of cloud computing Reliability and Availability of Cloud Computing provides IS/IT system and solution architects, developers, and engineers with the knowledge needed to assess the impact of virtualization and cloud computing on service reliability and availability. It reveals how to select the most appropriate design for reliability diligence to assure that user expectations are met. Organized in three parts (basics, risk analysis, and recommendations), this resource is accessible to readers of diverse backgrounds and experience le

  8. Serviceability design load factors and reliability assessments for reinforced concrete containment structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Han Bong Koo

    1998-01-01

    A reinforced concrete nuclear power plant containment structure is subjected to various random static and stochastic loads during its lifetime. Since these loads involve inherent randomness and other uncertainties, an appropriate probabilistic model for each load must be established in order to perform reliability analysis. The current ASME code for reinforced concrete containment structures are not based on probability concepts. The stochastic nature of natural hazard or accidental loads and the variations of material properties require a probabilistic approach for a rational assessment of structural safety and performance. The paper develops probability-based load factors for the limit state design of reinforced concrete containment structures. The purpose of constructing reinforced concrete containment structure is to protect against radioactive release, and so the use of a serviceability limit state against crack failure that can cause the emission of radioactive materials is suggested as a critical limit state for reinforced concrete containment structures. Load factors for the design of reinforced concrete containment structures are proposed and carried out the reliability assessments. (orig.)

  9. Reliability and validity of the workplace harassment questionnaire for Korean finance and service workers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Myeongjun; Kim, Hyunjung; Shin, Donghee; Lee, Sangyun

    2016-01-01

    Harassment means systemic and repeated unethical acts. Research on workplace harassment have been conducted widely and the NAQ-R has been widely used for the researches. But this tool, however the limitations in revealing differended in sub-factors depending on the culture and in reflecting that unique characteristics of the Koren society. So, The workplace harassment questionnaire for Korean finace and service workers has been developed to assess the level of personal harassment at work. This study aims to develop a tool to assess the level of personal harassment at work and to test its validity and reliability while examining specific characteristics of workplace harassment against finance and service workers in Korea. The framework of survey was established based on literature review, focused-group interview for the Korean finance and service workers. To verify its reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated; and to verify its validity, items and factors of the tool were analyzed. The correlation matrix analysis was examined to verify the tool's convergent validity and discriminant validity. Structural validity was verified by checking statistical significance in relation to the BDI-K. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of this survey was 0.93, which indicates a quite high level of reliability. To verify the appropriateness of this survey tool, its construct validity was examined through factor analysis. As a result of the factor analysis, 3 factors were extracted, explaining 56.5 % of the total variance. The loading values and communalities of the 20 items were 0.85 to 0.48 and 0.71 to 0.46. The convergent validity and discriminant validity were analyzed and rate of item discriminant validity was 100 %. Finally, for the concurrent validity, We examined the relationship between the WHI-KFSW and pschosocial stress by examining the correlation with the BDI-K. The results of chi-square test and multiple logistic analysis indicated that the correlation with

  10. Research Review: Test-retest reliability of standardized diagnostic interviews to assess child and adolescent psychiatric disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duncan, Laura; Comeau, Jinette; Wang, Li; Vitoroulis, Irene; Boyle, Michael H; Bennett, Kathryn

    2018-02-19

    A better understanding of factors contributing to the observed variability in estimates of test-retest reliability in published studies on standardized diagnostic interviews (SDI) is needed. The objectives of this systematic review and meta-analysis were to estimate the pooled test-retest reliability for parent and youth assessments of seven common disorders, and to examine sources of between-study heterogeneity in reliability. Following a systematic review of the literature, multilevel random effects meta-analyses were used to analyse 202 reliability estimates (Cohen's kappa = ҡ) from 31 eligible studies and 5,369 assessments of 3,344 children and youth. Pooled reliability was moderate at ҡ = .58 (CI 95% 0.53-0.63) and between-study heterogeneity was substantial (Q = 2,063 (df = 201), p reliability varied across informants for specific types of psychiatric disorder (ҡ = .53-.69 for parent vs. ҡ = .39-.68 for youth) with estimates significantly higher for parents on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder and the broad groupings of externalizing and any disorder. Reliability was also significantly higher in studies with indicators of poor or fair study methodology quality (sample size reliability of SDIs and the usefulness of these tools in both clinical and research contexts. Potential remedies include the introduction of standardized study and reporting requirements for reliability studies, and exploration of other approaches to assessing and classifying child and adolescent psychiatric disorder. © 2018 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

  11. 76 FR 66328 - Callaway Golf Ball Operations, Inc., Including On-Site Leased Workers From Reliable Temp Services...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-10-26

    ... DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Employment and Training Administration [TA-W-80,110] Callaway Golf Ball... Golf Ball Operations, Inc., including on-site leased workers from Reliable Temp Services, Inc., and... production of golf balls. The notice was published in the Federal Register on July 8, 2011 (76 FR 40401). At...

  12. Principles of Bridge Reliability

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thoft-Christensen, Palle; Nowak, Andrzej S.

    The paper gives a brief introduction to the basic principles of structural reliability theory and its application to bridge engineering. Fundamental concepts like failure probability and reliability index are introduced. Ultimate as well as serviceability limit states for bridges are formulated......, and as an example the reliability profile and a sensitivity analyses for a corroded reinforced concrete bridge is shown....

  13. Making attributes from the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud a part of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This research contributed to bridging the gap between linked data, SDI and web thematic maps and further showed how existing web mapping and OGC technologies can benefit from the Semantic Web. First, the design of a geospatial web service (representing the visible part of an SDI) that accesses attribute data from the ...

  14. The Validity and Reliability Studies of the Internet Use of Pre-Service English Teachers Survey: A Turkish Context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gülşah Külekçi

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available As the availability of computers and the Internet in schools and classrooms has grown, so has interest in the extent to which these technologies are being used and for what purposes. Recently there has been many studies on teachers’ use of education technology in their classrooms and schools, the availability of this technology in their classrooms and schools, their training and preparation for their use and the barriers to technology use they encounter. Using the Internet effectively and the success of the Internet utilization is very much related to the users’ attitudes toward the Internet. This study aims at investigating the reliability and the validity of the Internet Use of Pre-service English Teachers Survey modified from the Master Thesis of Sudsuang Yutdhana. The survey contains two subscales as Internet Attitude Scale and Self-perception of Computing Skills. The survey was administered to randomly selected third and fourth year 96 pre – service English Teachers at Dokuz Eylül University Buca, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language Teaching. The results indicated that Internet Use of Pre-service English Teachers Survey (IUPETS is reliable and valid.

  15. Why We Need Reliable, Valid, and Appropriate Learning Disability Assessments: The Perspective of a Postsecondary Disability Service Provider

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolforth, Joan

    2012-01-01

    This paper discusses issues regarding the validity and reliability of psychoeducational assessments provided to Disability Services Offices at Canadian Universities. Several vignettes illustrate some current issues and the potential consequences when university students are given less than thorough disability evaluations and ascribed diagnoses.…

  16. Reliability and Validity of Survey Instruments to Measure Work-Related Fatigue in the Emergency Medical Services Setting: A Systematic Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    2018-01-11

    Background: This study sought to systematically search the literature to identify reliable and valid survey instruments for fatigue measurement in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) occupational setting. Methods: A systematic review study design wa...

  17. Methodology for reliability based condition assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mori, Y.; Ellingwood, B.

    1993-08-01

    Structures in nuclear power plants may be exposed to aggressive environmental effects that cause their strength to decrease over an extended period of service. A major concern in evaluating the continued service for such structures is to ensure that in their current condition they are able to withstand future extreme load events during the intended service life with a level of reliability sufficient for public safety. This report describes a methodology to facilitate quantitative assessments of current and future structural reliability and performance of structures in nuclear power plants. This methodology takes into account the nature of past and future loads, and randomness in strength and in degradation resulting from environmental factors. An adaptive Monte Carlo simulation procedure is used to evaluate time-dependent system reliability. The time-dependent reliability is sensitive to the time-varying load characteristics and to the choice of initial strength and strength degradation models but not to correlation in component strengths within a system. Inspection/maintenance strategies are identified that minimize the expected future costs of keeping the failure probability of a structure at or below an established target failure probability during its anticipated service period

  18. Test-retest Reliability and Agreement of the Satisfaction with the Assistive Technology Services (SATS) Instrument in Two Nordic Countries

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sund, Terje; Anttila, Heidi; Iwarsson, Susanne

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate test–retest reliability, agreement, internal consistency, and floor- and ceiling effects of the Danish and Finnish versions of the Satisfaction with the Assistive Technology Services (SATS) instrument among adult users of powered wheelchairs (...

  19. Measuring Passenger Travel Time Reliability using Smartcard Data

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bagherian, M.; Cats, O.; van Oort, N.; Hickman, M

    2016-01-01

    Service reliability is a key performance measure for transit agencies in increasing their service quality and thus ridership. Conventional reliability metrics are established based on vehicle movements and thus do not adequately reflect passenger’s experience. In the past few years, the growing

  20. Risk-based Optimization and Reliability Levels of Coastal Structures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, John Dalsgaard; Burcharth, H. F.

    Identification of optimum reliability levels for coastal structures is considered. A class of breakwaters is considered where no human injuries can be expected in cases of failure. The optimum reliability level is identified by minimizing the total costs over the service life of the structure, in...... on the minimumcost reliability levels is investigated for different values of the real rate of interest, the service lifetime, the downtime costs due to malfunction and the decommission costs.......Identification of optimum reliability levels for coastal structures is considered. A class of breakwaters is considered where no human injuries can be expected in cases of failure. The optimum reliability level is identified by minimizing the total costs over the service life of the structure...

  1. Risk-based Optimization and Reliability Levels of Coastal Structures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, John Dalsgaard; Burcharth, Hans F.

    2005-01-01

     Identification of optimum reliability levels for coastal structures is considered. A class of breakwaters is considered where no human injuries can be expected in cases of failure. The optimum reliability level is identified by minimizing the total costs over the service life of the structure, i...... on the minimumcost reliability levels is investigated for different values of the real rate of interest, the service lifetime, the downtime costs due to malfunction and the decommission costs....... Identification of optimum reliability levels for coastal structures is considered. A class of breakwaters is considered where no human injuries can be expected in cases of failure. The optimum reliability level is identified by minimizing the total costs over the service life of the structure...

  2. Reliability-Based Code Calibration

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Faber, M.H.; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

    2003-01-01

    The present paper addresses fundamental concepts of reliability based code calibration. First basic principles of structural reliability theory are introduced and it is shown how the results of FORM based reliability analysis may be related to partial safety factors and characteristic values....... Thereafter the code calibration problem is presented in its principal decision theoretical form and it is discussed how acceptable levels of failure probability (or target reliabilities) may be established. Furthermore suggested values for acceptable annual failure probabilities are given for ultimate...... and serviceability limit states. Finally the paper describes the Joint Committee on Structural Safety (JCSS) recommended procedure - CodeCal - for the practical implementation of reliability based code calibration of LRFD based design codes....

  3. Reliability of length measurements collected by community nurses and health volunteers in rural growth monitoring and promotion services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laar, Matilda E; Marquis, Grace S; Lartey, Anna; Gray-Donald, Katherine

    2018-02-17

    Length measurements are important in growth, monitoring and promotion (GMP) for the surveillance of a child's weight-for-length and length-for-age. These two indices provide an indication of a child's risk of becoming wasted or stunted, and are more informative about a child's growth than the widely used weight-for-age index (underweight). Although the introduction of length measurements in GMP is recommended by the World Health Organization, concerns about the reliability of length measurements collected in rural outreach settings have been expressed by stakeholders. Our aim was to describe the reliability and challenges associated with community health personnel measuring length for rural outreach GMP activities. Two reliability studies (A and B), using 10 children less than 24 months each, were conducted in the GMP services of a rural district in Ghana. Fifteen nurses and 15 health volunteers (HV) with no prior experience in length measurements were trained. Intra- and inter-observer technical error of measurement (TEM), average bias from expert anthropometrist, and coefficient of reliability (R) of length measurements were assessed and compared across sessions. Observations and interviews were used to understand the ability and experiences of health personnel with measuring length at outreach GMP. Inter-observer TEM was larger than intra-observer TEM for both nurses and HV at both sessions and was unacceptably (compared to error standards) high in both groups at both time points. Average biases from expert's measurements were within acceptable limits, however, both groups tended to underestimate length measurements. The R for lengths collected by nurses (92.3%) was higher at session B compared to that of HV (87.5%). Length measurements taken by nurses and HV, and those taken by an experienced anthropometrist at GMP sessions were of moderate agreement (kappa = 0.53, p reliability of length measurements improved after two refresher trainings for nurses but

  4. SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE BAIKAL REGION: PLACEMENT AND MAPPING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. N. Beshentsev

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Spatial data infrastructure (SDI is created for the organization of information exchange in the country. SDI is the information- telecommunication system that provides access to the public and government authorities to spatial data resources, as well as the dissemination and exchange of data in order to improve the efficiency of their production and use [1]. SDI development is the result of society territorial activities informatization and represents a specific geographical phenomenon, which is characterized by the presence of specific natural and man-made structures, the virtual geographical environment and geoinformation resources and territorial processes of users interaction and movement of resources within the near-earth space. Reliable management of this phenomenon of the modern information society requires accurate and timely inventory data centers, telecommunication highways, reference features, geocoding of interaction participants, etc. A cartographic registration of SDI components and spatio-temporal analysis of their development will provide solution to these problems. In addition, mapping assessment of natural, social and economic conditions of accommodation SDI will establish physical and geographical features of the localization of its objects and will perform predictive modeling of their design.

  5. Reliability and safety engineering

    CERN Document Server

    Verma, Ajit Kumar; Karanki, Durga Rao

    2016-01-01

    Reliability and safety are core issues that must be addressed throughout the life cycle of engineering systems. Reliability and Safety Engineering presents an overview of the basic concepts, together with simple and practical illustrations. The authors present reliability terminology in various engineering fields, viz.,electronics engineering, software engineering, mechanical engineering, structural engineering and power systems engineering. The book describes the latest applications in the area of probabilistic safety assessment, such as technical specification optimization, risk monitoring and risk informed in-service inspection. Reliability and safety studies must, inevitably, deal with uncertainty, so the book includes uncertainty propagation methods: Monte Carlo simulation, fuzzy arithmetic, Dempster-Shafer theory and probability bounds. Reliability and Safety Engineering also highlights advances in system reliability and safety assessment including dynamic system modeling and uncertainty management. Cas...

  6. Measuring Passenger Travel Time Reliability Using Smart Card Data

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bagherian, M.; Cats, O.; van Oort, N.; Hickman, M

    2016-01-01

    Service reliability is a key performance measure for transit agencies in increasing their service quality and thus ridership. Conventional reliability metrics are established based on vehicle movements and thus do not adequately reflect passenger’s experience. In the past few years, the growing

  7. Updated Value of Service Reliability Estimates for Electric Utility Customers in the United States

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sullivan, Michael [Nexant Inc., Burlington, MA (United States); Schellenberg, Josh [Nexant Inc., Burlington, MA (United States); Blundell, Marshall [Nexant Inc., Burlington, MA (United States)

    2015-01-01

    This report updates the 2009 meta-analysis that provides estimates of the value of service reliability for electricity customers in the United States (U.S.). The meta-dataset now includes 34 different datasets from surveys fielded by 10 different utility companies between 1989 and 2012. Because these studies used nearly identical interruption cost estimation or willingness-to-pay/accept methods, it was possible to integrate their results into a single meta-dataset describing the value of electric service reliability observed in all of them. Once the datasets from the various studies were combined, a two-part regression model was used to estimate customer damage functions that can be generally applied to calculate customer interruption costs per event by season, time of day, day of week, and geographical regions within the U.S. for industrial, commercial, and residential customers. This report focuses on the backwards stepwise selection process that was used to develop the final revised model for all customer classes. Across customer classes, the revised customer interruption cost model has improved significantly because it incorporates more data and does not include the many extraneous variables that were in the original specification from the 2009 meta-analysis. The backwards stepwise selection process led to a more parsimonious model that only included key variables, while still achieving comparable out-of-sample predictive performance. In turn, users of interruption cost estimation tools such as the Interruption Cost Estimate (ICE) Calculator will have less customer characteristics information to provide and the associated inputs page will be far less cumbersome. The upcoming new version of the ICE Calculator is anticipated to be released in 2015.

  8. Human reliability impact on in-service inspection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Spanner, J.C. Sr.

    1986-01-01

    This paper describes a study conducted to identify, characterize, and evaluate the human reliability aspects of ultrasonic testing/inservice inspection (UT/ISI). Recent measurements of UT/ISI system effectiveness have revealed wide variations in performance; suggesting that insufficient emphasis is being placed on the human reliability aspects of nondestructive examination. It appears that NDE performance can be improved through application of the human factors principles relating to the task, training, procedure, environmental, and individual difference variables. These variables are collectively referred to as performance-shaping factors. A man-machine systems model was developed to describe the UT/ISI process using functional task descriptors. The relative operating characteristic (ROC) analysis method, which is derived from signal detection theory, offers unique attributes for analyzing NDT performance. The results of a limited human factors evaluation conducted in conjunction with a mini-round robin test are also described

  9. Utilization of INIS output in Czechoslovakia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stanik, Z.; Blazek, J.

    1978-01-01

    Information on INIS output materials - INIS magnetic tape, INIS Atomindex, full texts of non-conventional literature on microfiches. Complex is provided of INIS-SDI service by the Nuclear Information Centre for CSSR. The Unified Software System (USS) of the UVTEI-UTZ (the Central Technical Base of the Central Office for Scientific, Technical and Economic Information) is used for the automated processing of INIS magnetic tapes. A survey of INIS-SDI services in the years 1974 to 1978 is given. The further development of the system consists in the use of the terminal network, with direct access to the IAEA computer in Vienna. (author)

  10. Making Temporal Search More Central in Spatial Data Infrastructures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corti, P.; Lewis, B.

    2017-10-01

    A temporally enabled Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is a framework of geospatial data, metadata, users, and tools intended to provide an efficient and flexible way to use spatial information which includes the historical dimension. One of the key software components of an SDI is the catalogue service which is needed to discover, query, and manage the metadata. A search engine is a software system capable of supporting fast and reliable search, which may use any means necessary to get users to the resources they need quickly and efficiently. These techniques may include features such as full text search, natural language processing, weighted results, temporal search based on enrichment, visualization of patterns in distributions of results in time and space using temporal and spatial faceting, and many others. In this paper we will focus on the temporal aspects of search which include temporal enrichment using a time miner - a software engine able to search for date components within a larger block of text, the storage of time ranges in the search engine, handling historical dates, and the use of temporal histograms in the user interface to display the temporal distribution of search results.

  11. The influence of frequency and reliability of in-service inspection on reactor pressure vessel disruptive failure probability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jordan, G.M.

    1978-01-01

    A simple probabilistic methodology is used to investigate the benefit, in terms of reduction of disruptive failure probability, which comes from the application of periodic in-service inspection to nuclear pressure vessels. The analysis indicates the strong interaction between inspection benefit and the intrinsic quality of the structure. In order to quantify the inspection benefit, assumptions are made which allow the quality to be characterised in terms of the parameters governing a log normal distribution of time - to - failure. Using these assumptions, it is shown that the overall benefit of in-service inspection unlikely to exceed an order of magnitude in terms of reduction of disruptive failure probability. The method is extended to evaluate the effect of the periodicity and reliability of the inspection process itself. (author)

  12. A method to assign failure rates for piping reliability assessments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gamble, R.M.; Tagart, S.W. Jr.

    1991-01-01

    This paper reports on a simplified method that has been developed to assign failure rates that can be used in reliability and risk studies of piping. The method can be applied on a line-by-line basis by identifying line and location specific attributes that can lead to piping unreliability from in-service degradation mechanisms and random events. A survey of service experience for nuclear piping reliability also was performed. The data from this survey provides a basis for identifying in-service failure attributes and assigning failure rates for risk and reliability studies

  13. Teaming up to improve reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Malone, E.A.; Ayres, D.J.; Lear, R.C. van

    1989-01-01

    Responding to increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, Babcock and Wilcox has teamed up with three specialist companies to provide services for nuclear utilities aiming to improve the performance of their valves and actuators. The services, which are outlined here, include inspection, repair, overhaul and valve and actuator reliability programmes. (author)

  14. Forty Years of Research and Development at Griffiss Air Force Base, June 1951-June 1991

    Science.gov (United States)

    1991-06-01

    display-assisted intercept association capability. -1962 - 61 Reliability and Maintainability Reliability Physics Symposium The Armour Research...communications links. Status Control and Alerting and Reporting System ( SCARS ) RADC produced the Status Control and Alerting and Reporting System ( SCARS ...Acquisition, Tracking, and Kill Assessment SCARS Status Control and Alerting and Reporting System SDI Space Defense Initiative SEA Southeast Asia SEMANOL

  15. Economic and Nonproliferation Analysis Framework for Assessing Reliable Nuclear Fuel Service Arrangements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Phillips, Jon R.; Kreyling, Sean J.; Short, Steven M.; Weimar, Mark R.

    2010-01-01

    Nuclear power is now broadly recognized as an essential technology in national strategies to provide energy security while meeting carbon management goals. Yet a long standing conundrum remains: how to enable rapid growth in the global nuclear power infrastructure while controlling the spread of sensitive enrichment and reprocessing technologies that lie at the heart of nuclear fuel supply and nuclear weapons programs. Reducing the latent proliferation risk posed by a broader horizontal spread of enrichment and reprocessing technology has been a primary goal of national nuclear supplier policies since the beginning of the nuclear power age. Attempts to control the spread of sensitive nuclear technology have been the subject of numerous initiatives in the intervening decades sometimes taking the form of calls to develop fuel supply and service assurances to reduce market pull to increase the number of states with fuel cycle capabilities. A clear understanding of what characteristics of specific reliable nuclear fuel service (RNFS) and supply arrangements qualify them as 'attractive offers' is critical to the success of current and future efforts. At a minimum, RNFS arrangements should provide economic value to all participants and help reduce latent proliferation risks posed by the global expansion of nuclear power. In order to inform the technical debate and the development of policy, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been developing an analytical framework to evaluate the economics and nonproliferation merits of alternative approaches to RNFS arrangements. This paper provides a brief overview of the economic analysis framework developed and applied to a model problem of current interest: full-service nuclear fuel leasing arrangements. Furthermore, this paper presents an extended outline of a proposed analysis approach to evaluate the non-proliferation merits of various RNFS alternatives.

  16. Crisis Reliability Indicators Supporting Emergency Services (CRISES): A Framework for Developing Performance Measures for Behavioral Health Crisis and Psychiatric Emergency Programs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balfour, Margaret E; Tanner, Kathleen; Jurica, Paul J; Rhoads, Richard; Carson, Chris A

    2016-01-01

    Crisis and emergency psychiatric services are an integral part of the healthcare system, yet there are no standardized measures for programs providing these services. We developed the Crisis Reliability Indicators Supporting Emergency Services (CRISES) framework to create measures that inform internal performance improvement initiatives and allow comparison across programs. The framework consists of two components-the CRISES domains (timely, safe, accessible, least-restrictive, effective, consumer/family centered, and partnership) and the measures supporting each domain. The CRISES framework provides a foundation for development of standardized measures for the crisis field. This will become increasingly important as pay-for-performance initiatives expand with healthcare reform.

  17. The Turkish adaptation of scale to measure patient perceptions of the quality of nursing care and related hospital services: A validity and reliability study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oren, Besey; Zengin, Neriman; Yildiz, Nebahat

    2016-01-01

    This study aimed to test the validity and reliability of a version of the tool developed in Sri Lanka in 2011 to assess patient perceptions of the quality of nursing care and related hospital services created for use with Turkish patients. This methodological study was conducted between November 2013 and November 2014 after obtaining ethical approval and organizational permission. Data was collected during discharge from 180 adult patients who were hospitalized for at least 3 days at a medical school hospital located in Istanbul. After language validation, validity and reliability analyses of the scale were conducted. Content validity, content validity index (CVI), construct validity, and exploratory factor analysis were assessed and examined, and reliability was tested using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient and item-total correlations. Mean CVI was found to be 0.95, which is above expected value. Exploratory factor analysis revealed 4 factors with eigenvalues above 1, which explained 82.4% of total variance in the Turkish version of the tool to measure patient perceptions of nursing care and other hospital services. Factor loading for each item was ≥.40. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of sub-dimensions and total scale were found to be 0.84-0.98 and 0.98, respectively. Item-total correlations ranged from 0.56 to 0.83 for the entire group, which was above expected values. The Turkish version of the scale to assess patient perceptions of the quality of nursing care and related hospital services, which comprised 4 sub-dimensions and 36 items, was found to be valid and reliable for use with the Turkish population.

  18. Transmission reliability faces future challenges

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Beaty, W.

    1993-01-01

    The recently published Washington International Energy Group's 1993 Electric Utility Outlook states that nearly one-third (31 percent) of U.S. utility executives expect reliability to decrease in the near future. Electric power system stability is crucial to reliability. Stability analysis determines whether a system will stay intact under normal operating conditions, during minor disturbances such as load fluctuations, and during major disturbances when one or more parts of the system fails. All system elements contribute to reliability or the lack of it. However, this report centers on the transmission segment of the electric system. The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) says the transmission systems as planned will be adequate over the next 10 years. However, delays in building new lines and increasing demands for transmission services are serious concerns. Reliability concerns exist in the Mid-Continent Area Power Pool and the Mid-America Interconnected Network regions where transmission facilities have not been allowed to be constructed as planned. Portions of the transmission systems in other regions are loaded at or near their limits. NERC further states that utilities must be allowed to complete planned generation and transmission as scheduled. A reliable supply of electricity also depends on adhering to established operating criteria. Factors that could complicate operations include: More interchange schedules resulting from increased transmission services. Increased line loadings in portions of the transmission systems. Proliferation of non-utility generators

  19. Difusión selectiva de la información (DSI en una biblioteca de Ciencias de la Salud: gestión y desarrollo dentro de la Intranet

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Moreno Fernández, Yolanda Mª

    2003-09-01

    Full Text Available A very important service in the specialized libraries, such as a medical library, has always been the Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI Service. Electronic revolution in the library means a special opportunity for the SDI service, and for the librarian role development. New internal nets, Intranets, present a modern and effective tool for the librarians, documentalists work, and for the users too: the binomial dissemination/reception of information elements. This article analyses the different factors that one must bear in mind before an Intranet is introduced and developed in a specialized library. It analyses the specific case of SDI in our Medical Information Service.

    La difusión selectiva de la información (DSIsiempre ha sido un servicio importante en determinado tipo de bibliotecas, tales como las bibliotecas médicas. La revolución de los nuevos medios tecnológicos significa una oportunidad para el desarrollo de este servicio, así como para el cambio del papel del bibliotecario. El presente artículo analiza los diferentes factores a tener en cuenta al implantar y desarrollar una Intranet en una biblioteca especializada, tomando para ello el análisis del caso específico del servicio de DSI desarrollado en nuestro centro.

  20. Application of reliability methods in Ontario Hydro

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jeppesen, R.; Ravishankar, T.J.

    1985-01-01

    Ontario Hydro have established a reliability program in support of its substantial nuclear program. Application of the reliability program to achieve both production and safety goals is described. The value of such a reliability program is evident in the record of Ontario Hydro's operating nuclear stations. The factors which have contributed to the success of the reliability program are identified as line management's commitment to reliability; selective and judicious application of reliability methods; establishing performance goals and monitoring the in-service performance; and collection, distribution, review and utilization of performance information to facilitate cost-effective achievement of goals and improvements. (orig.)

  1. A Spatial Data Infrastructure to Share Earth and Space Science Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nativi, S.; Mazzetti, P.; Bigagli, L.; Cuomo, V.

    2006-05-01

    Spatial Data Infrastructure:SDI (also known as Geospatial Data Infrastructure) is fundamentally a mechanism to facilitate the sharing and exchange of geospatial data. SDI is a scheme necessary for the effective collection, management, access, delivery and utilization of geospatial data; it is important for: objective decision making and sound land based policy, support economic development and encourage socially and environmentally sustainable development. As far as data model and semantics are concerned, a valuable and effective SDI should be able to cross the boundaries between the Geographic Information System/Science (GIS) and Earth and Space Science (ESS) communities. Hence, SDI should be able to discover, access and share information and data produced and managed by both GIS and ESS communities, in an integrated way. In other terms, SDI must be built on a conceptual and technological framework which abstracts the nature and structure of shared dataset: feature-based data or Imagery, Gridded and Coverage Data (IGCD). ISO TC211 and the Open Geospatial Consortium provided important artifacts to build up this framework. In particular, the OGC Web Services (OWS) initiatives and several Interoperability Experiment (e.g. the GALEON IE) are extremely useful for this purpose. We present a SDI solution which is able to manage both GIS and ESS datasets. It is based on OWS and other well-accepted or promising technologies, such as: UNIDATA netCDF and CDM, ncML and ncML-GML. Moreover, it uses a specific technology to implement a distributed and federated system of catalogues: the GI-Cat. This technology performs data model mediation and protocol adaptation tasks. It is used to work out a metadata clearinghouse service, implementing a common (federal) catalogue model which is based on the ISO 19115 core metadata for geo-dataset. Nevertheless, other well- accepted or standard catalogue data models can be easily implemented as common view (e.g. OGC CS-W, the next coming

  2. Customer control and evaluation of service validity and reliability

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Raaij, W. Fred; Pruyn, Adriaan T.H.

    1998-01-01

    A control and attribution model of service production and evaluation is proposed. Service production consists of the stages specification (input), realization (throughput), and outcome (output). Customers may exercise control over all three stages of the service. Critical factors of service

  3. Integration of nondestructive examination reliability and fracture mechanics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doctor, S.R.; Bates, D.J.; Charlot, L.A.

    1985-01-01

    The primary pressure boundaries (pressure vessels and piping) of nuclear power plants are in-service inspected (ISI) according to the rules of ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section XI. Ultrasonic techniques are normally used for these inspections, which are periodically performed on a sampling of welds. The Integration of Nondestructive Examination (NDE) Reliability and Fracture Mechanics (FM) Program at Pacific Northwest Laboratory was established to determine the reliability of current ISI techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this NRC program are to: 1) determine the reliability of ultrasonic ISI performed on commercial light-water reactor primary systems; 2) using probabilistic FM analysis, determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety and determine the level of inspection reliability required to ensure a suitably low failure probability; 3) evaluate the degree of reliability improvement that could be achieved using improved and advanced NDE techniques; and 4) based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties, formulate recommended revisions to ASME Code, Section XI, and Regulatory Requirements needed to ensure suitably low failure probabilities

  4. Narrow- (3.0 mm) Versus Standard-Diameter (4.0 and 4.5 mm) Implants for Splinted Partial Fixed Restoration of Posterior Mandibular and Maxillary Jaws: A 5-Year Retrospective Cohort Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pieri, Francesco; Forlivesi, Caterina; Caselli, Ernesto; Corinaldesi, Giuseppe

    2017-04-01

    Evidence concerning predictability of narrow-diameter implants (NDIs) (3.0 mm) and standard-diameter implants (SDIs) (4.0 to 4.5 mm) supporting fixed partial dentures (FPDs) in posterior mandibular and maxillary jaws. All patients treated with at least two adjacent NDIs or SDIs according to available bone thickness and with a minimum follow-up of 5 years after placement were invited to undergo a clinical and radiologic examination. Outcome measures were implant and FPD failures, biologic and prosthetic complications, and marginal bone loss. A total of 107 out of 127 patients attended the examination: 49 (113 implants) of the NDI group, and 58 (126 implants) of the SDI group. Two NDIs failed in one patient versus four SDIs in four patients (P = 0.37). One FPD failed in the NDI group versus two FPDs in the SDI group (P >0.99). Nine biologic complications occurred in the NDI group and twelve in the SDI group (P = 0.81). Twelve prosthetic complications occurred in the NDI group and only two in the SDI group (P = 0.001). Peri-implant marginal bone loss at 5 years was 0.95 ± 0.84 mm for the NDI group and 1.2 ± 0.86 mm for the SDI group (P = 0.06). Five-year data indicate that FPD treatment in posterior mandibular and maxillary jaws with NDIs was as reliable as with SDIs, although NDIs showed a higher risk of prosthetic complications.

  5. Reliability of Wireless Sensor Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dâmaso, Antônio; Rosa, Nelson; Maciel, Paulo

    2014-01-01

    Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of hundreds or thousands of sensor nodes with limited processing, storage, and battery capabilities. There are several strategies to reduce the power consumption of WSN nodes (by increasing the network lifetime) and increase the reliability of the network (by improving the WSN Quality of Service). However, there is an inherent conflict between power consumption and reliability: an increase in reliability usually leads to an increase in power consumption. For example, routing algorithms can send the same packet though different paths (multipath strategy), which it is important for reliability, but they significantly increase the WSN power consumption. In this context, this paper proposes a model for evaluating the reliability of WSNs considering the battery level as a key factor. Moreover, this model is based on routing algorithms used by WSNs. In order to evaluate the proposed models, three scenarios were considered to show the impact of the power consumption on the reliability of WSNs. PMID:25157553

  6. Test-retest reliability and agreement of the Satisfaction with the Assistive Technology Services (SATS) instrument in two Nordic countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sund, Terje; Iwarsson, Susanne; Anttila, Heidi; Helle, Tina; Brandt, Ase

    2014-07-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate test-retest reliability, agreement, internal consistency, and floor- and ceiling effects of the Danish and Finnish versions of the Satisfaction with the Assistive Technology Services (SATS) instrument among adult users of powered wheelchairs (PWCs) or powered scooters (scooters). Test-retest design, two telephone interviews 7-18 days apart of 40 informants, with mean age of 67.5 (SD 13.09) years in the Danish; and 54 informants with mean age of 55.6 (SD 12.09) years in the Finnish sample. The intra-class correlation coefficient varied between 0.57 and 0.93 for items in the Danish and between 0.41 and 0.93 in the Finnish sample. The percentage agreement varied between 54.2 and 79.5 for items in the Danish and between 69.2 and 81.1 in the Finnish sample, while the Cronbach's alpha values varied between 0.87 and 0.96 in the two samples. A ceiling effect was found in all items of both samples. This study indicates that the SATS may be reliably administered for telephone interviews among adult PWC and scooter users, and give information about aspects of the service delivery process for quality development improvement purposes. Further psychometric testing of the SATS is required.

  7. Service Degradation in Context Management Frameworks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shawky, Ahmed; Olsen, Rasmus Løvenstein; Pedersen, Jens Myrup

    2011-01-01

    information. The paper considers a developed framework from the ICT project, OPEN, and investigates the impact of applying Differentiated Services (DiffServ) Quality of Services (QoS). The paper finally provides insight in how the insight gained can be utilized to ensure reliable remote accessed context......Context aware network services are a new and inter-esting way to enhance network users experience. A context aware application/service enhances network performance in relation to dynamic context information, e.g. mobility, location and device information as it senses and reacts to environment...... changes. The reliability of the information accessed is a key factor in achieving reliable context aware application. This paper will review the service degradation in Context Management Frameworks (CMF) and the effect of high network utilization, with particular focus on the reliability of the accessed...

  8. A study in the reliability analysis method for nuclear power plant structures (I)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Oh, Byung Hwan; Choi, Seong Cheol; Shin, Ho Sang; Yang, In Hwan; Kim, Yi Sung; Yu, Young; Kim, Se Hun [Seoul, Nationl Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    1999-03-15

    Nuclear power plant structures may be exposed to aggressive environmental effects that may cause their strength and stiffness to decrease over their service life. Although the physics of these damage mechanisms are reasonably well understood and quantitative evaluation of their effects on time-dependent structural behavior is possible in some instances, such evaluations are generally very difficult and remain novel. The assessment of existing steel containment in nuclear power plants for continued service must provide quantitative evidence that they are able to withstand future extreme loads during a service period with an acceptable level of reliability. Rational methodologies to perform the reliability assessment can be developed from mechanistic models of structural deterioration, using time-dependent structural reliability analysis to take loading and strength uncertainties into account. The final goal of this study is to develop the analysis method for the reliability of containment structures. The cause and mechanism of corrosion is first clarified and the reliability assessment method has been established. By introducing the equivalent normal distribution, the procedure of reliability analysis which can determine the failure probabilities has been established. The influence of design variables to reliability and the relation between the reliability and service life will be continued second year research.

  9. A Novel Reliability Enhanced Handoff Method in Future Wireless Heterogeneous Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang YuPeng

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available As the demand increases, future networks will follow the trends of network variety and service flexibility, which requires heterogeneous type of network deployment and reliable communication method. In practice, most communication failure happens due to the bad radio link quality, i.e., high-speed users suffers a lot on the problem of radio link failure, which causes the problem of communication interrupt and radio link recovery. To make the communication more reliable, especially for the high mobility users, we propose a novel communication handoff mechanism to reduce the occurrence of service interrupt. Based on computer simulation, we find that the reliability on the service is greatly improved.

  10. Verification criteria on the reliability of personal dosimetric services from x and gamma radiations; Criteri per la verifica dell'affidabilita di un servizio di dosimetria personale per radiazioni x e gamma

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Borasi, G [Arcisp. S. Maria Nuova, USL 9, Reggio Emilia (Italy); Benco, A [CCE-CCR, Ispra, Varese (Italy); Kaftal, S [CESNEF - Politecnico, Milan (Italy)

    1990-07-15

    The paper presents the methods used by Working Group ENEA-EDP (Experts in Personal Dosimetry) to control the reliability of the Dosimetric Services operating in Italy and asking for the above controls on voluntary basis. Testing and irradiation test methods are explained as well as the evaluation criteria. The paper includes suggestions and guide-lines to gain the status of 'Reliable Service'. Technical equipment and operating procedures needed to pass the test are also illustrated. (author)

  11. Redefining reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Paulson, S.L.

    1995-01-01

    Want to buy some reliability? The question would have been unthinkable in some markets served by the natural gas business even a few years ago, but in the new gas marketplace, industrial, commercial and even some residential customers have the opportunity to choose from among an array of options about the kind of natural gas service they need--and are willing to pay for. The complexities of this brave new world of restructuring and competition have sent the industry scrambling to find ways to educate and inform its customers about the increased responsibility they will have in determining the level of gas reliability they choose. This article discusses the new options and the new responsibilities of customers, the needed for continuous education, and MidAmerican Energy Company's experiment in direct marketing of natural gas

  12. Reliability-based condition assessment of steel containment and liners

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ellingwood, B.; Bhattacharya, B.; Zheng, R.

    1996-11-01

    Steel containments and liners in nuclear power plants may be exposed to aggressive environments that may cause their strength and stiffness to decrease during the plant service life. Among the factors recognized as having the potential to cause structural deterioration are uniform, pitting or crevice corrosion; fatigue, including crack initiation and propagation to fracture; elevated temperature; and irradiation. The evaluation of steel containments and liners for continued service must provide assurance that they are able to withstand future extreme loads during the service period with a level of reliability that is sufficient for public safety. Rational methodologies to provide such assurances can be developed using modern structural reliability analysis principles that take uncertainties in loading, strength, and degradation resulting from environmental factors into account. The research described in this report is in support of the Steel Containments and Liners Program being conducted for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The research demonstrates the feasibility of using reliability analysis as a tool for performing condition assessments and service life predictions of steel containments and liners. Mathematical models that describe time-dependent changes in steel due to aggressive environmental factors are identified, and statistical data supporting the use of these models in time-dependent reliability analysis are summarized. The analysis of steel containment fragility is described, and simple illustrations of the impact on reliability of structural degradation are provided. The role of nondestructive evaluation in time-dependent reliability analysis, both in terms of defect detection and sizing, is examined. A Markov model provides a tool for accounting for time-dependent changes in damage condition of a structural component or system. 151 refs

  13. Protocol independent transmission method in software defined optical network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yuze; Li, Hui; Hou, Yanfang; Qiu, Yajun; Ji, Yuefeng

    2016-10-01

    With the development of big data and cloud computing technology, the traditional software-defined network is facing new challenges (e.i., ubiquitous accessibility, higher bandwidth, more flexible management and greater security). Using a proprietary protocol or encoding format is a way to improve information security. However, the flow, which carried by proprietary protocol or code, cannot go through the traditional IP network. In addition, ultra- high-definition video transmission service once again become a hot spot. Traditionally, in the IP network, the Serial Digital Interface (SDI) signal must be compressed. This approach offers additional advantages but also bring some disadvantages such as signal degradation and high latency. To some extent, HD-SDI can also be regard as a proprietary protocol, which need transparent transmission such as optical channel. However, traditional optical networks cannot support flexible traffics . In response to aforementioned challenges for future network, one immediate solution would be to use NFV technology to abstract the network infrastructure and provide an all-optical switching topology graph for the SDN control plane. This paper proposes a new service-based software defined optical network architecture, including an infrastructure layer, a virtualization layer, a service abstract layer and an application layer. We then dwell on the corresponding service providing method in order to implement the protocol-independent transport. Finally, we experimentally evaluate that proposed service providing method can be applied to transmit the HD-SDI signal in the software-defined optical network.

  14. Long term reliability analysis of standby diesel generators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Winfield, D.J.

    1988-01-01

    The long term reliability of 11 diesel generators of 125 to 250 kV A size has been analysed from 26 years of data base information on individual diesel service as standby power supplies for the Chalk River research reactor facilities. Failure to start on demand and failure to run data is presented and failure by diesel subsystem and multiple failures are also analysed. A brief comparison is made with reliability studies of larger diesel generator units used for standby power service in nuclear power plants. (author)

  15. Reliability-based assessment of polyethylene pipe creep lifetime

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khelif, Rabia; Chateauneuf, Alaa; Chaoui, Kamel

    2007-01-01

    Lifetime management of underground pipelines is mandatory for safe hydrocarbon transmission and distribution systems. The use of high-density polyethylene tubes subjected to internal pressure, external loading and environmental variations requires a reliability study in order to define the service limits and the optimal operating conditions. In service, the time-dependent phenomena, especially creep, take place during the pipe lifetime, leading to significant strength reduction. In this work, the reliability-based assessment of pipe lifetime models is carried out, in order to propose a probabilistic methodology for lifetime model selection and to determine the pipe safety levels as well as the most important parameters for pipeline reliability. This study is enhanced by parametric analysis on pipe configuration, gas pressure and operating temperature

  16. Reliability-based assessment of polyethylene pipe creep lifetime

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Khelif, Rabia [LaMI-UBP and IFMA, Campus de Clermont-Fd, Les Cezeaux, BP 265, 63175 Aubiere Cedex (France); LR3MI, Departement de Genie Mecanique, Universite Badji Mokhtar, BP 12, Annaba 23000 (Algeria)], E-mail: rabia.khelif@ifma.fr; Chateauneuf, Alaa [LGC-University Blaise Pascal, Campus des Cezeaux, BP 206, 63174 Aubiere Cedex (France)], E-mail: alaa.chateauneuf@polytech.univ-bpclermont.fr; Chaoui, Kamel [LR3MI, Departement de Genie Mecanique, Universite Badji Mokhtar, BP 12, Annaba 23000 (Algeria)], E-mail: chaoui@univ-annaba.org

    2007-12-15

    Lifetime management of underground pipelines is mandatory for safe hydrocarbon transmission and distribution systems. The use of high-density polyethylene tubes subjected to internal pressure, external loading and environmental variations requires a reliability study in order to define the service limits and the optimal operating conditions. In service, the time-dependent phenomena, especially creep, take place during the pipe lifetime, leading to significant strength reduction. In this work, the reliability-based assessment of pipe lifetime models is carried out, in order to propose a probabilistic methodology for lifetime model selection and to determine the pipe safety levels as well as the most important parameters for pipeline reliability. This study is enhanced by parametric analysis on pipe configuration, gas pressure and operating temperature.

  17. Il Geoportale della Lombardia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Donata Del Puppo

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Lombardy Geoportal Region Lombardy is setting up the regional SDI in the INSPIRE perspective, involving both local Public Administrations and the private sector in the process of disseminating and sharing the geographic data and services available in Lombardy. The access point of the regional SDI is the Lombardy Geoportal, a Web place where users can publish or search for geographic data, applications and services, view maps, download data and share their geographic knowledge. The Lombardy Geoportal has been implemented by customizing the ESRI GIS Portal Toolkit, in order to be compliant with the Italian and the INSPIRE needs; The Geoportal is built on top of REGIS, the Regional Enterprise platform for Geographic Information Services, which consists of an technological infrastructure (based on ESRI Enterprise components and basic services to build up geographic solutions.

  18. Il Geoportale della Lombardia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Donata Del Puppo

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Lombardy GeoportalRegion Lombardy is setting up the regional SDI in the INSPIRE perspective, involving both local Public Administrations and the private sector in the process of disseminating and sharing the geographic data and services available in Lombardy. The access point of the regional SDI is the Lombardy Geoportal, a Web place where users can publish or search for geographic data, applications and services, view maps, download data and share their geographic knowledge. The Lombardy Geoportal has been implemented by customizing the ESRI GIS Portal Toolkit, in order to be compliant with the Italian and the INSPIRE needs; The Geoportal is built on top of REGIS, the Regional Enterprise platform for Geographic Information Services, which consists of an technological infrastructure (based on ESRI Enterprise components and basic services to build up geographic solutions. 

  19. power system reliability in supplying nuclear reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gad, M.M.M.

    2007-01-01

    this thesis presents a simple technique for deducing minimal cut set (MCS) from the defined minimal path set (MPS) of generic distribution system and this technique have been used to evaluate the basic reliability indices of Egypt's second research reactor (ETRR-2) electrical distribution network. the alternative system configurations are then studied to evaluate their impact on service reliability. the proposed MCS approach considers both sustained and temporary outage. the temporary outage constitutes an important parameter in characterizing the system reliability indices for critical load point in distribution system. it is also consider the power quality impact on the reliability indices

  20. Implementasi Wireless Quality of Service dengan Metode Load Switching Jaringan Seluler Menggunakan Software Defined Network untuk Meningkatkan Network Reliability pada Jaringan Dinamis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yoga Bayu Aji Pranawa

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Wireless Quality of Service (QOS adalah salah satu dimensi mobilitas, yaitu sebuah metode yang digunakan untuk menjaga kualitas suatu jaringan nirkabel. QOS diperlukan sebagai sebuah metode untuk memenuhi kriteria pelayanan sistem bagi pengguna, yaitu confidentiality, integrity, dan availability. Beberapa aspek yang menjadi topik utama dalam QOS adalah failure and recovery mechanism, variable bandwidth, computing distribution, discovery mechanism, variable lantency, dan performance feedback. Wireless yang dibahas pada penelitian ini dititik beratkan pada jaringan seluler yang cenderung tidak reliable pada daerah tertentu. Oleh karena itu dibutuhkan sebuah mekanisme yang dapat mengatasi tidak stabilnya jaringan seluler tersebut. mplementasi mekanisme yang diterapkan pada penelitian ini adalah dengan menerapkan load switching pada jaringan seluler dengan menggunakan beberapa provider dan menerapkan teknologi Software Defined Network (SDN. Berdasarkan hasi uji coba dapat disimpulkan bahwa sistem yang dibuat pada penelitian ini dapat menerapkan wireless quality of service dan meningkatkan network reliability sebesar 65,29% dan 83,87% lebih baik untuk penggunaan tanpa waktu tunggu dan dengan waktu tunggu pada suatu jaringan  dinamis.

  1. Estimating the Reliability of the Elements of Cloud Services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iuliia V. Ignatova

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Cloud technologies are a very considerable area that influence IT infrastructure, network services and applications. Research has highlighted difficulties in the functioning of cloud infrastructure. For instance, if a server is subjected to malicious attacks or a force majeure causes a failure in the cloud's service, it is required to determine the time that it takes the system to return to being fully functional after the crash. This will determine the technological and financial risks faced by the owner and end users of cloud services. Therefore, to solve the problem of determining the expected time before service is resumed after a failure, we propose to apply Markovian queuing systems, specifically a model of a multi-channel queuing system with Poisson input flow and denial-of-service (breakdown. (original abstract

  2. Reliability and Validity of Survey Instruments to Measure Work-Related Fatigue in the Emergency Medical Services Setting: A Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patterson, P Daniel; Weaver, Matthew D; Fabio, Anthony; Teasley, Ellen M; Renn, Megan L; Curtis, Brett R; Matthews, Margaret E; Kroemer, Andrew J; Xun, Xiaoshuang; Bizhanova, Zhadyra; Weiss, Patricia M; Sequeira, Denisse J; Coppler, Patrick J; Lang, Eddy S; Higgins, J Stephen

    2018-02-15

    This study sought to systematically search the literature to identify reliable and valid survey instruments for fatigue measurement in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) occupational setting. A systematic review study design was used and searched six databases, including one website. The research question guiding the search was developed a priori and registered with the PROSPERO database of systematic reviews: "Are there reliable and valid instruments for measuring fatigue among EMS personnel?" (2016:CRD42016040097). The primary outcome of interest was criterion-related validity. Important outcomes of interest included reliability (e.g., internal consistency), and indicators of sensitivity and specificity. Members of the research team independently screened records from the databases. Full-text articles were evaluated by adapting the Bolster and Rourke system for categorizing findings of systematic reviews, and the rated data abstracted from the body of literature as favorable, unfavorable, mixed/inconclusive, or no impact. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. The search strategy yielded 1,257 unique records. Thirty-four unique experimental and non-experimental studies were determined relevant following full-text review. Nineteen studies reported on the reliability and/or validity of ten different fatigue survey instruments. Eighteen different studies evaluated the reliability and/or validity of four different sleepiness survey instruments. None of the retained studies reported sensitivity or specificity. Evidence quality was rated as very low across all outcomes. In this systematic review, limited evidence of the reliability and validity of 14 different survey instruments to assess the fatigue and/or sleepiness status of EMS personnel and related shift worker groups was identified.

  3. Integration of NDE Reliability and Fracture Mechanics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Becker, F. L.; Doctor, S. R.; Heas!er, P. G.; Morris, C. J.; Pitman, S. G.; Selby, G. P.; Simonen, F. A.

    1981-03-01

    The Pacific Northwest Laboratory is conducting a four-phase program for measuring and evaluating the effectiveness and reliability of in-service inspection (lSI} performed on the primary system piping welds of commercial light water reactors (LWRs). Phase I of the program is complete. A survey was made of the state of practice for ultrasonic rsr of LWR primary system piping welds. Fracture mechanics calculations were made to establish required nondestrutive testing sensitivities. In general, it was found that fatigue flaws less than 25% of wall thickness would not grow to failure within an inspection interval of 10 years. However, in some cases failure could occur considerably faster. Statistical methods for predicting and measuring the effectiveness and reliability of lSI were developed and will be applied in the "Round Robin Inspections" of Phase II. Methods were also developed for the production of flaws typical of those found in service. Samples fabricated by these methods wilI be used in Phase II to test inspection effectiveness and reliability. Measurements were made of the influence of flaw characteristics {i.e., roughness, tightness, and orientation) on inspection reliability. These measurernents, as well as the predictions of a statistical model for inspection reliability, indicate that current reporting and recording sensitivities are inadequate.

  4. Reliability and protection against failure in computer systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daniels, B.K.

    1979-01-01

    Computers are being increasingly integrated into the control and safety systems of large and potentially hazardous industrial processes. This development introduces problems which are particular to computer systems and opens the way to new techniques of solving conventional reliability and availability problems. References to the developing fields of software reliability, human factors and software design are given, and these subjects are related, where possible, to the quantified assessment of reliability. Original material is presented in the areas of reliability growth and computer hardware failure data. The report draws on the experience of the National Centre of Systems Reliability in assessing the capability and reliability of computer systems both within the nuclear industry, and from the work carried out in other industries by the Systems Reliability Service. (author)

  5. Long-term reliability evaluation of nuclear containments with tendon force degradation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Sang-Hyo; Choi, Moon-Seock; Joung, Jung-Yeun; Kim, Kun-Soo

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: • A probabilistic model on long-term degradation of tendon force is developed. • By using the model, we performed reliability evaluation of nuclear containment. • The analysis is also performed for the case with the strict maintenance programme. • We showed how to satisfy the target safety in the containments facing life extension. - Abstract: The long-term reliability of nuclear containment is important for operating nuclear power plants. In particular, long-term reliability should be clarified when the service life of nuclear containment is being extended. This study focuses not only on determining the reliability of nuclear containment but also presenting the reliability improvement by strengthening the containment itself or by running a strict maintenance programme. The degradation characteristics of tendon force are estimated from the data recorded during in-service inspection of containments. A reliability analysis is conducted for a limit state of through-wall cracking, which is conservative, but most crucial limit state. The results of this analysis indicate that reliability is the lowest at 3/4 height of the containment wall. Therefore, this location is the most vulnerable for the specific limit state considered in this analysis. Furthermore, changes in structural reliability owing to an increase in the number of inspecting tendons are analysed for verifying the effect of the maintenance program's intensity on expected containment reliability. In the last part of this study, an example of obtaining target reliability of nuclear containment by strengthening its structural resistance is presented. A case study is conducted for exemplifying the effect of strengthening work on containment reliability, especially during extended service life

  6. Geo-communication and Web-based Spatial Data Infrastructure

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brodersen, Lars; Nielsen, Anders

    2006-01-01

    -services. This paper discusses the relations between the different components of SDI and geo-communication as well as the impacts thereof. Discussed is also a model for the organization of the passive components of the infrastructure; i.e. legislation, collaboration, standards, models, specifications, web......! Therefore there is a strong need for theories and models that can describe this complex web in the SDI and geo-communication consisting of active components, passive components, users and information in order to make it possible to handle the complexity and to give the necessary framework....

  7. Web geoprocessing services on GML with a fast XML database ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Nowadays there exist quite a lot of Spatial Database Infrastructures (SDI) that facilitate the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) user community in getting access to distributed spatial data through web technology. However, sometimes the users first have to process available spatial data to obtain the needed information.

  8. Survivability enhancement study for C/sup 3/I/BM (communications, command, control and intelligence/battle management) ground segments: Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1986-10-30

    This study involves a concept developed by the Fairchild Space Company which is directly applicable to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) Program as well as other national security programs requiring reliable, secure and survivable telecommunications systems. The overall objective of this study program was to determine the feasibility of combining and integrating long-lived, compact, autonomous isotope power sources with fiber optic and other types of ground segments of the SDI communications, command, control and intelligence/battle management (C/sup 3/I/BM) system in order to significantly enhance the survivability of those critical systems, especially against the potential threats of electromagnetic pulse(s) (EMP) resulting from high altitude nuclear weapon explosion(s). 28 figs., 2 tabs.

  9. The GMOS cyber(e)-infrastructure: advanced services for supporting science and policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cinnirella, S; D'Amore, F; Bencardino, M; Sprovieri, F; Pirrone, N

    2014-03-01

    The need for coordinated, systematized and catalogued databases on mercury in the environment is of paramount importance as improved information can help the assessment of the effectiveness of measures established to phase out and ban mercury. Long-term monitoring sites have been established in a number of regions and countries for the measurement of mercury in ambient air and wet deposition. Long term measurements of mercury concentration in biota also produced a huge amount of information, but such initiatives are far from being within a global, systematic and interoperable approach. To address these weaknesses the on-going Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS) project ( www.gmos.eu ) established a coordinated global observation system for mercury as well it retrieved historical data ( www.gmos.eu/sdi ). To manage such large amount of information a technological infrastructure was planned. This high-performance back-end resource associated with sophisticated client applications enables data storage, computing services, telecommunications networks and all services necessary to support the activity. This paper reports the architecture definition of the GMOS Cyber(e)-Infrastructure and the services developed to support science and policy, including the United Nation Environmental Program. It finally describes new possibilities in data analysis and data management through client applications.

  10. Guarantee of reliability of devices complexes for plastic tube welding

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Voskresenskij, L.A.; Zajtsev, A.I.; Nelyubov, V.I.; Fedorov, M.A.

    1988-01-01

    Results of calculations and experimental studies on providing reliability of complex for plastic tube welding are presented. Choice of reliability indeces and standards is based. Reliability levels of components are determined. The most waded details are calculated. It is shown that they meet the reqrurements of strength and reliability. Service life tests supported the correct choice of springs. Recommendations on elevating reliability are given. Directions of further developments are shown. 8 refs.; 2 figs.; 1 tab

  11. Parametric Mass Reliability Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holt, James P.

    2014-01-01

    The International Space Station (ISS) systems are designed based upon having redundant systems with replaceable orbital replacement units (ORUs). These ORUs are designed to be swapped out fairly quickly, but some are very large, and some are made up of many components. When an ORU fails, it is replaced on orbit with a spare; the failed unit is sometimes returned to Earth to be serviced and re-launched. Such a system is not feasible for a 500+ day long-duration mission beyond low Earth orbit. The components that make up these ORUs have mixed reliabilities. Components that make up the most mass-such as computer housings, pump casings, and the silicon board of PCBs-typically are the most reliable. Meanwhile components that tend to fail the earliest-such as seals or gaskets-typically have a small mass. To better understand the problem, my project is to create a parametric model that relates both the mass of ORUs to reliability, as well as the mass of ORU subcomponents to reliability.

  12. Reliability Evaluation on Creep Life Prediction of Alloy 617 for a Very High Temperature Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Woo-Gon; Hong, Sung-Deok; Kim, Yong-Wan; Park, Jae-Young; Kim, Seon-Jin

    2012-01-01

    This paper evaluates the reliability of creep rupture life under service conditions of Alloy 617, which is considered as one of the candidate materials for use in a very high temperature reactor (VHTR) system. A Z-parameter, which represents the deviation of creep rupture data from the master curve, was used for the reliability analysis of the creep rupture data of Alloy 617. A Service-condition Creep Rupture Interference (SCRI) model, which can consider both the scattering of the creep rupture data and the fluctuations of temperature and stress under any service conditions, was also used for evaluating the reliability of creep rupture life. The statistical analysis showed that the scattering of creep rupture data based on Z-parameter was supported by normal distribution. The values of reliability decreased rapidly with increasing amplitudes of temperature and stress fluctuations. The results established that the reliability decreased with an increasing service time.

  13. Evaluating the Validity and Reliability of Customer Quality Questionnaire from the Experts’ and Customers’ Perspective in Services Related to Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roya Hasanzadeh

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available ​ Background and Objectives : Customer Quality refers to   customers’ capabilities to be effectively participating in service delivery and correct care processes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of customer quality questionnaire in services related to  patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Material and Methods : This is a qualitative study with the aim of assessment of customer quality questionnaire with 16 questions. This questionnaire was distributed among 11 experts to determine the validity of the questionnaire. Finally, 10 of them expressed their own opinions based on the criteria of validity and in the face validity section , they expressed their opinions qualitatively. Also, reliability of questionnaire was reviewed with 30 samples, according to the internal consistency. Results : In determining the content validity, all the questionnaire items were confirmed by CVR (1 and CVI (0.89 indicators. Also, reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha (α=0.78.The final questionnaire was changed according to the experts’ recommendations and their qualitative comments on the 19 questions in four stages of customer quality, including: a the patient’s belief that his/her role in care process is important, b having knowledge, skill and confidence to take action in the care process, c  taking action to protect and improve the health or active involvement, d continuity of care, even in critical situations and under stress. Conclusion : Confirmation of the questionnaire with statistical scientific methods showed that this questionnaire is a very strong tool that using it in research can be an effective step in order to improve the quality of health services.

  14. System reliability developments in structural engineering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moses, F.

    1982-01-01

    Two major limitations occur in present structural design code developments utilizing reliability theory. The notional system reliabilities may differ significantly from calibrated component reliabilities. Secondly, actual failures are often due to gross errors not reflected in most present code formats. A review is presented of system reliability methods and further new concepts are developed. The incremental load approach for identifying and expressing collapse modes is expanded by employing a strategy to identify and enumerate the significant structural collapse modes. It further isolates the importance of critical components in the system performance. Ductile and brittle component behavior and strength correlation is reflected in the system model and illustrated in several examples. Modal combinations for the system reliability are also reviewed. From these developments a system factor can be addended to component safety checking equations. Values may be derived from system behavior by substituting in a damage model which accounts for the response range from component failure to collapse. Other strategies are discussed which emphasize quality assurance during design and in-service inspection for components whose behavior is critical to the system reliability. (Auth.)

  15. Assessment of spatial data infrastructures

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    bases, networks, Web services and portals to facilitate and coordinate the availability, ... need for an SDI to support the spatial and land development planning .... inform integrated and development planning ... provincial and regional planning.

  16. Reliability and continuous regeneration model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Pavlisková

    2006-06-01

    Full Text Available The failure-free function of an object is very important for the service. This leads to the interest in the determination of the object reliability and failure intensity. The reliability of an element is defined by the theory of probability.The element durability T is a continuous random variate with the probability density f. The failure intensity (tλ is a very important reliability characteristics of the element. Often it is an increasing function, which corresponds to the element ageing. We disposed of the data about a belt conveyor failures recorded during the period of 90 months. The given ses behaves according to the normal distribution. By using a mathematical analysis and matematical statistics, we found the failure intensity function (tλ. The function (tλ increases almost linearly.

  17. PROVIDING GEOGRAPHIC DATASETS AS LINKED DATA IN SDI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. Hietanen

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In this study, a prototype service to provide data from Web Feature Service (WFS as linked data is implemented. At first, persistent and unique Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI are created to all spatial objects in the dataset. The objects are available from those URIs in Resource Description Framework (RDF data format. Next, a Web Ontology Language (OWL ontology is created to describe the dataset information content using the Open Geospatial Consortium’s (OGC GeoSPARQL vocabulary. The existing data model is modified in order to take into account the linked data principles. The implemented service produces an HTTP response dynamically. The data for the response is first fetched from existing WFS. Then the Geographic Markup Language (GML format output of the WFS is transformed on-the-fly to the RDF format. Content Negotiation is used to serve the data in different RDF serialization formats. This solution facilitates the use of a dataset in different applications without replicating the whole dataset. In addition, individual spatial objects in the dataset can be referred with URIs. Furthermore, the needed information content of the objects can be easily extracted from the RDF serializations available from those URIs. A solution for linking data objects to the dataset URI is also introduced by using the Vocabulary of Interlinked Datasets (VoID. The dataset is divided to the subsets and each subset is given its persistent and unique URI. This enables the whole dataset to be explored with a web browser and all individual objects to be indexed by search engines.

  18. Reliability demonstration methodology for products with Gamma Process by optimal accelerated degradation testing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Chunhua; Lu, Xiang; Tan, Yuanyuan; Wang, Yashun

    2015-01-01

    For products with high reliability and long lifetime, accelerated degradation testing (ADT) may be adopted during product development phase to verify whether its reliability satisfies the predetermined level within feasible test duration. The actual degradation from engineering is usually a strictly monotonic process, such as fatigue crack growth, wear, and erosion. However, the method for reliability demonstration by ADT with monotonic degradation process has not been investigated so far. This paper proposes a reliability demonstration methodology by ADT for this kind of product. We first apply Gamma process to describe the monotonic degradation. Next, we present a reliability demonstration method by converting the required reliability level into allowable cumulative degradation in ADT and comparing the actual accumulative degradation with the allowable level. Further, we suggest an analytical optimal ADT design method for more efficient reliability demonstration by minimizing the asymptotic variance of decision variable in reliability demonstration under the constraints of sample size, test duration, test cost, and predetermined decision risks. The method is validated and illustrated with example on reliability demonstration of alloy product, and is applied to demonstrate the wear reliability within long service duration of spherical plain bearing in the end. - Highlights: • We present a reliability demonstration method by ADT for products with monotonic degradation process, which may be applied to verify reliability with long service life for products with monotonic degradation process within feasible test duration. • We suggest an analytical optimal ADT design method for more efficient reliability demonstration, which differs from the existed optimal ADT design for more accurate reliability estimation by different objective function and different constraints. • The methods are applied to demonstrate the wear reliability within long service duration of

  19. Providing Reliability Services through Demand Response: A Prelimnary Evaluation of the Demand Response Capabilities of Alcoa Inc.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Starke, Michael R [ORNL; Kirby, Brendan J [ORNL; Kueck, John D [ORNL; Todd, Duane [Alcoa; Caulfield, Michael [Alcoa; Helms, Brian [Alcoa

    2009-02-01

    Demand response is the largest underutilized reliability resource in North America. Historic demand response programs have focused on reducing overall electricity consumption (increasing efficiency) and shaving peaks but have not typically been used for immediate reliability response. Many of these programs have been successful but demand response remains a limited resource. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) report, 'Assessment of Demand Response and Advanced Metering' (FERC 2006) found that only five percent of customers are on some form of demand response program. Collectively they represent an estimated 37,000 MW of response potential. These programs reduce overall energy consumption, lower green house gas emissions by allowing fossil fuel generators to operate at increased efficiency and reduce stress on the power system during periods of peak loading. As the country continues to restructure energy markets with sophisticated marginal cost models that attempt to minimize total energy costs, the ability of demand response to create meaningful shifts in the supply and demand equations is critical to creating a sustainable and balanced economic response to energy issues. Restructured energy market prices are set by the cost of the next incremental unit of energy, so that as additional generation is brought into the market, the cost for the entire market increases. The benefit of demand response is that it reduces overall demand and shifts the entire market to a lower pricing level. This can be very effective in mitigating price volatility or scarcity pricing as the power system responds to changing demand schedules, loss of large generators, or loss of transmission. As a global producer of alumina, primary aluminum, and fabricated aluminum products, Alcoa Inc., has the capability to provide demand response services through its manufacturing facilities and uniquely through its aluminum smelting facilities. For a typical aluminum smelter

  20. Reliable LED Lighting Technologies: Key Factors and Procurement Guidance

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Davis, Lynn; Arquit Niederberger, Anne

    2015-10-08

    Abstract— Lighting systems have the ability to transform the economic and educational infrastructure of disadvantaged communities, and eradicating “light poverty” has become one of the primary goals of the International Year of Light 2015. Solid-state lighting (SSL) technology, based on light-emitting diode (LED) light sources, has emerged as the next generation of lighting technology, with a current global market penetration of roughly 5%. This paper will report on recent research on understanding SSL lighting system reliability (failure modes, environmental stressors, electrical power quality); discuss the implications of SSL technology reliability for providing lighting services; and suggest practical approaches to ensure SSL reliability to benefit humanity. Among the key findings from this work is that LED sources can be extremely reliable, withstanding a broad range of environmental stresses without failure. Nonetheless, SSL lighting systems can have a negative impact on electrical power reliability, as well as on the affordability of lighting services, without attention to the quality of the accompanying power infrastructure. It is therefore critical to ensure that the performance of the power supply electronics used in lighting systems is matched to the quality of the power source, when evaluating energy efficient lighting choices.

  1. 78 FR 69018 - Improving the Resiliency of Mobile Wireless Communications Networks; Reliability and Continuity...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-11-18

    ... consumers value overall network reliability and quality in selecting mobile wireless service providers, they...-125] Improving the Resiliency of Mobile Wireless Communications Networks; Reliability and Continuity... (Reliability NOI) in 2011 to ``initiate a comprehensive examination of issues regarding the reliability...

  2. Exploring the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in postal financial service

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven K Msosa

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Service quality and customer satisfaction are related and are important factors for the success of service providers be it in the public or the private sector. This study aims to examine the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in the Malawian public postal service, specifically its banking division. A cross-sectional, quantitative and descriptive study was undertaken and data was collected from 400 customers using the SERVPERF model. A non-probability sampling approach was adopted and respondents were selected using convenience sampling. Reliability of the study was tested using Cronbach alpha. Correlation tests were conducted using Spearman’s rho. The results show that all the five service quality dimensions, viz. tangibles, reliability, empathy, assurance and responsiveness, are significantly and positively correlated. There was also a significant correlation between the service quality dimensions and overall service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty

  3. A heuristic-based approach for reliability importance assessment of energy producers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Akhavein, A.; Fotuhi Firuzabad, M.

    2011-01-01

    Reliability of energy supply is one of the most important issues of service quality. On one hand, customers usually have different expectations for service reliability and price. On the other hand, providing different level of reliability at load points is a challenge for system operators. In order to take reasonable decisions and obviate reliability implementation difficulties, market players need to know impacts of their assets on system and load-point reliabilities. One tool to specify reliability impacts of assets is the criticality or reliability importance measure by which system components can be ranked based on their effect on reliability. Conventional methods for determination of reliability importance are essentially on the basis of risk sensitivity analysis and hence, impose prohibitive calculation burden in large power systems. An approach is proposed in this paper to determine reliability importance of energy producers from perspective of consumers or distribution companies in a composite generation and transmission system. In the presented method, while avoiding immense computational burden, the energy producers are ranked based on their rating, unavailability and impact on power flows in the lines connecting to the considered load points. Study results on the IEEE reliability test system show successful application of the proposed method. - Research highlights: → Required reliability level at load points is a concern in modern power systems. → It is important to assess reliability importance of energy producers or generators. → Generators can be ranked based on their impacts on power flow to a selected area. → Ranking of generators is an efficient tool to assess their reliability importance.

  4. 3D STREAMING PROTOCOLS FOR SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE: A BRIEF REVIEW

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. B. Siew

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Web services utilizations in Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI have been well established and standardized by Open Geospatial 3D graphics rendering has been a topic of interest among scientific domain from both computer science and geospatial science. Different methods were proposed and discussed in these researches for different domains and applications. Each method provides advantages and trade-offs. Some methods proposed image based rendering for 3D graphics and ultimately. This paper attempts to discuss several techniques from past researches and attempts to propose another method inspired from these techniques, customized for 3D SDI its data workflow use cases.

  5. An automated method for estimating reliability of grid systems using Bayesian networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doguc, Ozge; Emmanuel Ramirez-Marquez, Jose

    2012-01-01

    Grid computing has become relevant due to its applications to large-scale resource sharing, wide-area information transfer, and multi-institutional collaborating. In general, in grid computing a service requests the use of a set of resources, available in a grid, to complete certain tasks. Although analysis tools and techniques for these types of systems have been studied, grid reliability analysis is generally computation-intensive to obtain due to the complexity of the system. Moreover, conventional reliability models have some common assumptions that cannot be applied to the grid systems. Therefore, new analytical methods are needed for effective and accurate assessment of grid reliability. This study presents a new method for estimating grid service reliability, which does not require prior knowledge about the grid system structure unlike the previous studies. Moreover, the proposed method does not rely on any assumptions about the link and node failure rates. This approach is based on a data-mining algorithm, the K2, to discover the grid system structure from raw historical system data, that allows to find minimum resource spanning trees (MRST) within the grid then, uses Bayesian networks (BN) to model the MRST and estimate grid service reliability.

  6. [Validity and reliability of the Culture of Quality Health Services questionnaire in Mexico].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herrera-Kiengelher, L; Zepeda-Zaragoza, J; Austria-Corrales, F; Vázquez-Zarate, V M

    2013-01-01

    Patient Safety is a major public health problem worldwide and is responsibility of all those involved in health care. Establishing a Safety Culture has proved to be a factor that favors the integration of work teams, communication and construction of clear procedures in various organizations. Promote a culture of safety depends on several factors, such as organization, work unit and staff. Objective assessment of these factors will help to identify areas for improvement and establish strategic lines of action. [corrected] To adapt, validate and calibrate the questionnaire Culture of Quality in Health Services (CQHS) in Mexican population. A cross with a stratified representative sample of 522 health workers. The questionnaire was translated and adapted from Singer's. Content was validated by experts, internal consistency, confirmatory factorial validity and item calibration with Samejima's Graded Response Model. Convergent and divergent construct validity was confirmed from the CQHS, item calibration showed that the questionnaire is able to discriminate between patients and represent different levels of the hypothesized dimensions with greater accuracy and lower standard error. The CQHS is a valid and reliable instrument to assess patient safety culture in hospitals in Mexico. Copyright © 2013 SECA. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  7. Assessment of physical server reliability in multi cloud computing system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalyani, B. J. D.; Rao, Kolasani Ramchand H.

    2018-04-01

    Business organizations nowadays functioning with more than one cloud provider. By spreading cloud deployment across multiple service providers, it creates space for competitive prices that minimize the burden on enterprises spending budget. To assess the software reliability of multi cloud application layered software reliability assessment paradigm is considered with three levels of abstractions application layer, virtualization layer, and server layer. The reliability of each layer is assessed separately and is combined to get the reliability of multi-cloud computing application. In this paper, we focused on how to assess the reliability of server layer with required algorithms and explore the steps in the assessment of server reliability.

  8. Construction of nuclear special information service

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oh, Jeong Hoon; Kim, Tae Whan; Lee, Kyu Jeong; Yi, Ji Ho; Chun, Young Choon; Yoo, Jae Bok; Yoo, An Na

    2009-02-01

    Domestic INIS project has carried out various activities on supporting a decision-making for INIS Secretariat, exchanges of the statistical information between INIS and the country,and technical assistance for domestic end-users using INIS database. Based on the construction of INIS database sent by member states, the data published in the country has been gathered, collected, and inputted to INIS database according to the INIS reference series. Using the INIS output data, it has provided domestic users with searching INIS CD-ROM DB, INIS online database, INIS SDI service, and non-conventional literature delivery services. INIS2 DB Host site in Korea has serviced users of domestic and INIS member countries. In order to maintain the same data as Vienna center, the data update process has been performed. Also, publicity information activities were performed by many ways. To construct digital information infrastructure, we changed web server of NUCLIS21 and upgraded information management manager system and constructed full text DB on research and technical reports. Also we collected web DB, digital journals and so on and made an effort on operation of knowledge management system and research documents management. We have inputted over 3,000 records per year since 2002 and the input amount this year has reached 3,738 records. In order to input the comprehensive domestic publication related to nuclear energy, and rise in position of the national center, it is necessary to continue efforts and support budgets. We expect the INIS2 DB Host site will make a contribution to the improvement of productivity in the nuclear energy research as well as the diffusion of information about nuclear energy. We provided users with stable services changing web server of NUCLIS21. Also we contributed to the improvement of librarians' productivity by upgrading information management manager system and provided users with services of web DB, digital journals and so on

  9. p21WAF1/Cip1/Sdi1 knockout mice respond to doxorubicin with reduced cardiotoxicity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Terrand, Jerome; Xu, Beibei; Morrissy, Steve; Dinh, Thai Nho; Williams, Stuart; Chen, Qin M.

    2011-01-01

    Doxorubicin (Dox) is an antineoplastic agent that can cause cardiomyopathy in humans and experimental animals. As an inducer of reactive oxygen species and a DNA damaging agent, Dox causes elevated expression of p21 WAF1/Cip1/Sdi1 (p21) gene. Elevated levels of p21 mRNA and p21 protein have been detected in the myocardium of mice following Dox treatment. With chronic treatment of Dox, wild type (WT) animals develop cardiomyopathy evidenced by elongated nuclei, mitochondrial swelling, myofilamental disarray, reduced cardiac output, reduced ejection fraction, reduced left ventricular contractility, and elevated expression of ANF gene. In contrast, p21 knockout (p21KO) mice did not show significant changes in the same parameters in response to Dox treatment. In an effort to understand the mechanism of the resistance against Dox induced cardiomyopathy, we measured levels of antioxidant enzymes and found that p21KO mice did not contain elevated basal or inducible levels of glutathione peroxidase and catalase. Measurements of 6 circulating cytokines indicated elevation of IL-6, IL-12, IFNγ and TNFα in Dox treated WT mice but not p21KO mice. Dox induced elevation of IL-6 mRNA was detected in the myocardium of WT mice but not p21KO mice. While the mechanism of the resistance against Dox induced cardiomyopathy remains unclear, lack of inflammatory response may contribute to the observed cardiac protection in p21KO mice. -- Highlights: ► Doxorubicin induces p21 elevation in the myocardium. ► Doxorubicin causes dilated cardiomyopathy in wild type mice. ► p21 Knockout mice are resistant against doxorubicin induced cardiomyopathy. ► Lack of inflammatory response correlates with the resistance in p21 knockout mice.

  10. Optimal Service Distribution in WSN Service System Subject to Data Security Constraints

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Zhao; Xiong, Naixue; Huang, Yannong; Gu, Qiong

    2014-01-01

    Services composition technology provides a flexible approach to building Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) Service Applications (WSA) in a service oriented tasking system for WSN. Maintaining the data security of WSA is one of the most important goals in sensor network research. In this paper, we consider a WSN service oriented tasking system in which the WSN Services Broker (WSB), as the resource management center, can map the service request from user into a set of atom-services (AS) and send them to some independent sensor nodes (SN) for parallel execution. The distribution of ASs among these SNs affects the data security as well as the reliability and performance of WSA because these SNs can be of different and independent specifications. By the optimal service partition into the ASs and their distribution among SNs, the WSB can provide the maximum possible service reliability and/or expected performance subject to data security constraints. This paper proposes an algorithm of optimal service partition and distribution based on the universal generating function (UGF) and the genetic algorithm (GA) approach. The experimental analysis is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the suggested algorithm. PMID:25093346

  11. The influence of frequency and reliability of in-service inspection on reactor pressure vessel disruptive failure probability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jordan, G.M.

    1977-01-01

    A simple probabilistic methodology is used to investigate the benefit, in terms of reduction of disruptive failure probability, which comes from the application of periodic In Service Inspection (ISI) to nuclear pressure vessels. The analysis indicates the strong interaction between inspection benefit and the intrinsic quality of the structure. In order to quantify the inspection benefit, assumptions are made which allow the quality to be characterized in terms of the parameters governing a Log Normal distribution of time-to-failure. Using these assumptions, it is shown that the overall benefit of ISI is unlikely to exceed an order of magnitude in terms of reduction of disruptive failure probability. The method is extended to evaluate the effect of the periodicity and reliability of the inspection process itself. (author)

  12. Uptake and biodegradation of the antimicrobial sulfadimidine by the species Tripolium pannonicum acting as biofilter and its further biodegradation by anaerobic digestion and concomitant biogas production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turcios, Ariel E; Weichgrebe, Dirk; Papenbrock, Jutta

    2016-11-01

    This project analyses the uptake and biodegradation of the antimicrobial sulfadimidine (SDI) from the culture medium and up to the anaerobic digestion. Tripolium pannonicum was grown under hydroponic conditions with different concentrations of SDI (0, 5 and 10mg·L(-1)) and the fresh biomass, containing different amounts of SDI taken up, was used as substrate for biogas production. SDI was analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled to positive ion electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI LC-MS). Based on the findings, T. pannonicum is able to uptake SDI. The more SDI is in the culture medium, the higher the SDI content in the plant tissue. According to this study, it is possible to produce high yields of biogas using biomass of T. pannonicum containing SDI and at the same time biodegradation of SDI is carried out. The highest specific biogas yield is obtained using shoots as substrate of the plants cultivated at 5mg·L(-1) SDI. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Design and Analysis of Transport Protocols for Reliable High-Speed Communications

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oláh, A.

    1997-01-01

    The design and analysis of transport protocols for reliable communications constitutes the topic of this dissertation. These transport protocols guarantee the sequenced and complete delivery of user data over networks which may lose, duplicate and reorder packets. Reliable transport services are

  14. Impact of inservice inspection on the reliability of nuclear piping

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Woo, H.H.

    1983-12-01

    The reliability of nuclear piping is a function of piping quality as fabricated, service loadings and environments, plus programs of continuing inspection during operation. This report presents the results of a study of the impact of inservice inspection (ISI) programs on the reliability of specific nuclear piping systems that have actually failed in service. Two major factors are considered in the ISI programs: one is the capability of detecting flaws; the other is the frequency of performing ISI. A probabilistic fracture mechanics model issued to estimate the reliability of two nuclear piping lines over the plant life as functions of the ISI programs. Examples chosen for the study are the PWR feedwater steam generator nozzle cracking incident and the BWR recirculation reactor vessel nozzle safe-end cracking incident

  15. A Spatial Data Infrastructure Integrating Multisource Heterogeneous Geospatial Data and Time Series: A Study Case in Agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gloria Bordogna

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Currently, the best practice to support land planning calls for the development of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI capable of integrating both geospatial datasets and time series information from multiple sources, e.g., multitemporal satellite data and Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI. This paper describes an original OGC standard interoperable SDI architecture and a geospatial data and metadata workflow for creating and managing multisource heterogeneous geospatial datasets and time series, and discusses it in the framework of the Space4Agri project study case developed to support the agricultural sector in Lombardy region, Northern Italy. The main novel contributions go beyond the application domain for which the SDI has been developed and are the following: the ingestion within an a-centric SDI, potentially distributed in several nodes on the Internet to support scalability, of products derived by processing remote sensing images, authoritative data, georeferenced in-situ measurements and voluntary information (VGI created by farmers and agronomists using an original Smart App; the workflow automation for publishing sets and time series of heterogeneous multisource geospatial data and relative web services; and, finally, the project geoportal, that can ease the analysis of the geospatial datasets and time series by providing complex intelligent spatio-temporal query and answering facilities.

  16. SEQUenCE: a service user-centred quality of care instrument for mental health services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hester, Lorraine; O'Doherty, Lorna Jane; Schnittger, Rebecca; Skelly, Niamh; O'Donnell, Muireann; Butterly, Lisa; Browne, Robert; Frorath, Charlotte; Morgan, Craig; McLoughlin, Declan M; Fearon, Paul

    2015-08-01

    To develop a quality of care instrument that is grounded in the service user perspective and validate it in a mental health service. The instrument (SEQUenCE (SErvice user QUality of CarE)) was developed through analysis of focus group data and clinical practice guidelines, and refined through field-testing and psychometric analyses. All participants were attending an independent mental health service in Ireland. Participants had a diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder (BPAD) or a psychotic disorder. Twenty-nine service users participated in six focus group interviews. Seventy-one service users participated in field-testing: 10 judged the face validity of an initial 61-item instrument; 28 completed a revised 52-item instrument from which 12 items were removed following test-retest and convergent validity analyses; 33 completed the resulting 40-item instrument. Test-retest reliability, internal consistency and convergent validity of the instrument. The final instrument showed acceptable test-retest reliability at 5-7 days (r = 0.65; P Service Satisfaction Scale (r = 0.84, P internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.87). SEQUenCE is a valid, reliable scale that is grounded in the service user perspective and suitable for routine use. It may serve as a useful tool in individual care planning, service evaluation and research. The instrument was developed and validated with service users with a diagnosis of either BPAD or a psychotic disorder; it does not yet have established external validity for other diagnostic groups. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press in association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care; all rights reserved.

  17. Reliability and safety of nuclear power stations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stepanek, S.

    1979-01-01

    The main problems are briefly discussed associated with the assessment of the safety and reliability of reactor pressure vessels. Two approaches are being applied to the assessment: one is based on the crack arrest temperature, the other on the determination of conditions corresponding to brittle fracture formation and on the determination of the critical defect size. The importance is stressed of continuous in-service inspection which may increase the factor of reliability by up to 10 4 times. (Z.M.)

  18. Reliability assessment of creep rupture life for Gr. 91 steel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Woo-Gon; Park, Jae-Young; Kim, Seon-Jin; Jang, Jinsung

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: • Statistical analysis of a number of creep rupture data based on Z parameter. • Determination of the constant C in LM parameter and long-term creep life prediction. • Generation of random variables for Z s and Z cr by Monte-Carlo simulation in a SCRI model. • Examples for design application were reasonably drawn from the viewpoints of reliability. - Abstract: This paper presents reliability assessment of the long-term creep life of Gr. 91 steel, which is a major structural material for high temperature structural components of Generation-IV reactor systems. A number of creep rupture data for Gr. 91 steel were collected through literature surveys, and the long-term creep life was predicted by Larson–Miller parameter. A “Z parameter” method was used to describe the magnitude of the deviation of the creep rupture data to a master curve. A “Service Condition-creep Rupture property Interference (SCRI) model” based on the Z parameter was used to simultaneously consider the scattering of the creep rupture data of materials and the fluctuations of service conditions in reliability assessment. A statistical analysis of the creep rupture data was conducted by the Z parameter. To carry out the SCRI model, a number of random variables for Z s describing service conditions and Z cr describing the dispersion of the creep rupture data were generated using a Monte-Carlo simulation technique. As examples for application, the creep rupture life under a certain service conditions of Gr. 91 steel was reasonably drawn from the viewpoints of reliability

  19. System Reliability Evaluation of Data Transmission in Commercial Banks with Multiple Branches

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi-Kuei Lin

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The main purpose of this paper is to assess the system reliability of electronic transaction data transmissions made by commercial banks in terms of stochastic flow network. System reliability is defined as the probability of demand satisfaction and it can be used to measure quality of service. In this paper, we study the system reliability of data transmission from the headquarters of a commercial bank to its multiple branches. The network structure of the bank and the probability of successful data transmission are obtained through the collection of real data. The system reliability, calculated using the minimal path method and the recursive sum of disjoint products algorithm, provides banking managers with a view to comprehend the current state of the entire system. Besides, the system reliability can be used not only as a measurement of quality of service, but also an improvement reference of the system by adopting sensitivity analysis.

  20. Service Quality and Non-Muslim Satisfaction Using Sharia Bank Products and Services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nova Ch Mamuaya

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Some studies show that religious belief does not take effect affecting consumer using sharia bank products and services. This research has implemented six dimensions of Othman and Owen which modified five dimensions of Parasuraman with adding compliance dimension. The six dimensions of Othman & Owen are known as CARTER (compliance, assurance, reliability, tangible, empathy, and responsiveness. The research purpose is to analyze compliance, assurance, reliability, tangible, empathy, and responsiveness effect on non-Muslim customer satisfaction on sharia bank products and services at Manado Sulawesi Utara partially or simultaneously. The data was gathered with questionnaire instruments of 70 respondents, measured with five Likert scale five dots. The research result shows compliance, assurance, reliability, tangible, empathy, and responsiveness has significant effect on customer satisfaction. Responsive has most strong effect and compliance is the weakest.

  1. How reliable are Functional Movement Screening scores? A systematic review of rater reliability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moran, Robert W; Schneiders, Anthony G; Major, Katherine M; Sullivan, S John

    2016-05-01

    Several physical assessment protocols to identify intrinsic risk factors for injury aetiology related to movement quality have been described. The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is a standardised, field-expedient test battery intended to assess movement quality and has been used clinically in preparticipation screening and in sports injury research. To critically appraise and summarise research investigating the reliability of scores obtained using the FMS battery. Systematic literature review. Systematic search of Google Scholar, Scopus (including ScienceDirect and PubMed), EBSCO (including Academic Search Complete, AMED, CINAHL, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition), MEDLINE and SPORTDiscus. Studies meeting eligibility criteria were assessed by 2 reviewers for risk of bias using the Quality Appraisal of Reliability Studies checklist. Overall quality of evidence was determined using van Tulder's levels of evidence approach. 12 studies were appraised. Overall, there was a 'moderate' level of evidence in favour of 'acceptable' (intraclass correlation coefficient ≥0.6) inter-rater and intra-rater reliability for composite scores derived from live scoring. For inter-rater reliability of composite scores derived from video recordings there was 'conflicting' evidence, and 'limited' evidence for intra-rater reliability. For inter-rater reliability based on live scoring of individual subtests there was 'moderate' evidence of 'acceptable' reliability (κ≥0.4) for 4 subtests (Deep Squat, Shoulder Mobility, Active Straight-leg Raise, Trunk Stability Push-up) and 'conflicting' evidence for the remaining 3 (Hurdle Step, In-line Lunge, Rotary Stability). This review found 'moderate' evidence that raters can achieve acceptable levels of inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of composite FMS scores when using live ratings. Overall, there were few high-quality studies, and the quality of several studies was impacted by poor study reporting particularly in relation to

  2. p21{sup WAF1/Cip1/Sdi1} knockout mice respond to doxorubicin with reduced cardiotoxicity

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Terrand, Jerome; Xu, Beibei; Morrissy, Steve; Dinh, Thai Nho [Department of Pharmacology,College of Medicine, University of Arizona, 1501 N. Campbell Ave, Tucson, AZ 85724 (United States); Williams, Stuart [Biomedical Engineering Program, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, 1501 N. Campbell Ave, Tucson, AZ 85724 (United States); Chen, Qin M., E-mail: qchen@email.arizona.edu [Department of Pharmacology,College of Medicine, University of Arizona, 1501 N. Campbell Ave, Tucson, AZ 85724 (United States)

    2011-11-15

    Doxorubicin (Dox) is an antineoplastic agent that can cause cardiomyopathy in humans and experimental animals. As an inducer of reactive oxygen species and a DNA damaging agent, Dox causes elevated expression of p21{sup WAF1/Cip1/Sdi1} (p21) gene. Elevated levels of p21 mRNA and p21 protein have been detected in the myocardium of mice following Dox treatment. With chronic treatment of Dox, wild type (WT) animals develop cardiomyopathy evidenced by elongated nuclei, mitochondrial swelling, myofilamental disarray, reduced cardiac output, reduced ejection fraction, reduced left ventricular contractility, and elevated expression of ANF gene. In contrast, p21 knockout (p21KO) mice did not show significant changes in the same parameters in response to Dox treatment. In an effort to understand the mechanism of the resistance against Dox induced cardiomyopathy, we measured levels of antioxidant enzymes and found that p21KO mice did not contain elevated basal or inducible levels of glutathione peroxidase and catalase. Measurements of 6 circulating cytokines indicated elevation of IL-6, IL-12, IFN{gamma} and TNF{alpha} in Dox treated WT mice but not p21KO mice. Dox induced elevation of IL-6 mRNA was detected in the myocardium of WT mice but not p21KO mice. While the mechanism of the resistance against Dox induced cardiomyopathy remains unclear, lack of inflammatory response may contribute to the observed cardiac protection in p21KO mice. -- Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Doxorubicin induces p21 elevation in the myocardium. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Doxorubicin causes dilated cardiomyopathy in wild type mice. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer p21 Knockout mice are resistant against doxorubicin induced cardiomyopathy. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Lack of inflammatory response correlates with the resistance in p21 knockout mice.

  3. Ultra-Reliable Communication in 5G Wireless Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Popovski, Petar

    2014-01-01

    —Wireless 5G systems will not only be “4G, but faster”. One of the novel features discussed in relation to 5G is Ultra-Reliable Communication (URC), an operation mode not present in today’s wireless systems. URC refers to provision of certain level of communication service almost 100 % of the time....... Example URC applications include reliable cloud connectivity, critical connections for industrial automation and reliable wireless coordination among vehicles. This paper puts forward a systematic view on URC in 5G wireless systems. It starts by analyzing the fundamental mechanisms that constitute......-term URC (URC-S). The second dimension is represented by the type of reliability impairment that can affect the communication reliability in a given scenario. The main objective of this paper is to create the context for defining and solving the new engineering problems posed by URC in 5G....

  4. AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING RELIABLE NUCLEAR FUEL SERVICE APPROACHES: ECONOMIC AND NON-PROLIFERATION MERITS OF NUCLEAR FUEL LEASING

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kreyling, Sean J.; Brothers, Alan J.; Short, Steven M.; Phillips, Jon R.; Weimar, Mark R.

    2010-01-01

    The goal of international nuclear policy since the dawn of nuclear power has been the peaceful expansion of nuclear energy while controlling the spread of enrichment and reprocessing technology. Numerous initiatives undertaken in the intervening decades to develop international agreements on providing nuclear fuel supply assurances, or reliable nuclear fuel services (RNFS) attempted to control the spread of sensitive nuclear materials and technology. In order to inform the international debate and the development of government policy, PNNL has been developing an analytical framework to holistically evaluate the economics and non-proliferation merits of alternative approaches to managing the nuclear fuel cycle (i.e., cradle-to-grave). This paper provides an overview of the analytical framework and discusses preliminary results of an economic assessment of one RNFS approach: full-service nuclear fuel leasing. The specific focus of this paper is the metrics under development to systematically evaluate the non-proliferation merits of fuel-cycle management alternatives. Also discussed is the utility of an integrated assessment of the economics and non-proliferation merits of nuclear fuel leasing.

  5. Upgrading elastomer seals for nuclear service

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wittich, K C; Wensel, R; LaRose, R; Kuran, S

    1995-06-01

    Pumps, valves and instruments in nuclear plants have historically contained whatever elastomer each equipment supplier traditionally used for corresponding non-nuclear service. The proliferation of elastomer compounds, and their sometimes uncertain reliability, is now being reduced by upgrading and standardizing on a handful of compounds that have each been verified to be high performers for their class of service conditions. The objective is to make cost-effective improvements in the reliability and integrity of equipment in Canadian-designed nuclear plants. The effort focuses on elastomer seals and includes: understanding sealing fundamentals, developing relevant data for superior compounds for each service, and improving quality assurance methods, including handling and inspection guidelines. In practice, discussions with plant personnel and review of plant records are the first step. Two severe-service examples are given where these needs have been met by the following progression of activities: inspecting and laboratory testing of seals removed from service, preliminary and qualification testing of improvements, introduction into service, and monitoring the upgraded seals during phase-in periods. Large gains in reliability and integrity have been demonstrated for simulated normal and accident service conditions of heat, radiation and other deteriorative influences. Significant savings in maintenance costs are also projected. (author). 2 refs., 6 figs.

  6. Upgrading elastomer seals for nuclear service

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wittich, K.C.; Wensel, R.; LaRose, R.; Kuran, S.

    1995-06-01

    Pumps, valves and instruments in nuclear plants have historically contained whatever elastomer each equipment supplier traditionally used for corresponding non-nuclear service. The proliferation of elastomer compounds, and their sometimes uncertain reliability, is now being reduced by upgrading and standardizing on a handful of compounds that have each been verified to be high performers for their class of service conditions. The objective is to make cost-effective improvements in the reliability and integrity of equipment in Canadian-designed nuclear plants. The effort focuses on elastomer seals and includes: understanding sealing fundamentals, developing relevant data for superior compounds for each service, and improving quality assurance methods, including handling and inspection guidelines. In practice, discussions with plant personnel and review of plant records are the first step. Two severe-service examples are given where these needs have been met by the following progression of activities: inspecting and laboratory testing of seals removed from service, preliminary and qualification testing of improvements, introduction into service, and monitoring the upgraded seals during phase-in periods. Large gains in reliability and integrity have been demonstrated for simulated normal and accident service conditions of heat, radiation and other deteriorative influences. Significant savings in maintenance costs are also projected. (author). 2 refs., 6 figs

  7. Upgrading elastomer seals for nuclear service

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wittich, K.C.; Wensel, R.; Larose, R.; Kuran, S.

    1998-01-01

    Pumps, valves and instruments in nuclear plants have historically contained whatever elastomer each equipment supplier traditionally used for corresponding non-nuclear service. The proliferation of elastomer compounds, and their sometimes uncertain reliability, is now being reduced by upgrading and standardizing on a handful of compounds that have each been verified to be high performers for their class of service conditions. The objective is to make cost-effective improvements in the reliability and integrity of equipment in Canadian-designed nuclear plants. The effort focuses on elastomer seals and includes: understanding sealing fundamentals, developing relevant data for superior compounds for each service, and improving quality assurance methods, including handling and inspection guidelines. In practice, discussion with plant personnel and review of plant records are the first step. Two severe-service examples are given where these needs have been met by the following progression of activities: inspecting and laboratory testing of seals removed from service, preliminary and qualification testing of improvements, introduction into service, and monitoring the upgraded seals during phase-in periods. Large gains in reliability and integrity have been demonstrated for simulated normal and accident service conditions of heat, radiation and other deteriorative influences. Significant savings in maintenance costs are also projected. (author)

  8. Preliminary Analysis of LORAN-C System Reliability for Civil Aviation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1981-09-01

    overviev of the analysis technique. Section 3 describes the computerized LORAN-C coverage model which is used extensively in the reliability analysis...Xth Plenary Assembly, Geneva, 1963, published by International Telecomunications Union. S. Braff, R., Computer program to calculate a Karkov Chain Reliability Model, unpublished york, MITRE Corporation. A-1 I.° , 44J Ili *Y 0E 00 ...F i8 1110 Prelim inary Analysis of Program Engineering & LORAN’C System ReliabilityMaintenance Service i ~Washington. D.C.

  9. Improved reliability, maintainability and safety through elastomer upgrading

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wensel, R.; Wittich, K.C.

    1995-01-01

    Equipment in nuclear plants has historically contained whatever elastomer each component supplier traditionally used for corresponding non-nuclear service. The resulting proliferation of elastomer compounds, many of which are far from optimal for the service conditions (e.g., pressure, temperature, radiation, etc.), has multiplied the costs to provide station reliability, maintainability and safety. Cost-effective improvements are being achieved in CANDU plants by upgrading and standardizing on a handful of high performing elastomer compounds. These upgraded materials offer significant gains in service life over the materials they replace (often by factors of 2 or more). This rationalization of elastomer compounds also facilitates the EQ process for safety-related equipment. Detailed test data on aging is currently being generated for these specific elastomers, encompassing the conditions and media (air, water, oil) common in CANDU service. Two key elements characterize this testing. First, each result is specific to the compound used in the test, and second, it is specific to the tested failure mode (e.g., compression set, extrusion, fracture, etc.). Having fewer, but more thoroughly tested compounds, avoids the penalty (associated with poorly characterized materials) of having to replace parts prematurely because of conservatism, while maintaining safe, reliable service. This paper provides an overview of this approach covering: the benefits of compound rationalization; and the how and why of establishing relevant failure criteria; appropriate quality assurance to maintain EQ; procurement, storage and handling guidelines; and monitoring and predicting in-service degradation. (author)

  10. 76 FR 68189 - Healthcare Technology Holdings, Inc.; Analysis of Proposed Agreement Containing Consent Orders To...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-11-03

    ... FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION [File No. 111 0097] Healthcare Technology Holdings, Inc.; Analysis of... Technology Holdings, Inc. (``Healthcare Technology''), subject to final approval, an Agreement Containing... Healthcare Technology's proposed acquisition of SDI Health LLC (``SDI'') from SDI Health Holdings LLC (``SDI...

  11. Transmission embedded cost allocation methodology with consideration of system reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hur, D.; Park, J.-K.; Yoo, C.-I.; Kim, B.H.

    2004-01-01

    In a vertically integrated utility industry, the cost of reliability, as a separate service, has not received much rigorous analysis. However, as a cornerstone of restructuring the industry, the transmission service pricing must change to be consistent with, and supportive of, competitive wholesale electricity markets. This paper focuses on the equitable allocation of transmission network embedded costs including the transmission reliability cost based on the contributions of each generator to branch flows under normal conditions as well as the line outage impact factor under a variety of load levels. A numerical example on a six-bus system is given to illustrate the applications of the proposed methodology. (author)

  12. Understanding health-related quality of life in caregivers of civilians and service members/veterans with traumatic brain injury: Establishing the reliability and validity of PROMIS Fatigue and Sleep Disturbance item banks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carlozzi, Noelle E; Ianni, Phillip A; Tulsky, David S; Brickell, Tracey A; Lange, Rael T; French, Louis M; Cella, David; Kallen, Michael A; Miner, Jennifer A; Kratz, Anna L

    2018-06-19

    To examine the reliability and validity of Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) measures of sleep disturbance and fatigue in TBI caregivers and to determine the severity of fatigue and sleep disturbance in these caregivers. Cross-sectional survey data collected through an online data capture platform. Four rehabilitation hospitals and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Caregivers (N=560) of civilians (n=344) and service member/veterans (n=216) with TBI. Not Applicable MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: PROMIS sleep and fatigue measures administered as both computerized adaptive tests (CATs) and 4-item short forms (SFs). For both samples, floor and ceiling effects for the PROMIS measures were low (internal consistency was very good (all alphas ≥0.80), and test-retest reliability was acceptable (all r≥0.70 except for the fatigue CAT in the service member/veteran sample r=0.63). Convergent validity was supported by moderate correlations between the PROMIS and related measures. Discriminant validity was supported by low correlations between PROMIS measures and measures of dissimilar constructs. PROMIS scores indicated significantly worse sleep and fatigue for those caring for someone with high levels versus low levels of impairment. Findings support the reliability and validity of the PROMIS CAT and SF measures of sleep disturbance and fatigue in caregivers of civilians and service members/veterans with TBI. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  13. Service Oriented Architecture for High Level Applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chu, P.

    2012-01-01

    Standalone high level applications often suffer from poor performance and reliability due to lengthy initialization, heavy computation and rapid graphical update. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is trying to separate the initialization and computation from applications and to distribute such work to various service providers. Heavy computation such as beam tracking will be done periodically on a dedicated server and data will be available to client applications at all time. Industrial standard service architecture can help to improve the performance, reliability and maintainability of the service. Robustness will also be improved by reducing the complexity of individual client applications.

  14. Versatile routing and services with BGP understanding and implementing BGP in SR-OS

    CERN Document Server

    Alcatel-Lucent

    2014-01-01

    Design a robust BGP control plane within a secure, scalable network for smoother services A robust Border Gateway Protocol setup is vital to ensuring reliable connectivity, an essential capability for any organization. The Internet has become a necessary, always-on service in homes and businesses, and BGP is the protocol that keeps communication flowing. But BGP also has become crucial to delivery of intra-domain business services. But the network is only as reliable as BGP, so service enablement depends upon making BGP more stable, reliable, and service-rich. Alcatel-Lucent Service Router Ope

  15. A physical review on power system reliability factors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Navid, Taghizadegan; Ahmad Reza, Zentabchi; Mohammad Ali, Tavakoli; Nader, Samsunchi; Mohammad Ali, Tavakoli

    2005-01-01

    Full text : Planning and design engineers and management must necessarily take into consideration the funds available, the requirements of regulatory agencies and other restrictions that may be imposed, as well as availability of equipment and supplies. A well-designed electrical power system strikes a reasonable between reliability and cost. A prime responsibility of power system operators is to operate their systems in such a way that will provide the maximum reliability of service possible with the facilities under their control

  16. The impact of reliability on the productivity of railroad companies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Abate, Megersa Abera; Lijesen, Mark; Pels, Eric

    2013-01-01

    This paper studies the relationship between reliability (proxied by punctuality) and productivity in passenger railroad services. Increasing reliability may lower productivity, as it requires inputs, that can’t be used to produce outputs. The relationship between reliability and productivity also...... runs through other factors, in which case a positive relationship may be expected. We apply data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist index approach to a panel of seven European railway systems to explore this relationship. Our empirical results suggest that increasing reliability does not harm...... the productivity of railway operations and aiming to improve both may be a feasible strategy. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved....

  17. Fiber Access Networks: Reliability Analysis and Swedish Broadband Market

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wosinska, Lena; Chen, Jiajia; Larsen, Claus Popp

    Fiber access network architectures such as active optical networks (AONs) and passive optical networks (PONs) have been developed to support the growing bandwidth demand. Whereas particularly Swedish operators prefer AON, this may not be the case for operators in other countries. The choice depends on a combination of technical requirements, practical constraints, business models, and cost. Due to the increasing importance of reliable access to the network services, connection availability is becoming one of the most crucial issues for access networks, which should be reflected in the network owner's architecture decision. In many cases protection against failures is realized by adding backup resources. However, there is a trade off between the cost of protection and the level of service reliability since improving reliability performance by duplication of network resources (and capital expenditures CAPEX) may be too expensive. In this paper we present the evolution of fiber access networks and compare reliability performance in relation to investment and management cost for some representative cases. We consider both standard and novel architectures for deployment in both sparsely and densely populated areas. While some recent works focused on PON protection schemes with reduced CAPEX the current and future effort should be put on minimizing the operational expenditures (OPEX) during the access network lifetime.

  18. Public-private collaboration in spatial data infrastructure: Overview of exposure, acceptance and sharing platform in Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Othman, Raha binti; Bakar, Muhamad Shahbani Abu; Mahamud, Ku Ruhana Ku

    2017-10-01

    While Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) has been established in Malaysia, the full potential can be further realized. To a large degree, geospatial industry users are hopeful that they can easily get access to the system and start utilizing the data. Some users expect SDI to provide them with readily available data without the necessary steps of requesting the data from the data providers as well as the steps for them to process and to prepare the data for their use. Some further argued that the usability of the system can be improved if appropriate combination between data sharing and focused application is found within the services. In order to address the current challenges and to enhance the effectiveness of the SDI in Malaysia, there is possibility of establishing a collaborative business venture between public and private entities; thus can help addressing the issues and expectations. In this paper, we discussed the possibility of collaboration between these two entities. Interviews with seven entities are held to collect information on the exposure, acceptance and sharing of platform. The outcomes indicate that though the growth of GIS technology and the high level of technology acceptance provides a solid based for utilizing the geospatial data, the absence of concrete policy on data sharing, a quality geospatial data, an authority for coordinator agency, leaves a vacuum for the successful implementation of the SDI initiative.

  19. Nondestructive examination (NDE) Reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doctor, S.R.; Good, M.S.; Heasler, P.G.; Hockey, R.L.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.; Vo, T.V.

    1992-07-01

    The Evaluation and Improvement of NDE reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactors (NDE Reliability) Program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory was established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to determine the reliability of current inservice inspection (ISI) techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this program include determining the reliability of ISI performed on the primary systems of commercial light-water reactors (LWRs); using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis to determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety; and evaluating reliability improvements that can be achieved with improved and advanced technology. A final objective is to formulate recommended revisions to the Regulatory and ASME Code requirements, based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties

  20. Regulating a Monopoly Offering Priority Service

    OpenAIRE

    Matsukawa, Isamu

    2006-01-01

    This paper investigates the effects of alternative forms of regulation on the market penetration and capacity, which are determined by a profit-maximizing monopolist providing priority service to consumers. For continuous priority service, a minimum reliability standard, price cap and rate of return regulation lead to larger capacity than in the absence of regulation. A minimum reliability standard reduces the market penetration while price cap and rate of return regulation increase it. T...

  1. Technology Advancements in the Next Generation of Domain Agnostic Spatial Data Infrastructures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Golodoniuc, Pavel; Rankine, Terry; Box, Paul; Atkinson, Rob; Kostanski, Laura

    2013-04-01

    models and controlled vocabularies with enhanced linkage capabilities between datasets. These components are realised with reference implementations through the Spatial Information Services Stack (SISS). The proposed Linked Data approach to managing and using feature level identifiers to link information systems to SDI information resources, being developed through the Spatial Identifier Reference Framework (SIRF) for Social Protection in Indonesia Project. It uses Unique Resource Identifiers (URIs) to access feature information using traditional SDI data access interfaces. These identifiers are used to explicitly reference individual features. This is analogous to a citation database, enabling explicit reference to identified real world features within a particular dataset. Furthermore, these identifiers can be conceptualised as 'spatial bookmarks' and used to link multiple representations of the same feature in different layers of a traditional SDI, as well as linking spatial features to statistical information held in systems beyond SDI boundaries. The technology development effort has brought together over 20 participants including CSIRO, Geoscience Australia, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Australian universities, and Australian government agencies as well as international initiatives, which have made significant contributions to the development of the semantic information management components of the SISS. The authors propose that through the use of the methodologies described in this paper, SDI can realise its potential as a spatial enablement mechanism that supports linking of multiple information systems, rather than remaining as a platform to deliver collections of spatial representations.

  2. Reliable Radio Access for Massive Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communication

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madueño, Germán Corrales

    the service requirements can range from massive number of devices to ultra-reliable. This PhD thesis focuses on novel mechanisms to meet these requirements in a variety of wireless systems, from well-established technologies such as cellular networks, to emerging technologies like IEEE 802.11ah. Today...... an overwhelming 89% of the deployed M2M modules are GPRS-based. This motivates us to investigate the potential of GPRS as a dedicated M2M network. We show that by introducing minimal modifications to GPRS operation, a large number of devices can be reliably supported. Surprisingly, even though LTE is seen...... as the preferable solution for M2M, no mechanisms are in place to guarantee reliable M2M access. Contrary to mainstream solutions that focus on preventing overload, we introduce mechanisms to provide reliable M2M service. We also investigate what cellular networks can do about upcoming smart metering traffic...

  3. Reliability assessment of aging structures subjected to gradual and shock deteriorations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Cao; Zhang, Hao; Li, Quanwang

    2017-01-01

    Civil structures and infrastructure facilities are susceptible to deterioration posed by the effects of natural hazards and aggressive environmental conditions. These factors may increase the risk of service interruption of infrastructures, and should be taken into account when assessing the structural reliability during an infrastructure's service life. Modeling the resistance deterioration process reasonably is the basis for structural reliability analysis. In this paper, a novel model is developed for describing the deterioration of aging structures. The deterioration is a combination of two stochastic processes: the gradual deterioration posed by environmental effects and the shock deterioration caused by severe load attacks. The dependency of the deterioration magnitude on the load intensity is considered. The Gaussian copula function is employed to help construct the joint distribution of correlated random variables. Semi-analytical methods are developed to assess the structural failure time and the number of significant load events (shocks) to failure. Illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model in structural reliability analysis. Parametric studies are performed to investigate the role of deterioration-load correlation in structural reliability. - Highlights: • A new resistance deterioration model for aging structures is proposed. • Time-dependent reliability analysis methods incorporating the proposed deterioration model are developed. • Parametric studies are performed to investigate the role of deterioration-load correlation in structural reliability.

  4. Worldwide Report, Arms Control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1986-02-04

    8217Unpredictable Consequences’ of SDI (Moscow PRAVDA, 7 Dec 85) 22 Moscow TV on ASTEC Meeting, Military Monopolies, SDI (Tomas Kolesnichenko; Moscow...planet. /8309 CSO: 5200/1228 22 JPRS-TAO86*014 4 February 1986 SDI AND SPACE ARMS MOSCOW TV ON ASTEC MEETING, MILITARY MONOPOLIES, SDI

  5. GeoServer: il server geospaziale Open Source novità della nuova versione 2.3.0

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simone Giannecchini

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available GeoServer è un server geospaziale Open Source sviluppato con tecnologia Java Enterprise per la gestione e l’editing di dati geospaziali secondo gli standard OGC e ISO Technical Committee 211. Esso fornisce le funzionalità di base per creareinfrastrutture spaziali di dati (SDI ed è progettato per essere interoperabile potendo pubblicare dati provenienti da ogni tipo di fonte spaziale utilizzando standard aperti.Open Source GeoSpatial server developed with Java Enterprise technology for managing, sharing and editing geospatial data according to the OGC and ISO TC 211 standards. GeoServer provides the basic functionalities to create spatial data infrastructures (SDI.GeoServer is designed for interoperability, it publishes data from any major spatial data source using open standards: it is the reference implementation of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC Web Feature Service (WFS and Web Coverage Service (WCS standards, as well as a highperformance certified compliant Web Map Service (WMS. GeoServer forms a core component of the Geospatial Web.

  6. Study of redundant Models in reliability prediction of HXMT's HES

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Jinming; Liu Congzhan; Zhang Zhi; Ji Jianfeng

    2010-01-01

    Two redundant equipment structures of HXMT's HES are proposed firstly, the block backup and dual system cold-redundancy. Then prediction of the reliability is made by using parts count method. Research of comparison and analysis is also performed on the two proposals. A conclusion is drawn that a higher reliability and longer service life could be offered by taking a redundant equipment structure of block backup. (authors)

  7. Information Impact Vol. 6(3) Dec 2015

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    2015-12-10

    Dec 10, 2015 ... Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) Services in a Nigerian University: A. Report. 75. Information ... that Libraries that are ICT driven have continued to provide ... take advantage of technology in providing reference and .... 6. Teaching Profile ... history, Varieties of English,. English. Syntax/Semantics,.

  8. A Retrospective and Prospective View of Information Retrieval and Artificial Intelligence in the 21st Century.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garfield, Eugene

    2001-01-01

    Traces the development of information retrieval/services and suggests that the creation of large digital libraries seems inevitable. Examines possibilities for increasing electronic access and the role of artificial intelligence. Highlights include: searching full text; sending full texts; selective dissemination of information (SDI) profiling and…

  9. Development and Psychometric Testing of a Novel Food Service Satisfaction Questionnaire for Food Service Staff of Aged Care Homes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, M; Hamilton, J; Scupham, R; Matwiejczyk, L; Prichard, I; Farrer, O; Yaxley, A

    2018-01-01

    Food service staff are integral to delivery of quality food in aged care homes yet measurement of their satisfaction is unable to be performed due to an absence of a valid and reliable questionnaire. The aim of this study was to develop and perform psychometric testing for a new Food Service Satisfaction Questionnaire developed in Australia specifically for use by food service staff working in residential aged care homes (Flinders FSSQFSAC). A mixed methods design utilizing both a qualitative (in-depth interviews, focus groups) and a quantitative approach (cross sectional survey) was used. Content validity was determined from focus groups and interviews with food service staff currently working in aged care homes, related questionnaires from the literature and consultation with an expert panel. The questionnaire was tested for construct validity and internal consistency using data from food service staff currently working in aged care homes that responded to an electronic invitation circulated to Australian aged care homes using a national database of email addresses. Construct validity was tested via principle components analysis and internal consistency through Cronbach's alpha. Temporal stability of the questionnaire was determined from food service staff undertaking the Flinders FSSQFSAC on two occasions, two weeks apart, and analysed using Pearson's correlations. Content validity for the Flinders FSSQFSAC was established from a panel of experts and stakeholders. Principle components analysis revealed food service staff satisfaction was represented by 61-items divided into eight domains: job satisfaction (α=0.832), food quality (α=0.871), staff training (α=0.922), consultation (α=0.840), eating environment (α=0.777), reliability (α=0.695), family expectations (α=0.781) and resident relationships (α=0.429), establishing construct validity in all domains, and internal consistency in all (α>0.5) except for "resident relationships" (α=0.429). Test

  10. Development of the Centralized Reliability Data Organization (CREDO)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haas, P.M.; Bott, T.F.; Knee, H.E.; Manning, J.J.; Hudson, S.D.; Greene, N.M.; Woodside, M.A.

    1979-01-01

    CREDO has been established to meet the needs of the US Breeder Reactor Program and the advanced reactor community for a centralized source of accurate reliability/maintainability data and data-related services. The center provides for a comprehensive program of collection, evaluation, and dissemination of data and for necessary user services. A steering committee of nationally recognized experts has been formed to guide CREDO development and operation. Historic data have been collected, analyzed, and published. Routine, continuous data collection and processing has been initiated at US sites. Interfaces with existing data bases have been established. Special user services are under development

  11. Multiobjective Reliable Cloud Storage with Its Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiyang Liu

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Information abounds in all fields of the real life, which is often recorded as digital data in computer systems and treated as a kind of increasingly important resource. Its increasing volume growth causes great difficulties in both storage and analysis. The massive data storage in cloud environments has significant impacts on the quality of service (QoS of the systems, which is becoming an increasingly challenging problem. In this paper, we propose a multiobjective optimization model for the reliable data storage in clouds through considering both cost and reliability of the storage service simultaneously. In the proposed model, the total cost is analyzed to be composed of storage space occupation cost, data migration cost, and communication cost. According to the analysis of the storage process, the transmission reliability, equipment stability, and software reliability are taken into account in the storage reliability evaluation. To solve the proposed multiobjective model, a Constrained Multiobjective Particle Swarm Optimization (CMPSO algorithm is designed. At last, experiments are designed to validate the proposed model and its solution PSO algorithm. In the experiments, the proposed model is tested in cooperation with 3 storage strategies. Experimental results show that the proposed model is positive and effective. The experimental results also demonstrate that the proposed model can perform much better in alliance with proper file splitting methods.

  12. The computer vision in the service of safety and reliability in steam generators inspection services

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pineiro Fernandez, P.; Garcia Bueno, A.; Cabrera Jordan, E.

    2012-01-01

    The actual computational vision has matured very quickly in the last ten years by facilitating new developments in various areas of nuclear application allowing to automate and simplify processes and tasks, instead or in collaboration with the people and equipment efficiently. The current computer vision (more appropriate than the artificial vision concept) provides great possibilities of also improving in terms of the reliability and safety of NPPS inspection systems.

  13. reliability analysis of a two span floor designed according

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    user

    deterministic approach, considering both ultimate and serviceability limit states. Reliability analysis of the floor ... loading, strength and stiffness parameters, dimensions .... to show that there is a direct relation between the failure probability (Pf) ...

  14. Wind power plant system services

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Basit, Abdul; Altin, Müfit

    Traditionally, conventional power plants have the task to support the power system, by supplying power balancing services. These services are required by the power system operators in order to secure a safe and reliable operation of the power system. However, as in the future the wind power...... is going more and more to replace conventional power plants, the sources of conventional reserve available to the system will be reduced and fewer conventional plants will be available on-line to share the regulation burden. The reliable operation of highly wind power integrated power system might...... then beat risk unless the wind power plants (WPPs) are able to support and participate in power balancing services. The objective of this PhD project is to develop and analyse control strategies which can increase the WPPs capability to provide system services, such as active power balancing control...

  15. Are consumer surveys valuable as a service improvement tool in health services? A critical appraisal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patwardhan, Anjali; Patwardhan, Prakash

    2009-01-01

    In the recent climate of consumerism and consumer focused care, health and social care needs to be more responsive than ever before. Consumer needs and preferences can be elicited with accepted validity and reliability only by strict methodological control, customerisation of the questionnaire and skilled interpretation. To construct, conduct, interpret and implement improved service provision, requires a trained work force and infrastructure. This article aims to appraise various aspects of consumer surveys and to assess their value as effective service improvement tools. The customer is the sole reason organisations exist. Consumer surveys are used worldwide as service and quality of care improvement tools by all types of service providers including health service providers. The article critically appraises the value of consumer surveys as service improvement tools in health services tool and its future applications. No one type of survey is the best or ideal. The key is the selection of the correct survey methodology, unique and customised for the particular type/aspect of care being evaluated. The method used should reflect the importance of the information required. Methodological rigor is essential for the effectiveness of consumer surveys as service improvement tools. Unfortunately so far there is no universal consensus on superiority of one particular methodology over another or any benefit of one specific methodology in a given situation. More training and some dedicated resource allocation is required to develop consumer surveys. More research is needed to develop specific survey methodology and evaluation techniques for improved validity and reliability of the surveys as service improvement tools. Measurement of consumer preferences/priorities, evaluation of services and key performance scores, is not easy. Consumer surveys seem impressive tools as they provide the customer a voice for change or modification. However, from a scientific point

  16. Assessment of the Reliability Profiles for Concrete Bridges

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thoft-Christensen, Palle

    In this paper calculation of reliability profiles is discussed. ULS as well as SLS limit states are formulated. Corrosion due to chloride penetration is the considered deterioration mechanism. Three models for corrosion are formulated. A definition of service lifetime for concrete bridges...

  17. Reliability In A White Rabbit Network

    CERN Document Server

    Lipiński, M; Wlostowski, T; Prados, C

    2011-01-01

    White Rabbit (WR) is a time-deterministic, low-latency Ethernet-based network which enables transparent, subns accuracy timing distribution. It is being developed to replace the General Machine Timing (GMT) system currently used at CERN and will become the foundation for the control system of the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at GSI. High reliability is an important issue inWR’s design, since unavailability of the accelerator’s control system will directly translate into expensive downtime of the machine. A typical WR network is required to lose not more than a single message per year. Due toWR’s complexity, the translation of this real-world-requirement into a reliability-requirement constitutes an interesting issue on its own – a WR network is considered functional only if it provides all its services to all its clients at any time. This paper defines reliability in WR and describes how it was addressed by dividing it into sub-domains: deterministic packet delivery, data resilience...

  18. Linear SVM-Based Android Malware Detection for Reliable IoT Services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hyo-Sik Ham

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Current many Internet of Things (IoT services are monitored and controlled through smartphone applications. By combining IoT with smartphones, many convenient IoT services have been provided to users. However, there are adverse underlying effects in such services including invasion of privacy and information leakage. In most cases, mobile devices have become cluttered with important personal user information as various services and contents are provided through them. Accordingly, attackers are expanding the scope of their attacks beyond the existing PC and Internet environment into mobile devices. In this paper, we apply a linear support vector machine (SVM to detect Android malware and compare the malware detection performance of SVM with that of other machine learning classifiers. Through experimental validation, we show that the SVM outperforms other machine learning classifiers.

  19. Robo advisor, your reliable partner? Building a trustworthy digital investment management service

    OpenAIRE

    Salo, Anni

    2017-01-01

    Investment management services have strongly relied on traditional face-to-face business models, causing the services being highly expensive and therefore available only for the wealthiest population. Recently a new digital business model, robo advisors, entered the market and are predicted to democratise the entire industry by bringing investment management services available to a wider public than ever before. Although the business models in financial services are changing, customer tr...

  20. Profile updating for information systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abrantes, J.F.

    1983-02-01

    Profiles updating methods were analysed. A method suitable to the characteristics of the system used in the research (SDI/CIN/CNEN) that uses as the selection criterio the threshold and weights criterion, was determined. Relevance weighting theory was described and experiments to verify precision were carried out. The improvements obtained were good nevertheless more significant tests are required to attain more reliable results. (Author) [pt

  1. Decentralized Fault Management for Service Dependability in Ubiquitous Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grønbæk, Lars Jesper

    2010-01-01

    ) unobservable and incomplete network state information, ii) unreliable observations, and iii) dynamic environments calling for adaptation in the fault management process. In the study, focus is on potential gains in the interaction between the components of Observation, Diagnosis, Decision and Remediation...... insights on the impact of unavoidable diagnosis imperfections on service reliability. Also, it is studied to what extent good remediation decisions may be applied to mitigate such imperfections. For this purpose a light-weight decision policy evaluation model is proposed and verified in a system level...... simulation model. Some of the main findings are: i) certain imperfection trade-off settings of the Diagnosis component lead to worse end-user service reliability than if no fault management is conducted, ii) using end-user service state information in the decision process can help improve service reliability...

  2. Development of Resource Sharing Networks. Study No. 6. Towards an Australian Industry Information Newwork.

    Science.gov (United States)

    National Library of Australia, Canberra.

    This report describes recent progress towards the provision of SDI services, current awareness bulletins, and retrospective search facilities to the potential users in Australian industry. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of periodical literature, reports, and patent literature. A list of information bulletins available from the…

  3. Reliability engineering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Chi Woo; Kim, Sun Jin; Lee, Seung Woo; Jeong, Sang Yeong

    1993-08-01

    This book start what is reliability? such as origin of reliability problems, definition of reliability and reliability and use of reliability. It also deals with probability and calculation of reliability, reliability function and failure rate, probability distribution of reliability, assumption of MTBF, process of probability distribution, down time, maintainability and availability, break down maintenance and preventive maintenance design of reliability, design of reliability for prediction and statistics, reliability test, reliability data and design and management of reliability.

  4. Techniques for increasing the reliability of accelerator control system electronics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Utterback, J.

    1993-09-01

    As the physical size of modern accelerators becomes larger and larger, the number of required control system circuit boards increases, and the probability of one of those circuit boards failing while in service also increases. In order to do physics, the experimenters need the accelerator to provide beam reliably with as little down time as possible. With the advent of colliding beams physics, reliability becomes even more important due to the fact that a control system failure can cause the loss of painstakingly produced antiprotons. These facts prove the importance of keeping reliability in mind when designing and maintaining accelerator control system electronics

  5. Reliability estimation for multiunit nuclear and fossil-fired industrial energy systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sullivan, W.G.; Wilson, J.V.; Klepper, O.H.

    1977-01-01

    As petroleum-based fuels grow increasingly scarce and costly, nuclear energy may become an important alternative source of industrial energy. Initial applications would most likely include a mix of fossil-fired and nuclear sources of process energy. A means for determining the overall reliability of these mixed systems is a fundamental aspect of demonstrating their feasibility to potential industrial users. Reliability data from nuclear and fossil-fired plants are presented, and several methods of applying these data for calculating the reliability of reasonably complex industrial energy supply systems are given. Reliability estimates made under a number of simplifying assumptions indicate that multiple nuclear units or a combination of nuclear and fossil-fired plants could provide adequate reliability to meet industrial requirements for continuity of service

  6. The relative importance of service dimensions in a healthcare setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramsaran-Fowdar, Rooma Roshnee

    2008-01-01

    The paper aims to focus on an augmented SERVQUAL instrument that was used to measure private patients' service expectations and perceptions. A questionnaire was administered to 750 and 34 per cent responded. A new service quality instrument called PRIVHEALTHQUAL emerged from the study, based on factor and reliability analysis. The "reliability and fair and equitable treatment" factor was found to be the most important healthcare service quality dimension. Adds to the existing body of research on service quality and demonstrates that SERVQUAL is not a generic service quality measure for all industries.

  7. A new spiral dental implant: a tool for oral rehabilitation of difficult cases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balan, I; Calcaterra, R; Lauritano, D; Grecchi, E; Carinci, F

    2017-01-01

    Spiral dental implant (SDI) is an implant with a conical internal helix that confers the characteristic of self-drilling, self-tapping, and self-bone condensing. These proprieties offer better control during insertion of SDI giving a high primary stabilization, even in poor quality bone. A shorter diameter of SDI results in reduced drilling during insertion and consequently less trauma and minimal bone loss. To address the research purpose, the investigators designed a retrospective cohort study. The study population was composed of 25 patients, 11 males and 14 females that have been treated by Dr. Balan with 187 SDI positioned in mandible and into maxilla bone. The implants were placed during the years 2013 to 2014 in Dr. Balan clinic. All patients underwent the same surgical protocol. Several variables are investigated: demographic (age and gender), anatomic (upper/lower jaws and tooth site), implant (length and diameter and type) variables, edentulism (partial or total), and comorbid status of health (i.e.: hypothyroidism, parodontitis, hypertension, diabetes, presence of cancer, heart disease, hepatitis and rheumatologic disease). Pearson Chi-Square test was used to investigate variables and p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Statistically it has been shown that females have a higher possibility of unsuccessful respect of male, with a "p value" of 0.014. Another important impact factor for success of implant insertion has been represented by concomitants pathologies: cancer represents the most negative high factor risk with a percentage of unsuccessful of 50%, followed by heart disease (15%), and diabetes (3.7%). SDIs are reliable tools for difficult cases of oral rehabilitation. They have a higher success and survival rate, which means stable results over time. No differences were detected among SDI lengths, implant/crown ratio. In addition, the insertion of SDIs in banked bone can be performed without adverse effects. Finally, flapless and

  8. Service reliability assessment using failure mode and effect analysis ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    user

    Statistical Process Control Teng and Ho (1996) .... are still remaining left on modelling the interaction between impact of internal service failure and ..... Design error proofing: development of automated error-proofing information systems, Proceedings of.

  9. Allied health clinicians using translational research in action to develop a reliable stroke audit tool.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abery, Philip; Kuys, Suzanne; Lynch, Mary; Low Choy, Nancy

    2018-05-23

    To design and establish reliability of a local stroke audit tool by engaging allied health clinicians within a privately funded hospital. Design: Two-stage study involving a modified Delphi process to inform stroke audit tool development and inter-tester reliability. Allied health clinicians. A modified Delphi process to select stroke guideline recommendations for inclusion in the audit tool. Reliability study: 1 allied health representative from each discipline audited 10 clinical records with sequential admissions to acute and rehabilitation services. Recommendations were admitted to the audit tool when 70% agreement was reached, with 50% set as the reserve agreement. Inter-tester reliability was determined using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) across 10 clinical records. Twenty-two participants (92% female, 50% physiotherapists, 17% occupational therapists) completed the modified Delphi process. Across 6 voting rounds, 8 recommendations reached 70% agreement and 2 reached 50% agreement. Two recommendations (nutrition/hydration; goal setting) were added to ensure representation for all disciplines. Substantial consistency across raters was established for the audit tool applied in acute stroke (ICC .71; range .48 to .90) and rehabilitation (ICC.78; range .60 to .93) services. Allied health clinicians within a privately funded hospital generally agreed in an audit process to develop a reliable stroke audit tool. Allied health clinicians agreed on stroke guideline recommendations to inform a stroke audit tool. The stroke audit tool demonstrated substantial consistency supporting future use for service development. This process, which engages local clinicians, could be adopted by other facilities to design reliable audit tools to identify local service gaps to inform changes to clinical practice. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  10. Coexistence of enhanced mobile broadband communications and ultra-reliable low-latency communications in mobile front-haul

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ying, Kai; Kowalski, John M.; Nogami, Toshizo; Yin, Zhanping; Sheng, Jia

    2018-01-01

    5G systems are supposed to support coexistence of multiple services such as ultra reliable low latency communications (URLLC) and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) communications. The target of eMBB communications is to meet the high-throughput requirement while URLLC are used for some high priority services. Due to the sporadic nature and low latency requirement, URLLC transmission may pre-empt the resource of eMBB transmission. Our work is to analyze the URLLC impact on eMBB transmission in mobile front-haul. Then, some solutions are proposed to guarantee the reliability/latency requirements for URLLC services and minimize the impact to eMBB services at the same time.

  11. Automated Energy Distribution and Reliability System Status Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Buche, D. L.; Perry, S.

    2007-10-01

    This report describes Northern Indiana Public Service Co. project efforts to develop an automated energy distribution and reliability system. The purpose of this project was to implement a database-driven GIS solution that would manage all of the company's gas, electric, and landbase objects.

  12. Improvement of AC motor reliability from technique standardization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muniz, P.R.; Faria, M.D.R.; Mendes, M.P.; Silva, J.N.; Dos Santos, J.D.

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to explain the increase of reliability of motors serviced in the Electrical Maintenance Shop of Companhia Siderurgica de Tubarao by standardization of the technique based on Brazilian and International Standards, manufacturer's recommendations and the experience of the maintenance staff. (author)

  13. A k-out-of-n reliability system with an unreliable server and phase type repairs and services: the (N,T policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Srinivas R. Chakravarthy

    2001-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we study a k-out-of-n reliability system in which a single unreliable server maintains n identical components. The reliability system is studied under the (N,T policy. An idle server takes a vacation for a random amount of time T and then attends to any failed component waiting in line upon completion of the vacation. The vacationing server is recalled instantaneously upon the failure of the Nth component. The failure times of the components are assumed to follow an exponential distribution. The server is subject to failure with failure times exponentially distributed. Repair times of the component, fixing times of the server, and vacationing times of the server are assumed to be of phase type. Using matrix-analytic methods we perform steady state analysis of this model. Time spent by a failed component in service, total time in the repair facility, vacation time of the server, non-vacation time of the server, and time until failure of the system are all shown to be of phase type. Several performance measures are evaluated. Illustrative numerical examples are presented.

  14. Tests of the Validity and Reliability of the Community Service Attitudes Scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perry, Brian; Osbaldiston, Richard; Henning, Jaime

    2014-01-01

    Community service is deeply rooted in American culture. There have been repeated calls for the necessity of evaluating these programs, especially for service-learning. The purpose of this research was to validate an easy-to-use scale that measures 10 components of students' attitudes toward community service. The sample was drawn from two…

  15. Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions Grid of the Future White Paper on Review of Recent Reliability Issues and Systems Events

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hauer, John F.; Dagle, Jeffery E.

    1999-12-01

    This report is one of six reports developed under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program in Power System Integration and Reliability (PSIR). The objective of this report is to review, analyze, and evaluate critical reliability issues demonstrated by recent disturbance events in the North America power system. Eleven major disturbances are examined, most occurring in this decade. The strategic challenge is that the pattern of technical need has persisted for a long period of time. For more than a decade, anticipation of market deregulation has been a major disincentive to new investments in system capacity. It has also inspired reduced maintenance of existing assets. A massive infusion of better technology is emerging as the final option to continue reliable electrical services. If an investment in better technology will not be made in a timely manner, then North America should plan its adjustments to a very different level of electrical service. It is apparent that technical operations staff among the utilities can be very effective at marshaling their forces in the immediate aftermath of a system emergency, and that serious disturbances often lead to improved mechanisms for coordinated operation. It is not at all apparent that such efforts can be sustained through voluntary reliability organizations in which utility personnel external to those organizations do most of the technical work. The eastern interconnection shows several situations in which much of the technical support has migrated from the utilities to the Independent System Operator (ISO), and the ISO staffs or shares staff with the regional reliability council. This process may be a natural and very positive consequence of utility restructuring. If so, the process should be expedited in regions where it is less advanced.

  16. Understanding Health-related Quality of Life in Caregivers of Civilians and Service Members/Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury: Establishing the Reliability and Validity of PROMIS Mental Health Measures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carlozzi, Noelle E; Hanks, Robin; Lange, Rael T; Brickell D Psych, Tracey A; Ianni, Phillip A; Miner, Jennifer A; French Psy D, Louis M; Kallen, Michael A; Sander, Angelle M

    2018-06-19

    To provide important reliability and validity data to support the use of the PROMIS Mental Health measures in caregivers of civilians or service members/veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Patient-reported outcomes surveys administered through an electronic data collection platform. Three TBI Model Systems rehabilitation hospitals, an academic medical center, and a military medical treatment facility. 560 caregivers of individuals with a documented TBI (344 civilians and 216 military) INTERVENTION: Not Applicable MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: PROMIS Anxiety, Depression, and Anger Item Banks RESULTS: Internal consistency for all of the PROMIS Mental Health item banks was very good (all α > .86) and three-week test retest reliability was good to adequate (ranged from .65 to .85). Convergent validity and discriminant validity of the PROMIS measures was also supported. Caregivers of individuals that were low functioning had worse emotional HRQOL (as measured by the three PROMIS measures) than caregivers of high functioning individuals, supporting known groups validity. Finally, levels of distress, as measured by the PROMIS measures, were elevated for those caring for low-functioning individuals in both samples (rates ranged from 26.2% to 43.6% for caregivers of low-functioning individuals). Results support the reliability and validity of the PROMIS Anxiety, Depression, and Anger item banks in caregivers of civilians and service members/veterans with TBI. Ultimately, these measures can be used to provide a standardized assessment of HRQOL as it relates to mental health in these caregivers. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  17. evaluation of willingness to pay for reliable and sustainable ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Osondu

    evaluate the WTP for reliable and sustainable service delivery. The findings of the study .... In doing this, the revenue base and cost recovery will as well be enhanced in ..... delays at traffic warden controlled urban intersections: case study of ...

  18. Fuel element services

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marta, H.; Alvarez, P.; Jimenez, J.

    2006-01-01

    Refuelling outages comprise a number of maintenance tasks scheduled long in advance to assure a reliable operation throughout the next cycle and, in the long run, a safer and more efficient plant. Most of these tasks are routine service of mechanical and electrical system and likewise fuel an be considered a critical component as to handling, inspection, cleaning and repair. ENUSA-ENWESA AIE has been working in this area since 1995 growing from fuel repair to a more integrated service that includes new and spent fuel handling, inserts, failed fuel rod detection systems, ultrasonic fuel cleaning, fuel repair and a comprehensive array of inspection and tests related to the reliability of the mechanical components in the fuel assembly, all this, performed in compliance with quality, safety, health physics and any other nuclear standard. (Author)

  19. Studying customer loyalty at Daewoo express bus service, Pakistan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Usman Yousaf

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Background: Meeting service quality standards and striving for loyalty are two critical areas which have until now been overlooked by both the passenger transport industry and academia in Pakistan therefore the study sheds useful light on an issue hitherto untouched. Therefore increased sample size will help in increasing generalizability of study. Methods: This paper is designed to study the level of loyalty at Daewoo Express Bus Service in Sargodha by measuring customer satisfaction. Researchers used a small sample of only 96 respondents (passengers and only studies customer's behavior in the service quality of Daewoo Express Bus Service however it may differ in other passenger transport services. Results and conclusions: This paper reveals that there is a positive and significant relationship between loyalty (dependant variable and price perceptions, reliability, retrieving and smoothing (independent variables. However, the study found that reliability of services is the most important dimension among other independent variables (price perceptions, smoothing, reliability, retrieving effecting customers loyalty at Daewoo Express. Paper under consideration would surely assist Daewoo`s management team to take care of the loopholes existing in the current service level and likely threats which Daewoo might face.

  20. Usage of Wireless Sensor Networks in a service based spatial data infrastructure for Landslide Monitoring and Early Warning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arnhardt, C.; Fernandez-Steeger, T. M.; Walter, K.; Kallash, A.; Niemeyer, F.; Azzam, R.; Bill, R.

    2007-12-01

    The joint project Sensor based Landslide Early Warning System (SLEWS) aims at a systematic development of a prototyping alarm- and early warning system for the detection of mass movements by application of an ad hoc wireless sensor network (WSN). Next to the development of suitable sensor setups, sensor fusion and network fusion are applied to enhance data quality and reduce false alarm rates. Of special interest is the data retrieval, processing and visualization in GI-Systems. Therefore a suitable serviced based Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) will be developed with respect to existing and upcoming Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards.The application of WSN provides a cheap and easy to set up solution for special monitoring and data gathering in large areas. Measurement data from different low-cost transducers for deformation observation (acceleration, displacement, tilting) is collected by distributed sensor nodes (motes), which interact separately and connect each other in a self-organizing manner. Data are collected and aggregated at the beacon (transmission station) and further operations like data pre-processing and compression can be performed. The WSN concept provides next to energy efficiency, miniaturization, real-time monitoring and remote operation, but also new monitoring strategies like sensor and network fusion. Since not only single sensors can be integrated at single motes either cross-validation or redundant sensor setups are possible to enhance data quality. The planned monitoring and information system will include a mobile infrastructure (information technologies and communication components) as well as methods and models to estimate surface deformation parameters (positioning systems). The measurements result in heterogeneous observation sets that have to be integrated in a common adjustment and filtering approach. Reliable real-time information will be obtained using a range of sensor input and algorithms, from which early warnings

  1. Enhanced Reliability of Photovoltaic Systems with Energy Storage and Controls

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Manz, D.; Schelenz, O.; Chandra, R.; Bose, S.; de Rooij, M.; Bebic, J.

    2008-02-01

    This report summarizes efforts to reconfigure loads during outages to allow individual customers the opportunity to enhance the reliability of their electric service through the management of their loads, photovoltaics, and energy storage devices.

  2. The detection of problem analytes in a single proficiency test challenge in the absence of the Health Care Financing Administration rule violations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cembrowski, G S; Hackney, J R; Carey, N

    1993-04-01

    The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act of 1988 (CLIA 88) has dramatically changed proficiency testing (PT) practices having mandated (1) satisfactory PT for certain analytes as a condition of laboratory operation, (2) fixed PT limits for many of these "regulated" analytes, and (3) an increased number of PT specimens (n = 5) for each testing cycle. For many of these analytes, the fixed limits are much broader than the previously employed Standard Deviation Index (SDI) criteria. Paradoxically, there may be less incentive to identify and evaluate analytically significant outliers to improve the analytical process. Previously described "control rules" to evaluate these PT results are unworkable as they consider only two or three results. We used Monte Carlo simulations of Kodak Ektachem analyzers participating in PT to determine optimal control rules for the identification of PT results that are inconsistent with those from other laboratories using the same methods. The analysis of three representative analytes, potassium, creatine kinase, and iron was simulated with varying intrainstrument and interinstrument standard deviations (si and sg, respectively) obtained from the College of American Pathologists (Northfield, Ill) Quality Assurance Services data and Proficiency Test data, respectively. Analytical errors were simulated in each of the analytes and evaluated in terms of multiples of the interlaboratory SDI. Simple control rules for detecting systematic and random error were evaluated with power function graphs, graphs of probability of error detected vs magnitude of error. Based on the simulation results, we recommend screening all analytes for the occurrence of two or more observations exceeding the same +/- 1 SDI limit. For any analyte satisfying this condition, the mean of the observations should be calculated. For analytes with sg/si ratios between 1.0 and 1.5, a significant systematic error is signaled by the mean exceeding 1.0 SDI. Significant random error

  3. Load As A Reliability Resource in the Restructured Electricity Market

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kueck, J.D.

    2002-06-10

    Recent electricity price spikes are painful reminders of the value that meaningful demand-side responses could bring to the restructuring US electricity system. Review of the aggregate offers made by suppliers confirms that even a modest increase in demand elasticity could dramatically reduce these extremes in price volatility. There is a strong need for dramatically increased customer participation in these markets to enhance system reliability and reduce price volatility. Indeed, allowing customers to manage their loads in response to system conditions might be thought of as the ultimate reliability resource. Most would agree that meaningful demand-side responses to price are the hallmark of a well-functioning competitive market [1]. Yet, in today's markets for electricity, little or no such response is evident. The reason is simple: customers currently do not experience directly the time-varying costs of their consumption decisions. Consequently, they have no incentive to modify these decisions in ways that might enhance system reliability or improve the efficiency of the markets in which electricity is traded. Increased customer participation is a necessary step in the evolution toward more efficient markets for electricity and ancillary services. This scoping report provides a three-part assessment of the current status of efforts to enhance the ability of customer's load to participate in competitive markets with a specific focus on the role of customer loads in enhancing electricity system reliability. First, this report considers the definitions of electricity-reliability-enhancing ancillary services (Section 2) and a preliminary assessment of the ability of customer's loads to provide these services. Second, is a review a variety of programs in which load has been called on as a system reliability resource (Section 3). These experiences, drawn from both past and current utility and ISO programs, focus on programs triggered by system

  4. Reliable Multicast MAC Protocol for IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs with Extended Service Range

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Woo-Yong

    2011-11-01

    In this paper, we propose the efficient reliable multicast MAC protocol by which the AP (Access Point) can transmit reliably its multicast data frames to the recipients in the AP's one-hop or two-hop transmission range. The AP uses the STAs (Stations) that are directly associated with itself as the relays for the data delivery to the remote recipients that cannot be reached directly from itself. Based on the connectivity information among the recipients, the reliable multicast MAC protocol optimizes the number of the RAK (Request for ACK) frame transmissions in a reasonable computational time. Numerical examples show that our proposed MAC protocol significantly enhances the MAC performance compared with the BMMM (Batch Mode Multicast MAC) protocol that is extended to support the recipients that are in the AP's one-hop or two-hop transmission range in IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs.

  5. Reliability of Broadcast Communications Under Sparse Random Linear Network Coding

    OpenAIRE

    Brown, Suzie; Johnson, Oliver; Tassi, Andrea

    2018-01-01

    Ultra-reliable Point-to-Multipoint (PtM) communications are expected to become pivotal in networks offering future dependable services for smart cities. In this regard, sparse Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) techniques have been widely employed to provide an efficient way to improve the reliability of broadcast and multicast data streams. This paper addresses the pressing concern of providing a tight approximation to the probability of a user recovering a data stream protected by this kin...

  6. DIRAC: reliable data management for LHCb

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, A C; Tsaregorodtsev, A

    2008-01-01

    DIRAC, LHCb's Grid Workload and Data Management System, utilizes WLCG resources and middleware components to perform distributed computing tasks satisfying LHCb's Computing Model. The Data Management System (DMS) handles data transfer and data access within LHCb. Its scope ranges from the output of the LHCb Online system to Grid-enabled storage for all data types. It supports metadata for these files in replica and bookkeeping catalogues, allowing dataset selection and localization. The DMS controls the movement of files in a redundant fashion whilst providing utilities for accessing all metadata. To do these tasks effectively the DMS requires complete self integrity between its components and external physical storage. The DMS provides highly redundant management of all LHCb data to leverage available storage resources and to manage transient errors in underlying services. It provides data driven and reliable distribution of files as well as reliable job output upload, utilizing VO Boxes at LHCb Tier1 sites to prevent data loss. This paper presents several examples of mechanisms implemented in the DMS to increase reliability, availability and integrity, highlighting successful design choices and limitations discovered

  7. Linking Service Quality Attributes To Customer Satisfaction in The ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The purpose of the study was to determine the service quality dimensions of mobile phone services-network performance, service reliability and service accessibility, and to ex-amine the service quality/customer satisfaction link within the context of mobile phone services. An exploratory research design using a quantitative ...

  8. Cloud services, networking, and management

    CERN Document Server

    da Fonseca, Nelson L S

    2015-01-01

    Cloud Services, Networking and Management provides a comprehensive overview of the cloud infrastructure and services, as well as their underlying management mechanisms, including data center virtualization and networking, cloud security and reliability, big data analytics, scientific and commercial applications. Special features of the book include: State-of-the-art content. Self-contained chapters for readers with specific interests. Includes commercial applications on Cloud (video services and games).

  9. Systems reliability/structural reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Green, A.E.

    1980-01-01

    The question of reliability technology using quantified techniques is considered for systems and structures. Systems reliability analysis has progressed to a viable and proven methodology whereas this has yet to be fully achieved for large scale structures. Structural loading variants over the half-time of the plant are considered to be more difficult to analyse than for systems, even though a relatively crude model may be a necessary starting point. Various reliability characteristics and environmental conditions are considered which enter this problem. The rare event situation is briefly mentioned together with aspects of proof testing and normal and upset loading conditions. (orig.)

  10. Sigma: computer vision in the service of safety and reliability in the inspection services

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pineiro, P. J.; Mendez, M.; Garcia, A.; Cabrera, E.; Regidor, J. J.

    2012-01-01

    Vision Computing is growing very fast in the last decade with very efficient tools and algorithms. This allows new development of applications in the nuclear field providing more efficient equipment and tasks: redundant systems, vision-guided mobile robots, automated visual defects recognition, measurement, etc., In this paper Tecnatom describes a detailed example of visual computing application developed to provide secure redundant identification of the thousands of tubes existing in a power plant steam generator. some other on-going or planned visual computing projects by Tecnatom are also introduced. New possibilities of application in the inspection systems for nuclear components appear where the main objective is to maximize their reliability. (Author) 6 refs.

  11. Practice of value-based distribution reliability assessment (VBDRA) at Scarborough Public Utilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, R-L.

    1995-01-01

    The development of value-based distribution reliability assessment (VBDRA) at Scarborough Public Utilities was described. Load point reliability indices, customer interruption costs (CIC), continuity and service reliability, accuracy of CIC, and the aspects of application of VBDRA were addressed. The application of VBDRA to a long-term rebuild plan for 4.16 kV distribution system was described. The importance of a cost-benefit analysis for implementation of VBDRA was emphasized. In the case of the Scarborough Public Utilities Commission the enhanced feeder reliability assessment was found to influence the allocation of funding to where it provided the most value to customers. 14 refs., 3 tabs., 3 figs

  12. Estimation of electromagnetic pumps reliability based on the results of their exploitation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vitkovskij, I.V.; Kirillov, I.R.; Chajka, P.Yu.; Kryuchkov, E.A.; Poplavskij, V.M.; Nosov, Yu.V.; Oshkanov, N.N.

    2007-01-01

    Main factors, determining the service life of induction electromagnetic pumps (IEP), are analyzed. It is shown that the IEP serviceability depends mainly on the winding reliability. The main damaging factors, acting on the windings, are noted. The expressions for calculation of the failure intensity for the coil and case insulations are obtained [ru

  13. Reliability Engineering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Sang Yong

    1992-07-01

    This book is about reliability engineering, which describes definition and importance of reliability, development of reliability engineering, failure rate and failure probability density function about types of it, CFR and index distribution, IFR and normal distribution and Weibull distribution, maintainability and movability, reliability test and reliability assumption in index distribution type, normal distribution type and Weibull distribution type, reliability sampling test, reliability of system, design of reliability and functionality failure analysis by FTA.

  14. Multimedia Services in Open Distributed Telecommunications Environments

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Leydekkers, Peter

    1997-01-01

    The design and analysis of transport protocols for reliable communications constitutes the topic of this dissertation. These transport protocols guarantee the sequenced and complete delivery of user data over networks which may lose, duplicate and reorder packets. Reliable transport services are

  15. A fracture mechanics and reliability based method to assess non-destructive testings for pressure vessels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kitagawa, Hideo; Hisada, Toshiaki

    1979-01-01

    Quantitative evaluation has not been made on the effects of carrying out preservice and in-service nondestructive tests for securing the soundness, safety and maintainability of pressure vessels, spending large expenses and labor. Especially the problems concerning the time and interval of in-service inspections lack the reasonable, quantitative evaluation method. In this paper, the problems of pressure vessels are treated by having developed the analysis method based on reliability technology and probability theory. The growth of surface cracks in pressure vessels was estimated, using the results of previous studies. The effects of nondestructive inspection on the defects in pressure vessels were evaluated, and the influences of many factors, such as plate thickness, stress, the accuracy of inspection and so on, on the effects of inspection, and the method of evaluating the inspections at unequal intervals were investigated. The analysis of reliability taking in-service inspection into consideration, the evaluation of in-service inspection and other affecting factors through the typical examples of analysis, and the review concerning the time of inspection are described. The method of analyzing the reliability of pressure vessels, considering the growth of defects and preservice and in-service nondestructive tests, was able to be systematized so as to be practically usable. (Kako, I.)

  16. Reliability study: steam generation and distribution system, Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baker, F.E.; Davis, E.L.; Dent, J.T.; Walters, D.E.; West, R.M.

    1982-10-01

    A reliability study for determining the ability of the Steam Generation and Distribution System to provide reliable and adequate service through the year 2000 has been completed. This study includes an evaluation of the X-600 Steam Plant and the steam distribution system. The Steam Generation and Distribution System is in good overall condition, but to maintain this condition, the reliability study team made twelve recommendations. Eight of the recommendations are for repair or replacement of existing equipment and have a total estimated cost of $540,000. The other four recommendations are for additional testing, new procedure implementation, or continued investigations

  17. On the application of nonhomogeneous Poisson process to the reliability analysis of service water pumps of nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cruz Saldanha, Pedro Luiz da.

    1995-12-01

    The purpose of this study is to evaluate the nonhomogeneous Poisson process as a model to rate of occurrence of failures when it is not constant, and the times between failures are not independent nor identically distributed. To this evaluation, an analyse of reliability of service water pumps of a typical nuclear power plant is made considering the model discussed in the last paragraph, as long as the pumps are effectively repairable components. Standard statistical techniques, such as maximum likelihood and linear regression, are applied to estimate parameters of nonhomogeneous Poisson process model. As a conclusion of the study, the nonhomogeneous Poisson process is adequate to model rate of occurrence of failures that are function of time, and can be used where the aging mechanisms are present in operation of repairable systems. (author). 72 refs., 45 figs., 21 tabs

  18. Reliability-based design code calibration for concrete containment structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Han, B.K.; Cho, H.N.; Chang, S.P.

    1991-01-01

    In this study, a load combination criteria for design and a probability-based reliability analysis were proposed on the basis of a FEM-based random vibration analysis. The limit state model defined for the study is a serviceability limit state of the crack failure that causes the emission of radioactive materials, and the results are compared with the case of strength limit state. More accurate reliability analyses under various dynamic loads such as earthquake loads were made possible by incorporating the FEM and random vibration theory, which is different from the conventional reliability analysis method. The uncertainties in loads and resistance available in Korea and the references were adapted to the situation of Korea, and especially in case of earthquake, the design earthquake was assessed based on the available data for the probabilistic description of earthquake ground acceleration in the Korea peninsula. The SAP V-2 is used for a three-dimensional finite element analysis of concrete containment structure, and the reliability analysis is carried out by modifying HRAS reliability analysis program for this study. (orig./GL)

  19. Training and Maintaining System-Wide Reliability in Outcome Management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barwick, Melanie A; Urajnik, Diana J; Moore, Julia E

    2014-01-01

    The Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) is widely used for outcome management, for providing real time client and program level data, and the monitoring of evidence-based practices. Methods of reliability training and the assessment of rater drift are critical for service decision-making within organizations and systems of care. We assessed two approaches for CAFAS training: external technical assistance and internal technical assistance. To this end, we sampled 315 practitioners trained by external technical assistance approach from 2,344 Ontario practitioners who had achieved reliability on the CAFAS. To assess the internal technical assistance approach as a reliable alternative training method, 140 practitioners trained internally were selected from the same pool of certified raters. Reliabilities were high for both practitioners trained by external technical assistance and internal technical assistance approaches (.909-.995, .915-.997, respectively). 1 and 3-year estimates showed some drift on several scales. High and consistent reliabilities over time and training method has implications for CAFAS training of behavioral health care practitioners, and the maintenance of CAFAS as a global outcome management tool in systems of care.

  20. Accessing data transfer reliability for duty cycled mobile wireless sensor network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shaikh, F.K.

    2014-01-01

    Mobility in WSNs (Wireless Sensor Networks) introduces significant challenges which do not arise in static WSNs. Reliable data transport is an important aspect of attaining consistency and QoS (Quality of Service) in several applications of MWSNs (Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks). It is important to understand how each of the wireless sensor networking characteristics such as duty cycling, collisions, contention and mobility affects the reliability of data transfer. If reliability is not managed well, the MWSN can suffer from overheads which reduce its applicability in the real world. In this paper, reliability assessment is being studied by deploying MWSN in different indoor and outdoor scenarios with various duty cycles of the motes and speeds of the mobile mote. Results show that the reliability is greatly affected by the duty cycled motes and the mobility using inherent broadcast mechanisms. (author)

  1. IMPROVING THE LOGISTICAL PROCESSES IN CORPORATE SERVICE SYSTEM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina MAKAROVA

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The study deals with enhancing the reliability of freight cars by improving the corporate service system. Assessing of the quality of spare parts suppliers is discussed. An algorithm for supplier selection and an evaluation method, based on cluster analysis of indicators of supplier reliability, is proposed. Alternative developments for a service network, in view of expanding of the car fleet powered by natural gas-based fuel have been considered.

  2. Reliability

    OpenAIRE

    Condon, David; Revelle, William

    2017-01-01

    Separating the signal in a test from the irrelevant noise is a challenge for all measurement. Low test reliability limits test validity, attenuates important relationships, and can lead to regression artifacts. Multiple approaches to the assessment and improvement of reliability are discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of several different approaches to reliability are considered. Practical advice on how to assess reliability using open source software is provided.

  3. Nondestructive examination (NDE) reliability for inservice inspection of light water reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doctor, S.R.; Deffenbaugh, J.D.; Good, M.S.; Green, E.R.; Heasler, P.G.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.

    1989-10-01

    The Evaluation and Improvement of NDE Reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactors (NDE Reliability) Program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory was established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to determine the reliability of current inservice inspection (ISI) techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this program include determining the reliability of ISI performed on the primary systems of commercial light-water reactors (LWRs); using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis to determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety; and evaluating reliability improvement that can be achieved with improved and advanced technology. A final objective is to formulate recommended revisions to ASME Code and Regulatory requirements based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE capabilities and uncertainties. The program scope is limited to ISI of the primary systems including the piping, vessel, and other inspected components. This is a progress report covering the programmatic work from October 1987 through March 1988. 21 refs., 28 figs., 2 tabs

  4. Nondestructive examination (NDE) reliability for inservice inspection of light waters reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doctor, S.R.; Deffenbaugh, J.D.; Good, M.S.; Green, E.R.; Heasler, P.G.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.

    1989-11-01

    Evaluation and Improvement of NDE Reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactors (NDE Reliability) Program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory was established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to determine the reliability of current inservice inspection (ISI) techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this program include determining the reliability of ISI performed on the primary systems of commercial light-water reactors (LWRs); using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis to determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety; and evaluating reliability improvements that can be achieved with improved and advanced technology. A final objective is to formulate recommended revisions to ASME Code and Regulatory requirements, based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties. The program scope is limited to ISI of the primary systems including the piping, vessel, and other inspected components. This is a progress report covering the programmatic work from April 1988 through September 1988. 33 refs., 70 figs., 12 tabs

  5. Nondestructive Examination (NDE) Reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doctor, S.R.; Diaz, A.A.; Friley, J.R.

    1993-09-01

    The Evaluation and Improvement of NDE Reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactors (NDE Reliability) Program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory was established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to determine the reliability of current inservice inspection (ISI) techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this program include determining the reliability of ISI performed on the primary systems of commercial light-water reactors (LWRs); using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis to determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety; and evaluating reliability improvements that can be achieved with improved and advanced technology. A final objective is to formulate recommended revisions to ASME Code and Regulatory requirements, based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties. The program scope is limited to ISI of the primary systems including the piping, vessel, and other components inspected in accordance with Section XI of the ASME Code. This is a progress report covering the programmatic work from October 1991 through March 1992

  6. RELIABLE DYNAMIC SOURCE ROUTING PROTOCOL (RDSRP FOR ENERGY HARVESTING WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. Narasimhan

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Wireless sensor networks (WSNs carry noteworthy pros over traditional communication. Though, unkind and composite environments fake great challenges in the reliability of WSN communications. It is more vital to develop a reliable unipath dynamic source routing protocol (RDSRPl for WSN to provide better quality of service (QoS in energy harvesting wireless sensor networks (EH-WSN. This paper proposes a dynamic source routing approach for attaining the most reliable route in EH-WSNs. Performance evaluation is carried out using NS-2 and throughput and packet delivery ratio are chosen as the metrics.

  7. Future of Christian health services – an economic perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steffen Flessa

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Although Christian Health Services have a proud history of healing and compassion especially in developing countries, their future is affected by secular changes in the financing and provision of health care services. However, the nature of life as it is evolving in modern society promises a need for the capacity to deal with increasing dynamics, complexity and uncertainty. In these circumstances the potential capacity of Christians in their institutions and churches to provide Unconditional Reliability suggests a new opportunity. The components of Unconditional Reliability and how they affect the portfolio of Christian Health Services is explained. Effective Christian Health Services will require appropriate analysis of their portfolios.

  8. Enabling Sustainability: Hierarchical Need-Based Framework for Promoting Sustainable Data Infrastructure in Developing Countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David O. Yawson

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents thoughts on Sustainable Data Infrastructure (SDI development, and its user requirements bases. It brings Maslow's motivational theory to the fore, and proposes it as a rationalization mechanism for entities (mostly governmental that aim at realizing SDI. Maslow's theory, though well-known, is somewhat new in geospatial circles; this is where the novelty of the paper resides. SDI has been shown to enable and aid development in diverse ways. However, stimulating developing countries to appreciate the utility of SDI, implement, and use SDI in achieving sustainable development has proven to be an imposing challenge. One of the key reasons for this could be the absence of a widely accepted psychological theory to drive needs assessment and intervention design for the purpose of SDI development. As a result, it is reasonable to explore Maslow’s theory of human motivation as a psychological theory for promoting SDI in developing countries. In this article, we review and adapt Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a framework for the assessment of the needs of developing nations. The paper concludes with the implications of this framework for policy with the view to stimulating the implementation of SDI in developing nations.

  9. Automated Energy Distribution and Reliability System (AEDR): Final Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Buche, D. L.

    2008-07-01

    This report describes Northern Indiana Public Service Co. project efforts to develop an automated energy distribution and reliability system. The purpose of this project was to implement a database-driven GIS solution that would manage all of the company's gas, electric, and landbase objects.

  10. Reineke’s stand density index: a quantitative and non-unitless measure of stand density

    Science.gov (United States)

    Curtis L. VanderSchaaf

    2013-01-01

    When used as a measure of relative density, Reineke’s stand density index (SDI) can be made unitless by relating the current SDI to a standard density but when used as a quantitative measure of stand density SDI is not unitless. Reineke’s SDI relates the current stand density to an equivalent number of trees per unit area in a stand with a quadratic mean diameter (Dq)...

  11. Service task partition and distribution in star topology computer grid subject to data security constraints

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xiang Yanping [Collaborative Autonomic Computing Laboratory, School of Computer Science, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (China); Levitin, Gregory, E-mail: levitin@iec.co.il [Collaborative Autonomic Computing Laboratory, School of Computer Science, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (China); Israel electric corporation, P. O. Box 10, Haifa 31000 (Israel)

    2011-11-15

    The paper considers grid computing systems in which the resource management systems (RMS) can divide service tasks into execution blocks (EBs) and send these blocks to different resources. In order to provide a desired level of service reliability the RMS can assign the same blocks to several independent resources for parallel execution. The data security is a crucial issue in distributed computing that affects the execution policy. By the optimal service task partition into the EBs and their distribution among resources, one can achieve the greatest possible service reliability and/or expected performance subject to data security constraints. The paper suggests an algorithm for solving this optimization problem. The algorithm is based on the universal generating function technique and on the evolutionary optimization approach. Illustrative examples are presented. - Highlights: > Grid service with star topology is considered. > An algorithm for evaluating service reliability and data security is presented. > A tradeoff between the service reliability and data security is analyzed. > A procedure for optimal service task partition and distribution is suggested.

  12. Service task partition and distribution in star topology computer grid subject to data security constraints

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xiang Yanping; Levitin, Gregory

    2011-01-01

    The paper considers grid computing systems in which the resource management systems (RMS) can divide service tasks into execution blocks (EBs) and send these blocks to different resources. In order to provide a desired level of service reliability the RMS can assign the same blocks to several independent resources for parallel execution. The data security is a crucial issue in distributed computing that affects the execution policy. By the optimal service task partition into the EBs and their distribution among resources, one can achieve the greatest possible service reliability and/or expected performance subject to data security constraints. The paper suggests an algorithm for solving this optimization problem. The algorithm is based on the universal generating function technique and on the evolutionary optimization approach. Illustrative examples are presented. - Highlights: → Grid service with star topology is considered. → An algorithm for evaluating service reliability and data security is presented. → A tradeoff between the service reliability and data security is analyzed. → A procedure for optimal service task partition and distribution is suggested.

  13. A RELIABILITY TEST USED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LOYALTY SCALE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florin-Alexandru LUCA

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The development of a loyalty model involves the construction of a proper research instrument. For the loyalty model of the clients for financial services, the pre-testing of the research questionnaire represents a significant stage. This article presents the methodology used in this stage for testing the reliability of a loyalty scale. Firstly, this implies choosing the appropriate scales for each variable included in the suggested research model. Secondly, the internal consistency for each of these scales is measured as an indicator of their reliability. The reliability analysis described represents an essential stage in building a measurement instrument for a loyalty model.

  14. Relationships Between Service Personal Values, Service Value, Satisfaction, and Loyalty: A Study Regarding Services of Private and State Hospitals in Turkey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Metin Argan

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Service and value are the two inseparable concepts in experiential service environment. Service personal value is a concept that is subjectively assessed from a consumer perspective, and is associated with service value, consumer satisfaction and loyalty. In this context, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between services personal values, service value, satisfaction, and loyalty. Data were collected from persons (996 receiving services from private hospitals and state hospitals using convenience sampling method. The scales of service personal values, service value, satisfaction and loyalty were adapted from literature. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA was used to investigate validity and reliability of the scales. Then, a structural equation model (SEM was developed and tested using data with Lisrel 8.80 software. The results of the study indicate significant relationships between services personal values, service value, satisfaction, and loyalty. The results of the study have significant implications as to how well private hospital managers design strategies of health service, satisfaction, and loyalty.

  15. FRAMATOME nuclear services

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Delorme, H.; Buttin, J.

    1985-05-01

    FRAMATOME is a French company whose main activities since 1958 have been the design and manufacture of standardized PWR Nuclear Steam Supply Systems. FRAMATOME builds the Reactor Coolant System components and installs and starts-up the extended Nuclear Steam Supply Systems. In addition to the supply of spare parts of tooling, the services offered by Framatome are implementation of backfits aimed at performance and safety improvement and equipment reliability, technical assistance and, maintenance and repair services

  16. Equilibrium moisture content of wood at different temperature/moisture conditions in the cladding of wooden constructions and in the relation to their reliability and service life

    OpenAIRE

    Zdeňka Havířová; Pavel Kubů

    2010-01-01

    One of the natural properties of wood and wood-based materials is their soaking capacity (hy­gro­sco­pi­ci­ty). The moisture content of wood and building constructions of wood and wood based materials significantly influences the service life and reliability of these constructions and buildings. The equilibrium weight moisture content of built-in wood corresponding to temperature/moisture conditions inside the cladding has therefore a decisive influence on the basic requirements placed on bui...

  17. Reliability Analysis of Operation for Cableways by FTA (Fault Tree Analysis Method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sergej Težak

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines the reliability of the operation of cableway systems in Slovenia, which has major impact on the quality of service in the mountain tourism, mainly in wintertime. Different types of cableway installations in Slovenia were captured in a sample and fault tree analysis (FTA was made on the basis of the obtained data. The paper presents the results of the analysis. With these results it is possible to determine the probability of faults of different types of cableways, which types of faults have the greatest impact on the termination of operation, which components of cableways fail most, what is the impact of age of cableways on the occurrence of the faults. Finally, an attempt was made to find if occurrence of faults on individual cableway installation has also impact on traffic on this cableway due to reduced quality of service. KEYWORDS: cableways, aerial ropeways, chairlifts, ski-tows, quality, faults, fault tree analysis, reliability, service quality, winter tourism, mountain tourist centre

  18. Logical Lego? Co-constructed perspectives on service design

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heath, Claude P.; Coles-Kemp, Lizzie; Hall, Peter A.

    2014-01-01

    In the era of ‘digital by default’, internet-borne services reach out into spaces and places. One example of such a service is home-based micro-payments using Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) that depends on reliable information-sharing practices between user and service providers. Traditional

  19. Determinants of customer satisfaction with professional services: A study of consultants services

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sonne, Anne-Mette

    1999-01-01

    Although models of service quality and customer satisfaction have been well researched within the consumer goods and services area, much less attention has been paid to high involvement business-to-business service satisfaction. The objective of this study is to contribute to this stream...... of research through a survey of customers of the Norwegian Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture. Information on which factors are the determinants of customer satisfaction is important to consultants since customer satisfaction is what the service business depends on for repeat business. In this study we...... found that customer satisfaction is mostly influenced by the perceived competence of the consultant and the technical reliability demonstrated in the project. However, the perceived service quality is also influenced by the way the customer is treated during the service production process....

  20. Performance Evaluation of Cloud Service Considering Fault Recovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Bo; Tan, Feng; Dai, Yuan-Shun; Guo, Suchang

    In cloud computing, cloud service performance is an important issue. To improve cloud service reliability, fault recovery may be used. However, the use of fault recovery could have impact on the performance of cloud service. In this paper, we conduct a preliminary study on this issue. Cloud service performance is quantified by service response time, whose probability density function as well as the mean is derived.

  1. Geospacial information utilized under the access control strategy

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    TIAN Jie; ZHANG Xin-fang; WANG Tong-yang; XIANG Wei; Cheng Ming

    2007-01-01

    This paper introduces a solution to the secure requirement for digital rights management (DRM) by the way of geospacial access control named geospacial access control (GeoAC) in geospacial field. The issues of authorization for geospacial DRM are concentrated on. To geospacial DRM, one aspect is the declaration and enforcement of access rights, based on geographic aspects. To the approbation of digital geographic content, it is important to adopt online access to geodata through a spacial data infrastructure (SDI). This results in the interoperability requirements on three different levels: data model level, service level and access control level. The interaction between the data model and service level can be obtained by criterions of the open geospacial consortium (OGC), and the interaction of the access control level may be reached by declaring and enforcing access restrictions in GeoAC. Then an archetype enforcement based on GeoAC is elucidated. As one aspect of performing usage rights, the execution of access restrictions as an extension to a regular SDI is illuminated.

  2. The National Centre of Systems Reliability and some aspects of its future activities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bourne, A.J.

    1975-01-01

    The National Centre of Systems Reliability (NCSR) has been set up to enhance the work of the Systems Reliability Service (SRS), which during its four years of operation by the UKAEA has offered to industry expertise in the quantification of reliability of systems in various technological applications. An outline is presented of the background to the establishment of the NCSR, including a brief summary of the work of the SRS. Certain aspects of the future activities of the NCSR particularly in relation to research and collaboration with universities are discussed. (U.K.)

  3. Nondestructive Examination (NDE) Reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doctor, S.R.; Diaz, A.A.; Friley, J.R.; Good, M.S.; Greenwood, M.S.; Heasler, P.G.; Hockey, R.L.; Kurtz, R.J.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.; Vo, T.V.

    1992-07-01

    The Evaluation and Improvement of NDE Reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactors (NDE Reliability) Program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory was established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to determine the reliability of current inservice inspection (ISI) techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this program include determining the reliability of ISI performed on the primary systems of commercial light-water reactors (LWR's); using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis to determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety; and evaluating reliability improvements that can be achieved with improved and advanced technology. A final objective is to formulate recommended revisions to the Regulatory and ASME Code requirements, based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties. The program scope is limited to ISI of the primary systems including the piping, vessel, and other components inspected in accordance with Section XI of the ASME Code. This is a progress report covering the programmatic work from April 1991 through September 1991

  4. Nondestructive Examination (NDE) Reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doctor, S.R.; Diaz, A.A.; Friley, J.R.; Greenwood, M.S.; Heasler, P.G.; Kurtz, R.J.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Vo, T.V.

    1993-11-01

    The Evaluation and Improvement of NDE Reliability for Inservice inspection of Light Water Reactors (NDE Reliability) Program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory was established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to determine the reliability of current inservice inspection (ISI) techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this program include determining the reliability of ISI performed on the primary systems of commercial light-water reactors (LWRs);using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis to determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety; and evaluating reliability improvements that can be achieved with improved and advanced technology. A final objective is to formulate recommended revisions to the Regulatory and ASME Code requirements, based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties. The program scope is limited to ISI of the primary systems including the piping, vessel and other components inspected in accordance with Section XI of the ASME Code. This is a programs report covering the programmatic work from April 1992 through September 1992

  5. Nondestructive examination (NDE) reliability for inservice inspection of light water reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doctor, S.R.; Good, M.S.; Green, E.R.; Heasler, P.G.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.; Vo, T.V.

    1991-08-01

    The Evaluation and Improvement of NDE Reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactors (NDE Reliability) Program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory was established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to determine the reliability of current inservice inspection (ISI) techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this program include determining the reliability of ISI performed on the primary systems of commercial light-water reactors (LWRs); using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis to determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety; and evaluating reliability improvements that can be achieved with improved and advanced technology. A final objective is to formulate recommended revisions to ASME Code and Regulatory requirements, based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties. The program scope is limited to ISI of the primary systems including the piping, vessel, and other components inspected in accordance with Section 6 of the ASME Code. This is a progress report covering the pro grammatic work from April 1989 through September 1989. 12 refs., 4 figs. 5 tabs

  6. Evaluating the service quality of third-party logistics service providers using the analytic hierarchy process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Soon-hoo So

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available In this study we apply the analytic hierarchy process (AHP to evaluate the service quality of third-party logistics (3PL service providers. We first conceptualize five dimensions of 3PL service quality (i.e. tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. We then apply the AHP method to determine the relative weights of the five service quality dimensions and eventually select the best 3PL service provider. To implement this idea in practice, we conduct an empirical case study on four companies providing 3PL services in Korea. The results indicate that Responsiveness out of the five service quality dimensions is the most important factor in the perception of 3PL customers.

  7. Problems in diagnosing and forecasting power equipment reliability

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Popkov, V I; Demirchyan, K S

    1979-11-01

    This general survey deals with approaches to the resolution of such problems as the gathering, analysis and systematization of data on component defects in power equipment and setting up feedback with the manufacturing plants and planning organizations to improve equipment reliability. Such efforts on the part of designers, manufacturers and operating and repair organizations in analyzing faults in 300 MW turbogenerators during 1974-1977 reduced the specific fault rate by 20 to 25% and the downtime per failure by 35 to 40%. Since power equipment should operate for several hundreds of thousands of hours (20 to 30 years) and the majority of power components have guaranteed service lives of no more than 10/sup 5/ hours, an extremely difficult problem is the determination of the reliability of equipment past the 10/sup 5/ point. The present trend in the USSR Unified Power System towards increasing the number of shutdowns and startups, which in the case of turbogenerators of up 1200 MW power can reach 7500 to 10,000 cycles is noted. Other areas briefly treated are: MHD generator reliability and economy; nuclear power plant reliability and safety; the reliability of high-power high-voltage thyristor converters; the difficulties involved in scale modeling of power system reliability and the high cost of the requisite full-scale studies; the poor understanding of long term corrosion and erosion processes. The review concludes with arguments in favor of greater computerization of all aspects of power system management.

  8. Mammography image assessment; validity and reliability of current scheme

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hill, C.; Robinson, L.

    2015-01-01

    Mammographers currently score their own images according to criteria set out by Regional Quality Assurance. The criteria used are based on the ‘Perfect, Good, Moderate, Inadequate’ (PGMI) marking criteria established by the National Health Service Breast Screening Programme (NHSBSP) in their Quality Assurance Guidelines of 2006 1 . This document discusses the validity and reliability of the current mammography image assessment scheme. Commencing with a critical review of the literature this document sets out to highlight problems with the national approach to the use of marking schemes. The findings suggest that ‘PGMI’ scheme is flawed in terms of reliability and validity and is not universally applied across the UK. There also appear to be differences in schemes used by trainees and qualified mammographers. Initial recommendations are to be made in collaboration with colleagues within the National Health Service Breast Screening Programme (NHSBSP), Higher Education Centres, College of Radiographers and the Royal College of Radiologists in order to identify a mammography image appraisal scheme that is fit for purpose. - Highlights: • Currently no robust evidence based marking tools in use for the assessment of images in mammography. • Is current system valid, reliable and robust? • How can the current image assessment tool be improved? • Should students and qualified mammographers use the same tool? • What marking criteria are available for image assessment?

  9. The impact of reliability centered maintenance on plant prospects for license renewal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Elliott, J.O.; Nakahara, Y.

    1991-01-01

    Much attention has been directed in recent years to means of extending nuclear power plant life. As many plants enter their third decade of service, the questions loom large of how to keep aging plants reliable, as well as how to assure reliability and safety to an extent sufficient to warrant license renewal at the end of the current licensing term. Concurrently the nuclear industry has seen a growing interest in reducing the cost and complexity of maintenance activities while at the same time improving plant reliability and availability. Attainment of these seemingly contradictory aims is being aided by the introduction of a maintenance philosophy developed originally by the airline industry and subsequently applied with great success both in that industry and the U.S. military services. Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), in its basic form, may be described as a consideration of reliability and maintenance problems from a systems level approach, allowing a focus on preservation of system functions as the aim of a maintenance program optimized for both safety and economics. It is this systematic view of plant maintenance, with the emphasis on preservation of overall functions rather than individual parts and components which sets RCM apart from past nuclear plant maintenance philosophies. It is also the factor which makes application of RCM an ideal first step in development of strategies for life extension and license renewal, both for aging plants, and for plants just beginning their first license term

  10. Applying franchising principles to improving water and sanitation services reliability

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Wall, K

    2008-11-01

    Full Text Available CSIR research has found that franchising partnerships could alleviate and address many challenges in the operation and maintenance of water services infrastructure. Franchising brings appropriate training to those on-site, and also offers backup off...

  11. Measuring service quality and its relationship to future consumer behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Headley, D E; Miller, S J

    1993-01-01

    The authors adapt the SERVQUAL scale for medical care services and examine it for reliability, dimensionality, and validity in a primary care clinic setting. In addition, they explore the possibility of a link between perceived service quality--and its various dimensions--and a patient's future intent to complain, compliment, repeat purchase, and switch providers. Findings from 159 matched-pair responses indicate that the SERVQUAL scale can be adapted reliably to a clinic setting and that the dimensions of reliability, dependability, and empathy are most predictive of a patient's intent to complain, compliment, repeat purchase, and switch providers.

  12. Business Cases for Microgrids: Modeling Interactions of Technology Choice, Reliability, Cost, and Benefit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanna, Ryan

    Distributed energy resources (DERs), and increasingly microgrids, are becoming an integral part of modern distribution systems. Interest in microgrids--which are insular and autonomous power networks embedded within the bulk grid--stems largely from the vast array of flexibilities and benefits they can offer stakeholders. Managed well, they can improve grid reliability and resiliency, increase end-use energy efficiency by coupling electric and thermal loads, reduce transmission losses by generating power locally, and may reduce system-wide emissions, among many others. Whether these public benefits are realized, however, depends on whether private firms see a "business case", or private value, in investing. To this end, firms need models that evaluate costs, benefits, risks, and assumptions that underlie decisions to invest. The objectives of this dissertation are to assess the business case for microgrids that provide what industry analysts forecast as two primary drivers of market growth--that of providing energy services (similar to an electric utility) as well as reliability service to customers within. Prototypical first adopters are modeled--using an existing model to analyze energy services and a new model that couples that analysis with one of reliability--to explore interactions between technology choice, reliability, costs, and benefits. The new model has a bi-level hierarchy; it uses heuristic optimization to select and size DERs and analytical optimization to schedule them. It further embeds Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate reliability as well as regression models for customer damage functions to monetize reliability. It provides least-cost microgrid configurations for utility customers who seek to reduce interruption and operating costs. Lastly, the model is used to explore the impact of such adoption on system-wide greenhouse gas emissions in California. Results indicate that there are, at present, co-benefits for emissions reductions when customers

  13. Ecosystem services for energy security

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Athanas, Andrea; McCormick, Nadine

    2010-09-15

    The world is at an energy crossroads. The changes underway will have implications for ecosystems and livelihoods. Energy security is the reliable supply of affordable energy, of which there are two dimensions; reliability and resilience. Changes in ecosystem services linked to degradation and climate change have the potential to impact both on the reliabiity of energy systems and on their resiliance. Investing in ecosystems can help safeguard energy systems, and mitigate unforeseen risks to energy security. The energy and conservation community should come together to build reliable and resilliant energy systems in ways which recognise and value supporting ecosystems.

  14. Non-utility generation and demand management reliability of customer delivery systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hamoud, G.A.; Wang, L.

    1995-01-01

    A probabilistic methodology for evaluating the impact of non-utility generation (NUG) and demand management programs (DMP) on supply reliability of customer delivery systems was presented. The proposed method was based on the criteria that the supply reliability to the customers on the delivery system should not be affected by the integration of either NUG or DMPs. The method considered station load profile, load forecast, and uncertainty in size and availability of the nuio. Impacts on system reliability were expressed in terms of possible delays of the in-service date for new facilities or in terms of an increase in the system load carrying capability. Examples to illustrate the proposed methodology were provided. 10 refs., 8 tabs., 2 figs

  15. Electrical system design and reliability at Ontario Hydro nuclear generating stations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Royce, C. J. [Ontario Hydro, 700 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X6 (Canada)

    1986-02-15

    This paper provides an overview of design practice and the predicted and actual reliability of electrical station service Systems at Ontario Nuclear Generating Stations. Operational experience and licensing changes have indicated the desirability of improving reliability in certain instances. For example, the requirement to start large emergency coolant injection pumps resulted in the turbine generator units in a multi-unit station being used as a back-up power supply. Results of reliability analyses are discussed. To mitigate the effects of common mode events Ontario Hydro adopted a 'two group' approach to the design of safety related Systems. This 'two group' approach is reviewed and a single fully environmentally qualified standby power supply is proposed for future use. (author)

  16. Reliability of optical fibres and components final report of COST 246

    CERN Document Server

    Griffioen, Willem; Gadonna, Michel; Limberger, Hans; Heens, Bernard; Knuuttila, Hanna; Kurkjian, Charles; Mirza, Shehzad; Opacic, Aleksandar; Regio, Paola; Semjonov, Sergei

    1999-01-01

    Reliability of Optical Fibres and Components reports the findings of COST 246 (1993-1998) - European research initiative in the field of optical telecommunications. Experts in the materials and reliability field of optical fibres and components have contributed to this unique study programme. The results, conclusions and achievements of their work have been obtained through joint experimentation and discussion with representatives from manufacturing and research groups. Topics covered include: Lifetime estimation; Failure mechanisms; Ageing test methods; Field data and service environments for components. For the first time the reader can explore the reliability of products and examine the results and conclusions in published form. This comprehensive volume is intended to provide a deeper understanding of the reliability of optical fibres and components. The book will be extremely useful to all scientists and practitioners involved in the industry.

  17. High-reliability computing for the smarter planet

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Quinn, Heather M.; Graham, Paul; Manuzzato, Andrea; Dehon, Andre

    2010-01-01

    The geometric rate of improvement of transistor size and integrated circuit performance, known as Moore's Law, has been an engine of growth for our economy, enabling new products and services, creating new value and wealth, increasing safety, and removing menial tasks from our daily lives. Affordable, highly integrated components have enabled both life-saving technologies and rich entertainment applications. Anti-lock brakes, insulin monitors, and GPS-enabled emergency response systems save lives. Cell phones, internet appliances, virtual worlds, realistic video games, and mp3 players enrich our lives and connect us together. Over the past 40 years of silicon scaling, the increasing capabilities of inexpensive computation have transformed our society through automation and ubiquitous communications. In this paper, we will present the concept of the smarter planet, how reliability failures affect current systems, and methods that can be used to increase the reliable adoption of new automation in the future. We will illustrate these issues using a number of different electronic devices in a couple of different scenarios. Recently IBM has been presenting the idea of a 'smarter planet.' In smarter planet documents, IBM discusses increased computer automation of roadways, banking, healthcare, and infrastructure, as automation could create more efficient systems. A necessary component of the smarter planet concept is to ensure that these new systems have very high reliability. Even extremely rare reliability problems can easily escalate to problematic scenarios when implemented at very large scales. For life-critical systems, such as automobiles, infrastructure, medical implantables, and avionic systems, unmitigated failures could be dangerous. As more automation moves into these types of critical systems, reliability failures will need to be managed. As computer automation continues to increase in our society, the need for greater radiation reliability is necessary

  18. High-reliability computing for the smarter planet

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Quinn, Heather M [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Graham, Paul [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Manuzzato, Andrea [UNIV OF PADOVA; Dehon, Andre [UNIV OF PENN; Carter, Nicholas [INTEL CORPORATION

    2010-01-01

    The geometric rate of improvement of transistor size and integrated circuit performance, known as Moore's Law, has been an engine of growth for our economy, enabling new products and services, creating new value and wealth, increasing safety, and removing menial tasks from our daily lives. Affordable, highly integrated components have enabled both life-saving technologies and rich entertainment applications. Anti-lock brakes, insulin monitors, and GPS-enabled emergency response systems save lives. Cell phones, internet appliances, virtual worlds, realistic video games, and mp3 players enrich our lives and connect us together. Over the past 40 years of silicon scaling, the increasing capabilities of inexpensive computation have transformed our society through automation and ubiquitous communications. In this paper, we will present the concept of the smarter planet, how reliability failures affect current systems, and methods that can be used to increase the reliable adoption of new automation in the future. We will illustrate these issues using a number of different electronic devices in a couple of different scenarios. Recently IBM has been presenting the idea of a 'smarter planet.' In smarter planet documents, IBM discusses increased computer automation of roadways, banking, healthcare, and infrastructure, as automation could create more efficient systems. A necessary component of the smarter planet concept is to ensure that these new systems have very high reliability. Even extremely rare reliability problems can easily escalate to problematic scenarios when implemented at very large scales. For life-critical systems, such as automobiles, infrastructure, medical implantables, and avionic systems, unmitigated failures could be dangerous. As more automation moves into these types of critical systems, reliability failures will need to be managed. As computer automation continues to increase in our society, the need for greater radiation reliability is

  19. Bring Your Own Device - Providing Reliable Model of Data Access

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stąpór Paweł

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The article presents a model of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD as a model network, which provides the user reliable access to network resources. BYOD is a model dynamically developing, which can be applied in many areas. Research network has been launched in order to carry out the test, in which as a service of BYOD model Work Folders service was used. This service allows the user to synchronize files between the device and the server. An access to the network is completed through the wireless communication by the 802.11n standard. Obtained results are shown and analyzed in this article.

  20. Reliability-Oriented Design and Analysis of Input Capacitors in Single-Phase Transformer-less Photovoltaic Inverters

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wang, Huai; Yang, Yongheng; Blaabjerg, Frede

    2013-01-01

    While 99% efficiency has been reported, the target of 20 years of service time imposes new challenge to cost-effective solutions for grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) inverters. Aluminum electrolytic capacitors are the weak-link in terms of reliability and lifetime in single-phase PV systems....... A reliability-oriented design guideline is proposed in this paper for the input capacitors in single-phase transformer-less PV inverters. The guideline ensures that the service time requirement is to be accomplished under different power levels and ambient temperature profiles. The theoretical analysis has been...... demonstrated by a 1 kW single-phase PV inverter....

  1. EASCON '88; Proceedings of the Twenty-first Annual Electronics and Aerospace Conference, Arlington, VA, Nov. 9-11, 1988

    Science.gov (United States)

    The capabilities of present and future space and terrestrial communication systems are examined in reviews and reports. Topics addressed include competition between space and terrestrial technologies, remote sensing, carrier services in public switched telephone networks, surveillance and warning systems, telescience and telerobotics, integrated networks and systems, and military communication systems. Consideration is given to navigation and geolocation services; high-definition TV broadcasting; technical, economic, marketing, and strategic aspects of VSATs; future technology drivers; and SDI technologies.

  2. Evaluation of Network Reliability for Computer Networks with Multiple Sources

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi-Kuei Lin

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Evaluating the reliability of a network with multiple sources to multiple sinks is a critical issue from the perspective of quality management. Due to the unrealistic definition of paths of network models in previous literature, existing models are not appropriate for real-world computer networks such as the Taiwan Advanced Research and Education Network (TWAREN. This paper proposes a modified stochastic-flow network model to evaluate the network reliability of a practical computer network with multiple sources where data is transmitted through several light paths (LPs. Network reliability is defined as being the probability of delivering a specified amount of data from the sources to the sink. It is taken as a performance index to measure the service level of TWAREN. This paper studies the network reliability of the international portion of TWAREN from two sources (Taipei and Hsinchu to one sink (New York that goes through a submarine and land surface cable between Taiwan and the United States.

  3. Service workload patterns for QoS-driven cloud resource management

    OpenAIRE

    Zhang, Li; Zhang, Yichuan; Jamshidi, Pooyan; Xu, Lei; Pahl, Claus

    2015-01-01

    Cloud service providers negotiate SLAs for customer services they offer based on the reliability of performance and availability of their lower-level platform infrastructure. While availability management is more mature, performance management is less reliable. In order to support a continuous approach that supports the initial static infrastructure configuration as well as dynamic reconfiguration and auto-scaling, an accurate and efficient solution is required. We propose a prediction techni...

  4. On Quality of Service Management

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Lee, Chen

    1999-01-01

    A quality of service (QoS) management framework for systems is presented that satisfies application needs along multiple dimensions such as timeliness, reliability, cryptographic security and other application specific quality requirements...

  5. Mapping ecosystem services in the St. Louis River Estuary

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sustainable management of ecosystems for the perpetual flow of services beneficial to human communities requires reliable data about from where in the ecosystem services flow. Our objective is to map ecosystem services in the St. Louis River with the overarching U.S. EPA goal of ...

  6. Multinomial-exponential reliability function: a software reliability model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saiz de Bustamante, Amalio; Saiz de Bustamante, Barbara

    2003-01-01

    The multinomial-exponential reliability function (MERF) was developed during a detailed study of the software failure/correction processes. Later on MERF was approximated by a much simpler exponential reliability function (EARF), which keeps most of MERF mathematical properties, so the two functions together makes up a single reliability model. The reliability model MERF/EARF considers the software failure process as a non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP), and the repair (correction) process, a multinomial distribution. The model supposes that both processes are statistically independent. The paper discusses the model's theoretical basis, its mathematical properties and its application to software reliability. Nevertheless it is foreseen model applications to inspection and maintenance of physical systems. The paper includes a complete numerical example of the model application to a software reliability analysis

  7. Linking employee perceptions of collective efficacy in self-managing service teams with customer-perceived service quality : a psychometric assessment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jong, de A.; Wetzels, M.G.M.; Ruyter, de J.C.

    2008-01-01

    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the linkage between self-managing team (SMT) member perceptions of collective efficacy and customer-perceived service quality, and the most cost-efficient way to reliably assess collective efficacy and customer-perceived service quality, using

  8. Multi-state reliability for coolant pump based on dependent competitive failure model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shang Yanlong; Cai Qi; Zhao Xinwen; Chen Ling

    2013-01-01

    By taking into account the effect of degradation due to internal vibration and external shocks. and based on service environment and degradation mechanism of nuclear power plant coolant pump, a multi-state reliability model of coolant pump was proposed for the system that involves competitive failure process between shocks and degradation. Using this model, degradation state probability and system reliability were obtained under the consideration of internal vibration and external shocks for the degraded coolant pump. It provided an effective method to reliability analysis for coolant pump in nuclear power plant based on operating environment. The results can provide a decision making basis for design changing and maintenance optimization. (authors)

  9. Retail banking service quality: A client perception study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mbablemhle Bhengu

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The retail banking sector in South Africa is predominantly characterised by a high face to face interaction and constant product and pricing differentiation. In order for a bank to distinguish itself from other banks in the banking industry, it uses excellence in its service quality to stand out against its competitors. In the study, the researchers adapted the SERVQUAL model to the banking industry. A probability sampling technique was employed for the study. Simple random sampling was employed to test MBA students’ perceptions towards service quality in the banking industry. The findings in the empirical study revealed that MBA students at the university were dissatisfied with the quality of service offerings provided by the retail banks in South Africa. There were quality gaps revealed in tangibles, reliability, empathy, responsiveness and reliability aspects of the service encounters

  10. 75 FR 50853 - Special Conditions: Cirrus Design Corporation Model SF50 Airplane; Function and Reliability Testing

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-08-18

    ... airplanes. 1. Function and Reliability Testing. Flight tests: In place of 14 CFR 21.35(b)(2), the following...; Function and Reliability Testing AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. ACTION: Final special... to CAR part 3 became effective January 15, 1951, and deleted the service test requirements in Section...

  11. An attempt to use FMEA method for an approximate reliability assessment of machinery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Przystupa Krzysztof

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents a modified FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis method to assess reliability of the components that make up a wrench type 2145: MAX Impactol TM Driver Ingersoll Rand Company. This case concerns the analysis of reliability in conditions, when full service data is not known. The aim of the study is to determine the weakest element in the design of the tool.

  12. reliability reliability

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    eobe

    Corresponding author, Tel: +234-703. RELIABILITY .... V , , given by the code of practice. However, checks must .... an optimization procedure over the failure domain F corresponding .... of Concrete Members based on Utility Theory,. Technical ...

  13. Reliability of structures of industrial installations. Theory and applications of probabilistic mechanics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Procaccia, H.; Morilhat, P.; Carle, R.; Menjon, G.

    1996-01-01

    The management of the service life of mechanical materials implies an evaluation of their risk of failure during their use. To evaluate this risk the following methods are used: the classical frequency statistics applied to experience feedback data concerning failures noticed during operation of active parts (pumps, valves, exchangers, circuit breakers etc..); the Bayesian approach in the case of scarce statistical data and when experts are needed to compensate the lack of information; the structures reliability approach when no data are available and when a theoretical model of degradation must be used, in particular for passive structures (pressure vessels, pipes, tanks, etc..). The aim of this book is to describe the principles and applications of this third approach to industrial installations. Chapter 1 recalls the historical aspects of the probabilistic approach to the reliability of structures and the existing codes. Chapter 2 presents the level 1 deterministic method applied so far for the conceiving of passive structures. The Cornell reliability index, already used in civil engineering codes, is defined in chapter 3. The Hasofer and Lind reliability index, a generalization of the Cornell index, is defined in chapter 4. Chapter 5 concerns the application of probabilistic approaches to optimization studies with the introduction of the economical variables linked to the risk and the possible actions to limit this risk (in-service inspection, maintenance, repairing etc..). Chapters 6 and 7 describe the Monte Carlo simulation and approximation methods for failure probabilistic calculations, and recall the fracture mechanics basis and the models of load and degradation of industrial installations. Some applications are given in chapter 9 with the cases of the safety margins quantization of a fissured pipe and the optimizing of the in-service inspection policy of a steam generator. Chapter 10 raises the problem of the coupling between mechanical and reliability

  14. effect of uncertainty on the fatigue reliability of reinforced concrete ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In this paper, a reliability time-variant fatigue analysis and uncertainty effect on the serviceability of reinforced concrete bridge deck was carried out. A simply supported 15m bridge deck was specifically used for the investigation. Mathematical models were developed and the uncertainties in structural resistance, applied ...

  15. Database reliability engineering designing and operating resilient database systems

    CERN Document Server

    Campbell, Laine

    2018-01-01

    The infrastructure-as-code revolution in IT is also affecting database administration. With this practical book, developers, system administrators, and junior to mid-level DBAs will learn how the modern practice of site reliability engineering applies to the craft of database architecture and operations. Authors Laine Campbell and Charity Majors provide a framework for professionals looking to join the ranks of today’s database reliability engineers (DBRE). You’ll begin by exploring core operational concepts that DBREs need to master. Then you’ll examine a wide range of database persistence options, including how to implement key technologies to provide resilient, scalable, and performant data storage and retrieval. With a firm foundation in database reliability engineering, you’ll be ready to dive into the architecture and operations of any modern database. This book covers: Service-level requirements and risk management Building and evolving an architecture for operational visibility ...

  16. Measuring reliability under epistemic uncertainty: Review on non-probabilistic reliability metrics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kang Rui

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, a systematic review of non-probabilistic reliability metrics is conducted to assist the selection of appropriate reliability metrics to model the influence of epistemic uncertainty. Five frequently used non-probabilistic reliability metrics are critically reviewed, i.e., evidence-theory-based reliability metrics, interval-analysis-based reliability metrics, fuzzy-interval-analysis-based reliability metrics, possibility-theory-based reliability metrics (posbist reliability and uncertainty-theory-based reliability metrics (belief reliability. It is pointed out that a qualified reliability metric that is able to consider the effect of epistemic uncertainty needs to (1 compensate the conservatism in the estimations of the component-level reliability metrics caused by epistemic uncertainty, and (2 satisfy the duality axiom, otherwise it might lead to paradoxical and confusing results in engineering applications. The five commonly used non-probabilistic reliability metrics are compared in terms of these two properties, and the comparison can serve as a basis for the selection of the appropriate reliability metrics.

  17. Revisiting Frequency Reuse towards Supporting Ultra-Reliable Ubiquitous-Rate Communication

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Park, Jihong; Kim, Dong Min; Popovski, Petar

    2017-01-01

    One of the goals of 5G wireless systems stated by the NGMN alliance is to provide moderate rates (50+ Mbps) everywhere and with very high reliability. We term this service Ultra-Reliable Ubiquitous-Rate Communication (UR2C). This paper investigates the role of frequency reuse in supporting UR2C...... in the downlink. To this end, two frequency reuse schemes are considered: user-specific frequency reuse (FRu) and BS-specific frequency reuse (FRb). For a given unit frequency channel, FRu reduces the number of serving user equipments (UEs), whereas FRb directly decreases the number of interfering base stations...

  18. Improving the reliability of service-water systems at nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Neitzel, D.A.; Johnson, K.I.; Daling, P.M.; Chang, T.Y.

    1989-01-01

    Fouling and clogging caused by sedimentation, corrosion, and the buildup of biological organisms is a persistent problem whenever raw water from a river, lake, or ocean is used as a heat exchange medium. The fouling caused by raw water cooling of service-water systems at nuclear power plants is a particular concern because of the potential for affecting safety-related heat exchangers and components, including online and redundant backup units. Open-cycle service-water, as discussed here, provide cooling to reactor support systems required during shutdown and emergency conditions and relate to those heat exchangers and components cooled directly by raw water. To resolve this issue, the NRC initiated a research program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL), to study the conditions that allow fouling and to compare alternative surveillance and control programs to minimize service water system fouling. There is no single solution to biological, sediment, and corrosion fouling. An effective surveillance and control program must satisfy certain criteria to address major areas of the service-water system and the major fouling types. Three fouling program alternatives were developed. Value/impact (or cost/benefit) studies were performed on these three alternatives. The alternative chosen to be most cost effective is a baseline fouling program. It consists of two principal elements of a control program, continuous chlorination (for example during bivalve spawning seasons) and periodic flushing and flow testing of redundant and infrequently used cooling loops, to minimize flow blockage that would result from biofouling and sediment/corrosion product buildup. In addition, a surveillance program is recommended to regularly inspect the intake structure for macroscopic biological fouling organisms, sediment, and corrosion

  19. Validation of Medical Tourism Service Quality Questionnaire (MTSQQ) for Iranian Hospitals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qolipour, Mohammad; Torabipour, Amin; Khiavi, Farzad Faraji; Malehi, Amal Saki

    2017-03-01

    Assessing service quality is one of the basic requirements to develop the medical tourism industry. There is no valid and reliable tool to measure service quality of medical tourism. This study aimed to determine the reliability and validity of a Persian version of medical tourism service quality questionnaire for Iranian hospitals. To validate the medical tourism service quality questionnaire (MTSQQ), a cross-sectional study was conducted on 250 Iraqi patients referred to hospitals in Ahvaz (Iran) from 2015. To design a questionnaire and determine its content validity, the Delphi Technique (3 rounds) with the participation of 20 medical tourism experts was used. Construct validity of the questionnaire was assessed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data were analyzed by Excel 2007, SPSS version18, and Lisrel l8.0 software. The content validity of the questionnaire with CVI=0.775 was confirmed. According to exploratory factor analysis, the MTSQQ included 31 items and 8 dimensions (tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, exchange and travel facilities, technical and infrastructure facilities and safety and security). Construct validity of the questionnaire was confirmed, based on the goodness of fit quantities of model (RMSEA=0.032, CFI= 0.98, GFI=0.88). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.837 and 0.919 for expectation and perception questionnaire. The results of the study showed that the medical tourism SERVQUAL questionnaire with 31 items and 8 dimensions was a valid and reliable tool to measure service quality of medical tourism in Iranian hospitals.

  20. Reliability Approach of a Compressor System using Reliability Block ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    pc

    2018-03-05

    Mar 5, 2018 ... This paper presents a reliability analysis of such a system using reliability ... Keywords-compressor system, reliability, reliability block diagram, RBD .... the same structure has been kept with the three subsystems: air flow, oil flow and .... and Safety in Engineering Design", Springer, 2009. [3] P. O'Connor ...

  1. DIRAC reliable data management for LHCb

    CERN Document Server

    Smith, A C

    2008-01-01

    DIRAC, LHCb's Grid Workload and Data Management System, utilizes WLCG resources and middleware components to perform distributed computing tasks satisfying LHCb's Computing Model. The Data Management System (DMS) handles data transfer and data access within LHCb. Its scope ranges from the output of the LHCb Online system to Grid-enabled storage for all data types. It supports metadata for these files in replica and bookkeeping catalogues, allowing dataset selection and localization. The DMS controls the movement of files in a redundant fashion whilst providing utilities for accessing all metadata. To do these tasks effectively the DMS requires complete self integrity between its components and external physical storage. The DMS provides highly redundant management of all LHCb data to leverage available storage resources and to manage transient errors in underlying services. It provides data driven and reliable distribution of files as well as reliable job output upload, utilizing VO Boxes at LHCb Tier1 sites ...

  2. 75 FR 29962 - Special Conditions: Cirrus Design Corporation Model SF50 Airplane; Function and Reliability Testing

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-05-28

    ... SF50 airplanes. 1. Function and Reliability Testing Flight tests: In place of 14 CFR part 21.35(b)(2... Reliability Testing AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. ACTION: Notice of proposed special..., 1951, and deleted the service test requirements in Section 3.19 for airplanes of 6,000 pounds maximum...

  3. Strategic bidding of generating units in competitive electricity market with considering their reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soleymani, S.; Ranjbar, A.M.; Shirani, A.R.

    2008-01-01

    In the restructured power systems, they are typically scheduled based on the offers and bids to buy and sell energy and ancillary services (AS) subject to operational and security constraints. Generally, no account is taken of unit reliability when scheduling it. Therefore generating units have no incentive to improve their reliability. This paper proposes a new method to obtain the equilibrium points for reliability and price bidding strategy of units when the unit reliability is considered in the scheduling problem. The proposed methodology employs the supply function equilibrium (SFE) for modeling a unit's bidding strategy. Units change their bidding strategies and improve their reliability until Nash equilibrium points are obtained. GAMS (general algebraic modeling system) language has been used to solve the market scheduling problem using DICOPT optimization software with mixed integer non-linear programming. (author)

  4. Frontiers of reliability

    CERN Document Server

    Basu, Asit P; Basu, Sujit K

    1998-01-01

    This volume presents recent results in reliability theory by leading experts in the world. It will prove valuable for researchers, and users of reliability theory. It consists of refereed invited papers on a broad spectrum of topics in reliability. The subjects covered include Bayesian reliability, Bayesian reliability modeling, confounding in a series system, DF tests, Edgeworth approximation to reliability, estimation under random censoring, fault tree reduction for reliability, inference about changes in hazard rates, information theory and reliability, mixture experiment, mixture of Weibul

  5. Managing wind turbine reliability and maintenance via performance-based contract

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jin, Tongdan; Ding, Yi; Guo, Huairui

    2012-01-01

    between system cost, reliability and spare parts stocking. This analytical insight into the system performance allows the turbine manufacturer to optimize design, production, and after-sales services. The study aims to create a theoretical basis to facilitate the transition of the maintenance paradigm......Performance-based contracting (PBC) is reshaping the acquisition, operation, and maintenance of capital equipment. Under the PBC scheme, we propose a holistic approach for lowering the cost of wind turbine ownership while meeting the availability requirement. Our effects are focused on integrated...... firms who design and market wind turbines, and also provide maintenance and repair service. PBC differs from conventional service contracts in that the wind farmers compensate the service provider for the system performance, not the spare parts and repair labor. We explore the analytical relationship...

  6. Measuring the Quality of Ecotourism Services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nor’Aini Yusof

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Ecotourism forms the pillar of the country’s tourism industry. Ecotourists make up more than 10% of international tourists in Malaysia. When service quality is thought of as an important factor to the success of tourism service providers, the importance of estimating service quality provided to tourists becomes apparent. Estimating service quality provides tourism service providers with the necessary information needed to manage their marketing operations appropriately. Therefore, this estimation should be performed with the right measurement scales. Despite the high volume of research on service quality (SERVQUAL models in recent years, limited effort has been directed toward improving the tool for measuring service quality, particularly to apply to the ecotourism sector in developing countries. This article aims to improve a SERVQUAL model that is suitable for ecotourism areas in developing countries using five dimensions of the original model and one additional sustainability dimension. Based on a survey of 127 tourists in Tasik Kenyir, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA was conducted to discover the underlying dimension of ecotourism services and test for reliability and validity. Using EFA resulted in seven factors totaling 27 items. These factors are labeled as follows: tangible sustainability, sustainable practices, tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. The results reveal that when SERVQUAL is applied within the ecotourism context, new dimensions of tangible sustainability and sustainable practices may emerge. The result implies the need to refine the SERVQUAL model when used in different contexts.

  7. Unbundling generation and transmission services for competitive electricity markets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hirst, E.; Kirby, B.

    1998-01-01

    Ancillary services are those functions performed by the equipment and people that generate, control, and transmit electricity in support of the basic services of generating capacity, energy supply, and power delivery. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) defined such services as those 'necessary to support the transmission of electric power from seller to purchaser given the obligations of control areas and transmitting utilities within those control areas to maintain reliable operations of the interconnected transmission system.' The nationwide cost of ancillary services is about $12 billion a year, roughly 10% of the cost of the energy commodity. More important than the cost, however, is the necessity of these services for bulk-power reliability and for the support of commercial transactions. FERC's landmark Order 888 included a pro forma tariff with provision for six key ancillary services. The Interconnected Operations Services Working Group identified another six services that it felt were essential to the operation of bulk-power systems. Several groups throughput the United States have created or are forming independent system operators, which will be responsible for reliability and commerce. To date, the electricity industry (including traditional vertically integrated utilities, distribution utilities, power markets and brokers, customers, and state and federal regulators) has paid insufficient attention to these services. Although the industry had made substantial progress in identifying and defining the key services, much remains to be doe to specify methods to measure the production, delivery, and consumption of these services; to identify the costs and cost-allocation factors for these services; and to develop market and operating rules for their provision and pricing. Developing metrics, determining costs, and setting pricing rules are important because most of these ancillary services are produced by the same pieces of equipment that

  8. Software reliability

    CERN Document Server

    Bendell, A

    1986-01-01

    Software Reliability reviews some fundamental issues of software reliability as well as the techniques, models, and metrics used to predict the reliability of software. Topics covered include fault avoidance, fault removal, and fault tolerance, along with statistical methods for the objective assessment of predictive accuracy. Development cost models and life-cycle cost models are also discussed. This book is divided into eight sections and begins with a chapter on adaptive modeling used to predict software reliability, followed by a discussion on failure rate in software reliability growth mo

  9. Service quality improvement of ground staff at Don Mueang International Airport

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sittichai Sricharoenpramong

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The purposes of this research were to: 1 evaluate the service quality of the ground staff at Don Mueang International Airport (DMK, 2 compare the ground staff quality service perception of Thai passengers at DMK, and 3 provide guidelines for service quality improvement of the DMK airlines ground staff. A sample size of 400 Thai domestic passengers was accidentally selected at DMK. A questionnaire was used as a research tool for data collection. Five dimensions of service quality were evaluated: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. It was found that the service quality of ground staff was moderate. The highest dimension of service quality realization was tangibles, followed successively by reliability, assurance, empathy, and responsiveness. The passengers' perception of the ground staff's service quality varied by gender and age group. Guidelines were proposed for the improvement of ground staff service quality at DMK based on the findings. Keywords: airport, ground staff, quality of service

  10. Cross-Cultural Perspectives of Service Quality and Risk in Air Transportation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cunningham, Lawrence F.; Young, Clifford E.; Lee, Moonkyu

    2002-01-01

    This study compares US and Korean customers in terms of their perceptions of airline service quality based on SERVPERF and industry-based measures, as well as their perceptions of risks involved in the airline choice. SERVPERF is a set of multi-dimensional measures of customer evaluations of service quality. The results indicate that: (1) US passengers are generally more satisfied with their airline service than Korean customers on most of the SERVPERF dimensions; (2) Koreans are generally more satisfied with the bumping procedures whereas US participants feel more satisfied with the airline's baggage handling, operations/safety, and connections; and (3) US participants perceive higher levels of performance and financial risks whereas Koreans feel greater social risk in choosing an airline. This study also examines the SERVPERF, industry-based measure, and perceived risk in predicting customer satisfaction with, and intention to repatronize the airline. The results suggest that US customers consider service reliability, in-flight comfort, and connections as the key factors determining satisfaction with airline service whereas Korean passengers generally regard reliability, assurance, and risk factors as predictors of satisfaction. The determining factors of customer intention to repatronize the airline are reliability and empathy for US, and reliability and overall risk for Korean customers. The study demonstrates the applicability of SERVPERF as a cross-cultural tool and indicates the importance of perceived risk in cross-cultural studies.

  11. Electricity supply. Older plants' impact on reliability and air quality

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    England-Joseph, Judy A.; Adams, Charles M.; Wood, David G.; Feehan, Daniel J.; Veal, Howard F.; Skeen, John H. III; Koenigs, Melvin J.; Lichtenfeld, David I.; Seretakis, Pauline J.

    1990-09-01

    Life extension of fossil fuel plants is a relatively recent phenomenon; thus, utilities have little experience to demonstrate the longer-term operating reliability of plants with an extended service life. While utility industry officials and government and industry studies express optimism that these plants will continue to operate reliably, the officials and the studies also caution that it is too soon to determine how pursuing life extension will affect the reliability of the nation's electricity supply. According to DOE, the number of fossil fuel generating units' 30 years old or older is expected to increase from about 2,500 in 1989 to roughly 3,700 in 1998, increasing such plants' share of overall generating capacity from 13 percent in 1989 to 27 percent in 1998. EPA estimates that with existing air quality requirements, fossil fuel plant emissions will increase steadily during the coming decade. Proposed acid rain control legislation, which would affect many plants that may have their service life extended, would require utilities to significantly reduce emissions by the year 2000 but would allow utilities flexibility in deciding how and where to achieve the reductions. If such legislation is enacted, utilities generally are expected to find reducing emissions from existing plants more cost-effective than replacing them and to continue extending plants' service life. Officials of DOE and utility organizations expressed concern, however, that EPA could decide, as it did for one plant in 1988, that alterations made in extending the service life of plants exempted from the Clean Air Act would result in increased emissions and thus cause the altered plants to lose their exemption. According to the officials, the additional costs of achieving the Clean Air Act's standards could discourage some life extension projects. However, such decisions by EPA could also reduce the nation's total power plant emissions by eliminating an existing incentive to retain exempt

  12. Cotton, tomato, corn, and onion production with subsurface drip irrigation – a review

    Science.gov (United States)

    The usage of subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) has increased by 89% in the USA during the last ten years according to USDA NASS estimates and over 93% of the SDI land area is located in just ten states. Combining public entity and private industry perceptions of SDI in these ten states, the major cro...

  13. System Reliability Engineering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lim, Tae Jin

    2005-02-01

    This book tells of reliability engineering, which includes quality and reliability, reliability data, importance of reliability engineering, reliability and measure, the poisson process like goodness of fit test and the poisson arrival model, reliability estimation like exponential distribution, reliability of systems, availability, preventive maintenance such as replacement policies, minimal repair policy, shock models, spares, group maintenance and periodic inspection, analysis of common cause failure, and analysis model of repair effect.

  14. Evaluation of off-service rotations at National Guard Health Affairs: Results from a perception survey of off-service residents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mustafa M Alquraini

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Context: "Off-service" clinical rotations are part of the necessary requirements for many residency training programs. Because these rotations are off-service, little attention is given to their structure and quality of training. This often leads to suboptimal educational experience for the residents on these rotations. Aims: The aim of this study was to assess medical residents′ perceptions, opinions, and levels of satisfaction with their "off-service" rotations at a major residency training site in Saudi Arabia. It was also to evaluate the reliability and validity of a questionnaire used for quality assurance in these rotations. Improved reliability and validity of this questionnaire may help to improve the educational experience of residents in their "off-service" rotations. Materials and Methods: A close-ended questionnaire was developed, Pilot tested and distributed to 110 off-service residents in training programs of different specializations at King Fahad Naitonal Guard Hospital and King Abdulziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between September 2011 and December 2011. Results: A total of 80 out of 110 residents completed and returned the questionnaire. Only 33% of these residents had a clear set of goals and educational learning objectives before the beginning of their off-service rotations to direct their training. Surgical specializations had low satisfaction mean scores of 57.2 (11.9 compared to emergency medicine, which had 70.7 (16.2, P value (0.03. The reliability of the questionnaire was Cronbach′s alpha 0.57. The factor analysis yielded a 4-factor solution (educational environment, educational balance, educational goals and objectives, and learning ability; thus, accounting for 51% variance in the data. Conclusion: Our data suggest that there were significant weaknesses in the curriculum for off-service clinical rotations in KAMC and that residents were not completely satisfied with their training.

  15. Mapping ecosystem services in the St. Louis River estuary (presentation)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Management of ecosystems for sustainable provision of services beneficial to human communities requires reliable data about from where in the ecosystem services flow. Our objective is to map ecosystem services in the St. Louis River with the overarching EPA goal of community sust...

  16. Evaluation and improvement of nondestructive evaluation reliability for inservice inspection of light water reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bates, D.J.; Deffenbaugh, J.D.; Good, M.S.; Heasler, P.G.; Mart, G.A.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.; Van Fleet, L.G.

    1987-01-01

    The Evaluation and Improvement of NDE Reliability for Inservice Inspection (ISI) of Light Water Reactors (NDE Reliability) Program at Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) was established to determine the reliability of current ISI techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this NRC program are to: determine the reliability of ultrasonic ISI performed on commercial light-water reactor (LWR) primary systems, using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis, determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety and determine the level of inspection reliability required to ensure a suitably low failure probability, evaluate the degree of reliability improvement that could be achieved using improved and advanced NDE techniques, based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties, recommend revisions to ASME Code, Section XI, and Regulatory Requirements that will ensure suitably low failure probabilities. The scope of this program is limited to ISI of primary systems; the results and recommendations may also be applicable to Class II piping systems

  17. Reliability implications for commercial Plowshare applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brumleve, T D [Plowshare Systems Research Division, Sandia Laboratories, Livermore, CA (United States)

    1970-05-15

    Based on the premise that there will always be a finite chance of a Plowshare project failure, the implications of such a failure are examined. It is suggested that the optimum reliability level will not necessarily be the highest attainable, but rather that which results in minimum average project cost. The type of performance guarantee that the U. S. should provide for nuclear explosive services, the determination of nuclear yield, courses of action to take in the event of failure, and methods to offset remedial costs are discussed. (author)

  18. Reliability implications for commercial Plowshare applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brumleve, T.D.

    1970-01-01

    Based on the premise that there will always be a finite chance of a Plowshare project failure, the implications of such a failure are examined. It is suggested that the optimum reliability level will not necessarily be the highest attainable, but rather that which results in minimum average project cost. The type of performance guarantee that the U. S. should provide for nuclear explosive services, the determination of nuclear yield, courses of action to take in the event of failure, and methods to offset remedial costs are discussed. (author)

  19. Evaluation of piping reliability and failure data for use in risk-based inspections of nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vasconcelos, V. de; Soares, W.A.; Costa, A.C.L. da; Rabello, E.G.; Marques, R.O.

    2016-01-01

    During operation of industrial facilities, components and systems can deteriorate over time, thus increasing the possibility of accidents. Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) involves inspection planning based on information about risks, through assessing of probability and consequence of failures. In-service inspections are used in nuclear power plants, in order to ensure reliable and safe operation. Traditional deterministic inspection approaches investigate generic degradation mechanisms on all systems. However, operating experience indicates that degradation occurs where there are favorable conditions for developing a specific mechanism. Inspections should be prioritized at these places. Risk-Informed In-service Inspections (RI-ISI) are types of RBI that use Probabilistic Safety Assessment results, increasing reliability and plant safety, and reducing radiation exposure. These assessments use both available generic reliability and failure data, as well as plant specific information. This paper proposes a method for evaluating piping reliability and failure data important for RI-ISI programs, as well as the techniques involved. (author)

  20. Evaluation of piping reliability and failure data for use in risk-based inspections of nuclear power plants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vasconcelos, V. de; Soares, W.A.; Costa, A.C.L. da; Rabello, E.G.; Marques, R.O., E-mail: vasconv@cdtn.br [Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear (CDTN/CNEN-MG), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil)

    2016-07-01

    During operation of industrial facilities, components and systems can deteriorate over time, thus increasing the possibility of accidents. Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) involves inspection planning based on information about risks, through assessing of probability and consequence of failures. In-service inspections are used in nuclear power plants, in order to ensure reliable and safe operation. Traditional deterministic inspection approaches investigate generic degradation mechanisms on all systems. However, operating experience indicates that degradation occurs where there are favorable conditions for developing a specific mechanism. Inspections should be prioritized at these places. Risk-Informed In-service Inspections (RI-ISI) are types of RBI that use Probabilistic Safety Assessment results, increasing reliability and plant safety, and reducing radiation exposure. These assessments use both available generic reliability and failure data, as well as plant specific information. This paper proposes a method for evaluating piping reliability and failure data important for RI-ISI programs, as well as the techniques involved. (author)

  1. A reliability simulation language for reliability analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deans, N.D.; Miller, A.J.; Mann, D.P.

    1986-01-01

    The results of work being undertaken to develop a Reliability Description Language (RDL) which will enable reliability analysts to describe complex reliability problems in a simple, clear and unambiguous way are described. Component and system features can be stated in a formal manner and subsequently used, along with control statements to form a structured program. The program can be compiled and executed on a general-purpose computer or special-purpose simulator. (DG)

  2. A study of operational and testing reliability in software reliability analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang, B.; Xie, M.

    2000-01-01

    Software reliability is an important aspect of any complex equipment today. Software reliability is usually estimated based on reliability models such as nonhomogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) models. Software systems are improving in testing phase, while it normally does not change in operational phase. Depending on whether the reliability is to be predicted for testing phase or operation phase, different measure should be used. In this paper, two different reliability concepts, namely, the operational reliability and the testing reliability, are clarified and studied in detail. These concepts have been mixed up or even misused in some existing literature. Using different reliability concept will lead to different reliability values obtained and it will further lead to different reliability-based decisions made. The difference of the estimated reliabilities is studied and the effect on the optimal release time is investigated

  3. Human reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Embrey, D.E.

    1987-01-01

    Concepts and techniques of human reliability have been developed and are used mostly in probabilistic risk assessment. For this, the major application of human reliability assessment has been to identify the human errors which have a significant effect on the overall safety of the system and to quantify the probability of their occurrence. Some of the major issues within human reliability studies are reviewed and it is shown how these are applied to the assessment of human failures in systems. This is done under the following headings; models of human performance used in human reliability assessment, the nature of human error, classification of errors in man-machine systems, practical aspects, human reliability modelling in complex situations, quantification and examination of human reliability, judgement based approaches, holistic techniques and decision analytic approaches. (UK)

  4. Franchising - a partnership model for efficient water services operation and maintenance

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Wall, K

    2007-05-01

    Full Text Available There is a need in South Africa for institutional innovations aimed at increasing the coverage and reliability of water services, and sustaining those services. The paper describes an alternative service delivery institutional concept, viz...

  5. Exploring public bus service quality in South Africa: A structural equation modelling approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ayanda M. Vilakazi

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available This study, which is a deviation from the usual practice of using SERVQUAL or an adaptedversion thereof, uses McKnight, Pagano and Paaswell’s (1986 service quality dimensions,namely reliability; extent of service; comfort; safety; and affordability (RECSA and structuralequation modelling to determine commuters’ perception of public bus service quality in amajor city in South Africa. The RECSA model was adapted and fitted to the data collectedfrom a convenience sample of bus commuters in Johannesburg, using structural equationmodelling. It was ascertained that reliability, service, comfort and safety influenced thepublic bus commuters’ perception of the overall service quality. The implications of theaforementioned findings for providers of public bus services are explained.

  6. Impact of inservice inspection on the reliability of pressure vessels and piping

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bush, S.H.

    1975-01-01

    The reliability of pressure components of a nuclear reactor is a function of the as-fabricated quality plus a program of continuing inspection during operation. Since insufficient data exist to quantitatively determine failure probabilities of nuclear pressure vessels and piping, it is necessary to utilize information from comparable non-nuclear systems such as power boilers. Based on probabilistic studies it is inferred that in-service inspection improves component reliability one-to-two orders of magnitude depending on the type and completeness of the inspections. An attempt is made to assess the significance of the ASME Section XI Code as to relative completeness of inspection and the probable improvement in reliability. (U.S.)

  7. Impact of inservice inspection on the reliability of pressure vessels and piping

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bush, S.H.

    1974-01-01

    The reliability of pressure components of a nuclear reactor is a function of the quality as-fabricated plus a program of continuing inspection during operation. Since insufficient data exist to quantitatively determine failure probabilities of nuclear pressure vessels and piping, it is necessary to utilize information from comparable non-nuclear systems such as power boilers. Based on probabilistic studies it is inferred that in-service inspection improves component reliability one-to-two orders of magnitude depending on the type and completeness of the inspections. An attempt is made to assess the significance of the ASME Section XI Code as to relative completeness of inspection and the probable improvement in reliability. (U.S.)

  8. NDT reliability in the organizational context of service inspection companies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holstein, Ralf; Bertovic, Marija; Kanzler, Daniel; Mueller, Christina

    2014-01-01

    The focus of NDT reliability research in the past was in the field of two high risk industries: (atomic) power plants and aircrafts. The responsible organizations have been well aware of the risks and founded projects to understand and optimize critical steps during production, operation and maintenance. But the use of NDT is not limited to these two fields. The risks during operation of chemical plants, trains or windmills are different from the area above but evident. The coverage by legal regulations is relatively low. Instead of this owner responsibility, product liability and financial issues are the driving forces to do inspections and to use non-destructive testing. The different targets and financial issues influence the practice of NDT-inspections. A survey of this practice and its results are shown. (orig.)

  9. Estimating the Service Lives of Building Products in Use

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Straub, A.

    2015-01-01

    Reliable service life data of building products are of great importance when completing environmental LCA (life cycle assessment) reviews, for LCC (life cycle costing) and for maintenance planning tasks. A research project was set up to answer the following research questions: (1) what are reliable

  10. Equilibrium moisture content of wood at different temperature/moisture conditions in the cladding of wooden constructions and in the relation to their reliability and service life

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zdeňka Havířová

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available One of the natural properties of wood and wood-based materials is their soaking capacity (hy­gro­sco­pi­ci­ty. The moisture content of wood and building constructions of wood and wood based materials significantly influences the service life and reliability of these constructions and buildings. The equilibrium weight moisture content of built-in wood corresponding to temperature/moisture conditions inside the cladding has therefore a decisive influence on the basic requirements placed on building constructions. The wood in wooden frame cladding changes its moisture content depending on temperature and moisture conditions of the environment it is built into. The water vapor condensation doesn’t necessarily have to occur right in the wooden framework of the cladding for the equilibrium moisture content to rise over the level permissible for the reliable function of a given construction. In spite of the fact that the common heat-technical assessment cannot be considered fully capable of detecting the effects of these factors on the functional reliability of wood-based constructions and buildings, an extension has been proposed of the present method of design an assessment of building constructions according to the ČSN 73 0540 standard regarding the interpretation of equilibrium moisture content in relation to the temperature/moisture conditions and their time behavior inside a construction.

  11. E-Service Quality Evaluation on E-Government Website: Case Study BPJS Kesehatan Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rasyid, A.; Alfina, I.

    2017-01-01

    This research intends to develop a model to evaluate the quality of e-services on e-government. The proposed model consists of seven dimensions: web design, reliability, responsiveness, privacy and security, personalization, information, and ease of use. The model is used to measure the quality of the e-registration of BPJS Kesehatan, an Indonesian government health insurance program. The validation and reliability testing show that of the seven dimensions proposed, only four that suitable for the case study. The result shows that the BPJS Kesehatan e-registration service is good in reliability and responsiveness dimensions, while from web design and ease of use dimensions the e-service still needs to be optimized.

  12. Maintenance management of railway infrastructures based on reliability analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Macchi, Marco; Garetti, Marco; Centrone, Domenico; Fumagalli, Luca; Piero Pavirani, Gian

    2012-01-01

    Railway infrastructure maintenance plays a crucial role for rail transport. It aims at guaranteeing safety of operations and availability of railway tracks and related equipment for traffic regulation. Moreover, it is one major cost for rail transport operations. Thus, the increased competition in traffic market is asking for maintenance improvement, aiming at the reduction of maintenance expenditures while keeping the safety of operations. This issue is addressed by the methodology presented in the paper. The first step of the methodology consists of a family-based approach for the equipment reliability analysis; its purpose is the identification of families of railway items which can be given the same reliability targets. The second step builds the reliability model of the railway system for identifying the most critical items, given a required service level for the transportation system. The two methods have been implemented and tested in practical case studies, in the context of Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, the Italian public limited company for railway transportation.

  13. Reliability Calculations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Kurt Erling

    1986-01-01

    Risk and reliability analysis is increasingly being used in evaluations of plant safety and plant reliability. The analysis can be performed either during the design process or during the operation time, with the purpose to improve the safety or the reliability. Due to plant complexity and safety...... and availability requirements, sophisticated tools, which are flexible and efficient, are needed. Such tools have been developed in the last 20 years and they have to be continuously refined to meet the growing requirements. Two different areas of application were analysed. In structural reliability probabilistic...... approaches have been introduced in some cases for the calculation of the reliability of structures or components. A new computer program has been developed based upon numerical integration in several variables. In systems reliability Monte Carlo simulation programs are used especially in analysis of very...

  14. An Assessment of Customer Service in the Nigeria ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This study examined customer services in the Nigeria telecommunication industry by comparing Zain and MTN companies. Primary data were collected from a total of 60 respondents. Data collected were on consumer service elements such as: reliability, delivery frequency, delivery accuracy, quality of salespeople, ...

  15. The Importance of Perceived Service Value in Retail Banking Services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleksandra Pisnik

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Purpose – In many industries, perceived service value is found to be a significant mediator between perceived service quality and customer satisfaction and loyalty. Therefore, this paper aims to test a conceptual model of perceived service value with its antecedents, such as perceived price and perceived service quality, and consequences, customer satisfaction and loyalty, in the retail banking industry. Design/Methodology/Approach – For the empirical study, a measurement instrument was developed and tested for validity and reliability. Measures were assessed with exploratory factor analysis (EFA, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA and structural equation modeling (SEM. A structural model with five reflective constructs was evaluated to test direct and indirect relationships among constructs. Findings and implications – Results confirm a mediating role of perceived value in relationships between perceived price, perceived service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in the case of retail banking services. Limitations – Because the results are directly relevant only to customers and marketing managers of retail banking services, generalizations of the findings beyond the immediate population observed should be made with caution. Originality – This paper extends existing knowledge with both direct and indirect effects among researched concepts, and shows the importance of perceived service value in achieving satisfied and loyal customers in retail banking services.

  16. Reliability of high-voltage pulse capacitors operating in large energy storages

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kuchinskij, G.S.; Fedorova, V.S.; Shilin, O.V.

    1982-01-01

    To improve the reliability of pulse capacitors operating in capacitive energy storages, processes, resulting in break-down of capacitor insulation were investigated. A statistic model of failures was constructed and reliability of real capacitors, functioning at operating electric intensity Usub(oper) equal 70 kV/mm and at elevated intensity 90 kV/mm was calculated. Results of testing the IK50-ZU4 capacitor are given. The form of the capacitor service life distribution function was specified. To provide and confirm the assigned capacitor reliability, it is necessary to speed up tests at a higher voltage (1.3-1.5) Usub(oper). To improve the capacitor reliability, it is advisable to conduct acceptance tests, which include hold at increased constant voltage (1.3-1.5) Usub(oper) during 1-3 min and the effect of pulses of increased voltage (1.2-1.3) Usub(oper) with the pulse shape corresponding to operating conditions

  17. Improving the Efficiency of Administrative Decision-Making when Monitoring Reliability and Safety of Oil and Gas Equipment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zemenkova Maria

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Methodology of rapid assessment of reliability index was developed based on system analysis of technological parameters. Within functioning of on-line monitoring system of reliability index of industrial facility this method allows to increase efficiency of making managerial decisions on technical and preventive maintenance. The technique is based on the analysis of technological parameters of operational modes of pipeline transport facilities registered by dispatcher controls. The created technique can be used by the operating, research, design institutes and oil and gas transport enterprises when declaring industrial safety. The received mathematical models allow federal services of supervision, the independent expert organizations to predict the development of reliability in the registered block of dispatching data either in real time mode, or taking into account the dynamics of service conditions of the object.

  18. Security of a practical semi-device-independent quantum key distribution protocol against collective attacks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Yang; Bao Wan-Su; Li Hong-Wei; Zhou Chun; Li Yuan

    2014-01-01

    Similar to device-independent quantum key distribution (DI-QKD), semi-device-independent quantum key distribution (SDI-QKD) provides secure key distribution without any assumptions about the internal workings of the QKD devices. The only assumption is that the dimension of the Hilbert space is bounded. But SDI-QKD can be implemented in a one-way prepare-and-measure configuration without entanglement compared with DI-QKD. We propose a practical SDI-QKD protocol with four preparation states and three measurement bases by considering the maximal violation of dimension witnesses and specific processes of a QKD protocol. Moreover, we prove the security of the SDI-QKD protocol against collective attacks based on the min-entropy and dimension witnesses. We also show a comparison of the secret key rate between the SDI-QKD protocol and the standard QKD. (general)

  19. Compilation of the calculation elements of the electronic equipments reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lefevre, R.; D'Harcourt, A.; Dupuy, G.

    1968-01-01

    The aim of this work is to allow the practical execution of the estimated calculation of the electronic devices reliability and to standardize the source and the approach of the calculations while giving a systematic character to their execution mode. The systematic character of the calculations allows a comparison of the reliability of different materials and a rapid control of the calculations validity; at last, it brings out the use conditions of all the components of a set. A reliability calculation made according to the method described here reveals: -components badly used -the relative influence on the reliability of the set, of a component or a components group taking into account of the number, of the characteristics and of the use of these ones. At last, the results of the calculation allows to organize the exploitation (availability) and the maintenance (staff, stock of components) of the materials. The failure rates given in this book are only relating to the components service-life and do not correspond to precocious failures. (authors) [fr

  20. Child and adolescent service experience (ChASE): measuring service quality and therapeutic process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Day, Crispin; Michelson, Daniel; Hassan, Imren

    2011-11-01

    OBJECTIVES. Dissatisfaction with services has been associated with poorer child mental health outcomes, early treatment termination as well as disagreements over the nature of mental health difficulties, reasons for referral and therapy goals. The development of straightforward, reliable, and accurate methods of eliciting service users' views is essential within child and adolescent mental health care. This paper describes the development of the child and adolescent service experience (ChASE), a tool to measure children and young people's service experience DESIGN. The study comprises a non-experimental, cross-sectional design. METHODS. Participants were 132 mental health service users aged 8-18 years. Participants and their main carer completed the ChASE, Parent Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ) (Stallard, 1996) and Strengths and Difficulties (SDQ) Impact Supplement. Clinicians completed the SDQ Impact Supplement and provided clinical activity data. A sub-sample of participants completed the ChASE on a second occasion, 6 weeks after the completion of the first questionnaire. RESULTS. Scrutiny of ChASE data indicated high levels of completion. Principal axis factoring identified three factors within the ChASE: Relationship, Privacy, and Session Activity. The ChASE has good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Significant correlations were found between the ChASE and carer satisfaction, service use, and youth clinical outcomes. CONCLUSIONS. The ChASE is a short, psychometrically robust tool for routine measurement of children, and young people's experience of mental health services, which users can complete easily. The results underline the importance of alliance factors to children and young people and their association with clinical improvement as well as the potential for the ChASE to be used a measure of children's therapeutic progress and alliance. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

  1. Technical report on the Piping Reliability Proving Tests at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1993-05-01

    Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) conducts Piping Reliability Proving Tests from 1975 to 1992 based upon the contracts between JAERI and Science and Technology Agency of Japan (STA) under the auspices of the special account law for electric power development promotion. The purpose of these tests are to prove the structural reliability of the primary cooling piping constituting a part of the pressure boundary in the light water reactor power plants. The tests with large experimental facilities had ended already in 1990. Presently piping reliability analysis by the probabilistic fracture mechanics method is being done. Until now annual reports concerning the proving tests were produced and submitted to STA, whereas this report summarizes the test results done during these 16 years. Objectives of the piping reliability proving tests are to prove that the primary piping of the light water reactor (1) be reliable throughout the service period, (2) have no possibility of rupture, (3) bring no detrimental influence on the surrounding instrumentations or equipments near the break location even if it ruptured suddenly. To attain these objectives (i) pipe fatigue tests, (ii) unstable pipe fracture tests, (iii) pipe rupture tests and also the analyses by computer codes were done. After carrying out these tests, it is verified that the piping is reliable throughout the service period. The authors of this report are T. Isozaki, K. Shibata, S. Ueda, R. Kurihara, K. Onizawa and A. Kohsaka. The parts they wrote are shown in contents. (author)

  2. High pressure, high current, low inductance, high reliability sealed terminals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsu, John S [Oak Ridge, TN; McKeever, John W [Oak Ridge, TN

    2010-03-23

    The invention is a terminal assembly having a casing with at least one delivery tapered-cone conductor and at least one return tapered-cone conductor routed there-through. The delivery and return tapered-cone conductors are electrically isolated from each other and positioned in the annuluses of ordered concentric cones at an off-normal angle. The tapered cone conductor service can be AC phase conductors and DC link conductors. The center core has at least one service conduit of gate signal leads, diagnostic signal wires, and refrigerant tubing routed there-through. A seal material is in direct contact with the casing inner surface, the tapered-cone conductors, and the service conduits thereby hermetically filling the interstitial space in the casing interior core and center core. The assembly provides simultaneous high-current, high-pressure, low-inductance, and high-reliability service.

  3. Reliability in the utility computing era: Towards reliable Fog computing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madsen, Henrik; Burtschy, Bernard; Albeanu, G.

    2013-01-01

    This paper considers current paradigms in computing and outlines the most important aspects concerning their reliability. The Fog computing paradigm as a non-trivial extension of the Cloud is considered and the reliability of the networks of smart devices are discussed. Combining the reliability...... requirements of grid and cloud paradigms with the reliability requirements of networks of sensor and actuators it follows that designing a reliable Fog computing platform is feasible....

  4. Reliability and Validity of Modified Service Quality Instrument (SERVQUAL) in Patients' Motivation to Adhere to Insulin Therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jakupovic, Vedran; Solakovic, Suajb; Celebic, Nedim; Kulovic, Dzenan

    2018-03-01

    Diabetes is progressive condition which requires various ways of treatment. Adequate therapy prescribed in the right time helps patient to postpone development of complications. Adherence to complicated therapy is challenge for both patients and HCPs and is subject of research in many disciplines. Improvement in communication between HCP and patients is very important in patient's adherence to therapy. Aim of this research was to explore validity and reliability of modified SERVQUAL instrument in attempt to explore ways of motivating diabetic patient to accept prescribed insulin therapy. We used modified SERVQUAL questionnaire as instrument in the research. It was necessary to check validity and reliability of the new modified instrument. Results show that modified Servqual instrument has excellent reliability (α=0.908), so we could say that it measures precisely Expectations, Perceptions and Motivation at patients. Factor analysis (EFA method) with Varimax rotation extracted 4 factors which together explain 52.902% variance of the results on this subscale. Bifactorial solution could be seen on Scree-plot diagram (break at second factor). Results in this research show that modified Servqual instrument which is created in order to measure expectations and perceptions of the patients is valid and reliable. Reliability and validity are proven indeed in additional dimension which was created originally for this research - motivation to accept insulin therapy.

  5. Reliability and Validity of Modified Service Quality Instrument (SERVQUAL) in Patients’ Motivation to Adhere to Insulin Therapy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jakupovic, Vedran; Solakovic, Suajb; Celebic, Nedim; Kulovic, Dzenan

    2018-01-01

    Introduction: Diabetes is progressive condition which requires various ways of treatment. Adequate therapy prescribed in the right time helps patient to postpone development of complications. Adherence to complicated therapy is challenge for both patients and HCPs and is subject of research in many disciplines. Improvement in communication between HCP and patients is very important in patient’s adherence to therapy. Aim: Aim of this research was to explore validity and reliability of modified SERVQUAL instrument in attempt to explore ways of motivating diabetic patient to accept prescribed insulin therapy. Material and Methods: We used modified SERVQUAL questionnaire as instrument in the research. It was necessary to check validity and reliability of the new modified instrument. Results: Results show that modified Servqual instrument has excellent reliability (α=0.908), so we could say that it measures precisely Expectations, Perceptions and Motivation at patients. Factor analysis (EFA method) with Varimax rotation extracted 4 factors which together explain 52.902% variance of the results on this subscale. Bifactorial solution could be seen on Scree-plot diagram (break at second factor). Conclusion: Results in this research show that modified Servqual instrument which is created in order to measure expectations and perceptions of the patients is valid and reliable. Reliability and validity are proven indeed in additional dimension which was created originally for this research - motivation to accept insulin therapy. PMID:29670478

  6. Dependent systems reliability estimation by structural reliability approach

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kostandyan, Erik; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

    2014-01-01

    Estimation of system reliability by classical system reliability methods generally assumes that the components are statistically independent, thus limiting its applicability in many practical situations. A method is proposed for estimation of the system reliability with dependent components, where...... the leading failure mechanism(s) is described by physics of failure model(s). The proposed method is based on structural reliability techniques and accounts for both statistical and failure effect correlations. It is assumed that failure of any component is due to increasing damage (fatigue phenomena...... identification. Application of the proposed method can be found in many real world systems....

  7. Fault recovery in the reliable multicast protocol

    Science.gov (United States)

    Callahan, John R.; Montgomery, Todd L.; Whetten, Brian

    1995-01-01

    The Reliable Multicast Protocol (RMP) provides a unique, group-based model for distributed programs that need to handle reconfiguration events at the application layer. This model, called membership views, provides an abstraction in which events such as site failures, network partitions, and normal join-leave events are viewed as group reformations. RMP provides access to this model through an application programming interface (API) that notifies an application when a group is reformed as the result of a some event. RMP provides applications with reliable delivery of messages using an underlying IP Multicast (12, 5) media to other group members in a distributed environment even in the case of reformations. A distributed application can use various Quality of Service (QoS) levels provided by RMP to tolerate group reformations. This paper explores the implementation details of the mechanisms in RMP that provide distributed applications with membership view information and fault recovery capabilities.

  8. Areva: experiences in outage services

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wiemeier, R.; Mueller, N.; Blanco, I. J.

    2010-01-01

    As the world leader in the nuclear industry, Areva is firmly committed to the safe and reliable operation of the Spanish nuclear power plants. Following this commitment, Areva has established the subsidiary Areva NP Services Spain as a local platform to provide nuclear services for the Spanish nuclear power plants. being integrated and supported by the global Areva Group, Areva NP Services Spain is able to offer services solutions to all customers demands while maintaining close and sustainable relationships with them. This integration also allows the Spanish personnel of Areva to employ their skills by working in multinational teams in international projects. This article will present the capacities, and the most important recent national and international project performed by Areva NP Services Spain in the field of outage services. (Author)

  9. Evaluation of products and services of a nursing library: user satisfaction

    OpenAIRE

    Cozin,Sheila Kátia; Turrini,Ruth Natalia Teresa

    2008-01-01

    The goal of the study was to evaluate the quality of the services provided by the library at the Nursing School of the University of São Paulo. A questionnaire evaluating users' satisfaction with the service was employed, covering five quality components: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The Satisfaction Rate was calculated through the degree of importance in relation to satisfaction. The analysis of the open-ended answers was quanti-qualitative. For Reliability ...

  10. Health Services OutPatient Experience questionnaire: factorial validity and reliability of a patient-centered outcome measure for outpatient settings in Italy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Coluccia A

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Anna Coluccia, Fabio Ferretti, Andrea PozzaDepartment of Medical Sciences, Surgery and Neurosciences, Santa Maria alle Scotte University Hospital, University of Siena, Siena, ItalyPurpose: The patient-centered approach to health care does not seem to be sufficiently developed in the Italian context, and is still characterized by the biomedical model. In addition, there is a lack of validated outcome measures to assess outpatient experience as an aspect common to a variety of settings. The current study aimed to evaluate the factorial validity, reliability, and invariance across sex of the Health Services OutPatient Experience (HSOPE questionnaire, a short ten-item measure of patient-centeredness for Italian adult outpatients. The rationale for unidimensionality of the measure was that it could cover global patient experience as a process common to patients with a variety of diseases and irrespective of the phase of treatment course.Patients and methods: The HSOPE was compiled by 1,532 adult outpatients (51% females, mean age 59.22 years, standard deviation 16.26 receiving care in ten facilities at the Santa Maria alle Scotte University Hospital of Siena, Italy. The sample represented all the age cohorts. Twelve percent were young adults, 57% were adults, and 32% were older adults. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate factor structure. Reliability was evaluated as internal consistency using Cronbach’s α. Factor invariance was assessed through multigroup analyses.Results: Both exploratory and confirmatory analyses suggested a clearly defined unidimensional structure of the measure, with all the ten items having salient loadings on a single factor. Internal consistency was excellent (α=0.95. Indices of model fit supported a single-factor structure for both male and female outpatient groups. Young adult outpatients had significantly lower scores on perceived patient-centeredness relative to older adults. No

  11. Trust management support for context-aware service platforms

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Neisse, R.; Wegdam, M.; van Sinderen, Marten J.; Aldini, A.; Bogliolo, A.

    High quality context information retrieved from trustworthy context providers allows a more reliable context-aware service adaption but also implies a higher risk for the service users in case of privacy violations. In this chapter we present a trust management model that support users and providers

  12. Analyzing the reliability of shuffle-exchange networks using reliability block diagrams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bistouni, Fathollah; Jahanshahi, Mohsen

    2014-01-01

    Supercomputers and multi-processor systems are comprised of thousands of processors that need to communicate in an efficient way. One reasonable solution would be the utilization of multistage interconnection networks (MINs), where the challenge is to analyze the reliability of such networks. One of the methods to increase the reliability and fault-tolerance of the MINs is use of various switching stages. Therefore, recently, the reliability of one of the most common MINs namely shuffle-exchange network (SEN) has been evaluated through the investigation on the impact of increasing the number of switching stage. Also, it is concluded that the reliability of SEN with one additional stage (SEN+) is better than SEN or SEN with two additional stages (SEN+2), even so, the reliability of SEN is better compared to SEN with two additional stages (SEN+2). Here we re-evaluate the reliability of these networks where the results of the terminal, broadcast, and network reliability analysis demonstrate that SEN+ and SEN+2 continuously outperform SEN and are very alike in terms of reliability. - Highlights: • The impact of increasing the number of stages on reliability of MINs is investigated. • The RBD method as an accurate method is used for the reliability analysis of MINs. • Complex series–parallel RBDs are used to determine the reliability of the MINs. • All measures of the reliability (i.e. terminal, broadcast, and network reliability) are analyzed. • All reliability equations will be calculated for different size N×N

  13. Privately Provided Accommodation Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joshua Mugambwa

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Privately provided accommodation is a growing service in Uganda’s higher education sector due to education liberalization and demand for education. This research took a case study of Nsamizi Training Institute of Social Development (NTISD to determine the relationship between privately provided accommodation service quality and customer satisfaction. Specifically, the objectives of the study were (a to find out the relationship between security and NTISD students’ satisfaction with privately provided accommodation, and (b to find out the hierarchical level of importance of NTISD student satisfaction of the three service quality dimensions (reliability, security, and tangibles with privately provided accommodation. Using quantitative and qualitative modes of data analysis and a sample of 300 students from 20 private hostels, this study established a strong positive significant relationship between security and satisfaction regarding privately provided accommodation. This implies that accommodation service providers should increase the quality of security so as to increase the satisfaction of students regarding privately provided accommodation. The study established the hierarchical order of importance from the most important service quality dimension, respectively, as follows: reliability, security, and tangibles. Therefore, private accommodation service managers should pay extra attention to the dimensions in the same order.

  14. Lecture 8: Data Reliability at CERN and Ideas on How to Improve it

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2013-01-01

    The talk will give an overview of data management activities at CERN focusing on the ongoing research activities aiming to improve data and service reliability. Alberto Pace is a member if the IT department at CERN where he leads the Data and Storage services group ensuring a coherent development process for Physics Data management activities, strongly driven by operational and user needs. He has more than 25 years experience in computing services, infrastructure, software engineering, accelerator control and accelerator operation. He graduated in Electronic Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (Italy).

  15. Critical spare parts ordering decisions using conditional reliability and stochastic lead time

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Godoy, David R.; Pascual, Rodrigo; Knights, Peter

    2013-01-01

    Asset-intensive companies face great pressure to reduce operation costs and increase utilization. This scenario often leads to over-stress on critical equipment and its spare parts associated, affecting availability, reliability, and system performance. As these resources impact considerably on financial and operational structures, the opportunity is given by demand for decision-making methods for the management of spare parts processes. We proposed an ordering decision-aid technique which uses a measurement of spare performance, based on the stress–strength interference theory; which we have called Condition-Based Service Level (CBSL). We focus on Condition Managed Critical Spares (CMS), namely, spares which are expensive, highly reliable, with higher lead times, and are not available in store. As a mitigation measure, CMS are under condition monitoring. The aim of the paper is orienting the decision time for CMS ordering or just continuing the operation. The paper presents a graphic technique which considers a rule for decision based on both condition-based reliability function and a stochastic/fixed lead time. For the stochastic lead time case, results show that technique is effective to determine the time when the system operation is reliable and can withstand the lead time variability, satisfying a desired service level. Additionally, for the constant lead time case, the technique helps to define insurance spares. In conclusion, presented ordering decision rule is useful to asset managers for enhancing the operational continuity affected by spare parts

  16. Laboratory evaluation of the Design Analysis Associates DAA H-3613i radar water-level sensor—Results of temperature, distance, and SDI-12 tests

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carnley, Mark V.

    2016-09-30

    The Design Analysis Associates (DAA) DAA H-3613i radar water-level sensor (DAA H-3613i), manufactured by Xylem Incorporated, was evaluated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility (HIF) for conformance to manufacturer’s accuracy specifications for measuring a distance throughout the sensor’s operating temperature range, for measuring distances from 3 to 15 feet at ambient temperatures, and for compliance with the SDI-12 serial-to-digital interface at 1200-baud communication standard. The DAA H-3613i is a noncontact water-level sensor that uses pulsed radar to measure the distance between the radar and the water surface from 0.75 to 131 feet over a temperature range of −40 to 60 degrees Celsius (°C). Manufacturer accuracy specifications that were evaluated, the test procedures that followed, and the results obtained are described in this report. The sensor’s accuracy specification of ± 0.01 feet (± 3 millimeters) meets USGS requirements for a primary water-stage sensor used in the operation of a streamgage. The sensor met the manufacturer’s stated accuracy specifications for water-level measurements during temperature testing at a distance of 8 feet from the target over its temperature-compensated operating range of −40 to 60 °C, except at 60 °C. At 60 °C, about half the measurements exceeded the manufacturer’s accuracy specification by not more than 0.005 feet.The sensor met the manufacturer’s stated accuracy specifications for water-level measurements during distance-accuracy testing at the tested distances from 3 to 15 feet above the water surface at the HIF.

  17. Application of subset simulation in reliability estimation of underground pipelines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tee, Kong Fah; Khan, Lutfor Rahman; Li, Hongshuang

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents a computational framework for implementing an advanced Monte Carlo simulation method, called Subset Simulation (SS) for time-dependent reliability prediction of underground flexible pipelines. The SS can provide better resolution for low failure probability level of rare failure events which are commonly encountered in pipeline engineering applications. Random samples of statistical variables are generated efficiently and used for computing probabilistic reliability model. It gains its efficiency by expressing a small probability event as a product of a sequence of intermediate events with larger conditional probabilities. The efficiency of SS has been demonstrated by numerical studies and attention in this work is devoted to scrutinise the robustness of the SS application in pipe reliability assessment and compared with direct Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) method. Reliability of a buried flexible steel pipe with time-dependent failure modes, namely, corrosion induced deflection, buckling, wall thrust and bending stress has been assessed in this study. The analysis indicates that corrosion induced excessive deflection is the most critical failure event whereas buckling is the least susceptible during the whole service life of the pipe. The study also shows that SS is robust method to estimate the reliability of buried pipelines and it is more efficient than MCS, especially in small failure probability prediction

  18. Reliability data banks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cannon, A.G.; Bendell, A.

    1991-01-01

    Following an introductory chapter on Reliability, what is it, why it is needed, how it is achieved and measured, the principles of reliability data bases and analysis methodologies are the subject of the next two chapters. Achievements due to the development of data banks are mentioned for different industries in the next chapter, FACTS, a comprehensive information system for industrial safety and reliability data collection in process plants are covered next. CREDO, the Central Reliability Data Organization is described in the next chapter and is indexed separately, as is the chapter on DANTE, the fabrication reliability Data analysis system. Reliability data banks at Electricite de France and IAEA's experience in compiling a generic component reliability data base are also separately indexed. The European reliability data system, ERDS, and the development of a large data bank come next. The last three chapters look at 'Reliability data banks, - friend foe or a waste of time'? and future developments. (UK)

  19. An Introduction To Reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, Kyoung Su

    1993-08-01

    This book introduces reliability with definition of reliability, requirement of reliability, system of life cycle and reliability, reliability and failure rate such as summary, reliability characteristic, chance failure, failure rate which changes over time, failure mode, replacement, reliability in engineering design, reliability test over assumption of failure rate, and drawing of reliability data, prediction of system reliability, conservation of system, failure such as summary and failure relay and analysis of system safety.

  20. Evaluation and improvement in nondestructive examination (NDE) reliability for inservice inspection of light water reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doctor, S.R.; Andersen, E.S.; Bowey, R.E.; Diaz, A.A.; Good, M.S.; Heasler, P.G.; Hockey, R.L.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.; Vo, T.V.

    1991-01-01

    This program is intended to establish the effectiveness, reliability and adequacy of inservice inspection of reactor pressure vessels and primary piping systems and the impact of ISI reliability on system integrity. The objectives of the program include: (a) determine the effectiveness and reliability of ultrasonic inservice inspection (ISI) performed on commercial, light water reactor pressure vessels and piping; (b) recommend Code changes to the inspection procedures to improve the reliability of ISI; (c) using fracture mechanics analysis, determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety and determine the level of inspection reliability required to assure a suitably low failure probability; (d) evaluate the degree of reliability improvement which could be achieved using improved NDE techniques; and (e) based on importance of component to safety, material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties, formulate improved inservice inspection criteria (including sampling plan, frequency, and reliability of inspection) for revisions to ASME Section XI and regulatory requirements needed to assure suitably low failure probabilities

  1. Airline service quality evaluation: A review on concepts and models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Navid Haghighat

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper reviews different major service quality concept and models which led to great developments in evaluating service quality with focusing on improvement process of the models through discussing criticisms of each model. Criticisms against these models are discussed to clarify development steps of newer models which led to the improvement of airline service quality models. The precise and accurate evaluation of service quality needs utilizing a reliable concept with comprehensive criteria and effective measurement techniques as the fundamentals of a valuable framework. In this paper, service quality models improvement is described based on three major service quality concepts, the disconfirmation, performance and hierarchical concepts which are developed subsequently. Reviewing various criteria and different measurement techniques such a statistical analysis and multi-criteria decision making assist researchers to have a clear understanding of the development of the evaluation framework in the airline industry. This study aims at promoting reliable frameworks for evaluating airline service quality in different countries and societies due to economic, cultural and social aspects of each society.

  2. Statistical reliability assessment of UT round-robin test data for piping welds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, H.M.; Park, I.K.; Park, U.S.; Park, Y.W.; Kang, S.C.; Lee, J.H.

    2004-01-01

    Ultrasonic NDE is one of important technologies in the life-time maintenance of nuclear power plant. Ultrasonic inspection system is consisted of the operator, equipment and procedure. The reliability of ultrasonic inspection system is affected by its ability. The performance demonstration round robin was conducted to quantify the capability of ultrasonic inspection for in-service. Several teams employed procedures that met or exceeded with ASME sec. XI code requirements detected the piping of nuclear power plant with various cracks to evaluate the capability of detection and sizing. In this paper, the statistical reliability assessment of ultrasonic nondestructive inspection data using probability of detection (POD) is presented. The result of POD using logistic model was useful to the reliability assessment for the NDE hit or miss data. (orig.)

  3. Highly Reliable PON Optical Splitters for Optical Access Networks in Outside Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watanabe, Hiroshi; Araki, Noriyuki; Fujimoto, Hisashi

    Broadband optical access services are spreading throughout the world, and the number of fiber to the home (FTTH) subscribers is increasing rapidly. Telecom operators are constructing passive optical networks (PONs) to provide optical access services. Externally installed optical splitters for PONs are very important passive devices in optical access networks, and they must provide satisfactory performance as outdoor plant over long periods. Therefore, we calculate the failure rate of optical access networks and assign a failure rate to the optical splitters in optical access networks. The maximum cumulative failure rate of 1 × 8 optical splitters was calculated as 0.025 for an optical access fiber length of 2.1km and a 20-year operating lifetime. We examined planar lightwave circuit (PLC) type optical splitters for use as outside plant in terms of their optical characteristics and environmental reliability. We confirmed that PLC type optical splitters have sufficient optical performance for a PON splitter and sufficient reliability as outside plant in accordance with ITU-T standard values. We estimated the lifetimes of three kinds of PLC type optical splitters by using accelerated aging tests. The estimated failure rate of these splitters installed in optical access networks was below the target value for the cumulative failure rate, and we confirmed that they have sufficient reliability to maintain the quality of the network service. We developed 1 × 8 optical splitter modules with plug and socket type optical connectors and optical fiber cords for optical aerial closures designed for use as outside plant. These technologies make it easy to install optical splitters in an aerial optical closure. The optical splitter modules have sufficient optical performance levels for PONs because the insertion loss at the commercially used wavelengths of 1.31 and 1.55µm is less than the criterion established by ITU-T Recommendation G.671 for optical splitters. We performed a

  4. The stock-flow model of spatial data infrastructure development refined by fuzzy logic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdolmajidi, Ehsan; Harrie, Lars; Mansourian, Ali

    2016-01-01

    The system dynamics technique has been demonstrated to be a proper method by which to model and simulate the development of spatial data infrastructures (SDI). An SDI is a collaborative effort to manage and share spatial data at different political and administrative levels. It is comprised of various dynamically interacting quantitative and qualitative (linguistic) variables. To incorporate linguistic variables and their joint effects in an SDI-development model more effectively, we suggest employing fuzzy logic. Not all fuzzy models are able to model the dynamic behavior of SDIs properly. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate different fuzzy models and their suitability for modeling SDIs. To that end, two inference and two defuzzification methods were used for the fuzzification of the joint effect of two variables in an existing SDI model. The results show that the Average-Average inference and Center of Area defuzzification can better model the dynamics of SDI development.

  5. Fitness for service - A continuing challenge

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McGonnagle, W.J.

    1983-01-01

    Fitness for service, as defined by this author, is the ability of a material, component, or system - the product - to perform its designated function. A fitness for service program promotes quality, assures reliability, enhances confidence and improves the safety of products - which is crucial in a critical industry as nuclear energy. Fitness for service necessitates strict adherence to and conformance with all safety and quality requirements. In short, the product must perform its designated function, under designated operational and environmental conditions, for a designated period of time

  6. A multi-state reliability evaluation model for P2P networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fan Hehong; Sun Xiaohan

    2010-01-01

    The appearance of new service types and the convergence tendency of the communication networks have endowed the networks more and more P2P (peer to peer) properties. These networks can be more robust and tolerant for a series of non-perfect operational states due to the non-deterministic server-client distributions. Thus a reliability model taking into account of the multi-state and non-deterministic server-client distribution properties is needed for appropriate evaluation of the networks. In this paper, two new performance measures are defined to quantify the overall and local states of the networks. A new time-evolving state-transition Monte Carlo (TEST-MC) simulation model is presented for the reliability analysis of P2P networks in multiple states. The results show that the model is not only valid for estimating the traditional binary-state network reliability parameters, but also adequate for acquiring the parameters in a series of non-perfect operational states, with good efficiencies, especially for highly reliable networks. Furthermore, the model is versatile for the reliability and maintainability analyses in that both the links and the nodes can be failure-prone with arbitrary life distributions, and various maintainability schemes can be applied.

  7. Towards the internet of services

    CERN Document Server

    Wahlster, Wolfgang; Wess, Stefan; Friedrich, Hermann; Widenka, Thomas

    2014-01-01

    The Internet of Services and the Internet of Things are major building blocks of the Future Internet. The digital enterprise of the future is based not only on mobile, social, and cloud technologies, but also on se­mantic technologies and the future Internet of Everything. Semantic technologies now enable mass cus­tomization for the delivery of goods and services that meet individual customer needs and tastes with near mass production efficiency and reliability. This is creating a competitive advantage in the industrial econ­omy, the service economy, and the emerging data economy, leading to

  8. Bayes Analysis and Reliability Implications of Stress-Rupture Testing a Kevlar/Epoxy COPV Using Temperature and Pressure Acceleration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phoenix, S. Leigh; Kezirian, Michael T.; Murthy, Pappu L. N.

    2009-01-01

    Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPVs) that have survived a long service time under pressure generally must be recertified before service is extended. Flight certification is dependent on the reliability analysis to quantify the risk of stress rupture failure in existing flight vessels. Full certification of this reliability model would require a statistically significant number of lifetime tests to be performed and is impractical given the cost and limited flight hardware for certification testing purposes. One approach to confirm the reliability model is to perform a stress rupture test on a flight COPV. Currently, testing of such a Kevlar49 (Dupont)/epoxy COPV is nearing completion. The present paper focuses on a Bayesian statistical approach to analyze the possible failure time results of this test and to assess the implications in choosing between possible model parameter values that in the past have had significant uncertainty. The key uncertain parameters in this case are the actual fiber stress ratio at operating pressure, and the Weibull shape parameter for lifetime; the former has been uncertain due to ambiguities in interpreting the original and a duplicate burst test. The latter has been uncertain due to major differences between COPVs in the database and the actual COPVs in service. Any information obtained that clarifies and eliminates uncertainty in these parameters will have a major effect on the predicted reliability of the service COPVs going forward. The key result is that the longer the vessel survives, the more likely the more optimistic stress ratio model is correct. At the time of writing, the resulting effect on predicted future reliability is dramatic, increasing it by about one "nine," that is, reducing the predicted probability of failure by an order of magnitude. However, testing one vessel does not change the uncertainty on the Weibull shape parameter for lifetime since testing several vessels would be necessary.

  9. Reliability calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Petersen, K.E.

    1986-03-01

    Risk and reliability analysis is increasingly being used in evaluations of plant safety and plant reliability. The analysis can be performed either during the design process or during the operation time, with the purpose to improve the safety or the reliability. Due to plant complexity and safety and availability requirements, sophisticated tools, which are flexible and efficient, are needed. Such tools have been developed in the last 20 years and they have to be continuously refined to meet the growing requirements. Two different areas of application were analysed. In structural reliability probabilistic approaches have been introduced in some cases for the calculation of the reliability of structures or components. A new computer program has been developed based upon numerical integration in several variables. In systems reliability Monte Carlo simulation programs are used especially in analysis of very complex systems. In order to increase the applicability of the programs variance reduction techniques can be applied to speed up the calculation process. Variance reduction techniques have been studied and procedures for implementation of importance sampling are suggested. (author)

  10. Developing an Attitude Scale for Discussion Ability of Pre-service Teachers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gürbüz OCAK

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In this study, developing a scale to measure the attitudes towards the discussion ability of pre-service teachers indented. The application scale of the discussion ability was developed in the direction of the pre-service teachers. The scale is likert-type comprising of 57 items. The validity and reliability of the scale is done on the data gained from 200 students elected by the method of coincidental exemplification amount of the sophomore students. As a result of the factorial validity of the scale, items change between 0.59 and 0.76 and that the KMO Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value is 0.867 and the value of (Cronbach alpha calculated for reliability study is 0.865. Findings related to the studies of validity and reliability show that the scale has a valid and reliable form.

  11. Risk and reliability assessment for telecommunications networks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wyss, G.D.; Schriner, H.K.; Gaylor, T.R.

    1996-08-01

    Sandia National Laboratories has assembled an interdisciplinary team to explore the applicability of probabilistic logic modeling (PLM) techniques to model network reliability for a wide variety of communications network architectures. The authors have found that the reliability and failure modes of current generation network technologies can be effectively modeled using fault tree PLM techniques. They have developed a ``plug-and-play`` fault tree analysis methodology that can be used to model connectivity and the provision of network services in a wide variety of current generation network architectures. They have also developed an efficient search algorithm that can be used to determine the minimal cut sets of an arbitrarily-interconnected (non-hierarchical) network without the construction of a fault tree model. This paper provides an overview of these modeling techniques and describes how they are applied to networks that exhibit hybrid network structures (i.e., a network in which some areas are hierarchical and some areas are not hierarchical).

  12. Storage Manager and File Transfer Web Services

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    William A Watson III; Ying Chen; Jie Chen; Walt Akers

    2002-01-01

    Web services are emerging as an interesting mechanism for a wide range of grid services, particularly those focused upon information services and control. When coupled with efficient data transfer services, they provide a powerful mechanism for building a flexible, open, extensible data grid for science applications. In this paper we present our prototype work on a Java Storage Resource Manager (JSRM) web service and a Java Reliable File Transfer (JRFT) web service. A java client (Grid File Manager) on top of JSRM and is developed to demonstrate the capabilities of these web services. The purpose of this work is to show the extent to which SOAP based web services are an appropriate direction for building a grid-wide data management system, and eventually grid-based portals

  13. MEASURING GROCERY STORES SERVICE QUALITY IN INDONESIA: A RETAIL SERVICE QUALITY SCALE APPROACH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leonnard Leonnard

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The growing number of modern grocery stores in Indonesia is a challenge for each grocery store to maintain and increase their number of consumers. The success of maintaining and improving service quality will affect long-term profitability and business sustainability. Therefore, in this study, we examined consumer perceptions of service quality in one of modern grocery stores in Indonesia. Data were collected from 387 consumers of grocery stores in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Bekasi, Cibubur, and Subang. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM through Maximum likelihood and Bayesian estimation was employed to analyze the data. The finding indicated that the five indicators of the retail service quality scale consisting of physical aspects, reliability, personal interactions, problem solving and policies provided  valid multi-item instruments in measuring consumer perceptions of service quality in grocery stores.

  14. The effect of service delivery in public ‘community service centres’: A case of an emerging economy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ndabazinhle Ngobese

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated public perceptions of the service delivery provided by the Community Service Centres (CSC of the South African Police Service (SAPS Durban, South Africa. The study focuses on measuring service quality and service delivery. SERVQUAL was used to compare clients’ perceptions against expectations of service quality. Four hundred respondents were surveyed at three community service centres (previously known as ‘police stations’, with expectations and perceptions being assessed via the dimensions of tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The results indicate that in all five dimensions there is a significant negative quality gap, implying that the quality of service received is below what is expected by clients. Improvements are required in all five dimensions if service delivery is to be improved. Actions needed to improve service quality include regular assessment and monitoring of clients’ experiences, as well as employees’ behaviour

  15. Qualitative Reliability Issues for Solid and Liquid Wall Fusion Design

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cadwallader, Lee Charles

    2001-01-01

    This report is an initial effort to identify issues affecting reliability and availability of solid and liquid wall designs for magnetic fusion power plant designs. A qualitative approach has been used to identify the possible failure modes of major system components and their effects on the systems. A general set of design attributes known to affect the service reliability has been examined for the overview solid and liquid wall designs, and some specific features of good first wall design have been discussed and applied to these designs as well. The two generalized designs compare well in regard to these design attributes. The strengths and weaknesses of each design approach are seen in the comparison of specific features.

  16. Qualitative Reliability Issues for Solid and Liquid Wall Fusion Designs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cadwallader, L.C.

    2001-01-31

    This report is an initial effort to identify issues affecting reliability and availability of solid and liquid wall designs for magnetic fusion power plant designs. A qualitative approach has been used to identify the possible failure modes of major system components and their effects on the systems. A general set of design attributes known to affect the service reliability has been examined for the overview solid and liquid wall designs, and some specific features of good first wall design have been discussed and applied to these designs as well. The two generalized designs compare well in regard to these design attributes. The strengths and weaknesses of each design approach are seen in the comparison of specific features.

  17. Qualitative Reliability Issues for Solid and Liquid Wall Fusion Designs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cadwallader, L.C.

    2001-01-01

    This report is an initial effort to identify issues affecting reliability and availability of solid and liquid wall designs for magnetic fusion power plant designs. A qualitative approach has been used to identify the possible failure modes of major system components and their effects on the systems. A general set of design attributes known to affect the service reliability has been examined for the overview solid and liquid wall designs, and some specific features of good first wall design have been discussed and applied to these designs as well. The two generalized designs compare well in regard to these design attributes. The strengths and weaknesses of each design approach are seen in the comparison of specific features

  18. Contribution of service companies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sole, L. M.; Cortes, A.

    2002-01-01

    The most influential aspect when choosing the model of contract between Client and Contractor relapses into the maturity reached by both parts. The service supplier will have to show his competence with his resume, not only technical, but also of actual actions concerning availability reliability, maintainability, security, environment and costs. That maturity may have been the reason why most of the service companies, of national scope, that carry out maintenance of nuclear power stations electricity and instrumentation nowadays, are present from the assembly and implementation phases of these nuclear power stations. (Author)

  19. RESTful Web Services Cookbook

    CERN Document Server

    Allamaraju, Subbu

    2010-01-01

    While the REST design philosophy has captured the imagination of web and enterprise developers alike, using this approach to develop real web services is no picnic. This cookbook includes more than 100 recipes to help you take advantage of REST, HTTP, and the infrastructure of the Web. You'll learn ways to design RESTful web services for client and server applications that meet performance, scalability, reliability, and security goals, no matter what programming language and development framework you use. Each recipe includes one or two problem statements, with easy-to-follow, step-by-step i

  20. System of selective disemination of information at ININ

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martinez G, M.A.

    1981-01-01

    A study of the systems of selective dissemination of information (SDI) is presented, the concepts for such systems outlined, and their developments traced in advanced countries, its forms of operation and implications for the special libraries. Also the operation of INIS at CIDN (Centro de Informacion y Documentacion Nuclear) is presented, together with recommendations and conclusions to improve the development of this service in Mexico. (author)

  1. Family-centred services in the Netherlands : validating a self-report measure for paediatric service providers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Siebes, RC; Ketelaar, M; Wijnroks, L; van Schie, PE; Nijhuis, Bianca J G; Vermeer, A; Gorter, JW

    Objective: To validate the Dutch translation of the Canadian Measure of Processes of Care for Service Providers questionnaire (MPOC-SP) for use in paediatric rehabilitation settings in the Netherlands. Design: The construct validity, content validity, face validity, and reliability of the Dutch

  2. Interactive reliability assessment using an integrated reliability data bank

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Allan, R.N.; Whitehead, A.M.

    1986-01-01

    The logical structure, techniques and practical application of a computer-aided technique based on a microcomputer using floppy disc Random Access Files is described. This interactive computational technique is efficient if the reliability prediction program is coupled directly to a relevant source of data to create an integrated reliability assessment/reliability data bank system. (DG)

  3. Robust and Resilient Services: How to design, build and operate them

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shiers, J.; McCance, G.; Mendez Lorenzo, P.

    2007-01-01

    Grid infrastructures require a high degree of fault tolerance and reliability. This can only be achieved by careful planning and detailed implementation. We describe on-going work within the WLCG project to build and run highly reliable services. Following the a priori a nalysis based on the services and service levels listed in the Memorandum of Understanding that sites participating in WLCG have signed[1], this paper provides an a posteriori a nalysis following over 2 years of production service. This work covers not only the services deployed at the Tier0 centre at CERN - which has the most stringent service requirements related to the acquisition of the raw data, the initial processing phase and the distribution of raw and processed data to Tier1 sites, but also a similar analysis for Tier1 and major Tier2 sites. The latter will be covered at a workshop that will take place shortly before the EELA conference and so will be very up-to-date. (Author)

  4. Challenges in sharing of geospatial data by data custodians in South Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kay, Sissiel E.

    2018-05-01

    As most development planning and rendering of public services happens at a place or in a space, geospatial data is required. This geospatial data is best managed through a spatial data infrastructure, which has as a key objective to share geospatial data. The collection and maintenance of geospatial data is expensive and time consuming and so the principle of "collect once - use many times" should apply. It is best to obtain the geospatial data from the authoritative source - the appointed data custodian. In South Africa the South African Spatial Data Infrastructure (SASDI) is the means to achieve the requirement for geospatial data sharing. This requires geospatial data sharing to take place between the data custodian and the user. All data custodians are expected to comply with the Spatial Data Infrastructure Act (SDI Act) in terms of geo-spatial data sharing. Currently data custodians are experiencing challenges with regard to the sharing of geospatial data. This research is based on the current ten data themes selected by the Committee for Spatial Information and the organisations identified as the data custodians for these ten data themes. The objectives are to determine whether the identified data custodians comply with the SDI Act with respect to geospatial data sharing, and if not what are the reasons for this. Through an international comparative assessment it then determines if the compliance with the SDI Act is not too onerous on the data custodians. The research concludes that there are challenges with geospatial data sharing in South Africa and that the data custodians only partially comply with the SDI Act in terms of geospatial data sharing. However, it is shown that the South African legislation is not too onerous on the data custodians.

  5. How to get the customer service your practice deserves.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cavallo, Nancy

    2009-01-01

    What is good customer service, and how can office managers and others who deal with medical supply distributors get the customer service they deserve? This article covers the basics of good customer service, including examples of companies known for putting the customer first-Nordstrom, Disney, Johnson &Johnson, and VaxServe. Helpful tips on what to look for in a distributor include personalized service, cost considerations, dedication, knowledge, experience, helpfulness, openness, reliability, and compatibility.

  6. Chapter 3: Photovoltaic Module Stability and Reliability

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jordan, Dirk; Kurtz, Sarah

    2017-01-01

    Profits realized from investment in photovoltaic will benefit from decades of reliable operation. Service life prediction through accelerated tests is only possible if indoor tests duplicate power loss and failure modes observed in fielded systems. Therefore, detailing and quantifying power loss and failure modes is imperative. In the first section, we examine recent trends in degradation rates, the gradual power loss observed for different technologies, climates and other significant factors. In the second section, we provide a summary of the most commonly observed failure modes in fielded systems.

  7. Summary of Inorganic Compositional Data for Groundwater, Soil-Water, and Surface-Water Samples at the Headgate Draw Subsurface Drip Irrigation Site

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Geboy, Nicholas J.; Engle, Mark A.; Schroeder, Karl T.; Zupanic, John W.

    2007-01-01

    As part of a 5-year project on the impact of subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) application of coalbed-methane (CBM) produced waters, water samples were collected from the Headgate Draw SDI site in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming, USA. This research is part of a larger study to understand short- and long-term impacts on both soil and water quality from the beneficial use of CBM waters to grow forage crops through use of SDI. This document provides a summary of the context, sampling methodology, and quality assurance and quality control documentation of samples collected prior to and over the first year of SDI operation at the site (May 2008-October 2009). This report contains an associated database containing inorganic compositional data, water-quality criteria parameters, and calculated geochemical parameters for samples of groundwater, soil water, surface water, treated CBM waters, and as-received CBM waters collected at the Headgate Draw SDI site.

  8. Study of capillary experiments and hydrologic factors under subsurface drip irrigation with fractal theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhou, W; Cao, L

    2012-01-01

    Soil spatial variability is one of the primary environmental factors that influences the hydraulic factors and technical indicators of subsurface drip irrigation (SDI), whose emitters are buried in the soil. This paper aimed at evaluating these effects of soil spatial variability on hydrologic factors under SDI. And some SDI emitter and capillary experiments were designed to obtain test data and distribution of pressure and emitter discharge. First, The results of labyrinth non-turbulent mosaic drip emitter test and fractal theory were used to research the fractal and quantitative relationship between single emitter hydrologic factors and soil physical parameters; and then, the capillary experiments and the relationship among hydrologic factors of capillary were used to analyze the fractal and quantitative relationship between hydrologic factors of capillary and soil physical parameters, which explained the inner relationship between spatial variability of soil and hydrologic factors of filed pipeline network under SDI, and provide theory support for the plan, design, management and production of SDI.

  9. 76 FR 23222 - Electric Reliability Organization Interpretation of Transmission Operations Reliability

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-04-26

    ....3d 1342 (DC Cir. 2009). \\5\\ Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Bulk-Power System, Order No. 693... Reliability Standards for the Bulk-Power System. Action: FERC-725A. OMB Control No.: 1902-0244. Respondents...] Electric Reliability Organization Interpretation of Transmission Operations Reliability AGENCY: Federal...

  10. Business of reliability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Engel, Pierre

    1999-12-01

    The presentation is organized around three themes: (1) The decrease of reception equipment costs allows non-Remote Sensing organization to access a technology until recently reserved to scientific elite. What this means is the rise of 'operational' executive agencies considering space-based technology and operations as a viable input to their daily tasks. This is possible thanks to totally dedicated ground receiving entities focusing on one application for themselves, rather than serving a vast community of users. (2) The multiplication of earth observation platforms will form the base for reliable technical and financial solutions. One obstacle to the growth of the earth observation industry is the variety of policies (commercial versus non-commercial) ruling the distribution of the data and value-added products. In particular, the high volume of data sales required for the return on investment does conflict with traditional low-volume data use for most applications. Constant access to data sources supposes monitoring needs as well as technical proficiency. (3) Large volume use of data coupled with low- cost equipment costs is only possible when the technology has proven reliable, in terms of application results, financial risks and data supply. Each of these factors is reviewed. The expectation is that international cooperation between agencies and private ventures will pave the way for future business models. As an illustration, the presentation proposes to use some recent non-traditional monitoring applications, that may lead to significant use of earth observation data, value added products and services: flood monitoring, ship detection, marine oil pollution deterrent systems and rice acreage monitoring.

  11. Probability-Based Determination Methods for Service Waiting in Service-Oriented Computing Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Sen; Huang, Shuangxi; Liu, Yang

    Cooperative business processes (CBP)-based service-oriented enterprise networks (SOEN) are emerging with the significant advances of enterprise integration and service-oriented architecture. The performance prediction and optimization for CBP-based SOEN is very complex. To meet these challenges, one of the key points is to try to reduce an abstract service’s waiting number of its physical services. This paper introduces a probability-based determination method (PBDM) of an abstract service’ waiting number, M l , and time span, τ i , for its physical services. The determination of M i and τ i is according to the physical services’ arriving rule and their overall performance’s distribution functions. In PBDM, the arriving probability of the physical services with the best overall performance value is a pre-defined reliability. PBDM has made use of the information of the physical services’ arriving rule and performance distribution functions thoroughly, which will improve the computational efficiency for the scheme design and performance optimization of the collaborative business processes in service-oriented computing environments.

  12. Incorporating enhanced service reliability of public transport in cost-benefit analyses

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van Oort, N.

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, we demonstrate how to calculate the passenger impacts of service unreliability. We show that passengers are affected by longer waiting times and the distribution of travel times. We present a framework to calculate these effects and to express them in monetary values. In the

  13. Computational inference and control of quality in multimedia services

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Menkovski, V.

    2013-01-01

    Quality is the degree of excellence we expect of a service or a product. It is also one of the key factors that determine its value. For multimedia services, understanding the experienced quality means understanding how the delivered delity, precision and reliability correspond to the users'

  14. 76 FR 23171 - Electric Reliability Organization Interpretations of Interconnection Reliability Operations and...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-04-26

    ... Reliability Standards for the Bulk-Power System, Order No. 693, FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,242, order on reh'g...-Power System reliability may request an interpretation of a Reliability Standard.\\7\\ The ERO's standards... information in its reliability assessments. The Reliability Coordinator must monitor Bulk Electric System...

  15. Improving fMRI reliability in presurgical mapping for brain tumours.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stevens, M Tynan R; Clarke, David B; Stroink, Gerhard; Beyea, Steven D; D'Arcy, Ryan Cn

    2016-03-01

    Functional MRI (fMRI) is becoming increasingly integrated into clinical practice for presurgical mapping. Current efforts are focused on validating data quality, with reliability being a major factor. In this paper, we demonstrate the utility of a recently developed approach that uses receiver operating characteristic-reliability (ROC-r) to: (1) identify reliable versus unreliable data sets; (2) automatically select processing options to enhance data quality; and (3) automatically select individualised thresholds for activation maps. Presurgical fMRI was conducted in 16 patients undergoing surgical treatment for brain tumours. Within-session test-retest fMRI was conducted, and ROC-reliability of the patient group was compared to a previous healthy control cohort. Individually optimised preprocessing pipelines were determined to improve reliability. Spatial correspondence was assessed by comparing the fMRI results to intraoperative cortical stimulation mapping, in terms of the distance to the nearest active fMRI voxel. The average ROC-r reliability for the patients was 0.58±0.03, as compared to 0.72±0.02 in healthy controls. For the patient group, this increased significantly to 0.65±0.02 by adopting optimised preprocessing pipelines. Co-localisation of the fMRI maps with cortical stimulation was significantly better for more reliable versus less reliable data sets (8.3±0.9 vs 29±3 mm, respectively). We demonstrated ROC-r analysis for identifying reliable fMRI data sets, choosing optimal postprocessing pipelines, and selecting patient-specific thresholds. Data sets with higher reliability also showed closer spatial correspondence to cortical stimulation. ROC-r can thus identify poor fMRI data at time of scanning, allowing for repeat scans when necessary. ROC-r analysis provides optimised and automated fMRI processing for improved presurgical mapping. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence

  16. Evaluation and improvement in nondestructive examination (NDE) reliability for inservice inspection of light water reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doctor, S.R.; Deffenbaugh, J.D.; Good, M.S.; Green, E.R.; Heasler, P.G.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.

    1988-01-01

    The Evaluation and Improvement of NDE Reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactors (NDE Reliability) program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory was established by the NRC to determine the reliability of current inservice inspection (ISI) techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this program include determining the reliability of ISI performed on the primary systems of commercial light-water reactors (LWRs); using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis to determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety; and evaluating reliability improvements that can be achieved with improved and advanced technology. A final objective is to formulate recommended revisions to ASME Code and Regulatory requirements, based on material properties, service conditions and NDE uncertainties. The program scope is limited to ISI of the primary systems including the piping, vessel, and other inspected components. This is a progress report covering the programmatic work from October 1986 through September 1987. (author)

  17. Evaluation and improvement in nondestructive examination (NDE) reliability for inservice inspection of light water reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doctor, S.R.; Deffenbaugh, J.D.; Good, M.S.; Green, E.R.; Heasler, P.G.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.

    1988-01-01

    The Evaluation and Improvement of NDE Reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactor (NDE Reliability) program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory was established by the NRC to determine the reliability of current inservice inspection (ISI) techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this program include determining the reliability of ISI performed on the primary systems of commercial light-water reactors (LWRs); using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis to determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety; and evaluating reliability improvements that can be achieved with improved and advanced technology. A final objective is to formulate recommended revisions to ASME Code and Regulatory requirements, based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties. The program scope is limited to ISI of the primary systems including the piping, vessel, and other inspected components. This is a progress report covering the programmatic work from October 1986 through September 1987

  18. Toward a TQM Paradigm: Using SERVQUAL to Measure Library Service Quality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coleman, Vicki; And Others

    1997-01-01

    Texas A&M University's Evans Library conducted a survey (SERVQUAL) to measure service quality in terms of tangibles (appearance of facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials), reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Discrepancies between expectations and perceptions were found in reliability, responsiveness,…

  19. Reliability of eddy current examination of steam generator tubes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Birks, A.S.; Ferris, R.H.; Doctor, P.G.; Clark, R.A.; Spanner, G.E.

    1985-04-01

    A unique study of nondestructive examination reliability is underway at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory under US Nuclear Regulatory Commission sponsorship. Project participants include the Electric Power Research Institute and consortiums from France, Italy, and Japan. This study group has conducted a series of NDE examinations of tubes from a retired-from-service steam generator, using commercially available multifrequency eddy current equipment and ASME procedures. The examination results have been analyzed to identify factors contributing to variations in NDE inspection findings. The reliability of these examinations will then be validated by destructive analyses of the steam generator tubes. The program is expected to contribute to development of a model for steam generator inservice inspection sampling plans and inspection periods, as well as to improved regulatory guidelines for tube plugging

  20. Impact of Service Quality of House Wedding Events on the Service Value and Satisfaction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kim Soungyeon

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available With the current popularity of the newly emerged house wedding events (HWE, this study aims to investigate the impact of service quality of house wedding events on service value and satisfaction of customers. Based on literature review, two main components of HWE service quality attributes were selected: physical service and human service. For service value, three components were chosen: social, aesthetic, and monetary value. The study conducted self-administered questionnaire survey from July 1st to August 31st 2013 targeting 300 male and female over age 20 with experiences of participating in HWE held in Seoul metropolitan areas. The final valid samples were 267 copies. Frequency analysis, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis and regression analysis were conducted on the collected data. The result of this study showed a significant positive impact of HWE’s service quality, which in turn influence satisfaction. In addition, the study found the direct impact of HWE’s service quality on customer satisfaction. Based on the results, this study also discussed practical implications.

  1. Macroeconomic Reasons of Debts in Polish Health Service

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kamila Szymańska

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available The article deals with the problem of debts in polish health service. Author analyzes the macroeconomic reasons of this situation. As a main reasons are indicated: a specificity of the health service market, which leads to a inefficient allocation of health services, lack of reliable data on health care system, too low level of public expenditure on a health care, inappropriate allocation of public capital and a monopolistic position of the payer.

  2. Restructuring local distribution services: Possibilities and limitations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Duann, D.J.

    1994-08-01

    The restructuring of local distribution services is now the focus of the natural gas industry. It is the last major step in the ``reconstitution`` of the natural gas industry and a critical clement in realizing the full benefits of regulatory and market reforms that already have taken place in the wellhead and interstate markets. It could also be the most important regulatory initiative for most end-use customers because they are affected directly by the costs and reliability of distribution services. Several factors contribute to the current emphasis on distribution service restructuring. They include the unbundling and restructuring of upstream markets, a realization of the limitations of supply-side options (such as gas procurement oversight), and the increased diversity and volatility of gas demand facing local distribution companies. Local distribution service is not one but a series of activities that start with commodity gas procurement and extend to transportation, load balancing, storage, and metering and billing of services provided. There are also considerable differences in the economies of scale and scope associated with these various activities. Thus, a mixture of supply arrangements (such as a competitive market or a monopoly) is required for the most efficient delivery of local distribution services. A distinction must be made between the supply of commodity gas and the provision of a bundled distribution service. This distinction and identification of the best supply arrangements for various distribution service components are the most critical factors in developing appropriate restructuring policies. For most state public utility commissions the criteria for service restructuring should include pursuing the economies of scale and scope in gas distribution, differentiating and matching gas service reliability and quality with customer requirements, and controlling costs associated with the search, negotiation, and contracting of gas services.

  3. Distributed Management of Concurrent Web Service Transactions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Alrifai, Mohammad; Dolog, Peter; Balke, Wolf-Tilo

    2009-01-01

    Business processes involve dynamic compositions of interleaved tasks. Therefore, ensuring reliable transactional processing of Web services is crucial for the success of Web service-based B2B and B2C applications. But the inherent autonomy and heterogeneity of Web services render the applicability...... of conventional ACID transaction models for Web services far from being straightforward. Current Web service transaction models relax the isolation property and rely on compensation mechanisms to ensure atomicity of business transactions in the presence of service failures. However, ensuring consistency...... in the open and dynamic environment of Web services, where interleaving business transactions enter and exit the system independently, remains an open issue. In this paper, we address this problem and propose an architecture that supports concurrency control on the Web services level. An extension...

  4. Highly reliable TOFD UT Technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Acharya, G.D.; Trivedi, S.A.R.; Pai, K.B.

    2003-01-01

    The high performance of the time of flight diffraction technique (TOFD) with regard to the detection capabilities of weld defects such as crack, slag, lack of fusion has led to a rapidly increasing acceptance of the technique as a pre?service inspection tool. Since the early 1990s TOFD has been applied to several projects, where it replaced the commonly used radiographic testing. The use of TOM lead to major time savings during new build and replacement projects. At the same time the TOFD technique was used as base line inspection, which enables monitoring in the future for critical welds, but also provides documented evidence for life?time. The TOFD technique as the ability to detect and simultaneously size flows of nearly any orientation within the weld and heat affected zone. TOM is recognized as a reliable, proven technique for detection and sizing of defects and proven to be a time saver, resulting in shorter shutdown periods and construction project times. Thus even in cases where inspection price of TOFD per welds is higher, in the end it will result in significantly lower overall costs and improve quality. This paper deals with reliability, economy, acceptance criteria and field experience. It also covers comparative study between radiography technique Vs. TOFD. (Author)

  5. A Scale for E-Content Preparation Skills: Development, Validity and Reliability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tekin, Ahmet; Polat, Ebru

    2016-01-01

    Problem Statement: For an effective teaching and learning process it is critical to provide support for teachers in the development of e-content, and teachers should play an active role in this development. Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study is to develop a valid and reliable Likert-type scale that will determine pre-service teachers'…

  6. Enabling Sustainability: Hierarchical Need-Based Framework for Promoting Sustainable Data Infrastructure in Developing Countries

    OpenAIRE

    Yawson, David O.; Armah, Frederick A.; Pappoe, Alex N. M.

    2009-01-01

    The paper presents thoughts on Sustainable Data Infrastructure (SDI) development, and its user requirements bases. It brings Maslow's motivational theory to the fore, and proposes it as a rationalization mechanism for entities (mostly governmental) that aim at realizing SDI. Maslow's theory, though well-known, is somewhat new in geospatial circles; this is where the novelty of the paper resides. SDI has been shown to enable and aid development in diverse ways. However, stimulating developing ...

  7. Reliable computer systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wear, L L; Pinkert, J R

    1993-11-01

    In this article, we looked at some decisions that apply to the design of reliable computer systems. We began with a discussion of several terms such as testability, then described some systems that call for highly reliable hardware and software. The article concluded with a discussion of methods that can be used to achieve higher reliability in computer systems. Reliability and fault tolerance in computers probably will continue to grow in importance. As more and more systems are computerized, people will want assurances about the reliability of these systems, and their ability to work properly even when sub-systems fail.

  8. Reliability evaluation of emergency AC power systems based on operating experience at U.S. nuclear power plants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baranowsky, P. W. [U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)

    1986-02-15

    The reliability of emergency AC power Systems has been under study at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and by its contractors for several years. This paper provides the results of work recently performed to evaluate past U.S. nuclear power plant emergency AC power System reliability performance using system level data. Operating experience involving multiple diesel generator failures, unavailabilities, and simultaneous occurrences of failures and out of service diesel generators were used to evaluate reliability performance at individual nuclear power plants covering a 9 year period from 1976 through 1984. The number and nature of failures and distributions of reliability evaluation results are provided. The results show that plant specific performance varied considerably during the period with a large number achieving high reliability performance and a smaller number accounting for lower levels of reliability performance. (author)

  9. 78 FR 41339 - Electric Reliability Organization Proposal To Retire Requirements in Reliability Standards

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-07-10

    ...] Electric Reliability Organization Proposal To Retire Requirements in Reliability Standards AGENCY: Federal... Reliability Standards identified by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the Commission-certified Electric Reliability Organization. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kevin Ryan (Legal Information...

  10. 76 FR 58101 - Electric Reliability Organization Interpretation of Transmission Operations Reliability Standard

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-09-20

    ....C. Cir. 2009). \\4\\ Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Bulk-Power System, Order No. 693, FERC... for maintaining real and reactive power balance. \\14\\ Electric Reliability Organization Interpretation...; Order No. 753] Electric Reliability Organization Interpretation of Transmission Operations Reliability...

  11. Denial-of-service attack detection based on multivariate correlation analysis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tan, Zhiyuan; Jamdagni, Aruna; He, Xiangjian; Nanda, Priyadarsi; Liu, Ren Ping; Lu, Bao-Liang; Zhang, Liqing; Kwok, James

    2011-01-01

    The reliability and availability of network services are being threatened by the growing number of Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks. Effective mechanisms for DoS attack detection are demanded. Therefore, we propose a multivariate correlation analysis approach to investigate and extract second-order

  12. Time-dependent reliability analysis and condition assessment of structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ellingwood, B.R.

    1997-01-01

    Structures generally play a passive role in assurance of safety in nuclear plant operation, but are important if the plant is to withstand the effect of extreme environmental or abnormal events. Relative to mechanical and electrical components, structural systems and components would be difficult and costly to replace. While the performance of steel or reinforced concrete structures in service generally has been very good, their strengths may deteriorate during an extended service life as a result of changes brought on by an aggressive environment, excessive loading, or accidental loading. Quantitative tools for condition assessment of aging structures can be developed using time-dependent structural reliability analysis methods. Such methods provide a framework for addressing the uncertainties attendant to aging in the decision process

  13. Security in Service Level Agreements for Cloud Computing

    OpenAIRE

    Bernsmed, Karin; JAATUN, Martin Gilje; Undheim, Astrid

    2011-01-01

    The Cloud computing paradigm promises reliable services, accessible from anywhere in the world, in an on-demand manner. Insufficient security has been identified as a major obstacle to adopting Cloud services. To deal with the risks associated with outsourcing data and applications to the Cloud, new methods for security assurance are urgently needed. This paper presents a framework for security in Service Level Agreements for Cloud computing. The purpose is twofold; to help potential Cloud cu...

  14. 76 FR 42534 - Mandatory Reliability Standards for Interconnection Reliability Operating Limits; System...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-07-19

    ... Reliability Operating Limits; System Restoration Reliability Standards AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory... data necessary to analyze and monitor Interconnection Reliability Operating Limits (IROL) within its... Interconnection Reliability Operating Limits, Order No. 748, 134 FERC ] 61,213 (2011). \\2\\ The term ``Wide-Area...

  15. Brookhaven National Laboratory meteorological services instrument calibration plan and procedures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Heiser, John [Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

    2013-02-16

    This document describes the Meteorological Services (Met Services) Calibration and Maintenance Schedule and Procedures, The purpose is to establish the frequency and mechanism for the calibration and maintenance of the network of meteorological instrumentation operated by Met Services. The goal is to maintain the network in a manner that will result in accurate, precise and reliable readings from the instrumentation.

  16. A clinical tool to measure plagiocephaly in infants using a flexicurve: a reliability study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leung A

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Amy Leung,1 Pauline Watter,2 John Gavranich3 1Department of Physiotherapy, Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Australia; 2Physiotherapy Division, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; 3Child and Family Health Services, West Moreton Health Service District, Ipswich, Australia Purpose: There has been an increasing incidence of infants presenting with plagiocephaly in the last two decades. A practical, economical, and reliable clinical plagiocephaly measure is essential to assess progression and intervention outcomes. This study investigated the reliability of a modified cranial vault asymmetry index using a flexible curve in infants. Measurement: A flexicurve was molded to the infant's head and its shape maintained as it was placed onto paper to trace the head shape. Using a small modification of Loveday and De Chaplain's procedure to measure a cranial vault asymmetry index, a pair of diagonals were drawn at 30° through the midpoint of the central line to their intersection with the traced head outline. The difference in length of the paired diagonals was divided by the short diameter then multiplied by 100%, yielding the modified cranial vault-asymmetry index. Patients and methods: Infants referred to a community health physiotherapist for assessment due to suspected abnormal head shape were included. To explore intrarater reliability, 34 infants aged 3–14 months were measured twice (T1/T1′ at the beginning, and 21 of these remeasured twice at the end (T2/T2′ of their physiotherapy sessions. Test–retest reliability used matched-average data (T1/T1′ and (T2/T2′ from 21 infants. To explore interrater reliability, 18 healthy infants aged 2–6 months were recruited. Each infant was measured once by each rater. Results: For intrarater reliability, the intraclass correlation coefficient with 54 degrees of freedom (ICCdf54 was 0.868 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.783–0.921; for test–retest reliability, ICCdf20 = 0.958 (95

  17. Reliability analysis with linguistic data: An evidential network approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Xiaoge; Mahadevan, Sankaran; Deng, Xinyang

    2017-01-01

    In practical applications of reliability assessment of a system in-service, information about the condition of a system and its components is often available in text form, e.g., inspection reports. Estimation of the system reliability from such text-based records becomes a challenging problem. In this paper, we propose a four-step framework to deal with this problem. In the first step, we construct an evidential network with the consideration of available knowledge and data. Secondly, we train a Naive Bayes text classification algorithm based on the past records. By using the trained Naive Bayes algorithm to classify the new records, we build interval basic probability assignments (BPA) for each new record available in text form. Thirdly, we combine the interval BPAs of multiple new records using an evidence combination approach based on evidence theory. Finally, we propagate the interval BPA through the evidential network constructed earlier to obtain the system reliability. Two numerical examples are used to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method. We illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method by comparing with Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) results. - Highlights: • We model reliability analysis with linguistic data using evidential network. • Two examples are used to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method. • We compare the results with Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS).

  18. 76 FR 66055 - North American Electric Reliability Corporation; Order Approving Interpretation of Reliability...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-10-25

    ...\\ Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Bulk-Power System, Order No. 693, FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,242... materially affected'' by Bulk-Power System reliability may request an interpretation of a Reliability... Electric Reliability Corporation; Order Approving Interpretation of Reliability Standard; Before...

  19. Airline service quality evaluation: A review on concepts and models

    OpenAIRE

    Navid Haghighat

    2017-01-01

    This paper reviews different major service quality concept and models which led to great developments in evaluating service quality with focusing on improvement process of the models through discussing criticisms of each model. Criticisms against these models are discussed to clarify development steps of newer models which led to the improvement of airline service quality models. The precise and accurate evaluation of service quality needs utilizing a reliable concept with comprehensive crite...

  20. Pengaruh Service Quality Terhadap Customer Satisfication English First Surabaya Town Square

    OpenAIRE

    Prabowo, Randy Setio

    2017-01-01

    Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisa pengaruh service quality terhadap customer satisficationdan mengukur apakah memiliki pengaruh antara service quality terhadap customer satisfication baik secara stimultan maupun parsial.Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa service quality berpengaruh terhadap customer satisfication secara stilmultan dan secara parsial menunjukan bahwa variabel reliability dan responsiveness tidak memiliki pengaruh terhadap customer satisfication.

  1. Critical Assessment of the Foundations of Power Transmission and Distribution Reliability Metrics and Standards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nateghi, Roshanak; Guikema, Seth D; Wu, Yue Grace; Bruss, C Bayan

    2016-01-01

    The U.S. federal government regulates the reliability of bulk power systems, while the reliability of power distribution systems is regulated at a state level. In this article, we review the history of regulating electric service reliability and study the existing reliability metrics, indices, and standards for power transmission and distribution networks. We assess the foundations of the reliability standards and metrics, discuss how they are applied to outages caused by large exogenous disturbances such as natural disasters, and investigate whether the standards adequately internalize the impacts of these events. Our reflections shed light on how existing standards conceptualize reliability, question the basis for treating large-scale hazard-induced outages differently from normal daily outages, and discuss whether this conceptualization maps well onto customer expectations. We show that the risk indices for transmission systems used in regulating power system reliability do not adequately capture the risks that transmission systems are prone to, particularly when it comes to low-probability high-impact events. We also point out several shortcomings associated with the way in which regulators require utilities to calculate and report distribution system reliability indices. We offer several recommendations for improving the conceptualization of reliability metrics and standards. We conclude that while the approaches taken in reliability standards have made considerable advances in enhancing the reliability of power systems and may be logical from a utility perspective during normal operation, existing standards do not provide a sufficient incentive structure for the utilities to adequately ensure high levels of reliability for end-users, particularly during large-scale events. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

  2. The reliability of the Brazilian version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 2.1

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Quintana M.I.

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available The objective of the present study was to determine the reliability of the Brazilian version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview 2.1 (CIDI 2.1 in clinical psychiatry. The CIDI 2.1 was translated into Portuguese using WHO guidelines and reliability was studied using the inter-rater reliability method. The study sample consisted of 186 subjects from psychiatric hospitals and clinics, primary care centers and community services. The interviewers consisted of a group of 13 lay and three non-lay interviewers submitted to the CIDI training. The average interview time was 2 h and 30 min. General reliability ranged from kappa 0.50 to 1. For lifetime diagnoses the reliability ranged from kappa 0.77 (Bipolar Affective Disorder to 1 (Substance-Related Disorder, Alcohol-Related Disorder, Eating Disorders. Previous year reliability ranged from kappa 0.66 (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder to 1 (Dissociative Disorders, Maniac Disorders, Eating Disorders. The poorest reliability rate was found for Mild Depressive Episode (kappa = 0.50 during the previous year. Training proved to be a fundamental factor for maintaining good reliability. Technical knowledge of the questionnaire compensated for the lack of psychiatric knowledge of the lay personnel. Inter-rater reliability was good to excellent for persons in psychiatric practice.

  3. A Mechanism for Reliable Mobility Management for Internet of Things Using CoAP

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seung-Man Chun

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Under unreliable constrained wireless networks for Internet of Things (IoT environments, the loss of the signaling message may frequently occur. Mobile Internet Protocol version 6 (MIPv6 and its variants do not consider this situation. Consequently, as a constrained device moves around different wireless networks, its Internet Protocol (IP connectivity may be frequently disrupted and power can be drained rapidly. This can result in the loss of important sensing data or a large delay for time-critical IoT services such as healthcare monitoring and disaster management. This paper presents a reliable mobility management mechanism in Internet of Things environments with lossy low-power constrained device and network characteristics. The idea is to use the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP retransmission mechanism to achieve both reliability and simplicity for reliable IoT mobility management. Detailed architecture, algorithms, and message extensions for reliable mobility management are presented. Finally, performance is evaluated using both mathematical analysis and simulation.

  4. A Mechanism for Reliable Mobility Management for Internet of Things Using CoAP.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chun, Seung-Man; Park, Jong-Tae

    2017-01-12

    Under unreliable constrained wireless networks for Internet of Things (IoT) environments, the loss of the signaling message may frequently occur. Mobile Internet Protocol version 6 (MIPv6) and its variants do not consider this situation. Consequently, as a constrained device moves around different wireless networks, its Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity may be frequently disrupted and power can be drained rapidly. This can result in the loss of important sensing data or a large delay for time-critical IoT services such as healthcare monitoring and disaster management. This paper presents a reliable mobility management mechanism in Internet of Things environments with lossy low-power constrained device and network characteristics. The idea is to use the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) retransmission mechanism to achieve both reliability and simplicity for reliable IoT mobility management. Detailed architecture, algorithms, and message extensions for reliable mobility management are presented. Finally, performance is evaluated using both mathematical analysis and simulation.

  5. Service quality framework for clinical laboratories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramessur, Vinaysing; Hurreeram, Dinesh Kumar; Maistry, Kaylasson

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to illustrate a service quality framework that enhances service delivery in clinical laboratories by gauging medical practitioner satisfaction and by providing avenues for continuous improvement. The case study method has been used for conducting the exploratory study, with focus on the Mauritian public clinical laboratory. A structured questionnaire based on the SERVQUAL service quality model was used for data collection, analysis and for the development of the service quality framework. The study confirms the pertinence of the following service quality dimensions within the context of clinical laboratories: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, turnaround time, technology, test reports, communication and laboratory staff attitude and behaviour. The service quality framework developed, termed LabSERV, is vital for clinical laboratories in the search for improving service delivery to medical practitioners. This is a pioneering work carried out in the clinical laboratory sector in Mauritius. Medical practitioner expectations and perceptions have been simultaneously considered to generate a novel service quality framework for clinical laboratories.

  6. Problems Related to Use of Some Terms in System Reliability Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nadezda Hanusova

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with problems of using dependability terms, defined in actual standard STN IEC 50 (191: International electrotechnical dictionary, chap. 191: Dependability and quality of service (1993, in a technical systems dependability analysis. The goal of the paper is to find a relation between terms introduced in the mentioned standard and used in the technical systems dependability analysis and rules and practices used in a system analysis of the system theory. Description of a part of the system life cycle related to reliability is used as a starting point. The part of a system life cycle is described by the state diagram and reliability relevant therms are assigned.

  7. Designing reliability into high-effectiveness industrial gas turbine regenerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Valentino, S.J.

    1979-01-01

    The paper addresses the measures necessary to achieve a reliable regenerator design that can withstand higher temperatures (1000-1200 F) and many start and stop cycles - conditions encountered in high-efficiency operation in pipeline applications. The discussion is limited to three major areas: (1) structural analysis of the heat exchanger core - the part of the regenerator that must withstand the higher temperatures and cyclic duty (2) materials data and material selection and (3) a comprehensive test program to demonstrate the reliability of the regenerator. This program includes life-cycle tests, pressure containment in fin panels, core-to-core joint structural test, bellows pressure containment test, sliding pad test, core gas-side passage flow distribution test, and production test. Today's regenerators must have high cyclic life capability, stainless steel construction, and long fault-free service life of 120,000 hr

  8. Inverse Reliability Task: Artificial Neural Networks and Reliability-Based Optimization Approaches

    OpenAIRE

    Lehký , David; Slowik , Ondřej; Novák , Drahomír

    2014-01-01

    Part 7: Genetic Algorithms; International audience; The paper presents two alternative approaches to solve inverse reliability task – to determine the design parameters to achieve desired target reliabilities. The first approach is based on utilization of artificial neural networks and small-sample simulation Latin hypercube sampling. The second approach considers inverse reliability task as reliability-based optimization task using double-loop method and also small-sample simulation. Efficie...

  9. 76 FR 23801 - North American Electric Reliability Corporation; Order Approving Reliability Standard

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-04-28

    ... have an operating plan and facilities for backup functionality to ensure Bulk-Power System reliability... entity's primary control center on the reliability of the Bulk-Power System. \\1\\ Mandatory Reliability... potential impact of a violation of the Requirement on the reliability of the Bulk-Power System. The...

  10. “Crossing over”: appropriate private sector principles, to operate more reliable public sector water services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kevin Wall

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Private sector institutions utilise many different business methods, some of which can selectively be adapted for use by organisations outside the private sector, to the benefit of their service delivery responsibilities. But the best of the appropriate practices from the private sector have often “not crossed over”. The Water Research Commission (WRC of South Africa, working in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, finds that the concept of franchising, so successfully used by the private sector to deliver many goods and services, if applied to water services operation and maintenance, could alleviate and address many challenges in the management of water services. At the same time, franchising could provide an ideal stimulus to support the development of local enterprises, all within the municipal service delivery environment. Franchisee water service providers, dependent for their livelihood on the success of their business, would have a strong incentive to perform, and would also enjoy the benefit of the franchisor’s expert guidance and quality assurance. Some areas for potential franchising include meter management, billing, plumbing, pressure management, sewer maintenance, and wastewater treatment processes. The help from the franchisor would be of particular value to water services authorities at a distance from the major urban centres. Few of these authorities can afford to employ competent qualified staff, and often non-compliance with the laid down performance standards is a direct consequence of this lack. Significant improvements would soon be seen if the generally under-qualified and under-resourced water services staff could have this ongoing support, mentoring and quality control — or if the authority could enter into partnerships with small local enterprises or NGOs which would, through franchising, enjoy the necessary ongoing support, mentoring and quality control, and would have

  11. Utilizing leadership to achieve high reliability in the delivery of perinatal care

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Parrotta C

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Carmen Parrotta,1 William Riley,1 Les Meredith21School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2Premier Insurance Management Services Inc, Charlotte, NC, USAAbstract: Highly reliable care requires standardization of clinical practices and is a prerequisite for patient safety. However, standardization in complex hospital settings is extremely difficult to attain and health care leaders are challenged to create care delivery processes that ensure patient safety. Moreover, once high reliability is achieved in a hospital unit, it must be maintained to avoid process deterioration. This case study examines an intervention to implement care bundles (a collection of evidence-based practices in four hospitals to achieve standardized care in perinatal units. The results show different patterns in the rate and magnitude of change within the hospitals to achieve high reliability. The study is part of a larger nationwide study of 16 hospitals to improve perinatal safety. Based on the findings, we discuss the role of leadership for implementing and sustaining high reliability to ensure freedom from unintended injury.Keywords: care bundles, evidence-based practice, standardized care, process improvement

  12. To the problem of reliability of high-voltage accelerators for industrial purposes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Al'bertinskij, B.I.; Svin'in, M.P.; Tsepakin, S.G.

    1979-01-01

    Statistical data characterizing the reliability of ELECTRON and AVRORA-2 type accelerators are presented. Used as a reliability index was the mean time to failure of the main accelerator units. The analysis of accelerator failures allowed a number of conclusions to be drawn. The high failure rate level is connected with inadequate training of the servicing personnel and a natural period of equipment adjustment. The mathematical analysis of the failure rate showed that the main responsibility for insufficient high reliability rests with selenium diodes which are employed in the high voltage power supply. Substitution of selenium diodes by silicon ones increases time between failures. It is shown that accumulation and processing of operational statistical data will permit more accurate prediction of the reliability of produced high-voltage accelerators, make it possible to cope with the problems of planning optimal, in time, preventive inspections and repair, and to select optimal safety factors and test procedures n time, preventive inspections and repair, and to select optimal safety factors and test procedures n time, prevent

  13. Elder abuse telephone screen reliability and validity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buri, Hilary M; Daly, Jeanette M; Jogerst, Gerald J

    2009-01-01

    (a) To identify reliable and valid questions that identify elder abuse, (b) to assess the reliability and validity of extant self-reported elder abuse screens in a high-risk elderly population, and (c) to describe difficulties of completing and interpreting screens in a high-need elderly population. All elders referred to research-trained social workers in a community service agency were asked to participate. Of the 70 elders asked, 49 participated, 44 completed the first questionnaire, and 32 completed the duplicate second questionnaire. A research assistant administered the telephone questionnaires. Twenty-nine (42%) persons were judged abused, 12 (17%) had abuse reported, and 4 (6%) had abuse substantiated. The elder abuse screen instruments were not found to be predictive of assessed abuse or as predictors of reported abuse; the measures tended toward being inversely predictive. Two questions regarding harm and taking of belongings were significantly different for the assessed abused group. In this small group of high-need community-dwelling elders, the screens were not effective in discriminating between abused and nonabused groups. Better instruments are needed to assess for elder abuse.

  14. Suncor maintenance and reliability

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Little, S. [Suncor Energy, Calgary, AB (Canada)

    2006-07-01

    Fleet maintenance and reliability at Suncor Energy was discussed in this presentation, with reference to Suncor Energy's primary and support equipment fleets. This paper also discussed Suncor Energy's maintenance and reliability standard involving people, processes and technology. An organizational maturity chart that graphed organizational learning against organizational performance was illustrated. The presentation also reviewed the maintenance and reliability framework; maintenance reliability model; the process overview of the maintenance and reliability standard; a process flow chart of maintenance strategies and programs; and an asset reliability improvement process flow chart. An example of an improvement initiative was included, with reference to a shovel reliability review; a dipper trip reliability investigation; bucket related failures by type and frequency; root cause analysis of the reliability process; and additional actions taken. Last, the presentation provided a graph of the results of the improvement initiative and presented the key lessons learned. tabs., figs.

  15. Planning contract and networks of home services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Eudoro Narváez Viteri

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available This article highlights the worrying increase in public investment in infrastructure works due to deficiencies at the stage of study and design, particularly in public utility services networks. Some cities lack real technical drawings and updated underground networks, especially in the former. Hence, no reliable information is difficult to require contractors, consultants about study designs appropriate public service networks in evident contradiction with the principle of contractual planning.

  16. Running a reliable messaging infrastructure for CERN's control system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ehm, F.

    2012-01-01

    The current middle-ware for CERN's Control System is based on 2 implementations: CORBA-based Controls Middle-Ware (CMW) and Java Messaging Service (JMS). The JMS service is realized using the open source messaging product ActiveMQ and had became an increasing vital part of beam operations as data need to be transported reliably for various areas such as the beam protection system, post mortem analysis, beam commissioning or the alarm system. The current JMS service is made of 18 brokers running either in clusters or as single nodes. The main service is deployed as a 2 node cluster providing fail-over and load balancing capabilities for high availability. Non-critical applications running on virtual machines or desktop machines read data via a third broker to decouple the load from the operational main cluster. This scenario has been introduced last year and the statistics showed an up-time of 99.998% and an average data serving rate of 1.6 G-Byte per minute represented by around 150 messages per second. Deploying, running, maintaining and protecting such messaging infrastructure is not trivial and includes setting up of careful monitoring and failure pre-recognition. Naturally, lessons have been learnt and their outcome is very important for the current and future operation of such service. (author)

  17. The specification-based validation of reliable multicast protocol: Problem Report. M.S. Thesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Yunqing

    1995-01-01

    Reliable Multicast Protocol (RMP) is a communication protocol that provides an atomic, totally ordered, reliable multicast service on top of unreliable IP multicasting. In this report, we develop formal models for RMP using existing automated verification systems, and perform validation on the formal RMP specifications. The validation analysis help identifies some minor specification and design problems. We also use the formal models of RMP to generate a test suite for conformance testing of the implementation. Throughout the process of RMP development, we follow an iterative, interactive approach that emphasizes concurrent and parallel progress of implementation and verification processes. Through this approach, we incorporate formal techniques into our development process, promote a common understanding for the protocol, increase the reliability of our software, and maintain high fidelity between the specifications of RMP and its implementation.

  18. Reliability and maintainability assessment factors for reliable fault-tolerant systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bavuso, S. J.

    1984-01-01

    A long term goal of the NASA Langley Research Center is the development of a reliability assessment methodology of sufficient power to enable the credible comparison of the stochastic attributes of one ultrareliable system design against others. This methodology, developed over a 10 year period, is a combined analytic and simulative technique. An analytic component is the Computer Aided Reliability Estimation capability, third generation, or simply CARE III. A simulative component is the Gate Logic Software Simulator capability, or GLOSS. The numerous factors that potentially have a degrading effect on system reliability and the ways in which these factors that are peculiar to highly reliable fault tolerant systems are accounted for in credible reliability assessments. Also presented are the modeling difficulties that result from their inclusion and the ways in which CARE III and GLOSS mitigate the intractability of the heretofore unworkable mathematics.

  19. Reliability aspects of radiation damage in reactor pressure vessel mterials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brumovsky, M.

    1985-01-01

    The service life estimate is a major factor in the evaluation of the operating reliability and safety of a nuclear reactor pressure vessel. The evaluation of the service life of the pressure vessel is based on a comparison of fracture toughness values with stress intensity factors. Notch toughness curves are used for the indirect determination of fracture toughness. The dominant degradation effect is radiation embrittlement. Factors having the greatest effect on the result are the properties of the starting material of the vessel and the impurity content, mainly the Cu and P content. The design life is affected by the evaluation of residual lifetime which is made by periodical nondestructive inspections and using surveillance samples. (M.D.)

  20. Reliability evaluation of oil pipelines operating in aggressive environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magomedov, R. M.; Paizulaev, M. M.; Gebel, E. S.

    2017-08-01

    In connection with modern increased requirements for ecology and safety, the development of diagnostic services complex is obligatory and necessary enabling to ensure the reliable operation of the gas transportation infrastructure. Estimation of oil pipelines technical condition should be carried out not only to establish the current values of the equipment technological parameters in operation, but also to predict the dynamics of changes in the physical and mechanical characteristics of the material, the appearance of defects, etc. to ensure reliable and safe operation. In the paper, existing Russian and foreign methods for evaluation of the oil pipelines reliability are considered, taking into account one of the main factors leading to the appearance of crevice in the pipeline material, i.e. change the shape of its cross-section, - corrosion. Without compromising the generality of the reasoning, the assumption of uniform corrosion wear for the initial rectangular cross section has been made. As a result a formula for calculation the probability of failure-free operation was formulated. The proposed mathematical model makes it possible to predict emergency situations, as well as to determine optimal operating conditions for oil pipelines.