USING CONDITION MONITORING TO PREDICT REMAINING LIFE OF ELECTRIC CABLES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

LOFARO, R.; SOO, P.; VILLARAN, M.; GROVE, E.

2001-01-01

Electric cables are passive components used extensively throughout nuclear power stations to perform numerous safety and non-safety functions. It is known that the polymers commonly used to insulate the conductors on these cables can degrade with time; the rate of degradation being dependent on the severity of the conditions in which the cables operate. Cables do not receive routine maintenance and, since it can be very costly, they are not replaced on a regular basis. Therefore, to ensure their continued functional performance, it would be beneficial if condition monitoring techniques could be used to estimate the remaining useful life of these components. A great deal of research has been performed on various condition monitoring techniques for use on electric cables. In a research program sponsored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, several promising techniques were evaluated and found to provide trendable information on the condition of low-voltage electric cables. These techniques may be useful for predicting remaining life if well defined limiting values for the aging properties being measured can be determined. However, each technique has advantages and limitations that must be addressed in order to use it effectively, and the necessary limiting values are not always easy to obtain. This paper discusses how condition monitoring measurements can be used to predict the remaining useful life of electric cables. The attributes of an appropriate condition monitoring technique are presented, and the process to be used in estimating the remaining useful life of a cable is discussed along with the difficulties that must be addressed

Remaining life assessment and plant life extension in high temperature components of power and petrochemical plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fleming, A.

2003-01-01

This paper explains the reasons why plant life can so easily be extended beyond the original design life. It details the means by which plant life extension is normally achieved, a structured plan for achieving such plant life extension at reasonable cost and some of the key techniques used in assessing the remaining life and discusses the simple repair options available. (author)

Approaches for Modelling the Residual Service Life of Marine Concrete Structures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amir Rahimi

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the service life design of existing reinforced concrete structures in a marine environment. The general procedure of condition assessment for estimating the residual service life of structures before a repair measure is illustrated. For assessment of the residual service life of structures which have undergone a repair measure a simplified mathematical model of chloride diffusion in a 2-layer system is presented. Preliminary probabilistic calculations demonstrate the effect of various conditions on the residual service life. First studies of the chloride diffusion in a 2-layer system have been conducted using the finite element method. Results of a long-term exposure test are presented to illustrate the performance of two different repair materials. The distribution of residual chlorides after application of a repair material is being studied in laboratory investigations. The residual chlorides migrate from the concrete layer into the new layer immediately after the repair material has been applied to the concrete member. The content and gradient of residual chlorides, along with the thickness and the chloride ingress resistance of both the remaining and the new layer of cover, will determine the residual service life of the repaired structures.

Remaining useful life estimation based on discriminating shapelet extraction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malinowski, Simon; Chebel-Morello, Brigitte; Zerhouni, Noureddine

2015-01-01

In the Prognostics and Health Management domain, estimating the remaining useful life (RUL) of critical machinery is a challenging task. Various research topics including data acquisition, fusion, diagnostics and prognostics are involved in this domain. This paper presents an approach, based on shapelet extraction, to estimate the RUL of equipment. This approach extracts, in an offline step, discriminative rul-shapelets from an history of run-to-failure data. These rul-shapelets are patterns that are selected for their correlation with the remaining useful life of the equipment. In other words, every selected rul-shapelet conveys its own information about the RUL of the equipment. In an online step, these rul-shapelets are compared to testing units and the ones that match these units are used to estimate their RULs. Therefore, RUL estimation is based on patterns that have been selected for their high correlation with the RUL. This approach is different from classical similarity-based approaches that attempt to match complete testing units (or only late instants of testing units) with training ones to estimate the RUL. The performance of our approach is evaluated on a case study on the remaining useful life estimation of turbofan engines and performance is compared with other similarity-based approaches. - Highlights: • A data-driven RUL estimation technique based on pattern extraction is proposed. • Patterns are extracted for their correlation with the RUL. • The proposed method shows good performance compared to other techniques

Prognostic modelling options for remaining useful life estimation by industry

Science.gov (United States)

Sikorska, J. Z.; Hodkiewicz, M.; Ma, L.

2011-07-01

Over recent years a significant amount of research has been undertaken to develop prognostic models that can be used to predict the remaining useful life of engineering assets. Implementations by industry have only had limited success. By design, models are subject to specific assumptions and approximations, some of which are mathematical, while others relate to practical implementation issues such as the amount of data required to validate and verify a proposed model. Therefore, appropriate model selection for successful practical implementation requires not only a mathematical understanding of each model type, but also an appreciation of how a particular business intends to utilise a model and its outputs. This paper discusses business issues that need to be considered when selecting an appropriate modelling approach for trial. It also presents classification tables and process flow diagrams to assist industry and research personnel select appropriate prognostic models for predicting the remaining useful life of engineering assets within their specific business environment. The paper then explores the strengths and weaknesses of the main prognostics model classes to establish what makes them better suited to certain applications than to others and summarises how each have been applied to engineering prognostics. Consequently, this paper should provide a starting point for young researchers first considering options for remaining useful life prediction. The models described in this paper are Knowledge-based (expert and fuzzy), Life expectancy (stochastic and statistical), Artificial Neural Networks, and Physical models.

Determination of the remaining operational life of power plant components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eiden, H.; Vorwerk, K.; Graeff, D.; Hoff, E.

1983-01-01

The proceedings volume presents, in full wording, eight papers read at a TUEV Rheinland meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August 1982. Subjects: Layout, quality assurance, service life analysis etc. of power plant components. (RW) [de

Estimation the remaining service-lifetime of wooden structure of geothermal cooling tower

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Effendi Tri Bahtiar

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Similar with other construction materials, wood strength is decreasing when applied by long term loading. Wooden cooling tower structure at Star Energy Geothermal (Wayang Windu Ltd was built in 1998 and it should be evaluated to avoid sudden structural failure. Evaluation conducted through several steps: wood species identification, the physical and mechanical properties testing, and estimation for remaining service-lifetime by generating mathematical models derived from creep test and reduction of cross sectional area of the wood. Identification result that the wood are redwood (Sequoia sempervirens and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii. The wood density value has degraded from the surface until 0.25 cm depth. Strength characteristics of the wood have considerably decreased, but the allowable stress for bending, tension parallel to grain, and shear were still higher than NDS2005 requirements. The allowable stress for compression parallel to grain was slightly lower than NDS, while compression perpendicular to grain was much lower. Average modulus of elasticity reduces become lower than the value stated by the code, but the minimum value of modulus of elasticity (Emin of redwood was still higher than the code value, while Emin of Douglas fir is slightly lower. Then, in accordance with those findings, the construction would not failure yet but the deformation and vibration will occur in higher rate than design planning. This research develops mathematical models for estimating the remaining service-lifetime of the wooden cooling tower structure in geothermal power plant based on the wood performance in resisting long term loading and its deterioration rate. The deterioration rate of wood member of cooling tower structure at Star Energy Geothermal (Wayang Windu Ltd is 0.0147 cm depth per year, so equation for the residual service life estimation is σlaterσtoday=bh2(b−0.0147T(h−0.0147T2, and σlater must be lower than allowable stress.

Remaining childless : Causes and consequences from a life course perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Keizer, R.

2010-01-01

Little is know about childless individuals in the Netherlands, although currently one out of every five Dutch individuals remains childless. Who are they? How did they end up being childless? How and to what extent are their life outcomes influenced by their childlessness? By focusing on individual

Risk-based management of remaining life of power plant components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roos, E.; Jovanovic, A.S.; Maile, K.; Auerkari, P.

1999-01-01

The paper describes application of different modules of the MPA-System ALIAS in risk-based management of remaining life of power plant components. The system allows comprehensive coverage of all aspects of the remaining life management, including also the risk analysis and risk management. In addition, thanks to the modular character of the system it is also possible to implement new methods: In the case described here, a new (probabilistic) method for determination of the next inspection time for the components exposed to creep loading has been developed and implemented in the system. Practical application of the method has shown (a) that the mean values obtained by the method fall into the range of results obtained by other methods (based on expert knowledge), and (b) that it is possible to quantify the probability of aberration from the mean values. This in turn allows quantifying the additional risks linked to e.g. prolonging of inspection intervals. (orig.) [de

Risk based service life prediction of underground cast iron pipes subjected to corrosion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, C.Q.; Mahmoodian, M.

2013-01-01

Aging and deterioration of underground cast iron pipes is inevitable after their long time in service, with corrosion being the most predominant mechanism for pipe failures. Although considerable research has been undertaken in the past few decades, more is on the effects of corrosion on structural capacity of pipes than that on the prediction of their service life. This paper presents a methodology to quantitatively assess the risk of pipe collapse and predict its remaining service life using a time-dependent reliability theory. The concept of stress intensity in fracture mechanics is employed to establish the failure criterion of pipe collapse. An empirical model is derived for maximum pit growth of corrosion from the available data based on mathematical regressions. An example is provided to illustrate the application of the proposed method. It is found in the paper that the risk of pipe collapse increases with an increase in the diameter of the pipe for both external and internal corrosion. It is also found that the tougher the pipe is, the smaller the risk of its collapse. The paper concludes that a time-dependent reliability method is a very useful tool to predict the risk of pipe collapse and its remaining service life. The proposed method can help the water industry develop rehabilitation or replacement strategy for existing pipe networks with a view for better management of the pipe asset

Life assessment of gas turbine blades after long term service

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Auerkari, Pertti; Salonen, Jorma [VTT, Espoo (Finland); Maekinen, Sari [Helsingin Energia, Helsinki (Finland); Karvonen, Ikka; Tanttari, Heikki [Lappeenrannan Laempoevoima, Lappeenranta (Finland); Kangas, Pekka [Neste Oil, Kilpilahti (Finland); Scholz, Alfred [Technische Univ. Darmstadt (Germany); Vacchieri, Erica [Ansaldo Richerche, Genoa (Italy)

2010-07-01

Turbine blade samples from three land based gas turbines have been subjected to systematic condition and life assessment after long term service (88000 - 109000 equivalent operating hours, eoh), when approaching the nominal or suggested life limits. The blades represent different machine types, materials and design generations, and uncooled blading outside the hottest front end of the turbine, i.e. blades with relatively large size and considerable expected life. For a reasonable assessment, a range of damage mechanisms need to be addressed and evaluated for the impact in the residual life. The results suggested significant additional safe life for all three blade sets. In some cases this could warrant yet another life cycle comparable to that of new blades, even after approaching the nominal end of life in terms of recommended equivalent operating hours. This is thought to be partly because of base load combined cycle operation and natural gas fuel, or modest operational loading if the design also accounted for more intensive cycling operation and more corrosive oil firing. In any case, long term life extension is only appropriate if not intervened by events of overloading, overheating or other sudden events such as foreign object damage (FOD), and if supported by the regular inspection and maintenance program to control in-service damage. Condition based assessment therefore remains an important part of the blade life management after the decision of accepted life extension. (orig.)

Flexible pavement rehabilitation design based on pavement service life time span left

OpenAIRE

Gamelyak, I.; Shevchuk, V.

2005-01-01

The design of flexible pavement rehabilitation is analysed in terms of durability-cost. A notion of the remaining service life span is described. the model of rehabilitation strategy selection is presented for both design project and operation stages. the results can be used in the pavement management system.

Mineral remains of early life on Earth? On Mars?

Science.gov (United States)

Iberall, Robbins E.; Iberall, A.S.

1991-01-01

The oldest sedimentary rocks on Earth, the 3.8-Ga Isua Iron-Formation in southwestern Greenland, are metamorphosed past the point where organic-walled fossils would remain. Acid residues and thin sections of these rocks reveal ferric microstructures that have filamentous, hollow rod, and spherical shapes not characteristic of crystalline minerals. Instead, they resemble ferric-coated remains of bacteria. Because there are no earlier sedimentary rocks to study on Earth, it may be necessary to expand the search elsewhere in the solar system for clues to any biotic precursors or other types of early life. A study of morphologies of iron oxide minerals collected in the southern highlands during a Mars sample return mission may therefore help to fill in important gaps in the history of Earth's earliest biosphere. -from Authors

Solid Propulsion Systems, Subsystems, and Components Service Life Extension

Science.gov (United States)

Hundley, Nedra H.; Jones, Connor

2011-01-01

The service life extension of solid propulsion systems, subsystems, and components will be discussed based on the service life extension of the Space Transportation System Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) and Booster Separation Motors (BSM). The RSRM is certified for an age life of five years. In the aftermath of the Columbia accident there were a number of motors that were approaching the end of their five year service life certification. The RSRM Project initiated an assessment to determine if the service life of these motors could be extended. With the advent of the Constellation Program, a flight test was proposed that would utilize one of the RSRMs which had been returned from the launch site due to the expiration of its five year service life certification and twelve surplus Chemical Systems Division BSMs which had exceeded their eight year service life. The RSRM age life tracking philosophy which establishes when the clock starts for age life tracking will be described. The role of the following activities in service life extension will be discussed: subscale testing, accelerated aging, dissecting full scale aged hardware, static testing full scale aged motors, data mining industry data, and using the fleet leader approach. The service life certification and extension of the BSMs will also be presented.

Indicators for functional service life of building structures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blok, R.; Teuffel, P.

2014-01-01

The Estimated Service Life, ESL, is of a major influence in many building assessments. The comparison and optimization of design alternatives depend on the accuracy of this ESL. More and more the Functional Service Life rather than the Technical Service Life is decisive in how long a building can be

Remaining useful life assessment of lithium-ion batteries in implantable medical devices

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Chao; Ye, Hui; Jain, Gaurav; Schmidt, Craig

2018-01-01

This paper presents a prognostic study on lithium-ion batteries in implantable medical devices, in which a hybrid data-driven/model-based method is employed for remaining useful life assessment. The method is developed on and evaluated against data from two sets of lithium-ion prismatic cells used in implantable applications exhibiting distinct fade performance: 1) eight cells from Medtronic, PLC whose rates of capacity fade appear to be stable and gradually decrease over a 10-year test duration; and 2) eight cells from Manufacturer X whose rates appear to be greater and show sharp increase after some period over a 1.8-year test duration. The hybrid method enables online prediction of remaining useful life for predictive maintenance/control. It consists of two modules: 1) a sparse Bayesian learning module (data-driven) for inferring capacity from charge-related features; and 2) a recursive Bayesian filtering module (model-based) for updating empirical capacity fade models and predicting remaining useful life. A generic particle filter is adopted to implement recursive Bayesian filtering for the cells from the first set, whose capacity fade behavior can be represented by a single fade model; a multiple model particle filter with fixed-lag smoothing is proposed for the cells from the second data set, whose capacity fade behavior switches between multiple fade models.

Interdependence of life insurance service quality and premium

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dragan Benazić

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Insurance companies in Croatia feel the need to find new sources of competitive advantage on the Croatian life insurance market amid increasing competition and a poorly profiled offer of life insurance services. Lately, both marketing literature and practice seem to point to the shaping of a relationship between service quality and price as a possible solution to improving the position of insurance companies on the Croatian market. In providing life insurance services, the insurance companies should focus on the quality elements that offer certain benefits a client is willing to pay for. Changes in individual quality features have been evaluated differently by clients. Such differences in their evaluation of changes in the individual elements of service quality also reflect the willingness of clients to pay a suitable increase on their insurance premium. Improvements in the service quality features that are subjectively evaluated as important should lead to the client’s acceptance of a higher life insurance premium. The paper considers the interdependence between the quality of life insurance services and the premium from the aspect of the client’s willingness to pay a higher life insurance premium for a higher service quality.

Service life prediction and cementitious composites

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stoklund Larsen, E.

The present Ph.D.thesis describes and discusses the applicability of a systematic methodology recommended by CIB W80/RILEM-PSL for sevice life prediction. The report describes the most important inherent and environmental factors affecting the service life of structures of cementitious composites....... On the basis of this discription of factors and experience from a test programme described in SBI Report 222, Service life prediction and fibre reinforced cementitious composites, the applicabillity of the CIB/RILEM methodology is discussed....

Remaining useful life prediction of degrading systems subjected to imperfect maintenance: Application to draught fans

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhao-Qiang; Hu, Chang-Hua; Si, Xiao-Sheng; Zio, Enrico

2018-02-01

Current degradation modeling and remaining useful life prediction studies share a common assumption that the degrading systems are not maintained or maintained perfectly (i.e., to an as-good-as new state). This paper concerns the issues of how to model the degradation process and predict the remaining useful life of degrading systems subjected to imperfect maintenance activities, which can restore the health condition of a degrading system to any degradation level between as-good-as new and as-bad-as old. Toward this end, a nonlinear model driven by Wiener process is first proposed to characterize the degradation trajectory of the degrading system subjected to imperfect maintenance, where negative jumps are incorporated to quantify the influence of imperfect maintenance activities on the system's degradation. Then, the probability density function of the remaining useful life is derived analytically by a space-scale transformation, i.e., transforming the constructed degradation model with negative jumps crossing a constant threshold level to a Wiener process model crossing a random threshold level. To implement the proposed method, unknown parameters in the degradation model are estimated by the maximum likelihood estimation method. Finally, the proposed degradation modeling and remaining useful life prediction method are applied to a practical case of draught fans belonging to a kind of mechanical systems from steel mills. The results reveal that, for a degrading system subjected to imperfect maintenance, our proposed method can obtain more accurate remaining useful life predictions than those of the benchmark model in literature.

Calculating the price of tanks, vessels and process equipment of petrochemical industry second criteria of integrity and survival remaining of API RP 579 (Fitness for service); Calculo do preco de tanques, vasos e equipamentos de processo da industria petroquimica segundo criterios de integridade e sobrevida remanescente do API RP 579 (Fitness for service)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Morato, Paulo Cesar Vidal Morato [Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (PETROBRAS), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

2012-07-01

By owning many tanks, vessels and process equipment, PETROBRAS has developed the concept of 'Fitness-For-Service' (suitability for use) under the standard API RP 579, i.e. to verify the structural integrity and remaining useful life of equipment in service. In this paper we will discuss how to calculate the remaining useful life of equipment used in accordance with such criteria and with this technical data, calculate the depreciated price. Steps: verification of applicability; surveys of the technical data of the equipment; surveys the minimum thickness of plating equipment over the years; calculation of the average annual rate of corrosion (tc); calculation of the required minimum thickness according to the criteria of API RP 579 (tr); calculation of remaining useful life (nr); calculation of the depreciated price (Vd) equipment. Conclusions: intended for evaluation of tanks price, vessels and process equipment according to API RP 579 concepts. Estimate the remaining useful life of equipment used and calculates the depreciated price. Scientific method based, consistent and robust, due to calculating established the remaining useful life. (author)

Modelling of volunteer satisfaction and intention to remain in community service: A stepwise approach

Science.gov (United States)

Hasan, Hazlin; Wahid, Sharifah Norhuda Syed; Jais, Mohammad; Ridzuan, Arifi

2017-05-01

The purpose of this study is to obtain the most significant model of volunteer satisfaction and intention to remain in community service by using a stepwise approach. Currently, Malaysians, young and old are showing more interests in involving themselves in community service projects, either locally or internationally. This positive movement of serving the needy is somehow being halted by the lack of human and financial resources. Therefore, the trend today sees organizers of such projects depend heavily on voluntary supports as they enable project managers to add and to expand the quantity and diversity of services offered without exhausting the minimal budget available. Volunteers are considered a valuable commodity as the available pool of volunteers may be declining due to various reasons which include the volunteer satisfaction. In tandem with the existing situation, a selected sample of 215 diploma students from one of the public universities in Malaysia, who have been involved in at least one community service project, agreed that everybody should have a volunteering intention in helping others. The findings revealed that the most significant model obtained contains two factors that contributed towards intention to remain in community service; work assignment and organizational support, with work assignment becoming the most significant factor. Further research on the differences of intention to remain in community service between students' stream and gender would be conducted to contribute to the body of knowledge.

Use of NDE and FM for the assessment of remaining life of steam turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alley, T [Duke Power Co., Charlotte, NC (United States); Stone, R [Electric Power Research Inst., Charlotte, NC (United States). Nondestructive Evaluation Center

1988-12-31

Catastrophic failures of rotating turbine components, such as the Gallatin rotor burst in 1974 and the shrunk-on disk rupture at Hinkley Point in 1969, alerted the utility industry to the failure potential of these components. Such failures can cause severe financial loss; endanger personnel; and, in nuclear plants, damage safety related equipment. To adequately predict the remaining life of a turbine rotor requires accurate information about component flaws, material properties, future operating loads, relevant failure mechanisms, and an approach to combine this information to make an assessment of remaining life. EPRI has supported the development of improved ultrasonic test equipment for use from the rotor bore (bore-sonic examination) and a fracture mechanics based life assessment code called SAFER (Stress and Fracture Evaluation of Rotors). The EPRI NDE Center has supported the transfer of this technology to industry. This presentation deals with the NDE Center`s transfer of the NDE and life assessment technology to industry and discusses a particular application by Duke Power Company at their Allen Plant, Unit 1 to extend the operating life of an IP/LP turbine. (author).

Use of NDE and FM for the assessment of remaining life of steam turbines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alley, T.; Stone, R.

1988-01-01

Catastrophic failures of rotating turbine components, such as the Gallatin rotor burst in 1974 and the shrunk-on disk rupture at Hinkley Point in 1969, alerted the utility industry to the failure potential of these components. Such failures can cause severe financial loss; endanger personnel; and, in nuclear plants, damage safety related equipment. To adequately predict the remaining life of a turbine rotor requires accurate information about component flaws, material properties, future operating loads, relevant failure mechanisms, and an approach to combine this information to make an assessment of remaining life. EPRI has supported the development of improved ultrasonic test equipment for use from the rotor bore (bore-sonic examination) and a fracture mechanics based life assessment code called SAFER (Stress and Fracture Evaluation of Rotors). The EPRI NDE Center has supported the transfer of this technology to industry. This presentation deals with the NDE Center's transfer of the NDE and life assessment technology to industry and discusses a particular application by Duke Power Company at their Allen Plant, Unit 1 to extend the operating life of an IP/LP turbine. (author)

Effect of corrosion on the fatigue service-life on steel and reinforced concrete beams

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Veerman, R.P.; van Breugel, K.; Koenders, E.A.B.

2015-01-01

Chloride-induced corrosion is a point of big concern in reinforced concrete (RC) structures. To monitor the actual health and to predict the remaining service-life of structures, it is important to understand the structural behaviour and the failure mechanism of structures exposed to chlorides under

Software life after in-service

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tseng, M.; Eng, P.

1993-01-01

Software engineers and designers tend to conclude a software project at the in-service milestone of the software life cycle. But the reality is that the 'life after in-service' is significantly longer than other phases of the life cycle, typically 20 years or more depending on the maintainability of the hardware platform and the designed life of the plant. During this period, the software asset (as with other physical assets in the plant) continues to be upgraded to correct deficiencies, meet new requirements, cope with obsolescence of equipment and so on. The software life cycle ends with a migration of the software to a different platform. It is typical in a software development project to put a great deal of emphasis on design methodologies, techniques, tools, development environment, standard procedures, and project management to ensure quality product is delivered on schedule and within budget. More often than not, a disproportion of emphasis is placed on the issues and needs of the in-service phase. Once the software is in-service, the designers move on to other projects, while the maintenance and support staff must manage the software. This paper examines the issues in three steps. First it presents a view of software from maintenance and support staff perspectives, including complexity of software, suitability of documentation, configuration management, training, difficulties and risks associated with making changes, required skills and knowledge. Second, it identifies the concerns raised from these viewpoints, including costs of maintaining the software, ability to meet additional requirements, availability of support tools, length of time required to engineer and install changes, and a strategy for the migration of software asset. Finally it discusses some approaches to deal with the concerns. (Author) 5 refs., fig

The privacy concerns in location based services: protection approaches and remaining challenges

OpenAIRE

Basiri, Anahid; Moore, Terry; Hill, Chris

2016-01-01

Despite the growth in the developments of the Location Based Services (LBS) applications, there are still several challenges remaining. One of the most important concerns about LBS, shared by many users and service providers is the privacy. Privacy has been considered as a big threat to the adoption of LBS among many users and consequently to the growth of LBS markets. This paper discusses the privacy concerns associated with location data, and the current privacy protection approaches. It re...

Remaining Life Estimation Of Secondary Superheater Outlet On Industrial Electrical Boiler

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soedardjo; Andryansyah; Arhatari, B.D.; Natsir, Muhammad; Triyadi, Ari; Farokhi

2001-01-01

Remaining life estimation of secondary superheater header outlet (SSHO) on industrial electrical boiler has been carried out. Estimation conducted by the observation of microstructure cavitation development based on Neubauer and Wedel theory. The result is available for isolated cavitation development present yet. That Secondary Superheater Outlet component is in good condition after 14 years operated and predicted could be operated for 36 years again

A proposal of predictive methods of crack propagation life and remaining life of structural metal under creep-fatigue interacted conditions by use of X-ray profile analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohnami, M.; Sakane, M.; Nishino, S.

1987-01-01

The following two series of studies are described: One is crack propagation life prediction in high-temperature low-cycle fatigue tests under triangular and trapezoidal strain or stress waves for austenitic stainless steel by X-ray fractography. Another is remaining life prediction of the steel under creep-fatigue interacted conditions by applying the concept of the remaining life diagram and X-ray profile analysis. Particle size and microstrain obtained by X-ray profile analysis were effective nondestructive parameters for estimating crack propagation life and remaining life in creep-fatigue interaction

Quality of services and quality of life from service providers' perspectives: analysis with focus groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Jenaro, C; Vega, V; Flores, N; Cruz, M

2013-06-01

Concepts such as support, quality of life and quality of services are customary in services for people with intellectual disabilities. The identification of the different ways of conceiving, prioritising and implementing these concepts by service providers can help to drive changes to achieve better personal outcomes for this population. The current study aims to identify service providers' perceptions regarding the quality of life of their clients and the quality of services they provide. It also aims to identify similarities and differences of appraisals among professionals, and to identify associations between supports, quality of life and quality of services. Data were collected from 22 service providers who attended three focus groups (professionals, direct support staff, and managers) from whom 424 comments were analysed. Service providers were asked about the required support for users, the meaning of quality of life for those users, and about features that should characterise quality services. Thematic analysis was employed and transcripts of the sessions were coded according to the dimensions of models on supports, quality of life and quality of services. Chi-squared tests were utilised to test for potential differences among groups. Each professional group has its own priorities concerning required supports. Among the organisation different and potentially conflicting perceptions regarding the meaning of experiencing quality of life coexist. Concerning quality of services, only managers mentioned personal outcomes. Finally, institutionalisation has a negative impact on supports, quality of life and quality of services. It is necessary to move beyond a shared awareness of the negative impact of institutionalisation towards the transformation of services in search of personal quality outcomes. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, MENCAP & IASSID.

The Service Life Evaluation for Concrete Structure of NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Choon Min; Kim, Seong Soo; Bae, Sung Hwan; Sik, Yoon Eui

2014-01-01

Prolonged exposure to the marine environment degrades the durability of concrete and shortens the service life of concrete due to degradation factors such as chloride, carbonation, freezing and thawing, sulfate. Therefore, many country's organizations like the Korea Concrete Institute (KCI), the American Concrete Institute (ACI), the International Federation for Structural Concrete (FIB), the American Society for Testing and Material (ASTM) which recognized the seriousness of this deterioration proposed equation models to evaluate the service life for the concrete structures. As a result, this paper is to especially consider the service life evaluation using these equation models for concrete structure of NPP in Korea compared with 60 years as a design service life. The concrete durability evaluation for Shin-Hanul NPP units 1 and 2 is carried out by using typically proposed assessment models in domestic and foreign standard. It is confirmed that the service life of concrete durability for each of deterioration factors is significantly higher than 60 years as a design service life. As a result, the study of combined deterioration for the concrete structures of NPP in future is positively necessary and maintenance control through regular monitoring should be conducted to secure safety margin basis

Method for estimating capacity and predicting remaining useful life of lithium-ion battery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu, Chao; Jain, Gaurav; Tamirisa, Prabhakar; Gorka, Tom

2014-01-01

Highlights: • We develop an integrated method for the capacity estimation and RUL prediction. • A state projection scheme is derived for capacity estimation. • The Gauss–Hermite particle filter technique is used for the RUL prediction. • Results with 10 years’ continuous cycling data verify the effectiveness of the method. - Abstract: Reliability of lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable batteries used in implantable medical devices has been recognized as of high importance from a broad range of stakeholders, including medical device manufacturers, regulatory agencies, physicians, and patients. To ensure Li-ion batteries in these devices operate reliably, it is important to be able to assess the capacity of Li-ion battery and predict the remaining useful life (RUL) throughout the whole life-time. This paper presents an integrated method for the capacity estimation and RUL prediction of Li-ion battery used in implantable medical devices. A state projection scheme from the author’s previous study is used for the capacity estimation. Then, based on the capacity estimates, the Gauss–Hermite particle filter technique is used to project the capacity fade to the end-of-service (EOS) value (or the failure limit) for the RUL prediction. Results of 10 years’ continuous cycling test on Li-ion prismatic cells in the lab suggest that the proposed method achieves good accuracy in the capacity estimation and captures the uncertainty in the RUL prediction. Post-explant weekly cycling data obtained from field cells with 4–7 implant years further verify the effectiveness of the proposed method in the capacity estimation

Through-life engineering services motivation, theory, and practice

CERN Document Server

Roy, Rajkumar

2015-01-01

Demonstrating the latest research and analysis in the area of through-life engineering services (TES), this book utilizes case studies and expert analysis from an international array of practitioners and researchers – who together represent multiple manufacturing sectors: aerospace, railway and automotive – to maximize reader insights into the field of through-life engineering services. As part of the EPSRC Centre in Through-life Engineering Services program to support the academic and industrial community, this book presents an overview of non-destructive testing techniques and applications and provides the reader with the information needed to assess degradation and possible automation of through-life engineering service activities . The latest developments in maintenance-repair-overhaul (MRO) are presented with emphasis on cleaning technologies, repair and overhaul approaches and planning and digital assistance. The impact of these technologies on sustainable enterprises is also analyzed. This book wil...

Guarantee of remaining life time. Integrity of mechanical components and control of ageing phenomena

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schuler, X.; Herter, K.H.; Koenig, G.

2012-01-01

The life time of safety relevant systems, structures and components (SSC) of Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) is determined by two main principles. First of all the required quality has to be produced during the design and fabrication process. This means that quality has to be produced and can't be improved by excessive inspections (Basis Safety - quality through production principle). The second one is assigned to the initial quality which has to be maintained during operation. This concerns safe operation during the total life time (life time management), safety against ageing phenomena (AM - ageing management) as well as proof of integrity (e.g. break preclusion or avoidance of fracture for SSC with high safety relevance). Initiated by the Fukushima Dai-ichi event in Japan in spring 2011 for German NPP's Long Term Operation (LTO) is out of question. In June 2011 legislation took decision to phase-out from nuclear by 2022. As a fact safe operation shall be guaranteed for the remaining life time. Within this technical framework the ageing management is a key element. Depending on the safety-relevance of the SSC under observation including preventive maintenance various tasks are required in particular to clarify the mechanisms which contribute systemspecifically to the damage of the components and systems and to define their controlling parameters which have to be monitored and checked. Appropriate continuous or discontinuous measures are to be considered in this connection. The approach to ensure a high standard of quality in operation for the remaining life time and the management of the technical and organizational aspects are demonstrated and explained. The basis for ageing management to be applied to NNPs is included in Nuclear Safety Standard 1403 which describes the ageing management procedures. For SSC with high safety relevance a verification analysis for rupture preclusion (proof of integrity, integrity concept) shall be performed (Nuclear Safety Standard 3206

Explosives remain preferred methods for platform abandonment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pulsipher, A.; Daniel, W. IV; Kiesler, J.E.; Mackey, V. III

1996-01-01

Economics and safety concerns indicate that methods involving explosives remain the most practical and cost-effective means for abandoning oil and gas structures in the Gulf of Mexico. A decade has passed since 51 dead sea turtles, many endangered Kemp's Ridleys, washed ashore on the Texas coast shortly after explosives helped remove several offshore platforms. Although no relationship between the explosions and the dead turtles was ever established, in response to widespread public concern, the US Minerals Management Service (MMS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) implemented regulations limiting the size and timing of explosive charges. Also, more importantly, they required that operators pay for observers to survey waters surrounding platforms scheduled for removal for 48 hr before any detonations. If observers spot sea turtles or marine mammals within the danger zone, the platform abandonment is delayed until the turtles leave or are removed. However, concern about the effects of explosives on marine life remains

Development and advance of methodological basis of the determination of remaining life of reinforced concrete construction of NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matchenko, T.Yi.; Shamyis, L.B.; Pervushova, L.F.; Matchenko, O.T.

2011-01-01

The analysis is made of the existing methodological basis on determination of the technical state and residual service life of building constructions with categories of responsibility 1 and 2. The absent norms parameters for estimation of the state and service life of constructions are determined. Components for the decision of this problem are analyzed also.

Assessment of lumen degradation and remaining useful life of LEDs using particle filter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lall, Pradeep [Auburn Univ., AL (United States); Zhang, Hao [Auburn Univ., AL (United States); Davis, Lynn [Auburn Univ., AL (United States)

2013-07-16

With the development of light-emitting diode (LED) technology, light emitting diodes system is becoming a popular light source in daily life and industry area. It has shown that Led from same factory and work under same working condition, may have significantly different behavior. Therefore, it is very important to learn the fail mechanisms, especially in the case of safety critical and harsh environment application. This paper focus on a prognostic health management (PHM) method based on the measurement of forward voltage and forward current of bare LED under harsh environment. In this paper, experiment has been done with ten samples. Ten pristine bare LEDs have been tested at 85°C while simultaneously being subjected to 85% humid environment. Pulse width modulation (PWM) control method has been employed to drive the bare LED in order to reduce the heat effect caused by forward current and high frequency (300HZ) data acquisition has been used to measure the peak forward voltage and forward current. Test to failure (lumen drops to 70 percent) data has been measured to study the effects of high temperature and humid environment loadings on the bare LED. Also, solid state cooling method with peltier cooler has been used to control the temperature of LED in the integrating sphere when take the measurement of lumen flux. The shift of forward voltage forward current curve and lumen degradation has been recorded to help build the fail model and predicted the remaining useful life. In this method, particle filter has been employed to predict the remaining useful life (RUL) of the bare LED and give us a whole picture how Led system fails. Result shows that predication of remaining useful life of Led, made by the particle filter model works under reasonable limit, and hence this method can be employed to predict the failure of Led caused by thermal and humid stress under harsh environment.

Service life prediction and fibre reinforced cementitious composites

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stoklund Larsen, E.

The present Ph.D.thesis addresses the service life concept on the fibre reinforced cementitious composites. The advantages and problems of adding fibre to a cementitious matrix and the influence on service life are described. In SBI Report 221, Service life prediction and cementitious somposites......, the factors affecting the pure cementitious composite are described. Different sizes and types of fibre reinforced crmentitious composites have been chosen to illustrate different ageing and deterioration mechanisms. Some ageing mechanisms can be accelerated and others cannot which is demonstrated in a test...... programme. Moisture, micro structural and mechanical properties were measured before, during and after ageing, with the purpose of giving a detailed "picture" of the materials during ageing....

Measuring service life and evaluating the quality of solid tires

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charoenyut Dechwayukul

2010-08-01

Full Text Available The objective of this research is to propose procedures for measuring service life and evaluating the quality of locallymade and used solid tires in Thailand. The solid tires were stressed and rotated until blowout on a drum-like test apparatuswhich is designed, constructed by the authors and equipped with laboratory instrumentation. Solid tires from five differentmanufacturers were selected for testing. We measured service life, length of time to tire failure, at three different loadingamplitudes and three different speeds on the testing drum. The service life of all specimens was studied and compared todetermine the possibility of using service life to evaluate the quality of a solid tire.

Service Life Extension of the Propulsion System of Long-Term Manned Orbital Stations

Science.gov (United States)

Kamath, Ulhas; Kuznetsov, Sergei; Spencer, Victor

2014-01-01

life and increases at the end when the design service life ends and wear-out phase begins. However, the component failure rates do not remain constant over the entire cycle life. The failure rate depends on various factors such as design complexity, current age of the component, operating conditions, severity of environmental stress factors, etc. Development, qualification and acceptance test processes provide rigorous screening of components to weed out imperfections that might otherwise cause infant mortality failures. If sufficient samples are tested to failure, the failure time versus failure quantity can be analyzed statistically to develop a failure probability distribution function (PDF), a statistical model of the probability of failure versus time. Driven by cost and schedule constraints however, spacecraft components are generally not tested in large numbers. Uncertainties in failure rate and remaining life estimates increase when fewer units are tested. To account for this, spacecraft operators prefer to limit useful operations to a period shorter than the maximum demonstrated service life of the weakest component. Running each component to its failure to determine the maximum possible service life of a system can become overly expensive and impractical. Spacecraft operators therefore, specify the required service life and an acceptable factor of safety (FOS). The designers use these requirements to limit the life test duration. Midway through the design life, when benefits justify additional investments, supplementary life test may be performed to demonstrate the capability to safely extend the service life of the system. An innovative approach is required to evaluate the entire system, without having to go through an elaborate test program of propulsion system elements. Evaluating every component through a brute force test program would be a cost prohibitive and time consuming endeavor. ISS propulsion system components were designed and built decades ago

Optimization of Aeroengine Shop Visit Decisions Based on Remaining Useful Life and Stochastic Repair Time

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jing Cai

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Considering the wide application of condition-based maintenance in aeroengine maintenance practice, it becomes possible for aeroengines to carry out their preventive maintenance in just-in-time (JIT manner by reasonably planning their shop visits (SVs. In this study, an approach is proposed to make aeroengine SV decisions following the concept of JIT. Firstly, a state space model (SSM for aeroengine based on exhaust gas temperature margin is developed to predict the remaining useful life (RUL of aeroengine. Secondly, the effect of SV decisions on risk and service level (SL is analyzed, and an optimization of the aeroengine SV decisions based on RUL and stochastic repair time is performed to carry out JIT manner with the requirement of safety and SL. Finally, a case study considering two CFM-56 aeroengines is presented to demonstrate the proposed approach. The results show that predictive accuracy of RUL with SSM is higher than with linear regression, and the process of SV decisions is simple and feasible for airlines to improve the inventory management level of their aeroengines.

Reinforcement Corrosion: Numerical Simulation and Service Life Prediction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Michel, Alexander

defects and b) define the end of service life once reinforcement corrosion is initiated neglecting corrosion processes during the propagation stage. The goal of this work was to develop a framework for the service life prediction of reinforced concrete covering initiation and propagation of chloride......Modelling of deterioration processes in concrete structures plays an increasing role in the design of reinforced concrete structures. Large sums are spent every year to ensure the durability of concrete structures, especially towards reinforcement corrosion. Improved durability provides increased...... structural reliability, economical improvements in form of less need for maintenance and repair as well as increased sustainability due to an increased energy and resource efficiency. Several service life prediction models dealing with reinforcement corrosion in concrete structurescan be found...

Review of the Remaining Useful Life Prognostics of Vehicle Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Data-Driven Methodologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lifeng Wu

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Lithium-ion batteries are the primary power source in electric vehicles, and the prognosis of their remaining useful life is vital for ensuring the safety, stability, and long lifetime of electric vehicles. Accurately establishing a mechanism model of a vehicle lithium-ion battery involves a complex electrochemical process. Remaining useful life (RUL prognostics based on data-driven methods has become a focus of research. Current research on data-driven methodologies is summarized in this paper. By analyzing the problems of vehicle lithium-ion batteries in practical applications, the problems that need to be solved in the future are identified.

Assessment of the Remaining Life of Bituminous Layers in Road Pavements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kálmán Adorjányi

2017-02-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a mechanistic-empirical approach is presented for the assessment of bearing capacity condition of asphalt pavement layers by Falling Weight Deflectometer measurements and laboratory fatigue tests. The bearing capacity condition ratio was determined using past traffic data and the remaining fatigue life which was determined from multilayer pavement response model. The traffic growth rate was taken into account with finite arithmetic and geometric progressions. Fatigue resistance of layers’ bituminous materials was obtained with indirect tensile fatigue tests. Deduct curve of condition scores was derived with Weibull distribution.

Forecasts on service life by fracture mechanics methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Munz, D.

1985-01-01

The service life of many component parts can frequently be divided into the stages up to the formation of a crack and of crack propagation. This holds good of fatigue crack, stress corrosion crack, and also in many cases of creep. But often the crack propagation stage is the only one of interest for service life forecasts if cracks must be reckoned with already on putting parts into service. Cracks in welding constructions are typical examples. Crack- and -fracture mechanics deal with the laws underlying crack propagation and provide quantitative information on crack propagation behaviour. (orig./DG) [de

End-of-Life Inventory Decisions of Service Parts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M. Pourakbar (Morteza)

2011-01-01

textabstractWith the spurt of technology and innovation the life cycles of parts and products have become shorter and service parts enter their final phases earlier. Final phase of a typical service part starts once the part production is ceased and ends when the last service or warranty contract

Identifying profiles of service users in housing services and exploring their quality of life and care needs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bitter, N.A.; Roeg, D.P.K.; Van Nieuwenhuizen, Ch.; Van Weeghel, J.

2016-01-01

Background Housing services aim to support people with mental illness in their daily life and recovery. As the level of recovery differs between service users, the quality of life and care needs also might vary. However, the type and amount of care and support that service users receive do not

A Bayesian least-squares support vector machine method for predicting the remaining useful life of a microwave component

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fuqiang Sun

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Rapid and accurate lifetime prediction of critical components in a system is important to maintaining the system’s reliable operation. To this end, many lifetime prediction methods have been developed to handle various failure-related data collected in different situations. Among these methods, machine learning and Bayesian updating are the most popular ones. In this article, a Bayesian least-squares support vector machine method that combines least-squares support vector machine with Bayesian inference is developed for predicting the remaining useful life of a microwave component. A degradation model describing the change in the component’s power gain over time is developed, and the point and interval remaining useful life estimates are obtained considering a predefined failure threshold. In our case study, the radial basis function neural network approach is also implemented for comparison purposes. The results indicate that the Bayesian least-squares support vector machine method is more precise and stable in predicting the remaining useful life of this type of components.

Analytical evaluation of the roller bearing service life

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antsupov Aleksey

2017-01-01

Full Text Available An analytical method has been developed for the design evaluation of the service life of roller bearings by the criterion of contact endurance of elements that does not require carrying out the experimental studies. It is based on the kinetic approach to the description of the solids destruction process and the theory of parametric reliability of machine parts. In contradistinction to the standard empirical dependence, which is currently used, the method allows one to take into account the effect of the material properties, and basic design and operational parameters on the service life. The results of the theoretical studies of the service life of roller bearing No. 212 (DIN 5412 T1 are presented for the quantitative assessment of this effect. They showed that the temperature-force loading conditions or material properties that were not taken into account might result in the prediction error of 1.5 or more times.

A case study of remaining storage life prediction using stochastic filtering with the influence of condition monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Zhaoqiang; Hu, Changhua; Wang, Wenbin; Zhou, Zhijie; Si, Xiaosheng

2014-01-01

Some systems may spend most of their time in storage, but once needed, must be fully functional. Slow degradation occurs when the system is in storage, so to ensure the functionality of these systems, condition monitoring is usually conducted periodically to check the condition of the system. However, taking the condition monitoring data may require putting the system under real testing situation which may accelerate the degradation, and therefore, shorten the storage life of the system. This paper presents a case study of condition-based remaining storage life prediction for gyros in the inertial navigation system on the basis of the condition monitoring data and the influence of the condition monitoring data taking process. A stochastic-filtering-based degradation model is developed to incorporate both into the prediction of the remaining storage life distribution. This makes the predicted remaining storage life depend on not only the condition monitoring data but also the testing process of taking the condition monitoring data, which the existing prognostic techniques and algorithms did not consider. The presented model is fitted to the real condition monitoring data of gyros testing using the maximum likelihood estimation method for parameter estimation. Comparisons are made with the model without considering the process of taking the condition monitoring data, and the results clearly demonstrate the superiority of the newly proposed model

Cultural services remediated in Second Life

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heilesen, Simon

2008-01-01

In 2007, the Danish Public Libraries conducted an experiment in establishing a library in the virtual world Second Life. The Info Island DK provided the framework for a number of online library services and cultural events. This study, based on interviews with most of the active participants...... in the project, discusses the experiences in remediating conventional library services into the new medium and in understanding and redefining the role of the librarian in an online virtual world....

Enhanced design, operation and maintenance practices for a longer plant service life

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raimondo, E.; Courcoux, A.

2004-01-01

Plant service life problems have been under detailed investigation in France and the experience acquired by our company over the past 25 years in the design, construction and maintenance of Pressurized Water Reactors has contributed to develop skills, equipment and capabilities available for efficient plant aging management and component service life extension. The service life of a nuclear power plant is deeply dependant of the provisions made during the design stage, directly linked to good operating conditions and adequate maintenance practices. This paper presents the importance of these three steps (design, operation and maintenance) for plant service life concern. (author)

Identifying profiles of service users in housing services and exploring their quality of life and care needs.

Science.gov (United States)

Bitter, Neis A; Roeg, Diana P K; van Nieuwenhuizen, Chijs; van Weeghel, Jaap

2016-11-23

Housing services aim to support people with mental illness in their daily life and recovery. As the level of recovery differs between service users, the quality of life and care needs also might vary. However, the type and amount of care and support that service users receive do not always match their recovery. In order to improve the quality of care, this study aims to explore whether subgroups of service users exist based on three dimensions of recovery and to examine and compare the quality of life and care needs of the persons in these subgroups. Latent class analysis was performed with data from 263 service users of housing services in the Netherlands. Classes were based on three variables: personal recovery (Mental Health Recovery Measure), social recovery (Social Functioning Scale), and clinical recovery (Brief Symptom Inventory). Subsequently, the quality of life (MANSA) and care needs (CANSAS) of the different classes were analysed by the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Three classes could be distinguished. Class 1 (45%) comprised of people who score the highest of the three classes in terms of personal and social recovery and who experience the least number of symptoms. People in class 2 (44%) and class 3 (11%) score significantly lower on personal and social recovery, and they experience significantly more symptoms compared to class 1. The distinction between class 2 and 3 can be made on the significantly higher number of symptoms in class 3. All three classes differ significantly on quality of life and unmet needs. The quality of life of service users of housing services needs improvement, as even persons in the best-recovered subgroup have a lower quality of life than the average population. Workers of housing services need to be aware of the recovery of a client and what his or her individual needs and goals are. Furthermore, better care (allocation) concerning mental and physical health and rehabilitation is needed. Care should be

A kernel principal component analysis–based degradation model and remaining useful life estimation for the turbofan engine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Delong Feng

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Remaining useful life estimation of the prognostics and health management technique is a complicated and difficult research question for maintenance. In this article, we consider the problem of prognostics modeling and estimation of the turbofan engine under complicated circumstances and propose a kernel principal component analysis–based degradation model and remaining useful life estimation method for such aircraft engine. We first analyze the output data created by the turbofan engine thermodynamic simulation that is based on the kernel principal component analysis method and then distinguish the qualitative and quantitative relationships between the key factors. Next, we build a degradation model for the engine fault based on the following assumptions: the engine has only had constant failure (i.e. no sudden failure is included, and the engine has a Wiener process, which is a covariate stand for the engine system drift. To predict the remaining useful life of the turbofan engine, we built a health index based on the degradation model and used the method of maximum likelihood and the data from the thermodynamic simulation model to estimate the parameters of this degradation model. Through the data analysis, we obtained a trend model of the regression curve line that fits with the actual statistical data. Based on the predicted health index model and the data trend model, we estimate the remaining useful life of the aircraft engine as the index reaches zero. At last, a case study involving engine simulation data demonstrates the precision and performance advantages of this prediction method that we propose. At last, a case study involving engine simulation data demonstrates the precision and performance advantages of this proposed method, the precision of the method can reach to 98.9% and the average precision is 95.8%.

Remaining useful life estimation in heterogeneous fleets working under variable operating conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Al-Dahidi, Sameer; Di Maio, Francesco; Baraldi, Piero; Zio, Enrico

2016-01-01

The availability of condition monitoring data for large fleets of similar equipment motivates the development of data-driven prognostic approaches that capitalize on the information contained in such data to estimate equipment Remaining Useful Life (RUL). A main difficulty is that the fleet of equipment typically experiences different operating conditions, which influence both the condition monitoring data and the degradation processes that physically determine the RUL. We propose an approach for RUL estimation from heterogeneous fleet data based on three phases: firstly, the degradation levels (states) of an homogeneous discrete-time finite-state semi-markov model are identified by resorting to an unsupervised ensemble clustering approach. Then, the parameters of the discrete Weibull distributions describing the transitions among the states and their uncertainties are inferred by resorting to the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) method and to the Fisher Information Matrix (FIM), respectively. Finally, the inferred degradation model is used to estimate the RUL of fleet equipment by direct Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. The proposed approach is applied to two case studies regarding heterogeneous fleets of aluminium electrolytic capacitors and turbofan engines. Results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in predicting the RUL and its superiority compared to a fuzzy similarity-based approach of literature. - Highlights: • The prediction of the remaining useful life for heterogeneous fleets is addressed. • A data-driven prognostics approach based on a Markov model is proposed. • The proposed approach is applied to two different heterogeneous fleets. • The results are compared with those obtained by a fuzzy similarity-based approach.

The Remaining Service Time Upon Reaching a High Level in M/G/1 Queues

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Boer, Pieter-Tjerk; Nicola, V.F.; van Ommeren, Jan C.W.

The distribution of the remaining service time upon reaching some target level in an M/G/1 queue is of theoretical as well as practical interest. In general, this distribution depends on the initial level as well as on the target level, say, B. Two initial levels are of particular interest, namely,

Associations of Quality of Life with Service Satisfaction in Psychotic Patients: A Meta-Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Petkari, Eleni; Pietschnig, Jakob

2015-01-01

Background Quality of life (QoL) has gained increasing attention as a desired outcome of psychosocial treatments targeting psychotic patients. Yet, the relationship between the patients’ satisfaction with services and QoL has not been clearly established, perhaps due to the multidimensionality of the QoL concept and the variability in its assessment. Aim This is the first systematic meta-analysis of all available evidence assessing the relationship between QoL and service satisfaction. Methods: In all, 19 studies reporting data of 21 independent samples (N = 5,337) were included in the present meta-analysis. In moderator analyses, effects of age, sex, diagnoses (schizophrenia vs. other psychoses), treatment context (inpatients vs. outpatients), study design (cross-sectional vs. longitudinal), and QoL domain (subjective vs. health-related) were examined. Results Analyses revealed a highly significant medium-sized effect (r = .30, p service satisfaction. Effect sizes were significantly stronger for subjective than health-related quality of life (r = .35 vs. r = .14, respectively). Moreover, associations with subjective QoL remained largely robust when accounting for moderating variables, although there was a trend of stronger associations for outpatients compared to inpatients. In contrast, effect sizes for health-related QoL were small and only observable for samples with longitudinal designs. Conclusion Associations between QoL and service satisfaction appear to be robust but are differentiated in regard to QoL domain. Our findings suggest that agents responsible for service design and implementation need to take the patients’ perception of the service adequacy for achieving QoL enhancement into account. PMID:26275139

Service Life Of Main Piping Component Due To Low Thermal Stresses.Fatigue

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miroshnik, R.; Jeager, A.; Ben Haim, H.

1998-01-01

The paper deals with estimating the service life of the power station Main piping component and describing the repair process for extending of its service life. After a long period of service, several circular fatigue cracks have been discovered at the bottom of the Main piping component chamber. Finite element analyses of transient thermal stresses, caused by power station startup, are carried out in the paper. The calculation results show good agreement between the theoretical locations of the maximum stresses and the actual locations of the cracks. There is a good agreement between theoretical evaluation and actual service life, as well. The possibility of machining out the cracks in order to prevent their growing is examined here. The machining enables us to extend the power station component's life service

Nonlinear-drifted Brownian motion with multiple hidden states for remaining useful life prediction of rechargeable batteries

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Dong; Zhao, Yang; Yang, Fangfang; Tsui, Kwok-Leung

2017-09-01

Brownian motion with adaptive drift has attracted much attention in prognostics because its first hitting time is highly relevant to remaining useful life prediction and it follows the inverse Gaussian distribution. Besides linear degradation modeling, nonlinear-drifted Brownian motion has been developed to model nonlinear degradation. Moreover, the first hitting time distribution of the nonlinear-drifted Brownian motion has been approximated by time-space transformation. In the previous studies, the drift coefficient is the only hidden state used in state space modeling of the nonlinear-drifted Brownian motion. Besides the drift coefficient, parameters of a nonlinear function used in the nonlinear-drifted Brownian motion should be treated as additional hidden states of state space modeling to make the nonlinear-drifted Brownian motion more flexible. In this paper, a prognostic method based on nonlinear-drifted Brownian motion with multiple hidden states is proposed and then it is applied to predict remaining useful life of rechargeable batteries. 26 sets of rechargeable battery degradation samples are analyzed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed prognostic method. Moreover, some comparisons with a standard particle filter based prognostic method, a spherical cubature particle filter based prognostic method and two classic Bayesian prognostic methods are conducted to highlight the superiority of the proposed prognostic method. Results show that the proposed prognostic method has lower average prediction errors than the particle filter based prognostic methods and the classic Bayesian prognostic methods for battery remaining useful life prediction.

Predicting the residual life of plant equipment - Why worry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jaske, C.E.

1985-01-01

Predicting the residual life of plant equipment that has been in service for 20 to 30 years or more is a major concern of many industries. This paper reviews the reasons for increased concern for residual-life assessment and the general procedures used in performing such assessments. Some examples and case histories illustrating procedures for assessing remaining service life are discussed. Areas where developments are needed to improve the technology for remaining-life estimation are pointed out. Then, some of the critical issues involved in residual-life assessment are identified. Finally, the future role of residual-life prediction is addressed

Advances in through-life engineering services

CERN Document Server

Roy, Rajkumar; Shaw, Andy

2017-01-01

This edited book offers further advances, new perspectives, and developments from world leaders in the field of through-life engineering services (TES). It builds up on the earlier book by the same authors entitled: “Through-life Engineering Services: Motivation, Theory and Practice.” This compendium introduces and discusses further, the developments in workshop-based and 'in situ' maintenance and support of high-value engineering products, as well as the application of drone technology for autonomous and self-healing product support. The links between ‘integrated planning’ and planned obsolescence, risk and cost modelling are also examined. The role of data, information, and knowledge management relative to component and system degradation and failure is also presented. This is supported by consideration of the effects upon the maintenance and support decision by the presence of 'No Fault Found' error signals within system data. Further to this the role of diagnostics and prognostics is also discusse...

Quality of Services and Quality of Life from Service Providers' Perspectives: Analysis with Focus Groups

Science.gov (United States)

Jenaro, C.; Vega, V.; Flores, N.; Cruz, M.

2013-01-01

Background: Concepts such as support, quality of life and quality of services are customary in services for people with intellectual disabilities. The identification of the different ways of conceiving, prioritising and implementing these concepts by service providers can help to drive changes to achieve better personal outcomes for this…

A new hybrid method for the prediction of the remaining useful life of a lithium-ion battery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, Yang; Fang, Huajing; Zhang, Yong

2017-01-01

Highlights: •The proposed prognostic method can make full use of historical information. •The method of obtaining historical error data is discussed in detail. •Comparative experiments based on data-driven and model-based methods are performed. •Battery working with different discharging currents is considered. -- Abstract: The lithium-ion battery has become the main power source of many electronic devices, it is necessary to know its state-of-health and remaining useful life to ensure the reliability of electronic device. In this paper, a novel hybrid method with the thought of error-correction is proposed to predict the remaining useful life of lithium-ion battery, which fuses the algorithms of unscented Kalman filter, complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition (CEEMD) and relevance vector machine. Firstly, the unscented Kalman filter algorithm is adopted to obtain a prognostic result based on an estimated model and produce a raw error series. Secondly, a new error series is constructed by analyzing the decomposition results of the raw error series obtained by CEEMD method. Finally, the new error series is utilized by relevance vector machine regression model to predict the prognostic error which is adopted to correct the prognostic result obtained by unscented Kalman filter. Remaining useful life prediction experiments for batteries with different rated capacities and discharging currents are performed to show the high reliability of the proposed hybrid method.

A Hybrid PCA-CART-MARS-Based Prognostic Approach of the Remaining Useful Life for Aircraft Engines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernando Sánchez Lasheras

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Prognostics is an engineering discipline that predicts the future health of a system. In this research work, a data-driven approach for prognostics is proposed. Indeed, the present paper describes a data-driven hybrid model for the successful prediction of the remaining useful life of aircraft engines. The approach combines the multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS technique with the principal component analysis (PCA, dendrograms and classification and regression trees (CARTs. Elements extracted from sensor signals are used to train this hybrid model, representing different levels of health for aircraft engines. In this way, this hybrid algorithm is used to predict the trends of these elements. Based on this fitting, one can determine the future health state of a system and estimate its remaining useful life (RUL with accuracy. To evaluate the proposed approach, a test was carried out using aircraft engine signals collected from physical sensors (temperature, pressure, speed, fuel flow, etc.. Simulation results show that the PCA-CART-MARS-based approach can forecast faults long before they occur and can predict the RUL. The proposed hybrid model presents as its main advantage the fact that it does not require information about the previous operation states of the input variables of the engine. The performance of this model was compared with those obtained by other benchmark models (multivariate linear regression and artificial neural networks also applied in recent years for the modeling of remaining useful life. Therefore, the PCA-CART-MARS-based approach is very promising in the field of prognostics of the RUL for aircraft engines.

Service life of 1-W, 0.985-μm solitary heterolasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kochetkov, A A; Konyaev, V P

2001-01-01

The service life of solitary heterolasers at a temperature of 50 0 C (P = 1W, λ = 0.98 - 0.99 μm) is studied. The maximum service life of heterolasers under such working conditions is 60000 hours for an average pumping current 1.5 A. (lasers and amplifiers)

Satellite Lithium-Ion Battery Remaining Cycle Life Prediction with Novel Indirect Health Indicator Extraction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haitao Liao

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Prognostics and remaining useful life (RUL estimation for lithium-ion batteries play an important role in intelligent battery management systems (BMS. The capacity is often used as the fade indicator for estimating the remaining cycle life of a lithium-ion battery. For spacecraft requiring high reliability and long lifetime, in-orbit RUL estimation and reliability verification on ground should be carefully addressed. However, it is quite challenging to monitor and estimate the capacity of a lithium-ion battery on-line in satellite applications. In this work, a novel health indicator (HI is extracted from the operating parameters of a lithium-ion battery to quantify battery degradation. Moreover, the Grey Correlation Analysis (GCA is utilized to evaluate the similarities between the extracted HI and the battery’s capacity. The result illustrates the effectiveness of using this new HI for fading indication. Furthermore, we propose an optimized ensemble monotonic echo state networks (En_MONESN algorithm, in which the monotonic constraint is introduced to improve the adaptivity of degradation trend estimation, and ensemble learning is integrated to achieve high stability and precision of RUL prediction. Experiments with actual testing data show the efficiency of our proposed method in RUL estimation and degradation modeling for the satellite lithium-ion battery application.

Serviceability modeling : predicting and extending the useful service life of FRT-plywood roof sheathing

Science.gov (United States)

Jerrold E. Winandy

2000-01-01

One of the most, if not the most, efficient methods of extending our existing forest resource is to prolong the service life of wood currently in-service by using those existing structures to meet our future needs (Hamilton and Winandy 1998). It is currently estimated that over 7 x 109 m3 (3 trillion bd. ft) of wood is currently in service within the United States of...

Managing rail service life

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Z. Popović

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The service life of rails depends especially on the operational loads and speeds on the railway lines, as well as on the rail maintenance policy. There are multiple aspects of rail maintenance optimization. The following article considers optimisation of rail maintenance activities relating to rail head surface condition in order to reduce corrective work on track geometry, as well as to minimize the overall costs for track maintenance. The objects of this research are issues and challenges related to rail and track maintenance in curves on modern conventional railway lines for mixed traffic.

Service life and sustainable design methods: a case study

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mc Duling, J

2008-05-01

Full Text Available The design life of hospitals normally varies between 50 to 60 years. This paper presents a case study of a major academic hospital that reached the end of its service life only 30 years after commissioning due to a combination of unsustainable...

Service life prediction of exterior plastics vision for the future

CERN Document Server

Martin, Jon; Chapin, J

2015-01-01

This book defines the current state-of-the-art for predicting the lifetime of plastics exposed to weather and outlines future research needed to advance this important field of study. Coverage includes progress in developing new science and test methods to determine how materials respond to weather exposure. This book is ideal for researchers and professionals working in the field of service life prediction. This book also: Examines numerous consensus standards that affect commercial products allowing readers to see the future of standards related to service life prediction Provides the scientific foundation for the latest commercially viable instruments Presents groundbreaking research, including the blueprint of a new test method that will significantly shorten the service life prediction process time Covers two of the latest verified predictive models, which demonstrate realized-potential to transform the field

Laser shock peening of steam turbine blade for enhanced service life

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

2014-02-13

Feb 13, 2014 ... Fretting-fatigue is an important factor influencing service life of turbine blades. The present paper describes laser shock peening of potential crack nucleation site in the root region of steam turbine blade for its enhanced service life. The experimental study, performed with an in-house developed 2.5 J/7 ns ...

Remaining Useful Life Prediction of Gas Turbine Engine using Autoregressive Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahsan Shazaib

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Gas turbine (GT engines are known for their high availability and reliability and are extensively used for power generation, marine and aero-applications. Maintenance of such complex machines should be done proactively to reduce cost and sustain high availability of the GT. The aim of this paper is to explore the use of autoregressive (AR models to predict remaining useful life (RUL of a GT engine. The Turbofan Engine data from NASA benchmark data repository is used as case study. The parametric investigation is performed to check on any effect of changing model parameter on modelling accuracy. Results shows that a single sensory data cannot accurately predict RUL of GT and further research need to be carried out by incorporating multi-sensory data. Furthermore, the predictions made using AR model seems to give highly pessimistic values for RUL of GT.

Microscopic Void Detection for Predicting Remaining Life in Electric Cable Insulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Horvath, David A.; Avila, Steven M.

2003-01-01

A reliable method of testing for remaining life in electric cable insulation has continued to elude the nuclear industry as it seeks to extend the life and license of its nuclear stations. Until recently, a trendable, measurable electrical property has not been found, and unexpected cable failures continue to be reported. Most reliable approaches to date rely on monitoring mechanical properties, which are assumed to degrade faster than the insulation's electrical properties. This paper introduces a promising technique based on void characterization, which is dependent on an electrical property related to dielectric strength. A relationship between insulation void characteristics (size and density) and the onset of partial discharge is known to exist. A similar relationship can be shown between void characteristics and unacceptable leakage currents (another typical cable failure criterion). For low-voltage cables, it is believed void content can be correlated to mechanical property degradation.This paper will report on an approach for using void information, research results showing the existence of trendable void characteristics in commonly used electric insulation materials, and techniques for detecting the voids (both laboratory- and field-based techniques). Acoustical microscopy was found to be potentially more suitable than conventional ultrasound for nondestructive in situ detection and monitoring of void characteristics in jacketed multiconductor insulation while ignoring the jacket. Also, optical and scanning electron microscope techniques will play an essential role in establishing the database necessary for continued development and implementation of this promising technique

Probabilistic Design and Management of Sustainable Concrete Infrastructure Using Multi-Physics Service Life Models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lepech, Michael; Geiker, Mette; Michel, Alexander

This paper looks to address the grand challenge of integrating construction materials engineering research within a multi-scale, inter-disciplinary research and management framework for sustainable concrete infrastructure. The ultimate goal is to drive sustainability-focused innovation and adoption...... cycles in the broader architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) industry. Specifically, a probabilistic design framework for sustainable concrete infrastructure and a multi-physics service life model for reinforced concrete are presented as important points of integration for innovation between...... design, consists of concrete service life models and life cycle assessment (LCA) models. Both types of models (service life and LCA) are formulated stochastically so that the service life and time(s) to repair, as well as total sustainability impact, are described by a probability distribution. A central...

Actual service life prediction of building components

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aagaard, Niels-Jørgen; Brandt, Erik; Hansen, Ernst Jan de Place

2014-01-01

In recent years, sustainability and life cycle cost in the construction industry have been given great attention in many countries due to the heavy climatic and environmental impact from this sector. In Denmark, a sustainability certification scheme for buildings has been developed including....... Finally, it is discussed how to adjust the model for practical purposes, and a scheme for actual service life for selected building components important for analysis of sustainability is linked. The schemes are now being implemented as basis for sustainability certification of new buildings in Denmark....

Student-Life Stress in Education and Health Service Majors

Science.gov (United States)

Zascavage, Victoria; Winterman, Kathleen G.; Buot, Max; Wies, Jennifer R.; Lyzinski, Natalie

2012-01-01

In order to better understand the effects of student-life stress on Education and Health Service majors (n = 195) at a private, religious, Midwestern university in the USA, we assessed student perception of overall stress level and physical stress level using the Student-life Stress Inventory. The targeted sample consisted of students with…

9. Nuclear power plant service life prolongation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Evropin, S.V.

1998-01-01

The problem of prolongation of nuclear power plant service life duration is discussed. A schematic diagram of the program developed in the course of activities dealing with NPP service time prolongation is shown and analyzed in details. It is shown that the basic moment when determining the strategy for NPP service time prolongation is the positive confirmation of the agreement between the NPP safety provisions and modern safety requirements. The other very important aspect of the problem is engineering substantiation of the measures assuring the reactor operation prolongation. The conclusion is made that available methods of recovering reactor materials properties, main components repair and replacement, the modern techniques for nondestructive testing of metals and NPP pipelines, as well as the developed approaches to reactor facility safety improvements make the prolongation of the Russian NPP service lifetimes possible from engineering viewpoint and economically desirable

Evaluation of HEPA filter service life

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fretthold, J.K.; Stithem, A.R.

1997-01-01

Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS), has approximately 10,000 High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filters installed in a variety of filter plenums. These ventilation/filtration plenum systems are used to control the release of airborne particulate contaminates to the environment during normal operations and potential accidents. This report summarizes the results of destructive and non-destructive tests on HEPA filters obtained from a wide variety of ages and service conditions. These tests were performed to determine an acceptable service life criteria for HEPA filters used at Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS). A total of 140 filters of various ages (1972 to 1996) and service history (new, aged unused, used) were tested. For the purpose of this report, filter age from manufacture date/initial test date to the current sample date was used, as opposed to the actual time a filter was installed in an operating system

Tools for in service monitoring and testing of riser to prevent failure and extend service life

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ward, Haakon; Bondevik, Jon Olav; Skjerve, Haavard; Tveit, Oeyvind [SeaFlex AS, Asker (Norway)

2005-07-01

Exploration and development of new oil and gas fields is heavily dependant on use of flexible pipes and many field developments would not have been possible without them. The number of flexible risers in service is constantly increasing since relatively few offshore projects have reached the estimated operational life and the operational lifetime of several fields in-service has been extended due to new and improved technology. Many risers have been in service over a large number of years. Some risers have been operated under demanding conditions such as severe dynamic loads, high pressure and temperatures. One may in some cases find that risers actually have shorter service life than estimated in the design phase due to the severe operational conditions. In order to extend the use of the riser, some risers may have to be modified and re-terminated and prepared for a new and less demanding application. In order to operate risers safely, it is important to re-assess the fatigue life in order to prevent potential riser failure. The operator should implement methods and tools for in-service monitoring and testing. This paper addresses efficient and reliable methods and tools for monitoring of critical operational parameters as well as in-service riser testing. A brief description of structural failure modes will also be given in order to understand how to interpret test results in view of potential failure modes. (author)

Remaining in Workforce – Employment Barriers for People with Disabilities in a Swedish Context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gunnel Östlund

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Participation in the workforce is lower among people with disabilities worldwide. In this study we explore how people with disabilities perceive their inclusion in working life. Twenty women and men were interviewed. The sample comprises a group of working people experiencing different kinds of physical and sensory disabilities. The employment barriers found were related to accessibility, cooperation among welfare agencies, technical aids and welfare services. We named them as follows: the environmental participation barrier, the jungle of devices, the catch 22 situations, and, the inflexibility of welfare services. According to our interpretation these external barriers hinder people with disabilities from engaging in work and civic life to the extent that they want. Most interviewees in our sample were well-educated and successfully employed, nevertheless they all had experienced barriers in relation to remaining in work. Although the intentions in Sweden and most welfare states is to include people with disabilities in working life there are several obstacles in implementation of this intention.

Maximum utilization of primary reformer catalyst tubes careful assessment of remaining life-An experience at an ammonia plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malik, M.A.

2005-01-01

Condition evaluation and residual life assessment of Reformer Catalyst Tubes has always been a point of concern for Ammonia and Methanol Plant operators. Failure of catalyst tubes results in total plant shutdown and consequent production loss. On the other hand, replacement of these tubes entails major cost impact on the company's budget, being a capital expenditure. A careful Residual Life Assessment of the tubes is therefore of utmost importance for maximum utilization of these tubes without jeopardizing plant operational reliability. This paper presents an experience of extracting maximum service life from the catalyst tubes of Primary Reformer of an Ammonia Plant. Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC) has been operating the plant since 1982, having a designed capacity of 1100 MTPD. Its Primary Reformer has 288 catalyst tubes of IN-519 material (24Cr-24Ni-Nb). The design temperature and pressures are 925 degree C and 38kg/Cm respectively. Thanks to the optimum operating conditions, regular inspections and careful assessment of the residual life, the tubes have achieved more than double of the designed life and are still operating reliably. To evaluate the tube's health, Ultrasonic Inspection (UT) was carried out in 1987 and 1994 using attenuation technique. The tubes with maximum attenuation were marked for further evaluation. Accelerated Creep Rupture Test was carried out on sample tubes periodically (1996, 2001 and 2004). Tubes were selected on the basis of UT results, TMT (Tube Metal Temperature) monitoring and Inspection findings. Based on the combined results of DT, NDT, equipment history and foreseen operational parameters, the life of these tubes was carefully assessed periodically. The tubes have been in service for more than 23 years (design life: 11 years) and a further life of 04 years has been predicted as per last assessment.The experience of successful health evaluation and residual life assessment has saved substantial cost involved in tubes replacement

An adaptive-order particle filter for remaining useful life prediction of aviation piston pumps

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tongyang LI

2018-05-01

Full Text Available An accurate estimation of the remaining useful life (RUL not only contributes to an effective application of an aviation piston pump, but also meets the necessity of condition based maintenance (CBM. For the current RUL evaluation methods, a model-based method is inappropriate for the degradation process of an aviation piston pump due to difficulties of modeling, while a data-based method rarely presents high-accuracy prediction in a long period of time. In this work, an adaptive-order particle filter (AOPF prognostic process is proposed aiming at improving long-term prediction accuracy of RUL by combining both kinds of methods. A dynamic model is initialized by a data-driven or empirical method. When a new observation comes, the prior state distribution is approximated by a current model. The order of the current model is updated adaptively by fusing the information of the observation. Monte Carlo simulation is employed for estimating the posterior probability density function of future states of the pump’s degradation. With updating the order number adaptively, the method presents a higher precision in contrast with those of traditional methods. In a case study, the proposed AOPF method is adopted to forecast the degradation status of an aviation piston pump with experimental return oil flow data, and the analytical results show the effectiveness of the proposed AOPF method. Keywords: Adaptive prognosis, Condition based maintenance (CBM, Particle filter (PF, Piston pump, Remaining useful life (RUL

Effect of interaction of embedded crack and free surface on remaining fatigue life

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Genshichiro Katsumata

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Embedded crack located near free surface of a component interacts with the free surface. When the distance between the free surface and the embedded crack is short, stress at the crack tip ligament is higher than that at the other area of the cracked section. It can be easily expected that fatigue crack growth is fast, when the embedded crack locates near the free surface. To avoid catastrophic failures caused by fast fatigue crack growth at the crack tip ligament, fitness-for-service (FFS codes provide crack-to-surface proximity rules. The proximity rules are used to determine whether the cracks should be treated as embedded cracks as-is, or transformed to surface cracks. Although the concepts of the proximity rules are the same, the specific criteria and the rules to transform embedded cracks into surface cracks differ amongst FFS codes. This paper focuses on the interaction between an embedded crack and a free surface of a component as well as on its effects on the remaining fatigue lives of embedded cracks using the proximity rules provided by the FFS codes. It is shown that the remaining fatigue lives for the embedded cracks strongly depend on the crack aspect ratio and location from the component free surface. In addition, it can be said that the proximity criteria defined by the API and RSE-M codes give overly conservative remaining lives. On the contrary, the WES and AME codes always give long remaining lives and non-conservative estimations. When the crack aspect ratio is small, ASME code gives non-conservative estimation.

Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program – Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) R&D Roadmap for Determining Remaining Useful Life of Aging Cables in Nuclear Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Simmons, Kevin L.; Ramuhalli, Pradeep; Brenchley, David L.; Coble, Jamie B.; Hashemian, Hash; Konnik, Robert; Ray, Sheila

2012-09-14

The purpose of the non-destructive evaluation (NDE) R&D Roadmap for Cables is to support the Materials Aging and Degradation (MAaD) R&D pathway. The focus of the workshop was to identify the technical gaps in detecting aging cables and predicting their remaining life expectancy. The workshop was held in Knoxville, Tennessee, on July 30, 2012, at Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation (AMS) headquarters. The workshop was attended by 30 experts in materials, electrical engineering, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory), NDE instrumentation development, universities, commercial NDE services and cable manufacturers, and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The motivation for the R&D roadmap comes from the need to address the aging management of in-containment cables at nuclear power plants (NPPs).

Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program – Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) R&D Roadmap for Determining Remaining Useful Life of Aging Cables in Nuclear Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Simmons, K.L.; Ramuhali, P.; Brenchley, D.L.; Coble, J.B.; Hashemian, H.M.; Konnick, R.; Ray, S.

2012-09-01

Executive Summary [partial] The purpose of the non-destructive evaluation (NDE) R&D Roadmap for Cables is to support the Materials Aging and Degradation (MAaD) R&D pathway. A workshop was held to gather subject matter experts to develop the NDE R&D Roadmap for Cables. The focus of the workshop was to identify the technical gaps in detecting aging cables and predicting their remaining life expectancy. The workshop was held in Knoxville, Tennessee, on July 30, 2012, at Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation (AMS) headquarters. The workshop was attended by 30 experts in materials, electrical engineering, and NDE instrumentation development from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory), universities, commercial NDE service vendors and cable manufacturers, and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

Impacts of Global Warming and Sea Level Rise on Service Life of Chloride-Exposed Concrete Structures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiao-Jian Gao

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Global warming will increase the rate of chloride ingress and the rate of steel corrosion of concrete structures. Furthermore, in coastal (atmospheric marine zones, sea level rise will reduce the distance of concrete structures from the coast and increase the surface chloride content. This study proposes a probabilistic model for analyzing the effects of global warming and sea level rise on the service life of coastal concrete structures. First, in the corrosion initiation stage, an improved chloride diffusion model is proposed to determine chloride concentration. The Monte Carlo method is employed to calculate the service life in the corrosion initiation stage; Second, in the corrosion propagation stage, a numerical model is proposed to calculate the rate of corrosion, probability of corrosion cracking, and service life. Third, overall service life is determined as the sum of service life in the corrosion initiation and corrosion propagation stages. After considering the impacts of global warming and sea level rise, the analysis results show that for concrete structures having a service life of 50 years, the service life decreases by about 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.

BioCatalogue: a universal catalogue of web services for the life sciences.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhagat, Jiten; Tanoh, Franck; Nzuobontane, Eric; Laurent, Thomas; Orlowski, Jerzy; Roos, Marco; Wolstencroft, Katy; Aleksejevs, Sergejs; Stevens, Robert; Pettifer, Steve; Lopez, Rodrigo; Goble, Carole A

2010-07-01

The use of Web Services to enable programmatic access to on-line bioinformatics is becoming increasingly important in the Life Sciences. However, their number, distribution and the variable quality of their documentation can make their discovery and subsequent use difficult. A Web Services registry with information on available services will help to bring together service providers and their users. The BioCatalogue (http://www.biocatalogue.org/) provides a common interface for registering, browsing and annotating Web Services to the Life Science community. Services in the BioCatalogue can be described and searched in multiple ways based upon their technical types, bioinformatics categories, user tags, service providers or data inputs and outputs. They are also subject to constant monitoring, allowing the identification of service problems and changes and the filtering-out of unavailable or unreliable resources. The system is accessible via a human-readable 'Web 2.0'-style interface and a programmatic Web Service interface. The BioCatalogue follows a community approach in which all services can be registered, browsed and incrementally documented with annotations by any member of the scientific community.

Prediction of the Service Life of a Reinforced Concrete Column under Chloride Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad K. Alkam

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In the present investigation, service life of a reinforced concrete column exposed to chloride environment has been predicted. This study has been based on numerical simulation of chloride ion diffusion in a concrete column during its anticipated life span. The simulation process has included the concrete cover replacement whenever chloride ion concentration has reached the critical threshold value at the reinforcement surface. Repair scheduling of the concrete column under consideration has been discussed. Effects of the concrete cover thickness and the water cement ratio on the service life of the concrete column at hand have been presented. A new approach for arranging locations of reinforcement steel bars has been introduced. This approach is intended to prolong the service life of the concrete column under consideration against chloride induced corrosion.

Lithium-ion battery remaining useful life prediction based on grey support vector machines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaogang Li

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In this article, an improved grey prediction model is proposed to address low-accuracy prediction issue of grey forecasting model. The first step is using a trigonometric function to transform the original data sequence to smooth the data, which is called smoothness of grey prediction model, and then a grey support vector machine model by integrating the improved grey model with support vector machine is introduced. At the initial stage of the model, trigonometric functions and accumulation generation operation can be used to preprocess the data, which enhances the smoothness of the data and reduces the associated randomness. In addition, support vector machine is implemented to establish a prediction model for the pre-processed data and select the optimal model parameters via genetic algorithms. Finally, the data are restored through the ‘regressive generate’ operation to obtain the forecasting data. To prove that the grey support vector machine model is superior to the other models, the battery life data from the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering are selected, and the presented model is used to predict the remaining useful life of the battery. The predicted result is compared to that of grey model and support vector machines. For a more intuitive comparison of the three models, this article quantifies the root mean square errors for these three different models in the case of different ratio of training samples and prediction samples. The results show that the effect of grey support vector machine model is optimal, and the corresponding root mean square error is only 3.18%.

Life Cycle Characteristics of Small Professional Service Firms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Masurel, E.; van Montfort, C.A.G.M.

2006-01-01

Our study of professional services firms clearly revealed that firms change over the course of their life cycles. During the first three stages, diversification in sales, the differentiation in labor force, and the level of labor productivity increase. In the last stage, diversification in sales,

Advanced aircraft service life monitoring method via flight-by-flight load spectra

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Hongchul

This research is an effort to understand current method and to propose an advanced method for Damage Tolerance Analysis (DTA) for the purpose of monitoring the aircraft service life. As one of tasks in the DTA, the current indirect Individual Aircraft Tracking (IAT) method for the F-16C/D Block 32 does not properly represent changes in flight usage severity affecting structural fatigue life. Therefore, an advanced aircraft service life monitoring method based on flight-by-flight load spectra is proposed and recommended for IAT program to track consumed fatigue life as an alternative to the current method which is based on the crack severity index (CSI) value. Damage Tolerance is one of aircraft design philosophies to ensure that aging aircrafts satisfy structural reliability in terms of fatigue failures throughout their service periods. IAT program, one of the most important tasks of DTA, is able to track potential structural crack growth at critical areas in the major airframe structural components of individual aircraft. The F-16C/D aircraft is equipped with a flight data recorder to monitor flight usage and provide the data to support structural load analysis. However, limited memory of flight data recorder allows user to monitor individual aircraft fatigue usage in terms of only the vertical inertia (NzW) data for calculating Crack Severity Index (CSI) value which defines the relative maneuver severity. Current IAT method for the F-16C/D Block 32 based on CSI value calculated from NzW is shown to be not accurate enough to monitor individual aircraft fatigue usage due to several problems. The proposed advanced aircraft service life monitoring method based on flight-by-flight load spectra is recommended as an improved method for the F-16C/D Block 32 aircraft. Flight-by-flight load spectra was generated from downloaded Crash Survival Flight Data Recorder (CSFDR) data by calculating loads for each time hack in selected flight data utilizing loads equations. From

A Liquid work-life under public service contracting

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lindholst, Christian

for staff, however, are only poorly understood in current theory and research on public service contracting through partial concepts and a tendency to focus merely on negative outcomes. Against this shortfall, the aim in this paper is to build a conceptually and empirically richer and more authentic account......A part of the reality behind public service contracting in Denmark as well as in many other countries is that a growing number of people are employed in uncertain and temporary conditions and relations in what can be characterized as ‘liquidized’ work-lives. This reality and its consequences...... of staffs’ work-life under public service contracting. The paper relies empirically on focus group interviews in two cases of staff transfers in public service contracting with different levels of liquefaction. it is found that staff transfer is a composite experience for staff with differential outcomes...

Automatically exposing OpenLifeData via SADI semantic Web Services.

Science.gov (United States)

González, Alejandro Rodríguez; Callahan, Alison; Cruz-Toledo, José; Garcia, Adrian; Egaña Aranguren, Mikel; Dumontier, Michel; Wilkinson, Mark D

2014-01-01

Two distinct trends are emerging with respect to how data is shared, collected, and analyzed within the bioinformatics community. First, Linked Data, exposed as SPARQL endpoints, promises to make data easier to collect and integrate by moving towards the harmonization of data syntax, descriptive vocabularies, and identifiers, as well as providing a standardized mechanism for data access. Second, Web Services, often linked together into workflows, normalize data access and create transparent, reproducible scientific methodologies that can, in principle, be re-used and customized to suit new scientific questions. Constructing queries that traverse semantically-rich Linked Data requires substantial expertise, yet traditional RESTful or SOAP Web Services cannot adequately describe the content of a SPARQL endpoint. We propose that content-driven Semantic Web Services can enable facile discovery of Linked Data, independent of their location. We use a well-curated Linked Dataset - OpenLifeData - and utilize its descriptive metadata to automatically configure a series of more than 22,000 Semantic Web Services that expose all of its content via the SADI set of design principles. The OpenLifeData SADI services are discoverable via queries to the SHARE registry and easy to integrate into new or existing bioinformatics workflows and analytical pipelines. We demonstrate the utility of this system through comparison of Web Service-mediated data access with traditional SPARQL, and note that this approach not only simplifies data retrieval, but simultaneously provides protection against resource-intensive queries. We show, through a variety of different clients and examples of varying complexity, that data from the myriad OpenLifeData can be recovered without any need for prior-knowledge of the content or structure of the SPARQL endpoints. We also demonstrate that, via clients such as SHARE, the complexity of federated SPARQL queries is dramatically reduced.

International Space Station Bacteria Filter Element Service Life Evaluation

Science.gov (United States)

Perry, J. L.

2005-01-01

The International Space Station (ISS) uses high-efficiency particulate air filters to remove particulate matter from the cabin atmosphere. Known as bacteria filter elements (BFEs), there are 13 elements deployed on board the ISS's U.S. segment in the flight 4R assembly level. The preflight service life prediction of 1 yr for the BFEs is based upon engineering analysis of data collected during developmental testing that used a synthetic dust challenge. While this challenge is considered reasonable and conservative from a design perspective, an understanding of the actual filter loading is required to best manage the critical ISS program resources. Testing was conducted on BFEs returned from the ISS to refine the service life prediction. Results from this testing and implications to ISS resource management are provided.

Simulation of Microdamage and Evaluation of Remaining Life of Steam Conduit Components from New-Generation Refractory Steel 10Kh9MF-Sh

Science.gov (United States)

Gladshtein, V. I.

2018-03-01

The effects of microdamage on the remaining life of high-temperature components of steam conduits from high-chromium steel 10Kh9MF-Sh and low-alloy steel 12Kh1M1F are compared. To simulate the microdamage, specimens with a circular notch and different relative diameters are fabricated. Specimens with a notch simulating the highest degree of microdamage and smooth specimens are tested for long-term strength. The coefficient of the remaining life of a conduit is computed for the range of relative damage presenting practical interest.

Accounting for ecosystem services in life cycle assessment, Part I: a critical review.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yi; Singh, Shweta; Bakshi, Bhavik R

2010-04-01

If life cycle oriented methods are to encourage sustainable development, they must account for the role of ecosystem goods and services, since these form the basis of planetary activities and human well-being. This article reviews methods that are relevant to accounting for the role of nature and that could be integrated into life cycle oriented approaches. These include methods developed by ecologists for quantifying ecosystem services, by ecological economists for monetary valuation, and life cycle methods such as conventional life cycle assessment, thermodynamic methods for resource accounting such as exergy and emergy analysis, variations of the ecological footprint approach, and human appropriation of net primary productivity. Each approach has its strengths: economic methods are able to quantify the value of cultural services; LCA considers emissions and assesses their impact; emergy accounts for supporting services in terms of cumulative exergy; and ecological footprint is intuitively appealing and considers biocapacity. However, no method is able to consider all the ecosystem services, often due to the desire to aggregate all resources in terms of a single unit. This review shows that comprehensive accounting for ecosystem services in LCA requires greater integration among existing methods, hierarchical schemes for interpreting results via multiple levels of aggregation, and greater understanding of the role of ecosystems in supporting human activities. These present many research opportunities that must be addressed to meet the challenges of sustainability.

Caregivers' quality of life and quality of services for children with cancer: a review from iran.

Science.gov (United States)

Sajjadi, Homeira; Vameghi, Meroe; Ghazinour, Mehdi; Khodaeiardekani, Mohammadreza

2013-03-04

Caregivers of cancer patients are exposed to different types of psychosocial stress which influence their quality of life. The purposes of this study were to assess quality of life in caregivers of children with cancer and to investigate the relationship between the caregivers' quality of life and quality of services in the social work section. 125 caregivers were recruited. Quality of life was measured by the Iranian version of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire and data concerning service quality were obtained from the Iranian version of the SERVQUAL questionnaire. Scores in physical health, psychological status and environmental conditions for caregivers of children with cancer were significantly lower than the general population. There was a negative correlation between the tangible domain of SERVQUAL and the psychological status and environmental conditions of quality of life. The tangible dimension was the only aspect of service quality to predict caregivers' quality of life regarding psychological status and environmental conditions. Caregivers of children with a disease are care consumers and, like all consumers, they expect good service. Delivering high quality services consistently is difficult but profitable for a service organization. In other words, trying to deliver more appropriate services than patients expect to receive from their social work care is one of the most reliable ways to promote caregivers' satisfaction and quality of life.

Caregivers’ Quality of Life and Quality of Services for Children with Cancer: A Review from Iran

Science.gov (United States)

Sajjadi, Homeira; Vameghi, Meroe; Ghazinour, Mehdi; KhodaeiArdakani, Mohammadreza

2013-01-01

Objective: Caregivers of cancer patients are exposed to different types of psychosocial stress which influence their quality of life. The purposes of this study were to assess quality of life in caregivers of children with cancer and to investigate the relationship between the caregivers’ quality of life and quality of services in the social work section. Method: 125 caregivers were recruited. Quality of life was measured by the Iranian version of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire and data concerning service quality were obtained from the Iranian version of the SERVQUAL questionnaire. Findings: Scores in physical health, psychological status and environmental conditions for caregivers of children with cancer were significantly lower than the general population. There was a negative correlation between the tangible domain of SERVQUAL and the psychological status and environmental conditions of quality of life. The tangible dimension was the only aspect of service quality to predict caregivers’ quality of life regarding psychological status and environmental conditions. Conclusion: Caregivers of children with a disease are care consumers and, like all consumers, they expect good service. Delivering high quality services consistently is difficult but profitable for a service organization. In other words, trying to deliver more appropriate services than patients expect to receive from their social work care is one of the most reliable ways to promote caregivers’ satisfaction and quality of life. PMID:23618487

Determination of service lives under varying loading using a life-fraction rule. Pt. 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schaefer, L.

1986-01-01

Previously the attempt has been made to improve the often accuracy of the life-fraction rule (Robinson), applied to calculate the service lives under varying loading, by introducing constants into the mathematical representation of the rule which take into account the influence of the material and the conditions of loading. Therefore, the calculated service lives are not real predictions. In this work description based on constants is dispensed with and only one boundary condition is indicated for the life-fraction rule which is necessary and sufficient to calculate correctly any fractional damage and hence any service life under varying loading. The abbreviated wording of this boundary condition is: To calculate a fractional damage, the life fraction tsub(i) must be devided by a service life tsub(m,i), the structural condition Gsub(i) being the same. The specimen (X10NiCrTi1616 steel) will rupture as soon as the sum of fractional damages has attained unity: Σsub(i)(tsub(i)/tsub(m,i)) sub(Gsub(i)) = 1. (orig./GSCH)

Experimental methods for consideration of concrete cracking in service life design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pease, Bradley Justin; Geiker, Mette Rica; Stang, Henrik

2011-01-01

.e., concrete with cracks at start of service) and to more accurately estimate time-to-cracking due to reinforcement corrosion based on experimental measurements. This paper presents two non-destructive measurement techniques with potential to quantify the impact concrete cracks have on service life...

Perceptions of Pre-Service Teachers on Student Burnout, Occupational Anxiety and Faculty Life Quality

Science.gov (United States)

Türkoglu, Muhammet Emin; Cansoy, Ramazan

2017-01-01

Perceptions of pre-service teachers on burnout, occupational anxiety and faculty life quality were investigated in this research. The research group consisted of 461 pre-service teachers in total studying at Afyon Kocatepe University faculty of education. "Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Form," "Faculty Life Quality Scale"…

A naive Bayes model for robust remaining useful life prediction of lithium-ion battery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ng, Selina S.Y.; Xing, Yinjiao; Tsui, Kwok L.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Robustness of RUL predictions for lithium-ion batteries is analyzed quantitatively. • RUL predictions of the same battery over cycle life are evaluated. • RUL predictions of batteries over different operating conditions are evaluated. • Naive Bayes (NB) is proposed for predictions under constant discharge environments. • Its robustness and accuracy are compared with that of support vector machine (SVM). - Abstract: Online state-of-health (SoH) estimation and remaining useful life (RUL) prediction is a critical problem in battery health management. This paper studies the modeling of battery degradation under different usage conditions and ambient temperatures, which is seldom considered in the literature. Li-ion battery RUL prediction under constant operating conditions at different values of ambient temperature and discharge current are considered. A naive Bayes (NB) model is proposed for RUL prediction of batteries under different operating conditions. It is shown in this analysis that under constant discharge environments, the RUL of Li-ion batteries can be predicted with the NB method, irrespective of the exact values of the operating conditions. The case study shows that the NB generates stable and competitive prediction performance over that of the support vector machine (SVM). This also suggests that, while it is well known that the environmental conditions have big impact on the degradation trend, it is the changes in operating conditions of a Li-ion battery over cycle life that makes the Li-ion battery degradation and RUL prediction even more difficult

Optimization of NPP performance and service life in a competitive electricity market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gueorguiev, B.; Spielgelberg - Planner, R.

2000-01-01

This paper discusses how the competitive electricity market has influenced nuclear power plant operations, with a focus on optimisation of NPP performance and plant service life, and how the IAEA programme has addressed some of this issues. The definitions of Plant Life, Operational Life, Design Life and Periodical Safety Reviews are developed in the paper in order to differentiate between the terms and to show the significance in terms of Plant Life Management

Service life optimization and extension of structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hornet, P.; Venturini, V.; Persoz, M.; Debost-Eymard, I.; Meister, E.

1998-01-01

In order to justify its power plants safety which conditions their service life, EDF uses a deterministic approach until now. A probabilistic approach also exists which has a decisive advantage because it quantifies risk and makes it possible to optimize maintenance volume. The application of this approach is illustrated on the case of a reactor vessel; a coupling between the Code Aster tool and a probabilistic analysis software is necessary. (authors)

Residual life assessment of thick wall boiler parts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mehdizadeh, M.; Rayatpour, M.

2004-01-01

Thick wall components of boiler, such as headers, main steam lines and hot reheat lines, operate at high temperature and stress condition. This condition makes various failure mechanisms to activate during service exposure that gradually deteriorate the microstructure of components. Consequently, knowing about metallurgical condition and remaining life sensitive components particularly in power plants with at least 100,000 her life time is of considerable importance. In this regard, to eliminate unexpected interruptions and reduce the repairing costs, life assessment technology is being used. Various life assessment methods have been developed for power plants components and entered industrial fields. In the present work, remaining life of drums, headers and main steam lines of a power plant were evaluated, using microstructural, hardness changes and dimensional checking methods with non destructive tests. The results show that, the components have appropriate condition according to their service life. Further more, it was revealed that hardness evaluation technique is not a reliable evaluation criteria and various methods should be used for accurate life assessment

Threats Management Throughout the Software Service Life-Cycle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erlend Andreas Gjære

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Software services are inevitably exposed to a fluctuating threat picture. Unfortunately, not all threats can be handled only with preventive measures during design and development, but also require adaptive mitigations at runtime. In this paper we describe an approach where we model composite services and threats together, which allows us to create preventive measures at design-time. At runtime, our specification also allows the service runtime environment (SRE to receive alerts about active threats that we have not handled, and react to these automatically through adaptation of the composite service. A goal-oriented security requirements modelling tool is used to model business-level threats and analyse how they may impact goals. A process flow modelling tool, utilising Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN and standard error boundary events, allows us to define how threats should be responded to during service execution on a technical level. Throughout the software life-cycle, we maintain threats in a centralised threat repository. Re-use of these threats extends further into monitoring alerts being distributed through a cloud-based messaging service. To demonstrate our approach in practice, we have developed a proof-of-concept service for the Air Traffic Management (ATM domain. In addition to the design-time activities, we show how this composite service duly adapts itself when a service component is exposed to a threat at runtime.

Remaining life prediction of I and C cables for reliability assessment of NPP systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santhosh, T.V.; Ghosh, A.K.; Fernandes, B.G.

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► A framework for time dependent reliability prediction of I and C cables for use in PSA of NPP has been developed using stress–strength interference theory. ► The proposed methodology has been illustrated with the accelerated thermal aging data on a typical XLPE cable. ► The behavior of insulation resistance when the degradation process is linear or exponential has also been modeled. ► The reliability index or probability of failure obtained from this approach can be used in system reliability evaluation to account for cable aging for PSA of NPP. - Abstract: Instrumentation and control (I and C) cables are one of the most important components in nuclear power plants (NPPs) because they provide power to safety-related equipment and also to transmit signals to and from various controllers to perform safety operations. I and C cables in NPP are subjected to a variety of aging and degradation stressors that can produce immediate degradation or aging-related mechanisms causing the degradation of cable components over time. Although, there exits several life estimation techniques, currently there is no any standard methodology or an approach toward estimating the time dependent reliability of I and C cables that can be directly used in probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) applications. Hence, the objective of this study is to develop an approach to estimate and confirm the continued acceptable margin in cable insulation life over time subjected to aging. This paper presents a framework based on the structural reliability theory to quantify the life time of I and C cable subjecting to thermal aging. Since cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) cables are extensively being used in Indian NPPs, the remaining life time evaluations have been carried out for a typical XLPE cable. However, the methodology can be extended to other cables such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), ethylene propylene rubber (EPR), etc.

Service Life and Maintenance Modelling of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Decks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thoft-Christensen, Palle

Recent research in the area of assessment and maintenance of reinforced concrete bridge decks is presented in this paper. Three definitions of service lifetime are introduced and the difficult problem of assessing the service life is discussed. A stochastic modelling of corrosion and corrosion...... cracking is introduced and the site dependency of corrosion is stressed. Finally, a recently developed optimal repair strategy for bridges is briefly explained....

Supporting family carers providing end-of-life home care: a qualitative study on the impact of a hospice at home service.

Science.gov (United States)

Jack, Barbara A; O'Brien, Mary R; Scrutton, Joyce; Baldry, Catherine R; Groves, Karen E

2015-01-01

To explore bereaved family carers' perceptions and experiences of a hospice at home service. The increasing demand for the development of home-based end-of-life services is not confined to the western world; such services are also emerging in resource-poor countries where palliative care services are developing with limited inpatient facilities. Despite this growing trend, studies show a variety of interrelated factors, with an emphasis on the availability of informal carers and their ability to cope, which can influence whether terminally ill patients actually remain at home. A hospice at home service was developed to meet patients' and families' needs by providing individually tailored resources. A qualitative study. Data were collected by semi-structured, digitally recorded interviews from 20 family carers who had experienced the service. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and a thematic approach adopted for analysis. All participants reported a personal positive impact of the service. Family carers commented the service provided a valued presence, they felt in good hands and importantly it helped in supporting normal life. The impact of an individualised, targeted, hospice at home service using dedicated, palliative care trained, staff, is perceived positively by family carers and importantly, supportive of those with additional caring or employment commitments. The emergence of hospice at home services has resulted in more options for patients and their families, when the increased amount of care a family member has to provide in these circumstances needs to be adequately supported, with the provision of a flexible service tailored to individual needs and delivered by appropriately trained staff. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Nursing Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Service life assessment of timber highway bridges in USA climate zones

Science.gov (United States)

James P. Wacker; Brian K. Brashaw; Thomas G. Williamson; P. David Jones; Matthew S. Smith; Travis K. Hosteng; David L. Strahl; Lola E. Coombe; V.J. Gopu

2014-01-01

As engineers begin to estimate life-cycle costs and sustainable design approaches for timber bridges, there is a need for more reliable data about their durability and expected service life. This paper summarizes a comprehensive effort to assess the current condition of more than one hundred timber highway bridge superstructures throughout the United States. This...

Support vector machine based estimation of remaining useful life: current research status and future trends

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Hong Zhong; Wang, Hai Kun; Li, Yan Feng; Zhang, Longlong; Liu, Zhiliang

2015-01-01

Estimation of remaining useful life (RUL) is helpful to manage life cycles of machines and to reduce maintenance cost. Support vector machine (SVM) is a promising algorithm for estimation of RUL because it can easily process small training sets and multi-dimensional data. Many SVM based methods have been proposed to predict RUL of some key components. We did a literature review related to SVM based RUL estimation within a decade. The references reviewed are classified into two categories: improved SVM algorithms and their applications to RUL estimation. The latter category can be further divided into two types: one, to predict the condition state in the future and then build a relationship between state and RUL; two, to establish a direct relationship between current state and RUL. However, SVM is seldom used to track the degradation process and build an accurate relationship between the current health condition state and RUL. Based on the above review and summary, this paper points out that the ability to continually improve SVM, and obtain a novel idea for RUL prediction using SVM will be future works.

Simulating the service life performance of an inspected group of jacket-type structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schneider, Ronald; Thöns, Sebastian; Rogge, Andreas

2017-01-01

and risk. We intend to adopt this approach to optimize inspection, monitoring and repair activities for offshore wind park support structures. As a first step, we simulate – in analogy to an offshore wind park – the service life performance of an inspected group of jacket-type frames. The performance......A novel method for risk-based optimization of inspection and repair strategies for deteriorating structural systems has recently been proposed. The method defines heuristics at the system level to reduce the number of possible strategies. For each defined strategy, it computes the updated system...... failure probability conditional on simulated inspection and repair histories, and evaluates the associated costs and risk. The expected total service life costs and risk for a strategy are finally determined using Monte Carlo simulation. The optimal strategy minimizes the expected total service life costs...

Effect of home care service on the quality of life in patients with gynecological cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Aktas, Demet; Terzioglu, Fusun

2015-01-01

The purpose of the research was to determine the effect of home care service on the quality of life in patients with gynecological cancer. This randomized case control study was carried out in a womans hospital between September 2011 and February 2012. Women undergoing gynecological cancer treatment were separated into intervention and control groups, of 35 patients each. The intervention group was provided with nursing care service through hospital and home visits (1st, 12th weeks) within the framework of a specifically developed nursing care plan. The control group was monitored without any intervention through the hospital routine protocols (1st, 12th weeks). Data were collected using An Interview Form, Home Visit Monitoring Form and Quality of Life Scale/Cancer Survivors. Effects of home care service on the quality of life in gynecological cancer patients were investigated using chi-square tests, McNemar's test, independent t-test and ANOVA. This study found that the intervention group receiving home care service had a moderately high quality of life (average mean: 6.01±0.64), while the control group had comparatively lower quality (average mean: 4.35±0.79) within the 12 week post- discharge period (phome care services to be efficient in improving the quality of life in patients with gynecological cancer.

Effective technical service in the life cycle of heavy dumpers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Михайло Валерійович Помазков

2016-11-01

Full Text Available A comparative analysis of the known systems of technical reliability of heavy dumpers functionality has been made. It has been stated that the previously proposed methods to determine the optimal service life of heavy-duty dumpers are not effective enough and do not take into account the whole range of factors specific to the operation of heavy dumpers in the current economic realities of industrial enterprises. Based on the analysis results, a mechanism of determining the optimal service life of heavy-duty dumpers and their constituent technical systems ensuring the operational reliability of heavy-duty dumpers has been offered. The article takes into account the analysis of resource factors, general description of system logistic tasks, the main provisions of serviceability, the resource forming in route charts at ore mining and metallurgical enterprises, the use of theoretical developments in practice. Heavy dumpers generalized description modelling shown in the article, the principle of resource use by using interchangable work at different intensity routes has received confirmation in the dumpers’ work schedule

Influence of Superheated Steam Temperature Regulation Quality on Service Life of Boiler Steam Super-Heater Metal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. T. Kulakov

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The paper investigates influence of change in quality of superheated steam temperature regulations on service life of super-heater metal. А dependence between metal service life and dispersion value for different steel grades has been determined in the paper. Numerical values pertaining to increase of super-heater metal service life in case of transferring from manual regulation to standard system of automatic regulation (SAR have been determined and in case of transferring from standard SAR to improved SAR. The analysis of tabular data and plotted dependencies makes it possible to conclude that any change in conditions of convection super-heater metal work due to better quality of the regulation leads to essential increase of time period which is left till the completion of the service life of a super-heater heating surface.

The discount rate and the value of remaining years of life

OpenAIRE

Hartwick, John

2008-01-01

We back out an estimate of a personal discount rate of between 3 and 4 percent for a person with a life expectancy of 74 years who dies at age 30 (or 40) and has a value of statistical life of $6.3 million. Central to these calculations is the series generated by Murphy and Topel of value of life years (the dollar value of consumption plus the dollar value of leisure, with some smoothing for income in retirement). We employ the Makeham "model" of life expectancy in our calculations.

Impact of Child Life Services on Children and Families Admitted to Start the Ketogenic Diet.

Science.gov (United States)

Kossoff, Eric H; Sutter, Lindsay; Doerrer, Sarah C; Haney, Courtney A; Turner, Zahava

2017-08-01

Traditionally the ketogenic diet is started as an inpatient admission to the hospital. Starting in January 2015, child life services were made formally available during ketogenic diet admissions to help families cope. One-page surveys were then provided to 15 parents on the day of discharge and again after 3 months. Every family believed that the child life services were helpful. Children who were developmentally appropriate/mildly delayed had higher parent-reported anxiety scores than those who were moderate to severely delayed (4.4 vs 1.0, P = .02). At 3 months, child life services were deemed very helpful for the parents (mean score: 8.9, range: 5-10), and were more helpful for the parent than the child (mean 6.2, range 1-10, P = .047). One of the most helpful services was a prior phone call to parents 1 week prior. In this small pilot study, child life involvement during the start of the ketogenic diet was highly useful.

Measuring Service-Mindedness and Its Relationship with Spirituality and Life Satisfaction

Science.gov (United States)

Pashak, Travis J.; Laughter, Tim C.

2012-01-01

A self-report measure of service-mindedness was designed in order to fill in a gap in the literature and evaluate a potential link between spirituality and satisfaction with life. A sample of 133 undergraduate students at a Catholic university in the Mid-west completed the Service-Mindedness Scale (SMS), along with the Spiritual Involvement and…

Health-Related Quality of Life of Rural Clients Seeking Telepsychology Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kevin R. Tarlow

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Sixty million US residents live in rural areas, but health policies and interventions developed from an urban mindset often fail to address the significant barriers to health experienced by these local communities. Telepsychology, or psychological services delivered by distance via technology, is an emerging treatment modality with special implications for underserved rural areas. This study found that a sample of rural residents seeking telepsychology services (n=94 had low health-related quality of life (HRQOL, often due to cooccurring physical and mental health diagnoses including high rates of depression. However, a brief telepsychology treatment delivered to rural clients (n=40 was associated with an improvement in mental health-related quality of life (d = 0.70,  P<.001. These results indicate that despite the complex health needs of these underserved communities, telepsychology interventions may help offset the disparities in health service access in rural areas.

Pre-Service Teachers in Second Life: Potentials of Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Teoh, Jase

2012-01-01

An in-depth qualitative study with nine secondary pre-service teachers from an undergraduate "Language and Literacy" class was conducted to examine the potential of simulation using Second Life (SL) in teacher education. Games and simulations were operationally defined in the broadest sense to distinguish key characteristics between…

Customer service: the key to remaining competitive in managed care.

Science.gov (United States)

Howard, J E

2000-01-01

The health care industry is undergoing a rapid transformation to meet the ever-increasing needs and demands of its patient population. Employers and managed care organizations are demanding better service and higher quality care, while providers are trying to tackle reimbursement cutbacks, streamlining of services, and serving a diverse population. Providers have begun to realize that to overcome these obstacles and meet the needs of their health plans and consumers, they must focus on the demands of their customers. Health care organizations have found they can meet the demands of both the consumer and the managed care industry through initiating and maintaining a customer service program. This essay explains the importance of customer service and its link to success in the managed care environment.

The development of socially responsible life-sciences teachers through community service learning.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J.J. Rian de Villiers

2012-03-01

Full Text Available In South Africa, polices in higher education are urging tertiary institutions to produce graduates who are socially responsible citizens. One method of achieving this is through service-learning initiatives. Zoos as community partners can provide exciting educational opportunities for students to do animal behaviour studies and to develop their social responsibility. A sample of 58 preservice life-sciences teachers from a South African university completed a questionnaire on their animal behaviour studies. This study sought to determine how animal behaviour studies could successfully be incorporated as a community service-learning project in a zoo setting, what the educational value of these studies was and what the benefits were of incorporating this community service-learning component in the life-sciences course. The incorporation of the service-learning component into the zoology course led to the students’ personal and professional development, knowledge about themselves, sensitivity to cultural diversity, civic responsibility and insights into the ways in which communities operate. For a successful service-learning project, lectures, students and community partners should all have a sense of engagement. A number of suggestions are made to improve the incorporation of this service-learning component into the existing zoology course.

A Review of Perspectives on Frameworks for Ethical Theories in Public Service Life

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Deoram Sing

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Given the dynamic and changing interwoven and intertwined internal and external environments impacting on public service life, establishing and promoting a proper ethical foundation in public service life, has in itself emerged as a profound and daunting challenge, a worldwide phenomenon. The role of frameworks for ethical theories  –  such as teleological, deontological, virtue-based, and learning and growth, is crucial to dealing with this challenge. It is the view of the author that a keen grasp and application of the various frameworks, as well as their various components, could project their viewing and that of their components, not in isolation, but in an interconnected and intertwined manner. This could enhance the clarification of ethical and moral alternatives, as well as facilitate the spreading and diffusion of techniques for ethical reasoning and moral awareness, throughout public service life.

METHODS AND RESEARCH CONCERNING SERVICE LIFE EXTENSION OF SUPORTING STRUCTURES OF TRACTION ROLLING STOCK FOR INDUSTRIAL TRANSPORT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. M. Bondarev

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose. The purpose of work is scientifically grounded introduction of the acquired techniques into works for service life extension of the traction and motor rolling stock for industrial transport. Methodology. To achieve the purpose it was analyzed the acquired techniques for service life extension of the traction and motor rolling stock for mainline transport. The acquired techniques during solution of problems concerning the service life extension of rolling stock units were adapted to the locomotives TGM6A and traction aggregates OPE1. Findings. On the basis of experimental and theoretical complex of studies some results were obtained. They gave the ground to determine the possibility of acquired techniques use when solving the problems on service life extension of rolling stock units concerning locomotives TGM6A and traction aggregates OPE1. Originality. On the basis of conducted experimental and theoretical studies scientific maintenance of the works providing extension of service life of traction and motor units of industrial rolling stock was executed. Practical value. Technical solutions and measures, which have to be carried out during operation within the prolonged appointed service life of traction and motor units of industrial rolling stock enterprises using locomotives and traction aggregates to provide the basic technological cycles were developed.

Evaluation of Hose in Hose Transfer Line Service Life for Hanfords Interim Stabilization Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

TORRES, T.D.

2001-01-01

RPP-6153, Engineering Task Plan for Hose-in-Hose Transfer System for the Interim Stabilization Program (Torres, 2000a), defines the programmatic goals, functional requirements, and technical criteria for the development and subsequent installation of waste transfer line equipment to support Hanford's Interim Stabilization Program. RPP-6028, Specification for Hose in Hose Transfer Lines for Hanford's Interim Stabilization Program (Torres, 2000b), has been issued to define the specific requirements for the design, manufacture, and verification of transfer line assemblies for specific waste transfer applications associated with Interim Stabilization. Included in RPP-6028 are tables defining the chemical constituents of concern to which transfer lines will be exposed. Current Interim Stabilization Program planning forecasts that the at-grade transfer lines will be required to convey pumpable waste for as much as three years after commissioning, RPP-6028 Section 3.2.7. Performance Incentive Number ORP-05 requires that all the Single Shell Tanks be Interim Stabilized by September 30, 2003. The Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) milestone M-41-00, enforced by a federal consent decree, requires all the Single Shell Tanks to be Interim stabilized by September 30, 2004. By meeting the Performance Incentive the TPA milestone is met. Prudent engineering dictates that the equipment used to transfer waste have a life in excess of the forecasted operational time period, with some margin to allow for future adjustments to the planned schedule. This document evaluates the effective service life of the Hose-in-Hose Transfer Lines, based on information submitted by the manufacturer, published literature and calculations. The effective service life of transfer line assemblies is a function of several factors. Foremost among these are the hose material's resistance to the harmful effects of process fluid characteristics, ambient environmental conditions, exposure to ionizing radiation and the

A New Predictive Model Based on the ABC Optimized Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines Approach for Predicting the Remaining Useful Life in Aircraft Engines

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Paulino José García Nieto

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Remaining useful life (RUL estimation is considered as one of the most central points in the prognostics and health management (PHM. The present paper describes a nonlinear hybrid ABC–MARS-based model for the prediction of the remaining useful life of aircraft engines. Indeed, it is well-known that an accurate RUL estimation allows failure prevention in a more controllable way so that the effective maintenance can be carried out in appropriate time to correct impending faults. The proposed hybrid model combines multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS, which have been successfully adopted for regression problems, with the artificial bee colony (ABC technique. This optimization technique involves parameter setting in the MARS training procedure, which significantly influences the regression accuracy. However, its use in reliability applications has not yet been widely explored. Bearing this in mind, remaining useful life values have been predicted here by using the hybrid ABC–MARS-based model from the remaining measured parameters (input variables for aircraft engines with success. A correlation coefficient equal to 0.92 was obtained when this hybrid ABC–MARS-based model was applied to experimental data. The agreement of this model with experimental data confirmed its good performance. The main advantage of this predictive model is that it does not require information about the previous operation states of the aircraft engine.

Determining Service Life of Respirator Cartridges Using a Simple and Practical Method: Case Study in a Car Manufacturing Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A.M Rashidi

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Background and aims: For ensuring about proper performance of air-purifying respirators in providing protection against workplace contaminants, it is necessary to change the respirator cartridges before the end of their service life. The aim of this study was determination of service life of organic vapor cartridges using a simple and practical method in a spray painting booth of a car manufacturing industry.   Methods: NIOSH MultiVapor software was used for estimating service life of respirator cartridges based on workplace conditions and cartridge specifications. Efficiency of determined service life was investigated using an apparatus for field testing of cartridges in the workplace.   Results: The results showed that existing schedule for changing the respirator cartridges is not effective and no longer provide adequate protection for sprayers against organic contaminants while working in a painting booth. It is necessary to change the cartridges before their estimated service life (every 4 hours.   Conclusion: NIOSH MultiVapor has acceptable efficiency for determining respirator cartridges service life and could be used as a simple and practical method in the workplace. Moreover, Service life estimated by this software was confirmed by cartridge field test apparatus.

Fee-for-service will remain a feature of major payment reforms, requiring more changes in Medicare physician payment.

Science.gov (United States)

Ginsburg, Paul B

2012-09-01

Many health policy analysts envision provider payment reforms currently under development as replacements for the traditional fee-for-service payment system. Reforms include per episode bundled payment and elements of capitation, such as global payments or accountable care organizations. But even if these approaches succeed and are widely adopted, the core method of payment to many physicians for the services they provide is likely to remain fee-for-service. It is therefore critical to address the current shortcomings in the Medicare physician fee schedule, because it will affect physician incentives and will continue to play an important role in determining the payment amounts under payment reform. This article reviews how the current payment system developed and is applied, and it highlights areas that require careful review and modification to ensure the success of broader payment reform.

Hybrid PSO–SVM-based method for forecasting of the remaining useful life for aircraft engines and evaluation of its reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

García Nieto, P.J.; García-Gonzalo, E.; Sánchez Lasheras, F.; Cos Juez, F.J. de

2015-01-01

The present paper describes a hybrid PSO–SVM-based model for the prediction of the remaining useful life of aircraft engines. The proposed hybrid model combines support vector machines (SVMs), which have been successfully adopted for regression problems, with the particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique. This optimization technique involves kernel parameter setting in the SVM training procedure, which significantly influences the regression accuracy. However, its use in reliability applications has not been yet widely explored. Bearing this in mind, remaining useful life values have been predicted here by using the hybrid PSO–SVM-based model from the remaining measured parameters (input variables) for aircraft engines with success. A coefficient of determination equal to 0.9034 was obtained when this hybrid PSO–RBF–SVM-based model was applied to experimental data. The agreement of this model with experimental data confirmed its good performance. One of the main advantages of this predictive model is that it does not require information about the previous operation states of the engine. Finally, the main conclusions of this study are exposed. - Highlights: • A hybrid PSO–SVM-based model is built as a predictive model of the RUL values for aircraft engines. • The remaining physical–chemical variables in this process are studied in depth. • The obtained regression accuracy of our method is about 95%. • The results show that PSO–SVM-based model can assist in the diagnosis of the RUL values with accuracy

Evaluation of Hose in Hose Transfer Line Service Life for Hanford's Interim Stabilization Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

TORRES, T.D.

2000-01-01

RPP-6153, Engineering Task Plan for Hose-in-Hose Transfer System for the Interim Stabilization Program, defines the programmatic goals, functional requirements, and technical criteria for the development and subsequent installation of transfer line equipment to support Hanford's Interim Stabilization Program. RPP-6028, Specification for Hose in Hose Transfer Lines for Hanford's Interim Stabilization Program, has been issued to define the specific requirements for the design, manufacture, and verification of transfer line assemblies for specific waste transfer applications. Included in RPP-6028 are tables defining the chemical constituents of concern to which transfer lines will be exposed. Current Interim Stabilization Program planning forecasts that the at-grade transfer lines will be required to convey pumpable waste for as much as three years after commissioning. Prudent engineering dictates that the equipment placed in service have a working life in excess of this forecasted time period, with some margin to allow for future adjustments to the planned schedule. This document evaluates the effective service life of the Hose-in-Hose Transfer Lines, based on information submitted by the manufacturer and published literature. The effective service life of transfer line assemblies is a function of several factors. Foremost among these are process fluid characteristics, ambient environmental conditions, and the manufacturer's stated shelf life. This evaluation examines the manufacturer's certification of shelf life, the manufacturer's certifications of chemical compatibility with waste, and published literature on the effects of exposure to ionizing radiation on the mechanical properties of elastomeric materials to evaluate transfer line service life

Experience of childhood abuse and later number of remaining teeth in older Japanese: a life-course study from Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study project.

Science.gov (United States)

Matsuyama, Yusuke; Fujiwara, Takeo; Aida, Jun; Watt, Richard G; Kondo, Naoki; Yamamoto, Tatsuo; Kondo, Katsunori; Osaka, Ken

2016-12-01

From a life-course perspective, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) such as childhood abuse are known risk factors for adult diseases and death throughout life. ACEs could also cause poor dental health in later life because they could induce poor dental health in childhood, initiate unhealthy behaviors, and lower immune and physiological functions. However, it is not known whether ACEs have a longitudinal adverse effect on dental health in older age. This study aimed to investigate the association between experience of childhood abuse until the age of 18 and current number of remaining teeth among a sample of older Japanese adults. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using the data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES), a large-scale, self-reported survey in 2013 including 27 525 community-dwelling Japanese aged ≥65 years (response rate=71.1%). The outcome, current number of remaining teeth was used categorically: ≥20, 10-19, 5-9, 1-4, and no teeth. Childhood abuse was defined as having any experience of physical abuse, psychological abuse, and psychological neglect up until the age of 18 years. Ordered logistic regression models were applied. Of the 25 189 respondents who indicated their number of remaining teeth (mean age: 73.9; male: 46.5%), 14.8% had experience of childhood abuse. Distributions of ≥20, 10-19, 5-9, 1-4, and no teeth were as follows: 46.6%, 22.0%, 11.4%, 8.2%, and 11.8% among respondents with childhood abuse, while 52.3%, 21.3%, 10.3%, 6.6%, and 9.5% among respondents without childhood abuse. Childhood abuse was significantly associated with fewer remaining teeth after adjusting for covariates including socioeconomic status (odds ratio=1.14; 95% confidence interval: 1.06, 1.22). Childhood abuse could have a longitudinal adverse effect on later dental health in older age. This study emphasizes the importance of early life experiences on dental health throughout later life. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by

Associated and mediating variables related to quality of life among service users with mental disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Fleury, Marie-Josée; Grenier, Guy; Bamvita, Jean-Marie

2018-02-01

This study aimed to identify variables associated with quality of life (QoL) and mediating variables among 338 service users with mental disorders in Quebec (Canada). Data were collected using nine standardized questionnaires and participant medical records. Quality of life was assessed with the Satisfaction with Life Domains Scale. Independent variables were organized into a six-block conceptual framework. Using structural equation modeling, associated and mediating variables related to QoL were identified. Lower seriousness of needs was the strongest variable associated with QoL, followed by recovery, greater service continuity, gender (male), adequacy of help received, not living alone, absence of substance use or mood disorders, and higher functional status, in that order. Recovery was the single mediating variable linking lower seriousness of needs, higher service continuity, and reduced alcohol use with QoL. Findings suggest that greater service continuity creates favorable conditions for recovery, reducing seriousness of needs and increasing QoL among service users. Lack of recovery-oriented services may affect QoL among alcohol users, as substance use disorders were associated directly and negatively with QoL. Decision makers and mental health professionals should promote service continuity, and closer collaboration between primary care and specialized services, while supporting recovery-oriented services that encourage service user involvement in their treatment and follow-up. Community-based organizations should aim to reduce the seriousness of needs particularly for female service users and those living alone.

Child, Caregiver, and Family Characteristics Associated with Emergency Department Use by Children Who Remain at Home after a Child Protective Services Investigation

Science.gov (United States)

Schneiderman, Janet U.; Hurlburt, Michael S.; Leslie, Laurel K.; Zhang, Jinjin; Horwitz, Sarah McCue

2012-01-01

Objectives: To examine emergency department (ED) use among children involved with child protective services (CPS) in the US but who remain at home, and to determine if ED use is related to child, caregiver and family characteristics as well as receipt of CPS services. Method: We analyzed data on 4,001 children in the National Survey of Child and…

Aircraft Engine Life-Consumption Monitoring for Real-Time Reliability Determination, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The object of this research is to develop an in-service life-monitor system for the prediction of the remaining component and system life of aircraft engines. The...

Development of laboratory acceleration test method for service life prediction of concrete structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, M. S.; Song, Y. C.; Bang, K. S.; Lee, J. S.; Kim, D. K.

1999-01-01

Service life prediction of nuclear power plants depends on the application of history of structures, field inspection and test, the development of laboratory acceleration tests, their analysis method and predictive model. In this study, laboratory acceleration test method for service life prediction of concrete structures and application of experimental test results are introduced. This study is concerned with environmental condition of concrete structures and is to develop the acceleration test method for durability factors of concrete structures e.g. carbonation, sulfate attack, freeze-thaw cycles and shrinkage-expansion etc

mORCA: ubiquitous access to life science web services.

Science.gov (United States)

Diaz-Del-Pino, Sergio; Trelles, Oswaldo; Falgueras, Juan

2018-01-16

Technical advances in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have produced an extraordinary increase in their use around the world and have become part of our daily lives. The possibility of carrying these devices in a pocket, particularly mobile phones, has enabled ubiquitous access to Internet resources. Furthermore, in the life sciences world there has been a vast proliferation of data types and services that finish as Web Services. This suggests the need for research into mobile clients to deal with life sciences applications for effective usage and exploitation. Analysing the current features in existing bioinformatics applications managing Web Services, we have devised, implemented, and deployed an easy-to-use web-based lightweight mobile client. This client is able to browse, select, compose parameters, invoke, and monitor the execution of Web Services stored in catalogues or central repositories. The client is also able to deal with huge amounts of data between external storage mounts. In addition, we also present a validation use case, which illustrates the usage of the application while executing, monitoring, and exploring the results of a registered workflow. The software its available in the Apple Store and Android Market and the source code is publicly available in Github. Mobile devices are becoming increasingly important in the scientific world due to their strong potential impact on scientific applications. Bioinformatics should not fall behind this trend. We present an original software client that deals with the intrinsic limitations of such devices and propose different guidelines to provide location-independent access to computational resources in bioinformatics and biomedicine. Its modular design makes it easily expandable with the inclusion of new repositories, tools, types of visualization, etc.

Mobile phone use for contacting emergency services in life-threatening circumstances.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Olivia; Briggs, Andrew; Kemp, Tom; Gray, Alastair; MacIntyre, Kate; Rowley, Jack; Willett, Keith

2012-03-01

The potential health benefits of mobile phone use have not been widely studied, except for telemedicine-type applications. This study seeks to determine whether initial contact with emergency services via a mobile phone in life-threatening situations is associated with potential health benefits when compared to contact via a landline. A record-linkage study was carried out in which data from all emergency dispatches for immediately life-threatening events from a United Kingdom county ambulance service were linked to the Patient Admission System at two major local hospitals. Mortality (at the scene, at the emergency department [ED], and during hospitalization); transfer to the ED; admission (inpatient care, and intensive care unit); and length of stay were analyzed for calls classified as Code Red (immediately life-threatening) by initial exposure (mobile phone vs. landline), while controlling for potential confounding variables. Of 354,199 ambulances dispatched to attend emergency incidents, 66% transported patients to the hospital while 2% stood down due to death at the scene. Mobile phone compared to landline reporting of emergencies resulted in significant reductions in the risk of death at the scene (odds ratio [OR] 0.77), but not for death in the ED or during inpatient admission. The risk of being transferred to the ED and subsequent inpatient admission were significantly lower with reporting from mobile phones compared to landline (OR 0.93 and OR 0.82, respectively). In this study, evidence of statistical association was demonstrated between the use of mobile phones to alert ambulance services in life-threatening situations and improved outcomes for patients. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Computational Everyday Life Human Behavior Model as Servicable Knowledge

Science.gov (United States)

Motomura, Yoichi; Nishida, Yoshifumi

A project called `Open life matrix' is not only a research activity but also real problem solving as an action research. This concept is realized by large-scale data collection, probabilistic causal structure model construction and information service providing using the model. One concrete outcome of this project is childhood injury prevention activity in new team consist of hospital, government, and many varieties of researchers. The main result from the project is a general methodology to apply probabilistic causal structure models as servicable knowledge for action research. In this paper, the summary of this project and future direction to emphasize action research driven by artificial intelligence technology are discussed.

Reactor Dosimetry Aspects of the Service Life Extension of the Hungarian Paks NPP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zsolnay Eva M.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The service life of the Hungarian Paks Nuclear Power Plant (NPP will be extended from the originally planned 30 years to 50 years. To improve the reliability of the results obtained in frame of the old reactor pressure vessel (RPV surveillance programme, new methods have been developed, and based on them, the old exposition data have been re-evaluated for all the four reactor units. At the same time, a new RPV surveillance programme has been developed and introduced, and long term irradiations have been performed to determine the radiation damage of the surveillance specimens due to the high fast neutron exposition. Neutron transport calculations have been performed with a validated neutron transport code system to determine the fast neutron exposition of the RPVs during the extended service life. The cavity dosimetry is in the introductory phase. This paper presents the new developments in the field of the RPV surveillance dosimetry and summarises the results obtained. According to the results the service life of the NPP can safely be extended for the planned 50 years.

Remaining Useful Life Prediction for Lithium-Ion Batteries Based on Gaussian Processes Mixture

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Lingling; Wang, Pengchong; Chao, Kuei-Hsiang; Zhou, Yatong; Xie, Yang

2016-01-01

The remaining useful life (RUL) prediction of Lithium-ion batteries is closely related to the capacity degeneration trajectories. Due to the self-charging and the capacity regeneration, the trajectories have the property of multimodality. Traditional prediction models such as the support vector machines (SVM) or the Gaussian Process regression (GPR) cannot accurately characterize this multimodality. This paper proposes a novel RUL prediction method based on the Gaussian Process Mixture (GPM). It can process multimodality by fitting different segments of trajectories with different GPR models separately, such that the tiny differences among these segments can be revealed. The method is demonstrated to be effective for prediction by the excellent predictive result of the experiments on the two commercial and chargeable Type 1850 Lithium-ion batteries, provided by NASA. The performance comparison among the models illustrates that the GPM is more accurate than the SVM and the GPR. In addition, GPM can yield the predictive confidence interval, which makes the prediction more reliable than that of traditional models. PMID:27632176

Intelligent Prognostic Framework for Degradation Assessment and Remaining Useful Life Estimation of Photovoltaic Module

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nabil Laayouj

2016-12-01

Full Text Available All industrial systems and machines are subjected to degradation processes, which can be related to the operating conditions. This degradation can cause unwanted stops at any time and major maintenance work sometimes. The accurate prediction of the remaining useful life (RUL is an important challenge in condition-based maintenance. Prognostic activity allows estimating the RUL before failure occurs and triggering actions to mitigate faults in time when needed. In this study, a new smart prognostic method for photovoltaic module health degradation was developed based on two approaches to achieve more accurate predictions: online diagnosis and data-driven prognosis. This framework of forecasting integrates the strengths of real-time monitoring in the first approach and relevant vector machine in the second. The results show that the proposed method is plausible due to its good prediction of RUL and can be effectively applied to many systems for monitoring and prognostics.

Lithium-ion Battery Degradation Assessment and Remaining Useful Life Estimation in Hybrid Electric Vehicle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nabil Laayouj

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract—Prognostic activity deals with prediction of the remaining useful life (RUL of physical systems based on their actual health state and their usage conditions. RUL estimation gives operators a potent tool in decision making by quantifying how much time is left until functionality is lost. In addition, it can be used to improve the characterization of the material proprieties that govern damage propagation for the structure being monitored. RUL can be estimated by using three main approaches, namely model-based, data-driven and hybrid approaches. The prognostics methods used later in this paper are hybrid and data-driven approaches, which employ the Particle Filter in the first one and the autoregressive integrated moving average in the second. The performance of the suggested approaches is evaluated in a comparative study on data collected from lithium-ion battery of hybrid electric vehicle.

The influences of patient's satisfaction with medical service delivery, assessment of medical service, and trust in health delivery system on patient's life satisfaction in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Liyang

2012-09-14

Patient's satisfaction with medical service delivery/assessment of medical service/trust in health delivery system may have significant influence on patient's life satisfaction in China's health delivery system/in various kinds of hospitals.The aim of this study was to test whether and to what extent patient's satisfaction with medical service delivery/patient's assessments of various major aspects of medical service/various major aspects of patient's trust in health delivery system influenced patient's life satisfaction in China's health delivery system/in various kinds of hospitals. This study collaborated with National Bureau of Statistics of China to carry out a 2008 national urban resident household survey in 17 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government (N = 3,386), and specified ordered probit models were established to analyze dataset from this household survey. The key considerations in generating patient's life satisfaction involved patient's overall satisfaction with medical service delivery, assessment of doctor-patient communication, assessment of medical cost, assessment of medical treatment process, assessment of medical facility and hospital environment, assessment of waiting time for medical service, trust in prescription, trust in doctor, and trust in recommended medical examination. But the major considerations in generating patient's life satisfaction were different among low level public hospital, high level public hospital, and private hospital. The promotion of patient's overall satisfaction with medical service delivery, the improvement of doctor-patient communication, the reduction of medical cost, the improvement of medical treatment process, the promotion of medical facility and hospital environment, the reduction of waiting time for medical service, the promotion of patient's trust in prescription, the promotion of patient's trust in doctor, and the promotion of patient's trust in

Analysis and modeling of hot extrusion die for its service life enhancement

Science.gov (United States)

Akhtar, Syed Sohail

Aluminum extrusion finds extensive application in the construction, automobile and aerospace industries. High pressures, elevated temperatures, complex and intricate section geometries lead to repeated mechanical and thermal stresses in the die and affiliated tooling. Product rework and rejects can be traced back to various defects spread over the die life cycle: die design, die manufacture and heat treatment, process parameters, inprocess die maintenance/correction and, billet type and quality. Therefore, improved and efficient service life of die and related tooling used in the extrusion press is one the most important factors in maximizing productivity and minimizing cost for ensuring the economical efficiency of an aluminum extrusion plant. How often a die has to be scrapped and replaced with a new one directly contributes to the commercial viability of producing a certain profile. The focus of the current work is on three distinct yet inter-related studies pertaining to the improvement of aluminum extrusion die. Study-A (Die Failure Analysis) is an investigation of various modes and critical failure types based on industrial data (Chapter-2 ), examination of failed dies and finite element simulation for identification of critical process parameters and design features in die fatigue-life (Chapter-3). In Study-B (Die Surface Hardening Treatment), two-stage controlled gas nitriding process for H13 steel is evaluated, both experimentally and numerically, in terms of nitrided case morphology and properties (Chapter-4) followed by experimental and numerical investigation of the effects of repeated nitriding (Chapter-5), pre-nitriding surface preparation (Chapter-6) and die profile geometry (Chapter-7) on nitriding performance in regard to die service life. In Study-C (Effect of Billet Quality on Die Life), the effect of billet quality and related influencing extrusion parameters on the die service life is investigated based on industrial data and some regression

Methodological aspects to be considered in evaluating the economics of service measures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bald, M.

1987-01-01

For the purposes of the report, service measures is used as a term denoting all those steps which exceed the framework of normal in-service maintenance and repair and serve to improve economics over the normal case. Positive impacts are to be achieved on such parameters as availability, efficiency, and service life. One of the aspects investigated is the effect, if any, of such measures on the residual service life of plants in operation for a long period of time already. Residual service life in this case means the remaining span of effective technical and economic operation which, in these model calculations, also includes part of the period of depreciation. (orig.) [de

Measuring the Effect of Tourism Services on Travelers' Quality of Life: Further Validation.

Science.gov (United States)

Neal, Janet D.; Sirgy, M. Joseph; Uysal, Muzaffer

2004-01-01

lication and extension study provided additional validational support of the original tourism services satisfaction measure in relation to QOL-related measures.Neal, Sirgy and Uysal (1999) developed a model and a measure to capture the effect of tourism services on travelers' quality of life (QOL). They hypothesized that travelers' overall life…

Predicting the Remaining Useful Life of Rolling Element Bearings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hooghoudt, Jan Otto; Jantunen, E; Yi, Yang

2018-01-01

Condition monitoring of rolling element bearings is of vital importance in order to keep the industrial wheels running. In wind industry this is especially important due to the challenges in practical maintenance. The paper presents an attempt to improve the capability of prediction of remaining...

Determining Remaining Useful Life of Aging Cables in Nuclear Power Plants - Interim Study FY13

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Simmons, Kevin L.; Fifield, Leonard S.; Westman, Matthew P.; Ramuhalli, Pradeep; Pardini, Allan F.; Tedeschi, Jonathan R.; Jones, Anthony M.

2013-01-01

The most important criterion for cable performance is its ability to withstand a design-basis accident. With nearly 1000 km of power, control, instrumentation, and other cables typically found in an NPP, it would be a significant undertaking to inspect all of the cables. Degradation of the cable jacket, electrical insulation, and other cable components is a key issue that is likely to affect the ability of the currently installed cables to operate safely and reliably for another 20 to 40 years beyond the initial operating life. The development of one or more nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques and supporting models that could assist in determining the remaining life expectancy of cables or their current degradation state would be of significant interest. The ability to nondestructively determine material and electrical properties of cable jackets and insulation without disturbing the cables or connections has been deemed essential. Currently, the only technique accepted by industry to measure cable elasticity (the gold standard for determining cable insulation degradation) is the indentation measurement. All other NDE techniques are used to find flaws in the cable and do not provide information to determine the current health or life expectancy. There is no single NDE technique that can satisfy all of the requirements needed for making a life-expectancy determination, but a wide range of methods have been evaluated for use in NPPs as part of a continuous evaluation program. The commonly used methods are indentation and visual inspection, but these are only suitable for easily accessible cables. Several NDE methodologies using electrical techniques are in use today for flaw detection but there are none that can predict the life of a cable. There are, however, several physical and chemical ptoperty changes in cable insulation as a result of thermal and radiation damage. In principle, these properties may be targets for advanced NDE methods to provide early

Web-service architecture for tools supporting life-long e-Learning platforms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dimov, Alexander; Stefanov, Krassen

2009-01-01

Dimov, A., & Stefanov, K. (2008). Web-service architecture for tools supporting life-long e-Learning platforms. In R. Koper, K. Stefanov & D. Dicheva (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th International TENCompetence Open Workshop "Stimulating Personal Development and Knowledge Sharing" (pp. 67-71).

Stator winding service life analysis of wet winding motor RCP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yeoh Eingyee; Li Linsen; Wang Ziguan; Shen Feng

2017-01-01

The reactor coolant pump type RUV of KSB is specially designed for the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor. It is hermetically sealed, wet winding motor pump. This wet winding motor concept has higher efficiency as compared to a canned motor since there are no eddy current losses, but this makes the stator cable insulator face the challenge of degradation by γ-irradiation in coolant. Radiation dose at the RUV is evaluated in interest from the material degradation point of view and the service life of stator winding in RUV is preliminarily analyzed. The values obtained are less than the dose rate and the dose which change the mechanical properties of the insulator material. According to the preliminary analysis, it can be concluded that the degradation of cable insulator of stator winding by γ-irradiation in coolant is negligible for the 60 years' service life of reactor coolant pump. This result also ensures crosslinked polyethylene used as cable insulator of stator winding is reliable in reactor coolant pump. (author)

An On-Board Remaining Useful Life Estimation Algorithm for Lithium-Ion Batteries of Electric Vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoyu Li

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Battery remaining useful life (RUL estimation is critical to battery management and performance optimization of electric vehicles (EVs. In this paper, we present an effective way to estimate RUL online by using the support vector machine (SVM algorithm. By studying the characteristics of the battery degradation process, the rising of the terminal voltage and changing characteristics of the voltage derivative (DV during the charging process are introduced as the training variables of the SVM algorithm to determine the battery RUL. The SVM is then applied to build the battery degradation model and predict the battery real cycle numbers. Experimental results prove that the built battery degradation model shows higher accuracy and less computation time compared with those of the neural network (NN method, thereby making it a potential candidate for realizing online RUL estimation in a battery management system (BMS.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Service Members: Life After Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldbach, Jeremy T; Castro, Carl Andrew

2016-06-01

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members can serve openly in the military with the repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. The fate of transgender service members remains uncertain as the policy preventing them from serving in the military remains under review. The health care needs of these populations remain for the most part unknown, with total acceptance and integration in the military yet to be achieved. In this paper, we review the literature on the health care needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) service members, relying heavily on what is known about LGBT civilian and veteran populations. Significant research gaps about the health care needs of LGBT service members are identified, along with recommendations for closing those gaps. In addition, recommendations for improving LGBT acceptance and integration within the military are provided.

[PALEOPATHOLOGY OF HUMAN REMAINS].

Science.gov (United States)

Minozzi, Simona; Fornaciari, Gino

2015-01-01

Many diseases induce alterations in the human skeleton, leaving traces of their presence in ancient remains. Paleopathological examination of human remains not only allows the study of the history and evolution of the disease, but also the reconstruction of health conditions in the past populations. This paper describes the most interesting diseases observed in skeletal samples from the Roman Imperial Age necropoles found in urban and suburban areas of Rome during archaeological excavations in the last decades. The diseases observed were grouped into the following categories: articular diseases, traumas, infections, metabolic or nutritional diseases, congenital diseases and tumours, and some examples are reported for each group. Although extensive epidemiological investigation in ancient skeletal records is impossible, the palaeopathological study allowed to highlight the spread of numerous illnesses, many of which can be related to the life and health conditions of the Roman population.

How Do Mobile Information Services Improve Quality of Life? The Case of Japanese Students

OpenAIRE

Ghyas, Qazi Mahdia; Kondo, Fumiyo N.

2016-01-01

Every technology should be geared to improve the quality of users’ lives. Our study aims to understand how mobile information services (MIS) contribute to quality of life (QoL) for young mobile users. This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive analysis of relationship between two variables: the contribution of MIS in 15 specific life domains and the contribution of MIS to overall quality of life (QoL). We examined bottom-up spillover theory with original and our additional life domains. E...

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...

Evaluation of Hose in Hose Transfer Line Service Life for Hanford's Interim Stabilization Program

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

TORRES, T.D.

2000-08-24

RPP-6153, Engineering Task Plan for Hose-in-Hose Transfer System for the Interim Stabilization Program, defines the programmatic goals, functional requirements, and technical criteria for the development and subsequent installation of transfer line equipment to support Hanford's Interim Stabilization Program. RPP-6028, Specification for Hose in Hose Transfer Lines for Hanford's Interim Stabilization Program, has been issued to define the specific requirements for the design, manufacture, and verification of transfer line assemblies for specific waste transfer applications. Included in RPP-6028 are tables defining the chemical constituents of concern to which transfer lines will be exposed. Current Interim Stabilization Program planning forecasts that the at-grade transfer lines will be required to convey pumpable waste for as much as three years after commissioning. Prudent engineering dictates that the equipment placed in service have a working life in excess of this forecasted time period, with some margin to allow for future adjustments to the planned schedule. This document evaluates the effective service life of the Hose-in-Hose Transfer Lines, based on information submitted by the manufacturer and published literature. The effective service life of transfer line assemblies is a function of several factors. Foremost among these are process fluid characteristics, ambient environmental conditions, and the manufacturer's stated shelf life. This evaluation examines the manufacturer's certification of shelf life, the manufacturer's certifications of chemical compatibility with waste, and published literature on the effects of exposure to ionizing radiation on the mechanical properties of elastomeric materials to evaluate transfer line service life.

Tackling the work-life balance challenge in Professional Service Firms: the impact of projects, organizing and service characteristics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Noury, L.C.; Gand, Sébastien; Sardas, Jean-Claude

2017-01-01

Professional Service Firms (PSFs) are currently under considerable pressure for economic reasons (low growth, pressure on cost), but also from the emergence of individual demands for work-life balance (WLB) from professionals, which challenge traditional ways of organizing both projects and careers.

Home care clients in the last year of life: is material deprivation associated with service characteristics?

Science.gov (United States)

Goodridge, Donna; Buckley, Alan; Marko, Josh; Steeves, Megan; Turner, Hollie; Whitehead, Steve

2011-09-01

To compare demographic, social, medical, and health care characteristics of home care clients in the last year of life by quintile of deprivation and examine associations between material deprivation and service characteristics. This retrospective study used administrative data for 700 clients who died while receiving home care services. Outcome measures were the receipt of supportive or palliative home care. Associations were assessed using multiple logistic regression. Material deprivation was not associated with either the hours of home care received or the receipt of supportive home care services. Clients with dementia or stroke, those were older than 80 years and those who were single were less likely to receive palliative care services than other groups. Inequalities in allocation of home care services based on age, diagnosis, and marital status, but not material deprivation, suggest the need to carefully match service with need at the end of life.

Strategies for the improvement of quality of life and service at the wellsite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lombardo, G.J.; McCants, K.J.; Klein, M.

1991-01-01

The oil industry, particularly exploration and production drilling has always had to contend with a remarkable set of conditions: complicated logistics, remote locations, twenty four hour daily operations, and long and uneven schedules, to mention only a few. Invariably, operations personnel particularly service company personnel are required to perform highly technical, often critical tasks for long periods of time without the benefit of sustained periods of restfulness. This condition is compounded by irregular days-off schedules and the offshore environment itself. Research in other industries has shown that scheduling conditions similar to those experienced in the E and P drilling industry have lowered the standard of life, general health, safety and performance of employees. With the move towards higher technology and even more critical tasks, more demanding employees and an essentially unchanged working environment, the problems are compounded even further. Work related stress and quality of life have become important factors in our employees' career decisions and their ability to work safely. This paper discusses the evaluation of the work schedule and work/living conditions of the wellsite measurement and services personnel of Anadrill Schlumberger, and concludes with methods to improve the safety, health and general quality of life of those personnel and the service quality they can deliver

The Association Between Home Palliative Care Services and Quality of End-of-Life Care Indicators in the Province of Québec.

Science.gov (United States)

Gagnon, Bruno; Nadeau, Lyne; Scott, Susan; Dumont, Serge; MacDonald, Neil; Aubin, Michèle; Mayo, Nancy

2015-07-01

In Canada, governments have increased spending on home care to promote better end-of-life care. In the province of Québec, Canada, home palliative care (PC) services (HPCS) are provided by Public Local Community-Based Health Care Service providers (Centres Locaux de Services Communautaires [CLSC]) with universal coverage. Accordingly, there should be no regional variations of these services and their effect on quality of end-of-life PC (QEoLPC) indicators. To test if all the CLSCs provided the same level of HPCS to cancer patients in the province of Québec, Canada, and the association between level of HPCS and QEoLPC indicators. Characteristics of 52,316 decedents with cancer were extracted from administrative databases between 2003 and 2006. Two gender-specific "adjusted performance of CLSCs in delivering HPCS" models were created using gender-specific hierarchical regression adjusted for patient and CLSC neighborhood characteristics. Using the same approach, the strength of the association between the adjusted performance of CLSCs in delivering HPCS and the QEoLPC indicators was estimated. Overall, 27,255 (52.1%) decedents had at least one HPCS. Significant variations in the adjusted performance of CLSC in delivering HPCS were found. Higher performance led to a lower proportion of men having more than one emergency room visit during the last month of life (risk ratio [RR] 0.924; 95% CI 0.867-0.985), and for women, a higher proportion dying at home (RR 2.255; 95% CI 1.703-2.984) and spending less time in hospital (RR 0.765; 95% CI 0.692-0.845). Provision of HPCS remained limited in Québec, but when present, they were associated with improved QEoLPC indicators. Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A novel health indicator for on-line lithium-ion batteries remaining useful life prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Yapeng; Huang, Miaohua; Chen, Yupu; Tao, Ye

2016-07-01

Prediction of lithium-ion batteries remaining useful life (RUL) plays an important role in an intelligent battery management system. The capacity and internal resistance are often used as the batteries health indicator (HI) for quantifying degradation and predicting RUL. However, on-line measurement of capacity and internal resistance are hardly realizable due to the not fully charged and discharged condition and the extremely expensive cost, respectively. Therefore, there is a great need to find an optional way to deal with this plight. In this work, a novel HI is extracted from the operating parameters of lithium-ion batteries for degradation modeling and RUL prediction. Moreover, Box-Cox transformation is employed to improve HI performance. Then Pearson and Spearman correlation analyses are utilized to evaluate the similarity between real capacity and the estimated capacity derived from the HI. Next, both simple statistical regression technique and optimized relevance vector machine are employed to predict the RUL based on the presented HI. The correlation analyses and prediction results show the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed HI for battery degradation modeling and RUL prediction.

Life Management of high energy piping girth welds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cohn, M.J.; Paterson, S.R.

1994-01-01

Life management of high energy piping systems is a synergistic process that combines the collective results from nondestructive examination (NDE), stress analysis, metallurgical replication, and fracture mechanics evaluations. To achieve conclusions with high confidence and reliability, the methodology requires that: (1) all weldments must be appropriately examined to establish initial baseline data and indicate both fabrication and inservice damage, (2) as-found stress analyses must be consistent with field estimated displacements to select sites of maximum in-service damage, and (3) metallurgical replicas must be taken at high stress sites determined as an outcome of a life exhaustion evaluation. The multidiscipline tasks are effectively managed by developing a rational framework incorporating all of the above requirements. Analytical algorithms that estimate linear and nonlinear degradation effects are included in the remaining life predictions. High damage locations are selected based on a life exhaustion calculation. Localized remaining life and reexamination intervals for failures governed by creep and fatigue damage are estimated by metallurgical replica cavitation damage and the service life. Stress-based creep damage identified in metallurgical replicas should correspond to the predicted high damage locations from the life exhaustion calculation. The methodology minimizes future reexamination locations while providing high certainty of monitoring lead-the-fleet damage. This life management program recognizes the aging process in plant equipment. It establishes a continuous process of examinations, evaluations, and decisions to track degradation of the piping system life cycle. Potential problems are identified long before failures occur. Corrective action is taken during scheduled outages to maintain the required level of plant performance

Advanced medical life support procedures in vitally compromised children by a helicopter emergency medical service.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gerritse, B.M.; Schalkwijk, A.; Pelzer, B.J.; Scheffer, G.J.; Draaisma, J.M.T.

2010-01-01

BACKGROUND: To determine the advanced life support procedures provided by an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) and a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) for vitally compromised children. Incidence and success rate of several procedures were studied, with a distinction made between procedures

A Model for Service Life Control of Selected Device Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zieja Mariusz

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a way of determining distribution of limit state exceedence time by a diagnostic parameter which determines accuracy of maintaining zero state. For calculations it was assumed that the diagnostic parameter is deviation from nominal value (zero state. Change of deviation value occurs as a result of destructive processes which occur during service. For estimation of deviation increasing rate in probabilistic sense, was used a difference equation from which, after transformation, Fokker-Planck differential equation was obtained [4, 11]. A particular solution of the equation is deviation increasing rate density function which was used for determining exceedance probability of limit state. The so-determined probability was then used to determine density function of limit state exceedance time, by increasing deviation. Having at disposal the density function of limit state exceedance time one determined service life of a system of maladjustment. In the end, a numerical example based on operational data of selected aircraft [weapon] sights was presented. The elaborated method can be also applied to determining residual life of shipboard devices whose technical state is determined on the basis of analysis of values of diagnostic parameters.

A Hybrid Prognostic Approach for Remaining Useful Life Prediction of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wen-An Yang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Lithium-ion battery is a core component of many systems such as satellite, spacecraft, and electric vehicles and its failure can lead to reduced capability, downtime, and even catastrophic breakdowns. Remaining useful life (RUL prediction of lithium-ion batteries before the future failure event is extremely crucial for proactive maintenance/safety actions. This study proposes a hybrid prognostic approach that can predict the RUL of degraded lithium-ion batteries using physical laws and data-driven modeling simultaneously. In this hybrid prognostic approach, the relevant vectors obtained with the selective kernel ensemble-based relevance vector machine (RVM learning algorithm are fitted to the physical degradation model, which is then extrapolated to failure threshold for estimating the RUL of the lithium-ion battery of interest. The experimental results indicated that the proposed hybrid prognostic approach can accurately predict the RUL of degraded lithium-ion batteries. Empirical comparisons show that the proposed hybrid prognostic approach using the selective kernel ensemble-based RVM learning algorithm performs better than the hybrid prognostic approaches using the popular learning algorithms of feedforward artificial neural networks (ANNs like the conventional backpropagation (BP algorithm and support vector machines (SVMs. In addition, an investigation is also conducted to identify the effects of RVM learning algorithm on the proposed hybrid prognostic approach.

Evaluation of Service Life of Polystyrene in Tropical Marine Environment by Principal Component Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dongdong Song

2015-01-01

Full Text Available To predict the service life of polystyrene (PS under an aggressive environment, the nondimensional expression Z was established from a data set of multiple properties of PS by principal component analysis (PCA. In this study, PS specimens were exposed to the tropical environment on Xisha Islands in China for two years. Chromatic aberration, gloss, tensile strength, elongation at break, flexural strength, and impact strength were tested to evaluate the aging behavior of PS. Based on different needs of industries, each of the multiple properties could be used to evaluate the service life of PS. However, selecting a single performance variation will inevitably hide some information about the entire aging process. Therefore, finding a comprehensive measure representing the overall aging performance of PS can be highly significant. Herein, PCA was applied to obtain a specific property (Z which can represent all properties of PS. Z of PS degradation showed a slight decrease for the initial two months of exposure after which it increased rapidly in the next eight months. Subsequently, a slower increase of Z value was observed. From the three different stages shown as Z value increases, three stages have been identified for PS service life.

Degradation of gas turbine coatings and life assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cheruvu, N S [Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX (United States)

1999-12-31

MCrAlY coatings are widely used on hot section components of gas turbines to provide hot corrosion and/or oxidation protection by formation of an oxide layer on the surface. As the protective oxide scale exfoliates during service, aluminum from the coating diffuses outward for reformation of the protective scale. Aluminum may also diffuse inward due to the differences in composition between the coating and the substrate. Thus, the coatings degrade due to oxidation, oxide scale spallation, and inward and outward diffusion of aluminum. Service life of these coatings is controlled by the aluminum content in the coating, operating temperature and start- shutdown cycles. In-service degradation of CoCrAlY and CoNiCrAlY coatings is presented. A procedure to predict the remaining service life of coatings under oxidizing conditions is discussed. (orig.) 12 refs.

Degradation of gas turbine coatings and life assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cheruvu, N.S. [Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX (United States)

1998-12-31

MCrAlY coatings are widely used on hot section components of gas turbines to provide hot corrosion and/or oxidation protection by formation of an oxide layer on the surface. As the protective oxide scale exfoliates during service, aluminum from the coating diffuses outward for reformation of the protective scale. Aluminum may also diffuse inward due to the differences in composition between the coating and the substrate. Thus, the coatings degrade due to oxidation, oxide scale spallation, and inward and outward diffusion of aluminum. Service life of these coatings is controlled by the aluminum content in the coating, operating temperature and start- shutdown cycles. In-service degradation of CoCrAlY and CoNiCrAlY coatings is presented. A procedure to predict the remaining service life of coatings under oxidizing conditions is discussed. (orig.) 12 refs.

Quality of life in Nepalese patients with low vision and the impact of low vision services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rajendra Gyawali

2012-10-01

Conclusions: Low vision patients have poor quality of life as measured with the NEI VFQ-25. Low vision service is associated with improved visual function, better quality of life and high rate of patient satisfaction.

Using life strategies to explore the vulnerability of ecosystem services to invasion by alien plants

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vicente, J.; Pinro, A.; Araujo, M.; Lomba, A.; Randin, C.; Guisan, A.; Honrado, J.; Verburg, P.H.

2013-01-01

Invasive plants can have different effects on ecosystem functioning and on the provision of ecosystem services, with the direction and magnitude of such effects depending on the service and ecosystem being considered, but also on the life strategies of the invaders. Strategies can influence

Determining Remaining Useful Life of Aging Cables in Nuclear Power Plants – Interim Study FY13

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Simmons, Kevin L.; Fifield, Leonard S.; Westman, Matthew P.; Ramuhalli, Pradeep; Pardini, Allan F.; Tedeschi, Jonathan R.; Jones, Anthony M.

2013-09-27

The most important criterion for cable performance is its ability to withstand a design-basis accident. With nearly 1000 km of power, control, instrumentation, and other cables typically found in an NPP, it would be a significant undertaking to inspect all of the cables. Degradation of the cable jacket, electrical insulation, and other cable components is a key issue that is likely to affect the ability of the currently installed cables to operate safely and reliably for another 20 to 40 years beyond the initial operating life. The development of one or more nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques and supporting models that could assist in determining the remaining life expectancy of cables or their current degradation state would be of significant interest. The ability to nondestructively determine material and electrical properties of cable jackets and insulation without disturbing the cables or connections has been deemed essential. Currently, the only technique accepted by industry to measure cable elasticity (the gold standard for determining cable insulation degradation) is the indentation measurement. All other NDE techniques are used to find flaws in the cable and do not provide information to determine the current health or life expectancy. There is no single NDE technique that can satisfy all of the requirements needed for making a life-expectancy determination, but a wide range of methods have been evaluated for use in NPPs as part of a continuous evaluation program. The commonly used methods are indentation and visual inspection, but these are only suitable for easily accessible cables. Several NDE methodologies using electrical techniques are in use today for flaw detection but there are none that can predict the life of a cable. There are, however, several physical and chemical ptoperty changes in cable insulation as a result of thermal and radiation damage. In principle, these properties may be targets for advanced NDE methods to provide early

Anesthesia Service Use During Outpatient Gastroenterology Procedures Continued to Increase From 2010 to 2013 and Potentially Discretionary Spending Remained High.

Science.gov (United States)

Predmore, Zachary; Nie, Xiaoyu; Main, Regan; Mattke, Soeren; Liu, Hangsheng

2017-02-01

Previous studies have identified an increasing number of gastroenterology (GI) procedures using anesthesia services to provide sedation, with a majority of these services delivered to low-risk patients. The aim of this study was to update these trends with the most recent years of data. We used Medicare and commercial claims data from 2010 to 2013 to identify GI procedures and anesthesia services based on CPT codes, which were linked together using patient identifiers and dates of service. We defined low-risk patients as those who were classified as ASA (American Society of Anesthesiologists) physical status class I or II. For those patients without an ASA class listed on the claim, we used a prediction algorithm to impute an ASA physical status. Over 6.6 million patients in our sample had a GI procedure between 2010 and 2013. GI procedures involving anesthesia service accounted for 33.7% in 2010 and 47.6% in 2013 in Medicare patients, and 38.3% in 2010 and 53.0% in 2013 in commercially insured patients. Overall, as more patients used anesthesia services, total anesthesia service use in low-risk patients increased 14%, from 27,191 to 33,181 per million Medicare enrollees. Similarly, we observed a nearly identical uptick in commercially insured patients from 15,871 to 22,247 per million, an increase of almost 15%. During 2010-2013, spending associated with anesthesia services in low-risk patients increased from US$3.14 million to US$3.45 million per million Medicare enrollees and from US$7.69 million to US$10.66 million per million commercially insured patients. During 2010 to 2013, anesthesia service use in GI procedures continued to increase and the proportion of these services rendered for low-risk patients remained high.

Life extension, power upgrade, and return to service work for Pickering NGS and other PWR and CANDU plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Millman, J.; Idvorian, N.; Schneider, W.

2002-01-01

Work on life extension, power upgrade and return to service has been performed and is in progress for a number of PWR and CANDU plants. For PWR plants, power upgrade work has been done for the new replacement steam generators in several cases. This work consists of redoing the formal equipment qualification analysis and reports for the uprated operating conditions to support the application for license adjustment. Life extension assessments have been performed for several CANDU plants. These are highly detailed assessments in which the particular steam generator is reassessed part by part as to the ability of each to sustain full life operation and also extended life operation. Return to service work for Pickering NGSA specifically has included this type of assessment and also specific repair, cleaning and retrofit activities including secondary side inspection, waterlancing, divider plate repair, eddy current inspection, etc. Steam generator modifications and retrofit work have been performed in a number of cases. The paper discusses various life extension, power upgrade, equipment modification and return to service activities all of which are part of the renewed drive in the industry to realise the full potential of nuclear plants by getting more and better performance from the extended service of existing plants. (author)

International Space Station Bacteria Filter Element Post-Flight Testing and Service Life Prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Perry, J. L.; von Jouanne, R. G.; Turner, E. H.

2003-01-01

The International Space Station uses high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters to remove particulate matter from the cabin atmosphere. Known as Bacteria Filter Elements (BFEs), there are 13 elements deployed on board the ISS's U.S. Segment. The pre-flight service life prediction of 1 year for the BFEs is based upon performance engineering analysis of data collected during developmental testing that used a synthetic dust challenge. While this challenge is considered reasonable and conservative from a design perspective, an understanding of the actual filter loading is required to best manage the critical ISS Program resources. Thus testing was conducted on BFEs returned from the ISS to refine the service life prediction. Results from this testing and implications to ISS resource management are discussed. Recommendations for realizing significant savings to the ISS Program are presented.

Influence of flexible pin for planets on service life of wind turbine gearboxes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Young Jun; Lee, Geun Ho; Nam, Yong Yun; Kim, Jeong Kil

2012-01-01

An overhung mounted carrier with flexible pins is applied to the planetary gear train of a wind turbine gearbox to investigate the influence of the self aligning effect by means of the deflection of the planet spindle and the flexible pin on the lifetime of the planet gear for a wind turbine gearbox. To analyze the load distribution of planet gears, both Euler theory and commercial software are employed. By applying an overhung mounted carrier with flexible pins in the wind turbine gearbox, we can improve the misalignment performance, face load factor, and service life of the planet gears. In particular, it was confirmed that a service life of more than 20 years could be realized for wind turbine gearboxes by applying a flexible pin to overhung mounted carrier

Residential immersive life skills programs for youth with disabilities: service providers' perceptions of change processes.

Science.gov (United States)

King, Gillian; McPherson, Amy; Kingsnorth, Shauna; Stewart, Debra; Glencross-Eimantas, Tanya; Jones-Galley, Kimberlea; Morrison, Andrea; Isihi, Ana Maria; Gorter, Jan Willem

2015-05-01

Residential immersive life skills (RILS) programs are designed to equip youth with physical disabilities with the foundational life skills required to assume adult roles. The objective was to determine RILS service providers' perceptions of the active ingredients of the intervention change process. Thirty-seven service providers from various disciplines completed measures to assess expertise status and participated in qualitative interviews. Qualitative themes were derived, and similarities and differences in themes were identified for blinded groups of novices, intermediates, and experts. The three main themes, reflecting change processes, were: (a) creating a supportive program atmosphere with multiple opportunities for learning, (b) using strategies to support, encourage, and engage youth, and (c) intentionally fostering youth experiences of skill development, social interaction, and pride in accomplishment. In contrast to the novices, experts displayed a more holistic perspective and paid attention to higher-order issues such as providing opportunities and enabling youth. The findings indicate how RILS service providers work to create a program atmosphere and employ strategies to intentionally foster particular youth experiences. The findings explicate service providers' theories of practice, the intentional design of RILS program environments to bring about client change, and the value of service provider expertise. Implications for Rehabilitation Service providers of youth independence-oriented life skills programs can intentionally create a learning-oriented and supportive program atmosphere by using non-directive, coaching/guiding, and engagement strategies Youth experiences of skill development, shared experience with others, and pride in accomplishment can be cultivated by providing a range of learning opportunities, including choice making, problem-solving, and skill mastery Compared to more novice service providers, experts discussed managing the

A new creep-strain-replica method for evaluating the remaining life time of components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joas, H.D.

2001-01-01

To realise a safe and economic operation of older power- or chemical plants a strategy for maintenance is necessary, which makes it possible to operate a component or the plant longer than 300,000 operating hours, this also for the situation that the mode of operation has changed meanwhile. In Germany a realistic evaluation of the remaining life-time is done by comparing the actual calculated test data of a component with the code TRD 301 and TRD 508 and additional non-destructive tests or other codes like ASME, Sec. II, BS 5500, AFCEN (1985). According to many boundary conditions, the calculated data are inaccurate and the measuring of creep-strain at temperatures of about 600 o C with capacitive strain-gauges very expensive. Description of the approach of the problems: spotwelding of two gauges to the surface of a component (in a defined distance), forming a gap, producing of replica of the gap after certain operating hours at shut-down conditions by trained personal, evaluation of the replica to gain the amount of creep-strain using a scanning electron microscope, assessment of the creep-strain data. (Author)

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES OF THE NIGER DELTA FORESTS ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

forest, the rural respondents had zero knowledge of many of the services. Despite the ... “production, regulating, habitat, carrier, and information, to provide capacity to produce a ... plants and birds, remain unstudied in large areas". Powell ... synonymous with life itself, with spiritual sustenance, with wealth and prosperity ...

Impact of landfill liner time-temperature history on the service life of HDPE geomembranes.

Science.gov (United States)

Rowe, R Kerry; Islam, M Z

2009-10-01

The observed temperatures in different landfills are used to establish a number of idealized time-temperature histories for geomembrane liners in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. These are then used for estimating the service life of different HDPE geomembranes. The predicted antioxidant depletion times (Stage I) are between 7 and 750 years with the large variation depending on the specific HDPE geomembrane product, exposure conditions, and most importantly, the magnitude and duration of the peak liner temperature. The higher end of the range corresponds to data from geomembranes aged in simulated landfill liner tests and a maximum liner temperature of 37 degrees C. The lower end of the range corresponds to a testing condition where geomembranes were immersed in a synthetic leachate and a maximum liner temperature of 60 degrees C. The total service life of the geomembranes was estimated to be between 20 and 3300 years depending on the time-temperature history examined. The range illustrates the important role that time-temperature history could play in terms of geomembrane service life. The need for long-term monitoring of landfill liner temperature and for geomembrane ageing studies that will provide improved data for assessing the likely long-term performance of geomembranes in MSW landfills are highlighted.

Fatigue life prediction of oil ducts under service loads

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meggiolaro, Marco A.; Castro, Jaime T.P. [Pontificia Univ. Catolica do Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

2003-07-01

A methodology to calculate the residual initiation and propagation lives of fatigue cracks in oil pipelines with corrosion-like defects is proposed and applied to predict the residual life of an old duct made of API 5L Gr. B steel, in service for more than 40 years. Since its inauguration, this pipeline has carried several heated products under variable temperatures and pressures. The calculated (nominal) service stresses are very high, due to thermal loads that induce significant bending in curved parts of the duct, with peaks close to the yield strength of the steel. The elastic- plastic fatigue damage at a notch or a corrosion pit root is calculated using the {epsilon}N method, and the effects of surface semi-elliptical cracks in its internal (or external) wall is studied considering appropriate stress intensity factor expressions and the actual service loads. In the presence of surface flaws associated to stress concentration factors of the order of three, a fatigue crack likely will initiate in the pipeline. However, if these surface cracks are small compared to the duct wall thickness, their predicted propagation rates are very low. (author)

Methodologies for assessment of the service life of pressure tubes in Indian PHWRs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sinha, R.K.; Sharma, A.; Madhusoodanan, K.; Sinha, S.K.; Malshe, U.D.

1997-01-01

For estimating safe service life of pressure tubes in Indian PHWRs, analytical methodologies have been developed to evaluate creep deformation, deuterium pick-up rate, blister growth at cold spot, and operating domain required for achieving leak-before-break. The paper provides an overview of these methodologies, and results of some studies carried out towards evolution of proposed fitness-for-service criteria for a pressure tube in contact with its calandria tube. (author)

Ensemble of data-driven prognostic algorithms for robust prediction of remaining useful life

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu Chao; Youn, Byeng D.; Wang Pingfeng; Taek Yoon, Joung

2012-01-01

Prognostics aims at determining whether a failure of an engineered system (e.g., a nuclear power plant) is impending and estimating the remaining useful life (RUL) before the failure occurs. The traditional data-driven prognostic approach is to construct multiple candidate algorithms using a training data set, evaluate their respective performance using a testing data set, and select the one with the best performance while discarding all the others. This approach has three shortcomings: (i) the selected standalone algorithm may not be robust; (ii) it wastes the resources for constructing the algorithms that are discarded; (iii) it requires the testing data in addition to the training data. To overcome these drawbacks, this paper proposes an ensemble data-driven prognostic approach which combines multiple member algorithms with a weighted-sum formulation. Three weighting schemes, namely the accuracy-based weighting, diversity-based weighting and optimization-based weighting, are proposed to determine the weights of member algorithms. The k-fold cross validation (CV) is employed to estimate the prediction error required by the weighting schemes. The results obtained from three case studies suggest that the ensemble approach with any weighting scheme gives more accurate RUL predictions compared to any sole algorithm when member algorithms producing diverse RUL predictions have comparable prediction accuracy and that the optimization-based weighting scheme gives the best overall performance among the three weighting schemes.

Recreation as a Related Service: Focusing on the Quality of Life of Students with Disabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Diodati, Melissa R.

2017-01-01

Leisure participation is influential on the quality of life of individuals. Individuals with disabilities can face barriers in leisure participation, impacting their quality of life. IDEA (2004) recognizes recreation as a related service as one way to enhance the leisure experiences for students with disabilities. The purpose of this embedded case…

Probabilistic Remaining Useful Life Prediction of Composite Aircraft Components, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — A Probabilistic Fatigue Damage Assessment Network (PFDAN) toolkit for Abaqus will be developed for probabilistic life management of a laminated composite structure...

Fitness-for-service and defect tolerance assessment - solutions for cracked components to remain in service

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nguyen, Ninh; De Beer, Eric

2013-01-01

This paper describes the application of the FFS/DTA methodology to assist plant asset managers in dealing with cracks that have been detected in in-service components, particularly those in the power, petrochemical, mining and transport industries. Several state-of-the-art structural integrity assessment proce-dures such as AS/NZS 3788, BS7910, R5-R6 and API-579-1/ ASME FFS-1 are described and discussed; and their application to practical situations using the principles of FFS/DTA is illustrated through a series of selected case studies. The usefulness, effectiveness and versatility of this fracture-mechanics based methodology for examination of in-service cracked components is amply demonstrated.

The experiences of remaining nurse tutors during the transformation ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The transformation of public services and education in South Africa is part of the political and socioeconomic transition to democracy. Changes are occurring in every fi eld, including that of the health services. A qualitative study was undertaken to investigate the experiences of the remaining nurse tutors at a school of ...

Child life services.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Jerriann M

2006-10-01

Child life programs have become standard in most large pediatric centers and even on some smaller pediatric inpatient units to address the psychosocial concerns that accompany hospitalization and other health care experiences. The child life specialist focuses on the strengths and sense of well-being of children while promoting their optimal development and minimizing the adverse effects of children's experiences in health care or other potentially stressful settings. Using play and psychological preparation as primary tools, child life interventions facilitate coping and adjustment at times and under circumstances that might prove overwhelming otherwise. Play and age-appropriate communication may be used to (1) promote optimal development, (2) present information, (3) plan and rehearse useful coping strategies for medical events or procedures, (4) work through feelings about past or impending experiences, and (5) establish therapeutic relationships with children and parents to support family involvement in each child's care, with continuity across the care continuum. The benefits of this collaborative work with the family and health care team are not limited to the health care setting; it may also optimize reintegration into schools and the community.

Family Quality of Life: A Key Outcome in Early Childhood Intervention Services--A Scoping Review

Science.gov (United States)

Bhopti, Anoo; Brown, Ted; Lentin, Primrose

2016-01-01

A scoping review was conducted to identify factors influencing the quality of life of families of children with disability. The review also explored the scales used to measure family quality of life (FQOL) as an outcome in early childhood intervention services (ECIS). Multiple databases were searched from 2000 to 2013 to include studies pertinent…

Role of stable isotope analyses in reconstructing past life-histories and the provenancing human skeletal remains: a review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sehrawat Jagmahender Singh

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This article reviews the present scenario of use of stable isotopes (mainly δ13C, δ15N, δ18O, 87Sr to trace past life behaviours like breast feeding and weaning practices, the geographic origin, migration history, paleodiet and subsistence patterns of past populations from the chemical signatures of isotopes imprinted in human skeletal remains. This approach is based on the state that food-web isotopic signatures are seen in the human bones and teeth and such signatures can change parallely with a variety of biogeochemical processes. By measuring δ13C and δ15N isotopic values of subadult tissues of different ages, the level of breast milk ingestion at particular ages and the components of the complementary foods can be assessed. Strontium and oxygen isotopic analyses have been used for determining the geographic origins and reconstructing the way of life of past populations as these isotopes can map the isotopic outline of the area from where the person acquired water and food during initial lifetime. The isotopic values of strontium and oxygen values are considered specific to geographical areas and serve as reliable chemical signatures of migration history of past human populations (local or non-local to the site. Previous isotopic studies show that the subsistence patterns of the past human populations underwent extensive changes from nomadic to complete agricultural dependence strategies. The carbon and nitrogen isotopic values of local fauna of any archaeological site can be used to elucidate the prominence of freshwater resources in the diet of the past human populations found near the site. More extensive research covering isotopic descriptions of various prehistoric, historic and modern populations is needed to explore the role of stable isotope analysis for provenancing human skeletal remains and assessing human migration patterns/routes, geographic origins, paleodiet and subsistence practices of past populations.

Rejuvenation of service exposed ammonia cracker tubes of cast Alloy 625 and their re-use

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Singh, J.B., E-mail: jbsingh@barc.gov.in [Mechanical Metallurgy Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400085 (India); Verma, A. [Mechanical Metallurgy Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400085 (India); Jaiswal, D.M.; Kumar, N.; Patel, R.D. [Heavy Water Board, Department of Atomic Energy, Anushakti Nagar, Mumbai 400094 (India); Chakravartty, J.K. [Mechanical Metallurgy Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400085 (India)

2015-09-17

This study is an extension of a previous study undertaken to rejuvenate ammonia cracker tubes of Alloy 625 alloy that have been service exposed in heavy water plants for their full service life of 100,000 h. The service exposure caused significant microstructural modifications and deterioration in mechanical properties, and a solution annealing treatment of 2 h at 1160 °C rejuvenated all properties similar to those of the virgin alloy. The present study reports the evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties of a full service exposed centrifugally cast Alloy 625 tube that was put into service again for 55,000 h after receiving a rejuvenation treatment. During the second service, microstructural modifications, increase in strength and loss of ductility were on the lines of the work reported earlier. However, it was encouraging to observe that degraded properties after the second service life remained within the bounds of those of virgin and full service exposed tubes. The good performance of the rejuvenated tube during the second service life has been attributed to good control of operation parameters that limited the precipitation of grain boundary carbides during the first service life, which otherwise would have had a direct bearing on premature failure of tubes during their second service life.

[Research on engine remaining useful life prediction based on oil spectrum analysis and particle filtering].

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Lei; Jia, Yun-xian; Cai, Li-ying; Lin, Guo-yu; Zhao, Jin-song

2013-09-01

The spectrometric oil analysis(SOA) is an important technique for machine state monitoring, fault diagnosis and prognosis, and SOA based remaining useful life(RUL) prediction has an advantage of finding out the optimal maintenance strategy for machine system. Because the complexity of machine system, its health state degradation process can't be simply characterized by linear model, while particle filtering(PF) possesses obvious advantages over traditional Kalman filtering for dealing nonlinear and non-Gaussian system, the PF approach was applied to state forecasting by SOA, and the RUL prediction technique based on SOA and PF algorithm is proposed. In the prediction model, according to the estimating result of system's posterior probability, its prior probability distribution is realized, and the multi-step ahead prediction model based on PF algorithm is established. Finally, the practical SOA data of some engine was analyzed and forecasted by the above method, and the forecasting result was compared with that of traditional Kalman filtering method. The result fully shows the superiority and effectivity of the

Remaining useful life prediction based on the Wiener process for an aviation axial piston pump

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xingjian Wang

2016-06-01

Full Text Available An aviation hydraulic axial piston pump’s degradation from comprehensive wear is a typical gradual failure model. Accurate wear prediction is difficult as random and uncertain characteristics must be factored into the estimation. The internal wear status of the axial piston pump is characterized by the return oil flow based on fault mechanism analysis of the main frictional pairs in the pump. The performance degradation model is described by the Wiener process to predict the remaining useful life (RUL of the pump. Maximum likelihood estimation (MLE is performed by utilizing the expectation maximization (EM algorithm to estimate the initial parameters of the Wiener process while recursive estimation is conducted utilizing the Kalman filter method to estimate the drift coefficient of the Wiener process. The RUL of the pump is then calculated according to the performance degradation model based on the Wiener process. Experimental results indicate that the return oil flow is a suitable characteristic for reflecting the internal wear status of the axial piston pump, and thus the Wiener process-based method may effectively predicate the RUL of the pump.

Quality of life evaluation of workers for diagnostic radiology services

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fernandes, Ivani Martins

2011-01-01

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) of diagnostic radiology services workers at a hospital of Sao Paulo city. It aimed also to draw the profile of these workers identifying the variables, as its influence on their quality of life. A descriptive exploratory study with qualitative and quantitative approaches was carried out. The data were collected using the questionnaires: the abbreviated instrument for the assessment of the QOL, World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument bref (WHOQOL-bref) and a questionnaire including the social demographic variables, work conditions and the variables that express the lifestyle of individuals, both questionnaires self-applied. The sample was formed by 118 workers, among them: physicians, technologists/technicians in radiology, nurses, technicians and assistants in nursing, and others health professionals. The data analysis included descriptive statistics, nonparametric tests and the use of a linear regression model. The reliability of the instrument for the studied sample was verified by Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient (α). The WHOQOL-bref proved to be an adequate instrument, with a good level of internal consistency (α=0.884), being easily and quickly administrated for the evaluation of the QOL. The study provided an overview of the perception of quality of life of the studied group. (author)

Leveraging Available Data to Support Extension of Transportation Packages Service Life

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dunn, K.; Abramczyk, G.; Bellamy, S.; Daugherty, W.; Hackney, B.; Hoffman, E.; Skidmore, E.; Stefek, T.

2012-06-12

Data obtained from testing shipping package materials have been leveraged to support extending the service life of select shipping packages while in nuclear materials transportation. Increasingly, nuclear material inventories are being transferred to an interim storage location where they will reside for extended periods of time. Use of a shipping package to store nuclear materials in an interim storage location has become more attractive for a variety of reasons. Shipping packages are robust and have a qualified pedigree for their performance in normal operation and accident conditions within the approved shipment period and storing nuclear material within a shipping package results in reduced operations for the storage facility. However, the shipping package materials of construction must maintain a level of integrity as specified by the safety basis of the storage facility through the duration of the storage period, which is typically well beyond the one year transportation window. Test programs have been established to obtain aging data on materials of construction that are the most sensitive/susceptible to aging in certain shipping package designs. The collective data are being used to support extending the service life of shipping packages in both transportation and storage.

Leveraging Available Data to Support Extension of Transportation Packages Service Life

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dunn, K.; Abramczyk, G.; Bellamy, S.; Daugherty, W.; Hackney, B.; Hoffman, E.; Skidmore, E.; Stefek, T.

2012-01-01

Data obtained from testing shipping package materials have been leveraged to support extending the service life of select shipping packages while in nuclear materials transportation. Increasingly, nuclear material inventories are being transferred to an interim storage location where they will reside for extended periods of time. Use of a shipping package to store nuclear materials in an interim storage location has become more attractive for a variety of reasons. Shipping packages are robust and have a qualified pedigree for their performance in normal operation and accident conditions within the approved shipment period and storing nuclear material within a shipping package results in reduced operations for the storage facility. However, the shipping package materials of construction must maintain a level of integrity as specified by the safety basis of the storage facility through the duration of the storage period, which is typically well beyond the one year transportation window. Test programs have been established to obtain aging data on materials of construction that are the most sensitive/susceptible to aging in certain shipping package designs. The collective data are being used to support extending the service life of shipping packages in both transportation and storage.

Remaining Useful Life Estimation of Li-ion Battery for Energy Storage System Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo Method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Dongjin; Kim, Seok Goo; Choi, Jooho; Lee, Jaewook; Song, Hwa Seob; Park, Sang Hui

2016-01-01

Remaining useful life (RUL) estimation of the Li-ion battery has gained great interest because it is necessary for quality assurance, operation planning, and determination of the exchange period. This paper presents the RUL estimation of an Li-ion battery for an energy storage system using exponential function for the degradation model and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach for parameter estimation. The MCMC approach is dependent upon information such as model initial parameters and input setting parameters which highly affect the estimation result. To overcome this difficulty, this paper offers a guideline for model initial parameters based on the regression result, and MCMC input parameters derived by comparisons with a thorough search of theoretical results

Remaining Useful Life Estimation of Li-ion Battery for Energy Storage System Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo Method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Dongjin; Kim, Seok Goo; Choi, Jooho; Lee, Jaewook [Korea Aerospace Univ., Koyang (Korea, Republic of); Song, Hwa Seob; Park, Sang Hui [Hyosung Corporation, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

Remaining useful life (RUL) estimation of the Li-ion battery has gained great interest because it is necessary for quality assurance, operation planning, and determination of the exchange period. This paper presents the RUL estimation of an Li-ion battery for an energy storage system using exponential function for the degradation model and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach for parameter estimation. The MCMC approach is dependent upon information such as model initial parameters and input setting parameters which highly affect the estimation result. To overcome this difficulty, this paper offers a guideline for model initial parameters based on the regression result, and MCMC input parameters derived by comparisons with a thorough search of theoretical results.

Shift work to balance everyday life - a salutogenic nursing perspective in home help service in Sweden.

Science.gov (United States)

Agosti, Madelaine Törnquist; Andersson, Ingemar; Ejlertsson, Göran; Janlöv, Ann-Christin

2015-01-01

Nurses in Sweden have a high absence due to illness and many retire before the age of sixty. Factors at work as well as in private life may contribute to health problems. To maintain a healthy work-force there is a need for actions on work-life balance in a salutogenic perspective. The aim of this study was to explore perceptions of resources in everyday life to balance work and private life among nurses in home help service. Thirteen semi-structured individual interviews and two focus group interviews were conducted with home help service nurses in Sweden. A qualitative content analysis was used for the analyses. In the analyses, six themes of perceptions of recourses in everyday life emerged; (i) Reflecting on life. (ii) Being healthy and taking care of yourself. (iii) Having a meaningful job and a supportive work climate. (iv) Working shifts and part time. (v) Having a family and a supporting network. (vi) Making your home your castle. The result points out the complexity of work-life balance and support that the need for nurses to balance everyday life differs during different phases and transitions in life. In this salutogenic study, the result differs from studies with a pathogenic approach. Shift work and part time work were seen as two resources that contributed to flexibility and a prerequisite to work-life balance. To have time and energy for both private life and work was seen as essential. To reflect on and discuss life gave inner strength to set boundaries and to prioritize both in private life and in work life. Managers in nursing contexts have a great challenge to maintain and strengthen resources which enhance the work-life balance and health of nurses. Salutogenic research is needed to gain an understanding of resources that enhance work-life balance and health in nursing contexts.

Why Agricultural Educators Remain in the Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Crutchfield, Nina; Ritz, Rudy; Burris, Scott

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe factors that are related to agricultural educator career retention and to explore the relationships between work engagement, work-life balance, occupational commitment, and personal and career factors as related to the decision to remain in the teaching profession. The target population for…

Laser shock peening of steam turbine blade for enhanced service life

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

2014-02-13

Feb 13, 2014 ... study to develop indigenous LSP process for enhanced service life ... DINX10Cr- 0.08–0.13 11.5–12.5 2.2–2.8 0.1–0.5 1.6–1.8 0.6–0.9 0.25–0.4 Balance ... LSP is done by scanning the taped surface of the work piece with a ...

Service life prediction for 50-year-old buildings in marine environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agustín Sánchez-Deza

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Steel reinforcing bars are often coated with rusts formed during service in reinforced concrete (RC structures. Rust layers growing on steel rebars induce expansive stresses and cause cracking on cover concrete. This study uses steel corrosion rate results measured on reinforced concrete buildings of more than 50 years of age located in marine environments and considers the pressure generated by the volume expansion of corrosion product layers to calculate the service life of the RC structures using a numerical simulation, estimating the time to corrosion cracking of the concrete cover. Akaganeite, goethite, lepidocrocite, hematite, magnetite and maghemite were identified by X-ray diffraction as crystalline phase constituents of the rust layers.

Remaining useful life prediction based on noisy condition monitoring signals using constrained Kalman filter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Son, Junbo; Zhou, Shiyu; Sankavaram, Chaitanya; Du, Xinyu; Zhang, Yilu

2016-01-01

In this paper, a statistical prognostic method to predict the remaining useful life (RUL) of individual units based on noisy condition monitoring signals is proposed. The prediction accuracy of existing data-driven prognostic methods depends on the capability of accurately modeling the evolution of condition monitoring (CM) signals. Therefore, it is inevitable that the RUL prediction accuracy depends on the amount of random noise in CM signals. When signals are contaminated by a large amount of random noise, RUL prediction even becomes infeasible in some cases. To mitigate this issue, a robust RUL prediction method based on constrained Kalman filter is proposed. The proposed method models the CM signals subject to a set of inequality constraints so that satisfactory prediction accuracy can be achieved regardless of the noise level of signal evolution. The advantageous features of the proposed RUL prediction method is demonstrated by both numerical study and case study with real world data from automotive lead-acid batteries. - Highlights: • A computationally efficient constrained Kalman filter is proposed. • Proposed filter is integrated into an online failure prognosis framework. • A set of proper constraints significantly improves the failure prediction accuracy. • Promising results are reported in the application of battery failure prognosis.

Remaining useful life prediction based on variation coefficient consistency test of a Wiener process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan LI

2018-01-01

Full Text Available High-cost equipment is often reused after maintenance, and whether the information before the maintenance can be used for the Remaining Useful Life (RUL prediction after the maintenance is directly determined by the consistency of the degradation pattern before and after the maintenance. Aiming at this problem, an RUL prediction method based on the consistency test of a Wiener process is proposed. Firstly, the parameters of the Wiener process estimated by Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE are proved to be biased, and a modified unbiased estimation method is proposed and verified by derivation and simulations. Then, the h statistic is constructed according to the reciprocal of the variation coefficient of the Wiener process, and the sampling distribution is derived. Meanwhile, a universal method for the consistency test is proposed based on the sampling distribution theorem, which is verified by simulation data and classical crack degradation data. Finally, based on the consistency test of the degradation model, a weighted fusion RUL prediction method is presented for the fuel pump of an airplane, and the validity of the presented method is verified by accurate computation results of real data, which provides a theoretical and practical guidance for engineers to predict the RUL of equipment after maintenance.

The relationship between health literacy and quality of life among frequent users of health care services: a cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Couture, Éva Marjorie; Chouinard, Maud-Christine; Fortin, Martin; Hudon, Catherine

2017-07-06

Although health literacy and quality of life are important concepts in health care, the link between them is unclear, especially for a population of frequent users of health care services with chronic diseases. Low health literacy is a common problem that has been linked to several negative health outcomes. Quality of life is an important health outcome in patient-centered care. Frequent users of health care services are a vulnerable population that deserves attention due to high costs and negative outcomes such as lower quality of life and higher mortality. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between health literacy and the physical and mental components of quality of life among frequent users of health care services with chronic diseases. This study presents the cross-sectional analysis of data collected through the V1SAGES project, a randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of a case management intervention in primary care in Quebec, Canada. Participants (n = 247) were frequent users of health care services presenting at least one chronic condition. Health literacy was measured by the Newest Vital Sign (NVS), and the physical and mental components of quality of life were evaluated by the Short Form Health Survey Version 2 (SF-12v2). The association between health literacy (independent variable) and the physical and mental components of quality of life was examined using biserial correlation. No association was found between health literacy and quality of life (physical component: r = 0.108, ρ = 0.11; mental component: r = 0.147, ρ = 0.15). This study suggests that there is no relationship between health literacy and the physical and mental components of quality of life among frequent users of health care services. NCT01719991 . Registered October 25, 2012.

Shift work to balance everyday life - a salutogenic nursing perspective in home help service in Sweden

OpenAIRE

Agosti, Madelaine T?rnquist; Andersson, Ingemar; Ejlertsson, G?ran; Janl?v, Ann-Christin

2015-01-01

Background: Nurses in Sweden have a high absence due to illness and many retire before the age of sixty. Factors at work as well as in private life may contribute to health problems. To maintain a healthy work–force there is a need for actions on work-life balance in a salutogenic perspective. The aim of this study was to explore perceptions of resources in everyday life to balance work and private life among nurses in home help service. Methods: Thirteen semi-structured individual interviews...

Citizen and Resident Satisfaction with Public Services in Qatar : And the impact on quality of life

OpenAIRE

Benmansour, Nada Abdelkader , [بن منصور، ندى عبد القادر

2016-01-01

In Qatar notable differences in public service satisfaction exist across individual state services, across nationality groupings, and across demographic categories. Among all citizens and residents, however, there is an empirical link between satisfaction with state services and overall perceptions of quality of life. Policymakers should thus study efforts to collect regular and systematic data on the performance of key public institutions, including through the collection of consumer feedbac...

Remediating cultural services in Second Life: The case of Info Island DK

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heilesen, Simon

2009-01-01

In 2007, Info Island DK was created as a virtual library in Second Life. This is an account of how library services of the physical library and the net library were remediated into a 3-D virtual world. The Info Island DK library was not widely adopted by any of the intended target groups, even if...

Integrating mental health services into primary HIV care for women: the Whole Life project.

OpenAIRE

Dodds, Sally; Nuehring, Elane M.; Blaney, Nancy T.; Blakley, Theresa; Lizzotte, Jean-Marie; Lopez, Myriam; Potter, JoNell E.; O'Sullivan, Mary J.

2004-01-01

The high rate of mental health problems in HIV-infected women jeopardizes the health of this vulnerable population, and constitutes a mandate for integrating mental health services into HIV primary care. The Whole Life project-a collaboration of the departments of Psychiatry and Obstetrics/Gynecology at the University of Miami School of Medicine-successfully integrated mental health services into primary HIV care for women. This article describes the conceptual framework of the integration, i...

Second life battery energy storage system for residential demand response service

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Saez-de-Ibarra, Andoni; Martinez-Laserna, Egoitz; Koch-Ciobotaru, Cosmin

2015-01-01

vehicles, during their main first life application, for providing residential demand response service. The paper considers the decayed characteristics of these batteries and optimizes the rating of such a second life battery energy storage system (SLBESS) for maximizing the economic benefits of the user......The integration of renewable energies and the usage of battery energy storage systems (BESS) into the residential buildings opens the possibility for minimizing the electricity bill for the end-user. This paper proposes the use of batteries that have already been aged while powering electric......'s energy consumption during a period of one year. Furthermore, simulations were performed considering real data of PV generation, consumption, prices taken from the Spanish market and costs of battery and photovoltaic systems....

Exploring the changing multidimensional experiences of frail older people towards the end of life: a narrative study

OpenAIRE

Lloyd, Anna Elizabeth

2015-01-01

Background Palliative care services have widened beyond cancer in recent years, yet frail older adults rarely receive such services. There is a need to understand the dynamic multidimensional end-of-life experiences of this group in order to assess how or if a palliative approach could be beneficial. Physical end-of-life trajectories for frail older people have been described but there remains little person centred research that describes changing experiences across physical...

Influence of coating quality on the service life of land-based gas turbine blades

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cheruvu, N.S. [Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio (United States)

2007-06-15

The land-based gas turbine blades operate at severe operating conditions: higher metal temperatures and stresses, and severe duty cycles. Metallic coatings with or without a top ceramic coating have been used to protect the turbine blades. The durability of the coating system is one of the prime life-limiting factors of modem gas turbine blades. The quality of the coating plays a critical role on the coating life. This paper discusses the failure mechanisms of the coatings and describes how the quality of the coating affects the service life of a gas turbine blade. A few case studies are presented in the paper. (orig.)

The Efficacy of Psychosocial Occupational Therapy Services on Quality of life of Chronic Pschiatric Patents

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elaheh Hojjati-Abed

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Objective: Quality of life has recently been recognized as an important goal of health care in psychiatry. In this study quality of life of chronic psychiatric patients was evaluated after psychosocial occupational therapy interventions. Materials & Methods: This study is interventional and quasi experimental. Twoenty four chronic mental patients who had refered to SINA Daily Center as intervention group and fifty chronic mental patients as control group were selected by simle and convenient sampling. The instrument was Wisconsin Quality of Life Client Questionnaire that included 8 subscales. Occupational therapy services consisting group therapy, activity therapy and art therapy, according to center’ plane, were performed during 3 months (2 times in week, 90 minutes in each session for intervention group. Independent T test & Paired T test were used for data analysis. Results: There was no significant difference between two groups in parts of QOL before intervention, but after intervention, significant differences were observed in mean scores of satisfaction level, occupational activities, psychological well–being, physical health and total quality o life (P<0.001, also social relation (P=0.005 and economic situation (P=0.003.There was no significant difference between two group in symptoms (P=0.277 and activity of daily living (P=0.020 after intervention. Conclusion: Psychosocial occupational therapy services are effective on satisfaction level and quality of life of chronic psychiatric patients.

Activity and Life After Survival of a Cardiac Arrest (ALASCA and the effectiveness of an early intervention service: design of a randomised controlled trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bakx Wilbert GM

2007-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Cardiac arrest survivors may experience hypoxic brain injury that results in cognitive impairments which frequently remain unrecognised. This may lead to limitations in daily activities and participation in society, a decreased quality of life for the patient, and a high strain for the caregiver. Publications about interventions directed at improving quality of life after survival of a cardiac arrest are scarce. Therefore, evidence about effective rehabilitation programmes for cardiac arrest survivors is urgently needed. This paper presents the design of the ALASCA (Activity and Life After Survival of a Cardiac Arrest trial, a randomised, controlled clinical trial to evaluate the effects of a new early intervention service for survivors of a cardiac arrest and their caregivers. Methods/design The study population comprises all people who survive two weeks after a cardiac arrest and are admitted to one of the participating hospitals in the Southern part of the Netherlands. In a two-group randomised, controlled clinical trial, half of the participants will receive an early intervention service. The early intervention service consists of several consultations with a specialised nurse for the patient and their caregiver during the first three months after the cardiac arrest. The intervention is directed at screening for cognitive problems, provision of informational, emotional and practical support, and stimulating self-management. If necessary, referral to specialised care can take place. Persons in the control group will receive the care as usual. The primary outcome measures are the extent of participation in society and quality of life of the patient one year after a cardiac arrest. Secondary outcome measures are the level of cognitive, emotional and cardiovascular impairment and daily functioning of the patient, as well as the strain for and quality of life of the caregiver. Participants and their caregivers will be followed

Place of Death and Use of Health Services in the Last Year of Life

OpenAIRE

Grande, Gunn E.; McKerral, Angela; Addington-Hall, Julia M.; Todd, Chris J.

2003-01-01

Aim: To investigate whether health service input in the last year of life differs between cancer patients who die at home versus those dying in inpatient care. Methods: Post hoc exploratory case-control study of 127 home deaths and 200 inpatient deaths. Retrospective electronic record linkage of patients' community and inpatient care during the last year of life. Results: Patients who died at home began their home nursing care closer to death than those who died as inpatients. Their first con...

Novel Approach for Lithium-Ion Battery On-Line Remaining Useful Life Prediction Based on Permutation Entropy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luping Chen

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The degradation of lithium-ion battery often leads to electrical system failure. Battery remaining useful life (RUL prediction can effectively prevent this failure. Battery capacity is usually utilized as health indicator (HI for RUL prediction. However, battery capacity is often estimated on-line and it is difficult to be obtained by monitoring on-line parameters. Therefore, there is a great need to find a simple and on-line prediction method to solve this issue. In this paper, as a novel HI, permutation entropy (PE is extracted from the discharge voltage curve for analyzing battery degradation. Then the similarity between PE and battery capacity are judged by Pearson and Spearman correlation analyses. Experiment results illustrate the effectiveness and excellent similar performance of the novel HI for battery fading indication. Furthermore, we propose a hybrid approach combining Variational mode decomposition (VMD denoising technique, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA, and GM(1,1 models for RUL prediction. Experiment results illustrate the accuracy of the proposed approach for lithium-ion battery on-line RUL prediction.

Childhood adverse life events, disordered eating, and body mass index in US Military service members.

Science.gov (United States)

Bakalar, Jennifer L; Barmine, Marissa; Druskin, Lindsay; Olsen, Cara H; Quinlan, Jeffrey; Sbrocco, Tracy; Tanofsky-Kraff, Marian

2018-03-02

US service members appear to be at high-risk for disordered eating. Further, the military is experiencing unprecedented prevalence of overweight and obesity. US service members also report a high prevalence of childhood adverse life event (ALE) exposure. Despite consistent links between early adversity with eating disorders and obesity, there is a dearth of research examining the association between ALE exposure and disordered eating and weight in military personnel. An online survey study was conducted in active duty personnel to examine childhood ALE history using the Life Stressor Checklist - Revised, disordered eating using the Eating Disorder Examination - Questionnaire total score, and self-reported body mass index (BMI, kg/m 2 ). Among 179 respondents, multiple indices of childhood ALE were positively associated with disordered eating. Traumatic childhood ALE and subjective impact of childhood ALE were associated with higher BMI and these associations were mediated by disordered eating. Findings support evaluating childhood ALE exposure among service members with disordered eating and weight concerns. Moreover, findings support the need for prospective research to elucidate these relationships. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Non-destructive testing for plant life assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is promoting industrial applications of nondestructive testing (NDT) technology, which includes radiography testing (RT) and related methods, to assure safety and reliability of operation of industrial facilities and processes. NDT technology is essentially needed for improvement of the quality of industrial products, safe performance of equipment and plants, including safety of metallic and concrete structures and constructions. The IAEA is playing an important role in promoting the NDT use and technology support to Member States, in harmonisation for training and certification of NDT personnel, and in establishing national accreditation and certifying bodies. All these efforts have led to a stage of maturity and self sufficiency in numerous countries especially in the field of training and certification of personnel, and in provision of services to industries. This has had a positive impact on the improvement of the quality of industrial goods and services. NDT methods are primarily used for detection, location and sizing of surface and internal defects (in welds, castings, forging, composite materials, concrete and many more). Various NDT methods are applied for preventive maintenance (aircraft, bridge), for the inspection of raw materials, half-finished and finished products, for in-service-inspection and for plant life assessment studies. NDT is essential for quality control of the facilities and products, and for fitness - for purpose assessment (so-called plant life assessment). NDT evaluates remaining operation life of plant components (processing lines, pipes, vessels) providing an accurate diagnosis that allows predicting extended life operation beyond design life. Status and trends on the NDT for plant life assessment have been discussed in many IAEA meetings related with NDT development, training and education. Experts have largely demonstrated that, using NDT methods, a comprehensive assessment of the life

Services and Supports, Partnership, and Family Quality of Life: Focus on Deaf-Blindness

Science.gov (United States)

Kyzar, Kathleen B.; Brady, Sara E.; Summers, Jean Ann; Haines, Shana J.; Turnbull, Ann P.

2016-01-01

In this study, the authors examined the moderating effects of partnership on the relationship between services and supports adequacy and family quality of life (FQOL) for families of children with deaf-blindness ages birth to 21. A social-ecological approach enabled examining the impact of disability on the family system. A survey, consisting of…

Lifetime health effects and medical costs of integrated stroke services - a non-randomized controlled cluster-trial based life table approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dirks Maaike

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Economic evaluation of stroke services indicates that such services may lead to improved quality of life at affordable cost. The present study assesses lifetime health impact and cost consequences of stroke in an integrated service setting. Methods The EDISSE study is a prospective non-randomized controlled cluster trial that compared stroke services (n = 151 patients to usual care (n = 187 patients. Health status and cost trial-data were entered in multi-dimensional stroke life-tables. The tables distinguish four levels of disability which are defined by the modified Rankin scale. Quality-of-life scores (EuroQoL-5D, transition and survival probabilities are based on concurrent Dutch follow-up studies. Outcomes are quality-adjusted life years lived and lifetime medical cost by disability category. An economic analysis compares outcomes from a successful stroke service to usual care, by bootstrapping individual costs and effects data from patients in each arm. Results Lifetime costs and QALYs after stroke depend on age-of-onset of first-ever stroke. Lifetime QALYs after stroke are 2.42 (90% CI - 0.49 - 2.75 for male patients in usual care and 2.75 (-0.61; 6.26 for females. Lifetime costs for men in the usual care setting are €39,335 (15,951; 79,837 and €42,944 (14,081; 95,944 for women. A comparison with the stroke service results in an ICER of €11,685 saved per QALY gained (€14,211 and €7,745 for men and women respectively. This stroke service is with 90% certainty cost-effective. Conclusions Our analysis shows the potential of large health benefits and cost savings of stroke services, taking a lifetime perspective, also in other European settings.

Quality of Life: Domains for Understanding Maths Anxiety in First Year Pre-Service Teachers through Identity Work

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Sue

2016-01-01

Mathematics anxiety in primary pre-service teachers' affects their future teaching of mathematics and achievement of students. Data collected via Critical Incident Technique were used to investigate this anxiety as perceived and identified by first year pre-service teachers. This paper proposes the application of the Quality of Life conceptual…

Tool Condition Monitoring and Remaining Useful Life Prognostic Based on a Wireless Sensor in Dry Milling Operations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cunji Zhang

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Tool breakage causes losses of surface polishing and dimensional accuracy for machined part, or possible damage to a workpiece or machine. Tool Condition Monitoring (TCM is considerably vital in the manufacturing industry. In this paper, an indirect TCM approach is introduced with a wireless triaxial accelerometer. The vibrations in the three vertical directions (x, y and z are acquired during milling operations, and the raw signals are de-noised by wavelet analysis. These features of de-noised signals are extracted in the time, frequency and time–frequency domains. The key features are selected based on Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient (PCC. The Neuro-Fuzzy Network (NFN is adopted to predict the tool wear and Remaining Useful Life (RUL. In comparison with Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN and Radial Basis Function Network (RBFN, the results show that the NFN has the best performance in the prediction of tool wear and RUL.

The sustainability effects of Product/Service-System design validated through Life Cycle Assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Smidt Dreijer, Leise; Birkved, Morten; Howard, Thomas J.

2013-01-01

and lifts. The major research question for the case is how the supplier’s continued ownership of the building materials influences the sustainability of such buildings. By using a PSS design approach in the early design stages, the architects involved in the case project were able to make design decisions......Temporary buildings are generally considered to be unsustainable due to a short life span of the materials applied in the building. The construction materials typically have a longer use life than the required use life of the building, thus functioning building materials are often discarded after...... the demolition. In an attempt to improve the sustainability of temporary buildings, a Product/Service-System (PSS) strategy is here applied to a case project. The case project concerns a temporary building made of leased materials and building components such as shipping containers, scaffolding materials...

Relationship Between the Remaining Years of Healthy Life Expectancy in Older Age and National Income Level, Educational Attainment, and Improved Water Quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jong In; Kim, Gukbin

2016-10-01

The remaining years of healthy life expectancy (RYH) at age 65 years can be calculated as RYH (65) = healthy life expectancy-aged 65 years. This study confirms the associations between socioeconomic indicators and the RYH (65) in 148 countries. The RYH data were obtained from the World Health Organization. Significant positive correlations between RYH (65) in men and women and the socioeconomic indicators national income, education level, and improved drinking water were found. Finally, the predictors of RYH (65) in men and women were used to build a model of the RYH using higher socioeconomic indicators (R(2 )= 0.744, p educational attainment, national income level, and improved water quality influenced the RYH at 65 years. Therefore, policymaking to improve these country-level socioeconomic factors is expected to have latent effects on RYH in older age. © The Author(s) 2016.

Creating a Liveable City - Eco-services, Systems and Place

Science.gov (United States)

Hamilton, R. J.; Dean, M.; Birtles, P. J.; Hore, J.; Dahlenburg, J.

2014-12-01

The use of an ecosystem service framework for natural resource management has gained increasing traction in the public sector. This is of especial interest in cities as residual ecosystems - typically located along creeks and estuaries, or remaining in scattered pockets throughout the urban area - offer some of the highest value social and economic returns per capita for the land area they occupy, yet are often impractical to manage from more traditional approaches to conservation. We posit that the well-being of humans and other species is the outcome of healthy, functioning ecosystems, and that, from a policy perspective, it is essential to consider services in this context. We arrange ecosystem services into three categories: life-enabling, life-sustaining and life-fulfilling, in a modification to the categories of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and identify additional eco-services unique to urban areas. At local scale, these contribute to the well-being of city residents and positively affect quality of life, forming essential elements of urban liveability. However, dynamics of co-located built and natural environments challenge the capacity of ecosystems to function and provide their full suite of services. Using Sydney as an example, we outline a modular framework of socio-ecological systems and places to show how eco-services supporting liveability can be considered in conceptual and physical space. At a policy level, framing systems-based management objectives that protect, improve and re-discover desirable ecosystem services within the city (as opposed to further increasing the environmental footprint outside), will allow for unique, positive, socially-enabling outcomes for urban centres, in Australia, and globally.

Comparing the Life Cycle Energy Consumption, Global Warming and Eutrophication Potentials of Several Water and Waste Service Options

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaobo Xue

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Managing the water-energy-nutrient nexus for the built environment requires, in part, a full system analysis of energy consumption, global warming and eutrophication potentials of municipal water services. As an example, we evaluated the life cycle energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG emissions and aqueous nutrient releases of the whole anthropogenic municipal water cycle starting from raw water extraction to wastewater treatment and reuse/discharge for five municipal water and wastewater systems. The assessed options included conventional centralized services and four alternative options following the principles of source-separation and water fit-for-purpose. The comparative life cycle assessment identified that centralized drinking water supply coupled with blackwater energy recovery and on-site greywater treatment and reuse was the most energy- and carbon-efficient water service system evaluated, while the conventional (drinking water and sewerage centralized system ranked as the most energy- and carbon-intensive system. The electricity generated from blackwater and food residuals co-digestion was estimated to offset at least 40% of life cycle energy consumption for water/waste services. The dry composting toilet option demonstrated the lowest life cycle eutrophication potential. The nutrients in wastewater effluent are the dominating contributors for the eutrophication potential for the assessed system configurations. Among the parameters for which variability and sensitivity were evaluated, the carbon intensity of the local electricity grid and the efficiency of electricity production by the co-digestion with the energy recovery process were the most important for determining the relative global warming potential results.

Authentic leadership: becoming and remaining an authentic nurse leader.

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Murphy, Lin G

2012-11-01

This article explores how chief nurse executives became and remained authentic leaders. Using narrative inquiry, this qualitative study focused on the life stories of participants. Results demonstrate the importance of reframing, reflection in alignment with values, and the courage needed as nurse leaders progress to authenticity.

Machine remaining useful life prediction: An integrated adaptive neuro-fuzzy and high-order particle filtering approach

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Chen, Chaochao; Vachtsevanos, George; Orchard, Marcos E.

2012-04-01

Machine prognosis can be considered as the generation of long-term predictions that describe the evolution in time of a fault indicator, with the purpose of estimating the remaining useful life (RUL) of a failing component/subsystem so that timely maintenance can be performed to avoid catastrophic failures. This paper proposes an integrated RUL prediction method using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS) and high-order particle filtering, which forecasts the time evolution of the fault indicator and estimates the probability density function (pdf) of RUL. The ANFIS is trained and integrated in a high-order particle filter as a model describing the fault progression. The high-order particle filter is used to estimate the current state and carry out p-step-ahead predictions via a set of particles. These predictions are used to estimate the RUL pdf. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated via the real-world data from a seeded fault test for a UH-60 helicopter planetary gear plate. The results demonstrate that it outperforms both the conventional ANFIS predictor and the particle-filter-based predictor where the fault growth model is a first-order model that is trained via the ANFIS.

A Comparison of Quality of Life Outcomes for People with Intellectual Disabilities in Supported Employment, Day Services and Employment Enterprises

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Beyer, Stephen; Brown, Tony; Akandi, Rachel; Rapley, Mark

2010-01-01

Background: Policy objectives for people with intellectual disabilities include day service modernization and the promotion of paid employment and quality of life. Quality of life is under represented as an outcome measure in vocational research. This research compares subjective and objective quality of life, and quality of work environment for…

Accurate bearing remaining useful life prediction based on Weibull distribution and artificial neural network

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Ben Ali, Jaouher; Chebel-Morello, Brigitte; Saidi, Lotfi; Malinowski, Simon; Fnaiech, Farhat

2015-05-01

Accurate remaining useful life (RUL) prediction of critical assets is an important challenge in condition based maintenance to improve reliability and decrease machine's breakdown and maintenance's cost. Bearing is one of the most important components in industries which need to be monitored and the user should predict its RUL. The challenge of this study is to propose an original feature able to evaluate the health state of bearings and to estimate their RUL by Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) techniques. In this paper, the proposed method is based on the data-driven prognostic approach. The combination of Simplified Fuzzy Adaptive Resonance Theory Map (SFAM) neural network and Weibull distribution (WD) is explored. WD is used just in the training phase to fit measurement and to avoid areas of fluctuation in the time domain. SFAM training process is based on fitted measurements at present and previous inspection time points as input. However, the SFAM testing process is based on real measurements at present and previous inspections. Thanks to the fuzzy learning process, SFAM has an important ability and a good performance to learn nonlinear time series. As output, seven classes are defined; healthy bearing and six states for bearing degradation. In order to find the optimal RUL prediction, a smoothing phase is proposed in this paper. Experimental results show that the proposed method can reliably predict the RUL of rolling element bearings (REBs) based on vibration signals. The proposed prediction approach can be applied to prognostic other various mechanical assets.

A Comparative Assessment of Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Hypothetical Electric Airport Transportation Services in Thailand

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Koiwanit, J.

2018-05-01

Global warming is an increase of average temperature in the atmosphere, which causes adverse effects on the environment. Carbon dioxide (CO2) from transportation sector is one of the main contributors of the overall greenhouse gases (GHG). To cope with this issue, electric car services are increasingly seen as popular alternative modes of green transportation especially for urban cities as it is more flexible, more environmentally-friendly, and less expensive than the use of conventional vehicles. The study analyses and compare the hypothetical electric car systems from airport transportation services. Center of Environmental Science of Leiden University (CML) 2001, the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method, is applied to convert life cycle inventory data into environmental impacts. The observed results showed that the electric shuttle bus had the highest impact in global warming potential (GWP) compared to other transportation types. Alternatively, this Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study that evaluated different transportations provided important information for decision makers on quantifying the differences between each scenario.

The Effects of Different Aspects of Tourism Services on Travelers' Quality of Life: Model Validation, Refinement, and Extension

OpenAIRE

Neal, Janet Davis

2000-01-01

The Effects of Different Aspects of Tourism Services on Travelers' Quality of Life: Model Validation, Refinement, and Extension by Janet Davis Neal ABSTRACT Numerous satisfaction studies have been conducted in both tourism and marketing which have examined various aspects of travelers and/or consumers. Quality of life satisfaction studies look beyond the types of satisfaction experiences that endure for only a short time to those that "spill over" into individuals' life domains ...

The Chinese community patient’s life satisfaction, assessment of community medical service, and trust in community health delivery system

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background Although the Chinese government put a lot of effort into promoting the community patient’s life satisfaction, there still lacked the holistic and systematic approaches to promote the community patient’s life satisfaction in various regions of China. On the basis of the literature, it was found that both the community patient’s assessment of community medical service and trust in community health delivery system were important considerations when the community patient comprehensively evaluated community medical service to generate life satisfaction. So this study was set up to test whether and to what extent the community patient’s assessments of various major aspects of community medical service/various major aspects of the community patient’s trust in community health delivery system influenced life satisfaction in whole China/in various regions of China. Methods In order to explore the situation of China’s community health delivery system before 2009 and provide a reference for China’s community health delivery system reform, the data that could comprehensively and accurately reflect the community patient’s life satisfaction, assessment of community medical service, and trust in community health delivery system in various regions of China was needed, so this study collaborated with the National Bureau of Statistics of China to carry out a large-scale 2008 national community resident household survey (N = 3,306) for the first time in China. And the specified ordered probit models were established to analyze the dataset from this household survey. Results Among major aspects of community medical service, the medical cost (particularly in developed regions), the doctor-patient communication (particularly in developed regions), the medical facility and hospital environment (particularly in developed regions), and the medical treatment process (particularly in underdeveloped regions) were all key considerations (ppatient’s life

78 FR 2618 - Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus Remaining Service-Life Indicator Performance Requirements

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-14

... revises the current standard, employed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH... protection needs of different work operations. This final rule sets a minimum alarm point at 25 percent of...) H. Executive Order 13045 (Protection of Children From Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks) I...

A simple method to prolong the service life of radioactive sources for external radiotherapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Yingjie; Tian, Yuan; Dai, Jianrong

2014-07-08

A radioactive source is usually replaced and disposed after being used for a certain amount of time (usually a half-life). In this study, a simple method is proposed to prolong its service life. Instead of replacing the used source with a new source of full activity, a new source of less activity is added in the source holder in front of the used one, so that the total activity of two sources is equal to the initial activity of the used source or even higher. Similarly, more sources can be added to the previous ones. Attenuation of front source(s) to the back source(s) was evaluated with exponential attenuation equation, and variation of source-focus distance (SFD) with inverse square law for Leksell 4C Gamma Knife, which served as an example of external radiotherapy units. When the number of front sources increased from 1 to 3, the relative air kerma decreased from 36.5% to 5.0%. Both the attenuation effect and SFD variation contributed to the decrease in air kerma, with the former being the major factor. If the height of the source can be decreased in some way, such as increasing the specific activity of sources, the sources can be used more efficiently. The method prolongs the service life of sources by several factors, and reduces the expense of source exchange and reclamation.

Creep, fatigue and creep-fatigue damage evaluation and estimation of remaining life of SUS 304 austenitic stainless steel at high temperature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishino, Seiichi; Sakane, Masao; Ohnami, Masateru

1986-01-01

Experimental study was made on the damage evaluation and estimation of remaining life of SUS 304 stainless steel in creep, low-cycle fatigue and creep-fatigue at 873 K in air. Creep, fatigue and creep-fatigue damage curves were drawn by the method proposed by D.A. Woodford and the relations between these damages and non-destructive parameters, i.e., microvickers hardness and quantities obtained from X-ray diffraction, were discussed. From these tests, the following conclusions were obtained. (1) Constant damage lines in the diagram of remaining lives in creep and fatigue could be drawn by changing load levels during the tests. Constant damage lines in creep-fatigue were also made by a linear damage rule using both static creep and fatigue damage curves, which agree well with the experimental data in creep-fatigue. (2) Microvickers hardness and half-value breadth in X-ray diffraction are appropriate parameters to evaluate creep damage but are not proper to evaluate fatigue damage. Particle size and microstrain obtained by X-ray profile analysis are good parameters to evaluate both creep and fatigue damages. (author)

The Interrelation of Prayer and Worship Service Attendance in Moderating the Negative Impact of Life Event Stressors on Mental Well-Being.

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Rainville, G

2017-09-13

The interrelation of worship service attendance and private prayer in moderating the negative impact of life event stressors on mental well-being is examined using hierarchical multiple regressions on a national sample of 2601 Americans. A theoretical model is proposed in which stressful life events are made less distressing under conditions in which exposure to pro-social content at worship services is internalized through frequent private prayer. Interactive models controlling for a block of potential confounds are run to confirm that the stress-moderating effects of worship service attendance are noted only when attendance is complemented by relatively frequent engagement in private prayer.

Replacement of major nuclear power plant components for service life extension

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Novak, S.

1987-01-01

Problems are discussed associated with replacement of nuclear power plant components with the aim to extend their original scheduled life. The existing foreign experience shows that it is technically feasible to replace practically all basic components for which the necessity of replacement is established. Data is summed up on the replacement of steam generators in US and West German nuclear power plants showing the duration of the job, the total consumption of manhours, the collective dose equivalent and the cost. Attention is also focused on implemented and projected replacements of circulation pipes in nuclear power plants abroad. Based on these figures, the cost is estimated of the replacement of the reactor vessel and the steam generators for WWER-440 nuclear power plants. The conclusion is arrived at that even based on a conservative estimate, the extension by 20 years of the service life of a nuclear power plant is economically more effective than the construction of a new plant. (Z.M.) 2 tabs., 15 refs., 3 figs

Leprosy: ancient disease remains a public health problem nowadays.

Science.gov (United States)

Noriega, Leandro Fonseca; Chiacchio, Nilton Di; Noriega, Angélica Fonseca; Pereira, Gilmayara Alves Abreu Maciel; Vieira, Marina Lino

2016-01-01

Despite being an ancient disease, leprosy remains a public health problem in several countries -particularly in India, Brazil and Indonesia. The current operational guidelines emphasize the evaluation of disability from the time of diagnosis and stipulate as fundamental principles for disease control: early detection and proper treatment. Continued efforts are needed to establish and improve quality leprosy services. A qualified primary care network that is integrated into specialized service and the development of educational activities are part of the arsenal in the fight against the disease, considered neglected and stigmatizing.

The relationship between childhood poverty, military service, and later life depression among men: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study.

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Bareis, Natalie; Mezuk, Briana

2016-12-01

Childhood poverty has been associated with depression in adulthood, but whether this relationship extends to later life major depression (MD) or is modified by military service is unclear. Data come from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 2010 wave, a longitudinal, nationally representative study of older adults. Men with data on military service and childhood poverty were included (N=6330). Childhood poverty was assessed by four indicators (i.e., parental unemployment, residential instability) experienced before age 16. Military service was categorized as veteran versus civilian, and during draft versus all-volunteer (after 1973) eras. Past year MD was defined by the Composite International Diagnostic Inventory. Four in ten men ever served, with 13.7% in the all-volunteer military. Approximately 12% of civilians, 8% draft era and 24% all-volunteer era veterans had MD. Childhood poverty was associated with higher odds of MD (Odds Ratio (OR): 2.38, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.32-4.32) and higher odds of military service (OR: 2.58, 95% CI: 1.58-4.21). Military service was marginally associated with MD (OR: 1.28, 95% CI: 0.98-1.68) and did not moderate the association between childhood poverty and MD. Self-report data is subject to recall bias. The HRS did not assess childhood physical and emotional abuse, or military combat exposure. Men raised in poverty had greater odds of draft and all-volunteer military service. Early-life experiences, independent of military service, appear associated with greater odds of MD. Assessing childhood poverty in service members may identify risk for depression in later life. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Implementation of Remaining Useful Lifetime Transformer Models in the Fleet-Wide Prognostic and Health Management Suite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agarwal, Vivek; Lybeck, Nancy J.; Pham, Binh; Rusaw, Richard; Bickford, Randall

2015-01-01

Research and development efforts are required to address aging and reliability concerns of the existing fleet of nuclear power plants. As most plants continue to operate beyond the license life (i.e., towards 60 or 80 years), plant components are more likely to incur age-related degradation mechanisms. To assess and manage the health of aging plant assets across the nuclear industry, the Electric Power Research Institute has developed a web-based Fleet-Wide Prognostic and Health Management (FW-PHM) Suite for diagnosis and prognosis. FW-PHM is a set of web-based diagnostic and prognostic tools and databases, comprised of the Diagnostic Advisor, the Asset Fault Signature Database, the Remaining Useful Life Advisor, and the Remaining Useful Life Database, that serves as an integrated health monitoring architecture. The main focus of this paper is the implementation of prognostic models for generator step-up transformers in the FW-PHM Suite. One prognostic model discussed is based on the functional relationship between degree of polymerization, (the most commonly used metrics to assess the health of the winding insulation in a transformer) and furfural concentration in the insulating oil. The other model is based on thermal-induced degradation of the transformer insulation. By utilizing transformer loading information, established thermal models are used to estimate the hot spot temperature inside the transformer winding. Both models are implemented in the Remaining Useful Life Database of the FW-PHM Suite. The Remaining Useful Life Advisor utilizes the implemented prognostic models to estimate the remaining useful life of the paper winding insulation in the transformer based on actual oil testing and operational data.

Regression to fuzziness method for estimation of remaining useful life in power plant components

Science.gov (United States)

Alamaniotis, Miltiadis; Grelle, Austin; Tsoukalas, Lefteri H.

2014-10-01

Mitigation of severe accidents in power plants requires the reliable operation of all systems and the on-time replacement of mechanical components. Therefore, the continuous surveillance of power systems is a crucial concern for the overall safety, cost control, and on-time maintenance of a power plant. In this paper a methodology called regression to fuzziness is presented that estimates the remaining useful life (RUL) of power plant components. The RUL is defined as the difference between the time that a measurement was taken and the estimated failure time of that component. The methodology aims to compensate for a potential lack of historical data by modeling an expert's operational experience and expertise applied to the system. It initially identifies critical degradation parameters and their associated value range. Once completed, the operator's experience is modeled through fuzzy sets which span the entire parameter range. This model is then synergistically used with linear regression and a component's failure point to estimate the RUL. The proposed methodology is tested on estimating the RUL of a turbine (the basic electrical generating component of a power plant) in three different cases. Results demonstrate the benefits of the methodology for components for which operational data is not readily available and emphasize the significance of the selection of fuzzy sets and the effect of knowledge representation on the predicted output. To verify the effectiveness of the methodology, it was benchmarked against the data-based simple linear regression model used for predictions which was shown to perform equal or worse than the presented methodology. Furthermore, methodology comparison highlighted the improvement in estimation offered by the adoption of appropriate of fuzzy sets for parameter representation.

REMAINING LIFE TIME PREDICTION OF BEARINGS USING K-STAR ALGORITHM – A STATISTICAL APPROACH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. SATISHKUMAR

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The role of bearings is significant in reducing the down time of all rotating machineries. The increasing trend of bearing failures in recent times has triggered the need and importance of deployment of condition monitoring. There are multiple factors associated to a bearing failure while it is in operation. Hence, a predictive strategy is required to evaluate the current state of the bearings in operation. In past, predictive models with regression techniques were widely used for bearing lifetime estimations. The Objective of this paper is to estimate the remaining useful life of bearings through a machine learning approach. The ultimate objective of this study is to strengthen the predictive maintenance. The present study was done using classification approach following the concepts of machine learning and a predictive model was built to calculate the residual lifetime of bearings in operation. Vibration signals were acquired on a continuous basis from an experiment wherein the bearings are made to run till it fails naturally. It should be noted that the experiment was carried out with new bearings at pre-defined load and speed conditions until the bearing fails on its own. In the present work, statistical features were deployed and feature selection process was carried out using J48 decision tree and selected features were used to develop the prognostic model. The K-Star classification algorithm, a supervised machine learning technique is made use of in building a predictive model to estimate the lifetime of bearings. The performance of classifier was cross validated with distinct data. The result shows that the K-Star classification model gives 98.56% classification accuracy with selected features.

Age Weights for Health Services Derived from the Relative Social Willingness-to-Pay Instrument.

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Richardson, Jeff; McKie, John; Iezzi, Angelo; Maxwell, Aimee

2017-04-01

The effect of a patient's age on the social valuation of health services remains controversial, with empirical results varying in magnitude and implying a different age-value profile. This article employs a new methodology to re-examine these questions. Data were obtained from 2 independent Web-based surveys that administered the Relative Social Willingness to Pay instrument. In the first survey, the age of the patient receiving a life-saving service was varied. Patients were left with either poor mental or physical health. In the second survey, patient age was varied for a service that fully cured the patient's poor mental or physical health. In total, therefore, 4 sets of age weights were obtained: weights for life-extending services with poor physical or mental health outcomes and weights for quality-of-life improvement for patients in poor mental or physical health. Results were consistent. Increasing age was associated in each case with a monotonic decrease in the social valuation of the services. The decrease in value was quantitatively small until age 60 years. By age 80 years, the social value of services had declined by about 50%. The decline commenced at an earlier age in the context of physical health, although the magnitude of the decrement by age 80 years was unrelated to the type of service. With 1 exception, there was little difference in the valuation of services by the age of the survey respondent. Respondents aged >60 years placed a lower, not higher, value on quality-of-life improvement for elderly individuals than other respondents. There was no difference in the valuation of life-extending services.

CANDU plant life management - An integrated approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Charlebois, P.; Hart, R.S.; Hopkins, J.R.

1998-01-01

Commercial versions of CANDU reactors were put into service starting more than 25 years ago. The first unit of Ontario Hydro's Pickering A station was put into service in 1971, and Bruce A in 1977. Most CANDU reactors, however, are only now approaching their mid-life of 15 to 20 years of operation. In particular, the first series of CANDU 6 plants which entered service in the early 1980's were designed for a 30 year life and are now approaching mid life. The current CANDU 6 design is based on a 40 year life as a result of advancement in design and materials through research and development. In order to assure safe and economic operation of these reactors, a comprehensive CANDU Plant Life Management (PLIM) program is being developed from the knowledge gained during the operation of Ontario Hydro's Pickering, Bruce, and Darlington stations, worldwide information from CANDU 6 stations, CANDU research and development programs, and other national and international sources. This integration began its first phase in 1994, with the identification of most of the critical systems structures and components in these stations, and a preliminary assessment of degradation and mechanisms that could affect their fitness for service for their planned life. Most of these preliminary assessments are now complete, together with the production of the first iteration of Life Management Plans for several of the systems and components. The Generic CANDU 6 PLIM program is now reaching its maturity, with formal processes to systematically identify and evaluate the major CSSCs in the station, and a plan to ensure that the plant surveillance, operation, and maintenance programs monitor and control component degradation well within the original design specifications essential for the plant life attainment. A Technology Watch program is being established to ensure that degradation mechanisms which could impact on plant life are promptly investigated and mitigating programs established. The

Estimation of the temporary service life of DC arc plasmatron cathode

Science.gov (United States)

Kulygin, V. M.; Pereslavtsev, A. V.; Tresvyatskii, S. S.

2017-09-01

The service life of the cathode of a DC arc plasmatron continuously working with tubular electrodes that operate in the air has been considered using the semi-phenomenological approach. The thermal emission, that ensures the necessary flow of electrons, and the evaporation of the cathode material, which determines its erosion, have been taken as the basic physical phenomena that constitute the workflow. The relationships that enable the estimation of the cathode's operating time have been obtained using the known regularities of these phenomena and experimental data available in the literature. The resulting evaluations coincide satisfactorily with the endurance test results.

Work-related factors influencing home care nurse intent to remain employed.

Science.gov (United States)

Tourangeau, Ann E; Patterson, Erin; Saari, Margaret; Thomson, Heather; Cranley, Lisa

Health care is shifting out of hospitals into community settings. In Ontario, Canada, home care organizations continue to experience challenges recruiting and retaining nurses. However, factors influencing home care nurse retention that can be modified remain largely unexplored. Several groups of factors have been identified as influencing home care nurse intent to remain employed including job characteristics, work structures, relationships and communication, work environment, responses to work, and conditions of employment. The aim of this study was to test and refine a model that identifies which factors are related to home care nurse intentions to remain employed for the next 5 years with their current home care employer organization. A cross-sectional survey design was implemented to test and refine a hypothesized model of home care nurse intent to remain employed. Logistic regression was used to determine which factors influence home care nurse intent to remain employed. Home care nurse intent to remain employed for the next 5 years was associated with increasing age, higher nurse-evaluated quality of care, having greater variety of patients, experiencing greater meaningfulness of work, having greater income stability, having greater continuity of client care, experiencing more positive relationships with supervisors, experiencing higher work-life balance, and being more satisfied with salary and benefits. Home care organizations can promote home care nurse intent to remain employed by (a) ensuring nurses have adequate training and resources to provide quality client care, (b) improving employment conditions to increase income stability and satisfaction with pay and benefits, (c) ensuring manageable workloads to facilitate improved work-life balance, and (d) ensuring leaders are accessible and competent.

Harm reduction services as a point-of-entry to and source of end-of-life care and support for homeless and marginally housed persons who use alcohol and/or illicit drugs: a qualitative analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

McNeil, Ryan; Guirguis-Younger, Manal; Dilley, Laura B; Aubry, Tim D; Turnbull, Jeffrey; Hwang, Stephen W

2012-05-17

Homeless and marginally housed persons who use alcohol and/or illicit drugs often have end-of-life care needs that go unmet due to barriers that they face to accessing end-of-life care services. Many homeless and marginally housed persons who use these substances must therefore rely upon alternate sources of end-of-life care and support. This article explores the role of harm reduction services in end-of-life care services delivery to homeless and marginally housed persons who use alcohol and/or illicit drugs. A qualitative case study design was used to explore end-of-life care services delivery to homeless and marginally housed persons in six Canadian cities. A key objective was to explore the role of harm reduction services. 54 health and social services professionals participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews. All participants reported that they provided care and support to this population at end-of-life. Harm reduction services (e.g., syringe exchange programs, managed alcohol programs, etc.) were identified as a critical point-of-entry to and source of end-of-life care and support for homeless and marginally housed persons who use alcohol and/or illicit drugs. Where possible, harm reduction services facilitated referrals to end-of-life care services for this population. Harm reduction services also provided end-of-life care and support when members of this population were unable or unwilling to access end-of-life care services, thereby improving quality-of-life and increasing self-determination regarding place-of-death. While partnerships between harm reduction programs and end-of-life care services are identified as one way to improve access, it is noted that more comprehensive harm reduction services might be needed in end-of-life care settings if they are to engage this underserved population.

On the need for data for the verification of service life models for frost damage

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Geiker, Mette Rica; Engelund, Sven

1999-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to draw the attention to the need for the verification of service life models for frost attack on concrete and the collection of relevant data. To illustrate the type of data needed the paper presents models for internal freeze/thaw damage (internal cracking including...

Visual impairment, coping strategies and impact on daily life: a qualitative study among working-age UK ex-service personnel.

Science.gov (United States)

Stevelink, Sharon A M; Malcolm, Estelle M; Fear, Nicola T

2015-11-12

Sustaining a visual impairment may have a substantial impact on various life domains such as work, interpersonal relations, mobility and social and mental well-being. How to adjust to the loss of vision and its consequences might be a challenge for the visually impaired person. The purpose of the current study was to explore how younger male ex-Service personnel cope with becoming visually impaired and how this affects their daily life. Semi-structured interviews with 30 visually impaired male ex-Service personnel, all under the age of 55, were conducted. All participants are members of the charity organisation Blind Veterans UK. Interviews were analysed thematically. Younger ex-Service personnel applied a number of different strategies to overcome their loss of vision and its associated consequences. Coping strategies varied from learning new skills, goal setting, integrating the use of low vision aids in their daily routine, to social withdrawal and substance misuse. Vision loss affected on all aspects of daily life and ex-Service personnel experienced an on-going struggle to accept and adjust to becoming visually impaired. Health care professionals, family and friends of the person with the visual impairment need to be aware that coping with a visual impairment is a continuous struggle; even after a considerable amount of time has passed, needs for emotional, social, practical and physical support may still be present.

Perceived stress and life satisfaction: social network service use as a moderator.

Science.gov (United States)

Niu, Qikun; Liu, Yihao; Sheng, Zitong; He, Yue; Shao, Xiaolin

2011-01-01

Social Network Service (SNS) has become a buzzword in recent media coverage with the development of the second generation of Web-based communities. In China, SNS has played an increasingly important role in its users' daily lives, especially among students. With a sample of 471 college students, we tested the direct relationship between perceived stress and life satisfaction using a regression analysis. Moreover, we found SNS use could buffer the negative effect of perceived stress. This study has practical implications on Internet users' SNS use.

Remaining useful life estimation for deteriorating systems with time-varying operational conditions and condition-specific failure zones

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Qi

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Dynamic time-varying operational conditions pose great challenge to the estimation of system remaining useful life (RUL for the deteriorating systems. This paper presents a method based on probabilistic and stochastic approaches to estimate system RUL for periodically monitored degradation processes with dynamic time-varying operational conditions and condition-specific failure zones. The method assumes that the degradation rate is influenced by specific operational condition and moreover, the transition between different operational conditions plays the most important role in affecting the degradation process. These operational conditions are assumed to evolve as a discrete-time Markov chain (DTMC. The failure thresholds are also determined by specific operational conditions and described as different failure zones. The 2008 PHM Conference Challenge Data is utilized to illustrate our method, which contains mass sensory signals related to the degradation process of a commercial turbofan engine. The RUL estimation method using the sensor measurements of a single sensor was first developed, and then multiple vital sensors were selected through a particular optimization procedure in order to increase the prediction accuracy. The effectiveness and advantages of the proposed method are presented in a comparison with existing methods for the same dataset.

End of Life: An Overview

Science.gov (United States)

Toner, Mary Ann; Shadden, Barbara B.

2012-01-01

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) provide services to patients confronting the end of life (EOL) in a variety of settings. Instead of targeting improvement of health or sustaining life, EOL services focus primarily on quality of life. Although SLPs may not consider themselves core members of the health care team providing EOL services, the…

Colil: a database and search service for citation contexts in the life sciences domain.

Science.gov (United States)

Fujiwara, Toyofumi; Yamamoto, Yasunori

2015-01-01

To promote research activities in a particular research area, it is important to efficiently identify current research trends, advances, and issues in that area. Although review papers in the research area can suffice for this purpose in general, researchers are not necessarily able to obtain these papers from research aspects of their interests at the time they are required. Therefore, the utilization of the citation contexts of papers in a research area has been considered as another approach. However, there are few search services to retrieve citation contexts in the life sciences domain; furthermore, efficiently obtaining citation contexts is becoming difficult due to the large volume and rapid growth of life sciences papers. Here, we introduce the Colil (Comments on Literature in Literature) database to store citation contexts in the life sciences domain. By using the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and a newly compiled vocabulary, we built the Colil database and made it available through the SPARQL endpoint. In addition, we developed a web-based search service called Colil that searches for a cited paper in the Colil database and then returns a list of citation contexts for it along with papers relevant to it based on co-citations. The citation contexts in the Colil database were extracted from full-text papers of the PubMed Central Open Access Subset (PMC-OAS), which includes 545,147 papers indexed in PubMed. These papers are distributed across 3,171 journals and cite 5,136,741 unique papers that correspond to approximately 25 % of total PubMed entries. By utilizing Colil, researchers can easily refer to a set of citation contexts and relevant papers based on co-citations for a target paper. Colil helps researchers to comprehend life sciences papers in a research area more efficiently and makes their biological research more efficient.

Advanced medical life support procedures in vitally compromised children by a helicopter emergency medical service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Scheffer Gert J

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background To determine the advanced life support procedures provided by an Emergency Medical Service (EMS and a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS for vitally compromised children. Incidence and success rate of several procedures were studied, with a distinction made between procedures restricted to the HEMS-physician and procedures for which the HEMS is more experienced than the EMS. Methods Prospective study of a consecutive group of children examined and treated by the HEMS of the eastern region of the Netherlands. Data regarding type of emergency, physiological parameters, NACA scores, treatment, and 24-hour survival were collected and subsequently analysed. Results Of the 558 children examined and treated by the HEMS on scene, 79% had a NACA score of IV-VII. 65% of the children had one or more advanced life support procedures restricted to the HEMS and 78% of the children had one or more procedures for which the HEMS is more experienced than the EMS. The HEMS intubated 38% of all children, and 23% of the children intubated and ventilated by the EMS needed emergency correction because of potentially lethal complications. The HEMS provided the greater part of intraosseous access, as the EMS paramedics almost exclusively reserved this procedure for children in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The EMS provided pain management only to children older than four years of age, but a larger group was in need of analgesia upon arrival of the HEMS, and was subsequently treated by the HEMS. Conclusions The Helicopter Emergency Medical Service of the eastern region of the Netherlands brings essential medical expertise in the field not provided by the emergency medical service. The Emergency Medical Service does not provide a significant quantity of procedures obviously needed by the paediatric patient.

A review of experimental methods for determining residual creep life

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bolton, C.J.

1977-11-01

Experimental methods available for determining how much creep life remains at a particular time in the high temperature service of a component are reviewed. After a brief consideration of the limitations of stress rupture extrapolation techniques, the application of post-exposure creep testing is considered. Ways of assessing the effect of microstructural degradation on residual life are then reviewed. It is pointed out that while this type of work will be useful for certain materials, there are other materials in which 'mechanical damage' such as cavitation will be more important. Cavitation measurement techniques are therefore reviewed. The report ends with a brief consideration of the use of crack growth measurements in assessing the residual life of cracked components. (author)

The eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers: Knowledge Manage-ment across the Sourcing Life-cycle

OpenAIRE

Laaksonen, Pekka

2011-01-01

Laaksonen, Pekka The eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers: Knowledge Manage-ment across the Sourcing Life-cycle Jyväskylä: Jyväskylän yliopisto, 2011, 42 s. Tietojärjestelmätiede, kandidaatintutkielma Ohjaaja(t): Käkölä, Timo Tässä kandidaatintutkielmassa selvitettiin sitä, miten the eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers-mallin käytännöt (practices) ovat liittyneet tietä-myksenhallinnan neljään prosessiin: tiedon luominen, varastointi/noutaminen, jakamine...

Adverse psychosocial working conditions and poor quality of life among financial service employees in Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Luiz Sergio; Barreto, Sandhi Maria

2012-01-01

Workers in the financial services sector are exposed to great stress at work. This study investigates whether exposure to adverse psychosocial work conditions is independently associated with poor health-related physical and mental quality of life among financial services workers. We studied a nationwide representative sample of 2,054 workers of a large Brazilian state bank in 2008. Adverse psychosocial work conditions were investigated by the Effort-reward imbalance (ERI) scale and the Job content questionnaire (JCQ). Health-related quality of life (HRQL) was assessed using the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form General Health Survey (SF-12). Poor mental and physical HRQL was defined by the lowest quartiles of the SF-12 final score distributions. Associations were investigated using multiple logistic regression analysis. In the multivariate analysis, exposures to low control and lack of social support at work (JCQ) were associated with poor HRQL in the physical domain. Increasing effort-reward imbalance and overcommitment (ERI), on the other hand, were associated with poor HRQL in the mental domain, with a significant statistical trend. Overcommitment was also associated with poor physical HRQL. The results suggest that exposure to adverse psychosocial work conditions has a negative impact on both domains of HRQL among financial service workers. They also indicate that ERI and DC models capture different aspects of job strain.

75 FR 5108 - Notice of Inventory Completion: University of Wyoming, Anthropology Department, Human Remains...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-02-01

... Wyoming, Anthropology Department, Human Remains Repository, Laramie, WY AGENCY: National Park Service... funerary objects in the possession and control of the University of Wyoming, Anthropology Department, Human... of Wyoming, Anthropology Department, Human Remains Repository professional staff in consultation with...

Estimation of Remained defects in a Safety-Critical Software using Bayesian Belief Network of Software Development Life Cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Jun; Jung, Wondea Jung

2015-01-01

Some researchers recognized Bayesian belief network (BBN) method to be a promising method of quantifying software reliability. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) comprehensively reviewed various quantitative software reliability methods to identify the most promising methods for use in probabilistic safety assessments (PSAs) of digital systems of NPPs against a set of the most desirable characteristics developed therein. BBNs are recognized as a promising way of quantifying software reliability and are useful for integrating many aspects of software engineering and quality assurance. The method explicitly incorporates important factors relevant to reliability, such as the quality of the developer, the development process, problem complexity, testing effort, and the operation environment. In this work, a BBN model was developed to estimate the number of remained defects in a safety-critical software based on the quality evaluation of software development life cycle (SDLC). Even though a number of software reliability evaluation methods exist, none of them can be applicable to the safety-critical software in an NPP because software quality in terms of PDF is required for the PSA

Should the service life of nuclear power plants be limited for technical reasons?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schomer, E.

1995-01-01

German nuclear power plant operating licenses take into account the fact that the design lifetime of the facilities is 40 years. The technological lifetime, however, is governed by actual ageing processes and operational burden. The service life of nuclear power plants can be extended by replacement of the steam generator and by repair or replacement of the reactor pressure vessel or parts thereof. Attention is also paid to the reactor protection systems. (J.B.). 8 figs

Life extension of the BR2 aluminium vessel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koonen, E.; Fabry, A.; Chaouadi, R.; Verwerft, M.; Raedt, C. de; Winckel, S. van; Wacquier, W.; Dadoumont, J.; Verwimp, A.

2000-01-01

The BR2 reactor has recently undergone a major refurbishment comprising the replacement of all vessel internals. The vessel itself however was not replaced. An important requalification programme has been executed to prove that the vessel would remain fit during the contemplated life extension period of BR2. Representative material samples could be obtained from the shroud surrounding the vessel. A comprehensive in-service inspection was carried out and a vessel surveillance programme has been established. (author)

Effect of the Length of Traffic Flow Records on the Estimate of a Bridge Service Life

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krejsa Jan

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The service life of bridges is significantly affected by fatigue of used material induced by heavy vehicles. Therefore, precise determination of the vehicle weight is of crucial importance for the calculation of fatigue damage and the prediction of the bridge serviceability. This paper investigates accuracy of the determination of fatigue depending on the length of traffic flow recording. The presented data were obtained from the measurements carried out on a bridge of the Prague Highway Ring. The analysis reveals that the optimal length of traffic recording is about 30 days.

Viscoelastic response of HTPB based solid fuel to horizontal and vertical storage slumping conditions and it's affect on service life

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nawaz, Q.; Nizam, F.

2011-01-01

Frequent use of solid fuels as thrust generating energy source in modern day space vehicle systems has created a need to assess their serviceability for long term storage under various conditions. Solid fuel grain, the most important part of any solid fuel system, responds visco elastically to any loading condition. For the assessment of the service life of any solid fuel system, the solid fuel grain has to be structurally evaluated in applied storage conditions. Structural integrity of the grain is exceptionally significant to guarantee the successful operation of the solid fuel system. In this work, numerical simulations have been performed to assess the mechanical stresses and strains induced in an HTPB based solid fuel grain during service life employing ABAQUS standard FEA software using 4-node bilinear quadrilateral elements. For finite element analysis (FEA), typical 2-D and p/nth axisymmetric section of 5-point (n) star grain geometry is considered. Mechanical loads include the horizontal or vertical 1-g (solid fuel weight) storage condition. The simulation results are compared with the analytical results for the same grain geometry. Analytically measured slump deflections in grain segment at various storage times have been found in good relation with the FEA based simulation results. This proves the validity of the procedure adopted and is helpful in assessment of the service life of solid fuel systems. (author)

An online method for lithium-ion battery remaining useful life estimation using importance sampling and neural networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Ji; Zhang, Chenbin; Chen, Zonghai

2016-01-01

Highlights: • An online RUL estimation method for lithium-ion battery is proposed. • RUL is described by the difference among battery terminal voltage curves. • A feed forward neural network is employed for RUL estimation. • Importance sampling is utilized to select feed forward neural network inputs. - Abstract: An accurate battery remaining useful life (RUL) estimation can facilitate the design of a reliable battery system as well as the safety and reliability of actual operation. A reasonable definition and an effective prediction algorithm are indispensable for the achievement of an accurate RUL estimation result. In this paper, the analysis of battery terminal voltage curves under different cycle numbers during charge process is utilized for RUL definition. Moreover, the relationship between RUL and charge curve is simulated by feed forward neural network (FFNN) for its simplicity and effectiveness. Considering the nonlinearity of lithium-ion charge curve, importance sampling (IS) is employed for FFNN input selection. Based on these results, an online approach using FFNN and IS is presented to estimate lithium-ion battery RUL in this paper. Experiments and numerical comparisons are conducted to validate the proposed method. The results show that the FFNN with IS is an accurate estimation method for actual operation.

Navigating the risks of prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV services in Kibera, Kenya: Barriers to engaging and remaining in care.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomson, Kerry A; Telfer, Barbara; Opondo Awiti, Patricia; Munge, Jane; Ngunga, Mathew; Reid, Anthony

2018-01-01

Within the first year of implementation, 43% of women who tested HIV positive at their first antenatal care visit were no longer retained and being followed in the free prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV program offered by the Kenyan Ministry of Health and Médecins Sans Frontières in the informal settlement of Kibera, Nairobi. This study aimed to explore barriers to enrolling and remaining engaged in PMTCT services throughout the pregnancy and postpartum periods. Qualitative data from 31 focus group discussions and 35 in-depth interviews across six stakeholder groups that included women, men, and PMTCT service providers were analyzed. Using an inductive exploratory approach, four researchers coded the data and identified key themes. Five themes emerged from the data that may influence attrition from PMTCT service in this setting: 1) HIV in the context of Kibera, 2) knowledge of HIV status, 3) knowledge of PMTCT, 4) disclosure of HIV status, and 5) male partner support for PMTCT services. A new HIV diagnosis during pregnancy immediately triggered an ongoing risk assessment of perceived hazards in the home, community, and clinic environments that could occur as a result of female participation in PMTCT services. Male partners were a major influence in this risk assessment, but were generally unaware of PMTCT services. To preserve relationships with male partners, meet community expectations of womanhood, and maintain confidentiality while following recommendations of healthcare providers, women had to continuously weigh the risks and benefits of PMTCT services and interventions. Community-based HIV testing and PMTCT education, male involvement in antenatal care, and counseling customized to assist each woman in her own unique risk assessment, may improve uptake of and retention in care and optimize the HIV prevention benefit of PMTCT interventions.

Internal curing as a new tool for infrastructural renewal : reducing repair congestion, increasing service life, and improving sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-04-01

Internal curing has recently been developed as a new concrete technology that has the potential to : dramatically extend the service life of concrete infrastructure elements like bridge decks. Internal curing : uses prewetted lightweight aggregate in...

Design and analysis of seals for extended service life

Science.gov (United States)

Bower, Mark V.

1992-01-01

Space Station Freedom is being developed for a service life of up to thirty years. As a consequence, the design requirements for the seals to be used are unprecedented. Full scale testing to assure the selected seals can satisfy the design requirements are not feasible. As an alternative, a sub-scale test program has been developed by MSFC to calibrate the analysis tools to be used to certify the proposed design. This research has been conducted in support of the MSFC Integrated Seal Test Program. The ultimate objective of this research is to correlate analysis and test results to qualify the analytical tools, which in turn, are to be used to qualify the flight hardware. This research is totally focused on O-rings that are compressed by perpendicular clamping forces. In this type of seal the O-ring is clamped between the sealing surfaces by loads perpendicular to the circular cross section.

Acceptance towards Goods and Services Tax (GST and Quality of Life: Antecedent and outcome using partial least square method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arlinah Abd Rashid

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The good and service tax (GST in Malaysia was implemented in 2015 as a tax reform program to generate a stable source of revenue. This study explores the respondents’ behaviour towards GST, a week post-implementation. The partial least square (PLS modelling was used to establish the relationship between acceptance, knowledge and feelings towards GST as well as the household quality of life. There is a positive relationship between the antecedents and the quality of life. Acceptance of GST exerts a significant relationship towards feelings and quality of life. The study concludes that Malaysians, in general, accept GST that ensures a better quality of life in the future.

Life Cycle Thinking and Integrated Product Deliveries in renovation projects: Extending the concept of Integrated Product Deliveries with Product Service Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schipull Kauschen, Jan

2012-01-01

on renovation projects from Denmark, using different forms of IPDs for façade renovation and discusses the different stakeholder’s perspectives on life cycle thinking and their interests and values regarding sustainable building. Furthermore is the concept of Product Service Systems (PSS) as a valuable...... IPDs with regard to longevity and adaptability. CONCLUSION The new type of service-focused IPD and the related life-cycle responsibility (development, building phase, maintenance and dismantling/adaption/recycling) creates incentive to integrate life cycle thinking into the development process of IPDs......, resulting in more sustainable building solutions with a greater extend of positive environmental, economical and social impacts. The research presented will also show the importance of adaption and configuration of these complex building components by architects and planners, as they will have a great...

Physical-chemical purification of power metal optics for increasing its service life

Science.gov (United States)

Filin, S. A.; Rogalin, V. E.; Kaplunov, I. A.; Zingerman, K. M.

2017-12-01

In order to increase the resource of power metal optics, the features of the choice of solvents for its physical and chemical cleaning are investigated. During cleaning, on the contaminated surface there remain visually observed white film of alkali and alkaline earth metal salts, insoluble by this class of solvents, and iridescent bands from the interaction of hydrocarbons with metal, and this degrades optical properties and reduces the life of mirrors. It is demonstrated that, with the use of solvents, it is necessary to inhibit the interaction of hydrocarbons with mirrors by the stabilization of solvents or by selection of cleaning regimes.

Influence of service life on Life Cycle Assessments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Nunen, H.; Hendriks, N.A.; Erkelens, P.A.

2003-01-01

Environmental assessment is part of present decision making. But, because of difficulties the assessments are not as profound as could be. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a cradle-to-grave approach and consequently a time factor is embedded. Until now this time factor is fixed and calculations are

Health-Related Quality of Life: Expanding a Conceptual Framework to Include Older Adults Who Receive Long-Term Services and Supports

Science.gov (United States)

Zubritsky, Cynthia; Abbott, Katherine M.; Hirschman, Karen B.; Bowles, Kathryn H.; Foust, Janice B.; Naylor, Mary D.

2013-01-01

For older adults receiving long-term services and supports (LTSS), health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has emerged as a critical construct to examine because of its focus on components of well-being, which are affected by progressive changes in health status, health care, and social support. HRQoL is a health-focused quality of life (QOL)…

Recruitment, soldiers and the experience of army life: compulsory military service in Peru and Colombia (1919-1933

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Camacho Arango

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The article studies different aspects of mandatory military service in Peru and Colombia from 1919 to 1933 including recruitment; the social, “racial”, and geographical origins of soldiers; and army life in both countries. Documents from military archives in the U.S. and France, as well as writings from Peruvian and Colombian commissioned and non-commissioned officers were the main sources used. The method is comparative and it shows clear features in common, including the scarcity of resources that affected all aspects of service.

ALIAS an innovative intranet-system for the remaining life analysis of systems and components; ALIAS - ein innovatives Intranet-System zur Restlebensdaueranalyse von Systemen und Bauteilen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jovanovic, A S; Schweikhard, T [Stuttgart Univ. (Germany). Staatliche Materialpruefungsanstalt; Balos, D [Stuttgart Univ. (Germany). Staatliche Materialpruefungsanstalt; [Grosskraftwerk Mannheim AG (Germany)

1998-11-01

The paper describes an innovative and advanced system for remaining life assessment of industrial high-temperature components developed at MPA Stuttgart, Germany and being currently introduced into the power plants in Germany and in several other countries. The system is a corporate memory system, essentially meaning that all the information/knowledge of a corporation (company, institute, etc.) should be maximally exploited in future activities of the company, with minimum changes in the existing structure of the data/information/knowledge already available. The system has two main aspects of practical implementation: (a) the organizational one, represented by MPA LifeTech, and (b) the software system one represented by the ``parent systems`` WISDOM and (WISDOM - WWW-based Intelligent System for Data and Documentation Management, ALIAS - The Advanced modular intelligent Life Assessment Software System). (orig.) [Deutsch] Das Papier beschreibt ein innovatives und fortschrittliches Softwaresystem, das an der MPA Stuttgart entwickelt wurde und bei mehreren europaeischen und deutschen Kraftwerksbetreibern eingefuehrt wird. Das Konzept beruht auf der Idee von s.g. corporate memory systems mit der Zielsetzung, die gesamte Bandbreite an Informationen und Wissen eines Unternehmens (Firma, Institution usw.) fuer dessen zukuenftige Aktivitaeten optimal zu nutzen. Die bestehende Struktur der bereits vorhandenen Daten sollte dabei nur geringfuegig geaendert werden muessen. Zur praktischen Durchfuehrung des Konzepts sind zwei Aspekte von Bedeutung: die Organisation (MPA LifeTech) und das Softwaresystem bzw. Systeme WISDOM und ALIAS (WISDOM - WWW-based Intelligent System for Data and Documentation Management, ALIAS - The Advanced modular Intelligent Life Assessment Software System). (orig.)

Quality of Life Outcomes in Community-based Mental Health Consumers: Comparisons with Population Norms and Changes over Time.

Science.gov (United States)

Happell, Brenda; Stanton, Robert; Hodgetts, Danya; Scott, David

2016-01-01

Quality of life is shown to be lower in people diagnosed with mental illness in comparison to the general population. The aim of this study is to examine the Quality of life in a subset of people accessing mental health services in a regional Queensland Centre. Thirty-seven people accessing mental health services completed the SF36 Health Survey on three occasions. Differences and relationships between Physical Composite Scores and Mental Composite Scores, comparisons with Australian population norms, and temporal change in Quality of Life were examined. Physical Composite Scores were significantly different to, but significantly correlated with, Mental Composite Scores on each occasion. Physical Composite Scores and Mental Composite Scores were significantly different to population norms, and did not vary significantly across time. The poor Quality of life of people with mental illness remains a significant challenge for the mental health workforce.

77 FR 37862 - Open-Circuit Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus Remaining Service-Life Indicator Performance...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-06-25

.... Executive Order 13211 (Actions Concerning Regulations That Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution... obstructive pulmonary disease, silicosis, neurological disorders, and cancer. Open-circuit self-contained... result in an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more. E. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of...

Accounting for ecosystem services in Life Cycle Assessment, Part II: toward an ecologically based LCA.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yi; Baral, Anil; Bakshi, Bhavik R

2010-04-01

Despite the essential role of ecosystem goods and services in sustaining all human activities, they are often ignored in engineering decision making, even in methods that are meant to encourage sustainability. For example, conventional Life Cycle Assessment focuses on the impact of emissions and consumption of some resources. While aggregation and interpretation methods are quite advanced for emissions, similar methods for resources have been lagging, and most ignore the role of nature. Such oversight may even result in perverse decisions that encourage reliance on deteriorating ecosystem services. This article presents a step toward including the direct and indirect role of ecosystems in LCA, and a hierarchical scheme to interpret their contribution. The resulting Ecologically Based LCA (Eco-LCA) includes a large number of provisioning, regulating, and supporting ecosystem services as inputs to a life cycle model at the process or economy scale. These resources are represented in diverse physical units and may be compared via their mass, fuel value, industrial cumulative exergy consumption, or ecological cumulative exergy consumption or by normalization with total consumption of each resource or their availability. Such results at a fine scale provide insight about relative resource use and the risk and vulnerability to the loss of specific resources. Aggregate indicators are also defined to obtain indices such as renewability, efficiency, and return on investment. An Eco-LCA model of the 1997 economy is developed and made available via the web (www.resilience.osu.edu/ecolca). An illustrative example comparing paper and plastic cups provides insight into the features of the proposed approach. The need for further work in bridging the gap between knowledge about ecosystem services and their direct and indirect role in supporting human activities is discussed as an important area for future work.

Fee-for-service cancer rehabilitation programs improve health-related quality of life.

Science.gov (United States)

Kirkham, A A; Neil-Sztramko, S E; Morgan, J; Hodson, S; Weller, S; McRae, T; Campbell, K L

2016-08-01

Rigorously applied exercise interventions undertaken in a research setting result in improved health-related quality of life (hrqol) in cancer survivors, but research to demonstrate effective translation of that research to practice is needed. The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of fee-for-service cancer rehabilitation programs in the community on hrqol and on self-reported physical activity and its correlates. After enrolment and 17 ± 4 weeks later, new clients (n = 48) to two fee-for-service cancer rehabilitation programs completed the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (rand-36: rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, U.S.A.), the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire, and questions about physical activity correlates. Normal fee-for-service operations were maintained, including a fitness assessment and individualized exercise programs supervised in a group or one-on-one setting, with no minimum attendance required. Fees were associated with the assessment and with each exercise session. Of the 48 participants, 36 (75%) completed both questionnaires. Improvements in the physical functioning, role physical, pain, and energy/fatigue scales on the rand-36 exceeded minimally important differences and were of a magnitude similar to improvements reported in structured, rigorously applied, and free research interventions. Self-reported levels of vigorous-intensity (p = 0.021), but not moderate-intensity (p = 0.831) physical activity increased. The number of perceived barriers to exercise (p = 0.035) and the prevalence of fatigue as a barrier (p = 0.003) decreased. Exercise self-efficacy improved only in participants who attended 11 or more sessions (p = 0.002). Exercise enjoyment did not change (p = 0.629). Enrolment in fee-for-service cancer rehabilitation programs results in meaningful improvements in hrqol comparable to those reported by research interventions, among other benefits. The fee-for-service model could be an effective model for

Analytical Method to Estimate Fatigue Life Time Duration in Service for Runner Blade Mechanism of Kaplan Turbines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana – Maria Budai

2010-10-01

Full Text Available The paper present an analytical method that can be used to determianted fatigue life time duration in service for runner blade mechanism of Kaplan turbines. The study was made for lever button of runer blade mechanism using two analytical relation to calculate the maximum number of stress cycles whereupon the mechanism work without any damage. To estimate fatigue life time duration will be used a formula obtained from one of most comon cumulative damage methodology taking in consideration the real exploatation conditions of a specified Kapaln turbine.

Durapgulf, a local service life model for the durability of concrete structures in the South of Iran

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shekarchi, M.; Ghods, P.; Alizadeh, R.; Chini, M.; Hoseini, M.

2008-01-01

Reinforced concrete structures were widely constructed in the south of Iran for the infrastructures of ports and oil exploration. Unfortunately, the deterioration of concrete structures in this marine area, which is mainly due to the chloride-induced corrosion of rebars in concrete, imposes hundreds of millions dollars of repair cost every year. During the last decades, extensive studies have been conducted to evaluate the effect of different parameters on chloride diffusion into concrete, corrosion initiation, and its propagation. In order to predict the time required for various steps of the corrosion phenomena, many numerical models have been developed. In this paper, development of Durapgulf (a service of life design model), which can predict the corrosion initiation of reinforced concrete (RC) structures in the south of Iran, is described and also the application of this model for service life design of RC structures is demonstrated in a hypothetical example and verified with other experimental results in this region. (author)

ICT services for active ageing and independent living: identification and assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Christophorou, Christophoros; Kleanthous, Styliani; Georgiadis, Dimosthenis; Cereghetti, Donato M; Andreou, Panayiotis; Wings, Cindy; Christodoulou, Eleni; Samaras, George

2016-09-01

Based on the demographic changes and the rapid increase of older population in Europe, major challenges are expected to rise, both in the economy as well as the society, whether the dominant care model for supporting elderly in living independently at home continues to rely on informal and formal caregivers' assistance. To respond to the above challenges, assistive technologies are called to develop Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services for supporting seniors to remain active and independent, for as long as possible, in their chosen home environment. The work described in this Letter is based on the Miraculous-Life project and it emphasises the identification and assessment of a set of services that an ICT system for Ageing Well should support, in an actual end-users setting. The outcome of this work may inform fellow researchers and other projects in the area of Ageing Well in: (i) understanding which ICT services can be the most valuable for end-users' Quality of Life, (ii) prioritising the development of related ICT services and (iii) facilitating better recourse allocation in order to reduce any risks associated to implementation failures of these services within their respective projects. A final trial phase is planned, aiming to validate the Miraculous Life prototype longitudinally in a naturalistic environment with a larger sample size. During this trial, it will be investigated if perceived usefulness, satisfaction and motivation could be predicted by sociodemographic variables and personality.

Overview of statistical methods, models and analysis for predicting equipment end of life

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2009-07-01

Utility equipment can be operated and maintained for many years following installation. However, as the equipment ages, utility operators must decide whether to extend the service life or replace the equipment. Condition assessment modelling is used by many utilities to determine the condition of equipment and to prioritize the maintenance or repair. Several factors are weighted and combined in assessment modelling, which gives a single index number to rate the equipment. There is speculation that this index alone may not be adequate for a business case to rework or replace an asset because it only ranks an asset into a particular category. For that reason, a new methodology was developed to determine the economic end of life of an asset. This paper described the different statistical methods available and their use in determining the remaining service life of electrical equipment. A newly developed Excel-based demonstration computer tool is also an integral part of the deliverables of this project.

Notch fatigue crack propagation - A consistent concept for calculating flawed service life

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dankert, M.

1999-01-01

The research report presents a consistent concept of elastic-plastic fatigue fracture mechanics, to be used for numerical description of crack initiation and propagation behaviour within and out of notched areas of circular notched specimens for Woehler tests, two-phase fatigue tests and tests under service conditions. It is shown that a fracture-mechanics approach yields results capable of describing the load history over the whole service life of a structural member. A J-integral-related crack propagation model is derived that takes into account the crack opening and closure behaviour. The model is based on specially developed formulas, algorithms and approximation formulas required for description of crack opening and closure behaviour as well as calculation of the stress intensity factor K and the J-integral of cracks at notches. The values relating to crack opening were compared with experimental data, and those describing the stress intensity factor K and the J-integrals with 2D and 3D elastic-plastic FE calculations. Good and very good agreement of results was achieved. (orig./CB) [de

Effect of Climate Change on Service Life of High Volume Fly Ash Concrete Subjected to Carbonation—A Korean Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ki-Bong Park

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The increase in CO2 concentrations and global warming will increase the carbonation depth of concrete. Furthermore, temperature rise will increase the rate of corrosion of steel rebar after carbonation. On the other hand, compared with normal concrete, high volume fly ash (HVFA concrete is more vulnerable to carbonation-induced corrosion. Carbonation durability design with climate change is crucial to the rational use of HVFA concrete. This study presents a probabilistic approach that predicts the service life of HVFA concrete structures subjected to carbonation-induced corrosion resulting from increasing CO2 concentrations and temperatures. First, in the corrosion initiation stage, a hydration-carbonation integration model is used to evaluate the contents of the carbonatable material, porosity, and carbonation depth of HVFA concrete. The Monte Carlo method is adopted to determine the probability of corrosion initiation. Second, in the corrosion propagation stage, an updated model is proposed to evaluate the rate of corrosion, degree of corrosion for cover cracking of concrete, and probability of corrosion cracking. Third, the whole service life is determined considering both corrosion initiation stage and corrosion propagation stage. The analysis results show that climate change creates a significant impact on the service life of durable concrete.

Transition from children's to adult services for young adults with life-limiting conditions: A realist review of the literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Kerr, Helen; Price, Jayne; Nicholl, Honor; O'Halloran, Peter

2017-11-01

Improvements in care and treatment have led to more young adults with life-limiting conditions living beyond childhood, which means they must make the transition from children's to adult services. This has proved a challenging process for both young adults and service providers, with complex transition interventions interacting in unpredictable ways with local contexts. To explain how intervention processes interact with contextual factors to help transition from children's to adult services for young adults with life-limiting conditions. Systematic realist review of the literature. Literature was sourced from four electronic databases: Embase, MEDLINE, Science Direct and Cochrane Library from January 1995 to April 2016. This was supplemented with a search in Google Scholar and articles sourced from reference lists of included papers. Data were extracted using an adapted standardised data extraction tool which included identifying information related to interventions, mechanisms, contextual influences and outcomes. Two reviewers assessed the relevance of papers based on the inclusion criteria. Methodological rigor was assessed using the relevant Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tools. 78 articles were included in the review. Six interventions were identified related to an effective transition to adult services. Contextual factors include the need for children's service providers to collaborate with adult service providers to prepare an environment with knowledgeable staff and adequate resources. Mechanisms triggered by the interventions include a sense of empowerment and agency amongst all stakeholders. Early planning, collaboration between children's and adult service providers, and a focus on increasing the young adults' confidence in decision-making and engaging with adult services, are vital to a successful transition. Interventions should be tailored to their context and focused not only on organisational procedures but on equipping young adults, parents

Effects of Crack and Climate Change on Service Life of Concrete Subjected to Carbonation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiao-Yong Wang

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Carbonation is among the primary reasons for the initiation of the corrosion of steel rebar in reinforced concrete (RC structures. Due to structural loading effects and environmental actions, inevitable cracks have frequently occurred in concrete structures since the early ages. Additionally, climate change, which entails increases in CO2 concentration and environmental temperature, will also accelerate the carbonation of concrete. This article presents an analytical way of predicting the service life of cracked concrete structures considering influences of carbonation and climate change. First, using a hydration model, the quantity of carbonatable materials and concrete porosity were calculated. Carbonation depth was evaluated considering properties of concrete materials and environmental conditions. Second, the influence of cracks on CO2 diffusivity was examined. Carbonation depth for cracked concrete was evaluated using equivalent CO2 diffusivity. The effects of climate change, for example, growing CO2 concentration and environmental temperature, were considered using different schemes of carbonation models. Third, different climate change scenarios (such as Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, RCP 8.5 and upper 90% confidence interval of RCP 8.5 and time slices (such as 2000 and 2050 were used for case studies. By utilizing the Monte Carlo method, the influences of various climate change scenarios on the service life loss of concrete structures were highlighted.

NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) Project Qualification Propellant Throughput Milestone: Performance, Erosion, and Thruster Service Life Prediction After 450 kg

Science.gov (United States)

Herman, Daniel A.

2010-01-01

The NASA s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) program is tasked with significantly improving and extending the capabilities of current state-of-the-art NSTAR thruster. The service life capability of the NEXT ion thruster is being assessed by thruster wear test and life-modeling of critical thruster components, such as the ion optics and cathodes. The NEXT Long-Duration Test (LDT) was initiated to validate and qualify the NEXT thruster propellant throughput capability. The NEXT thruster completed the primary goal of the LDT; namely to demonstrate the project qualification throughput of 450 kg by the end of calendar year 2009. The NEXT LDT has demonstrated 28,500 hr of operation and processed 466 kg of xenon throughput--more than double the throughput demonstrated by the NSTAR flight-spare. Thruster performance changes have been consistent with a priori predictions. Thruster erosion has been minimal and consistent with the thruster service life assessment, which predicts the first failure mode at greater than 750 kg throughput. The life-limiting failure mode for NEXT is predicted to be loss of structural integrity of the accelerator grid due to erosion by charge-exchange ions.

Comparing the Life Cycle Energy Consumption, Global Warming and Eutrophication Potentials of Several Water and Waste Service Options

Science.gov (United States)

Managing the water-energy-nutrient nexus for the built environment requires, in part, a full system analysis of energy consumption, global warming and eutrophication potentials of municipal water services. As an example, we evaluated the life cycle energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG...

Quality of working life and workload in home help services: a review of the literature and a proposal for a research model.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Arts, S.E.J.; Kerkstra, A.; Zee, J. van der; Huyer Abu-Saad, H.

2001-01-01

In this literature review, several models for quality of working life and workload appropriate for home help services are presented. The aim was to develop a model for assessing the psychological and physical outcomes of working in home help services. Although the models described in this review

Remaining life case history studies for high energy piping systems using equivalent stress

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cohn, M.J.

1987-01-01

As the development of plant life extension for high energy piping systems is progressing, conventional piping system design methodologies are also being reevaluated. Traditional guidelines such as American National Standard Institute/American Society of Mechanical Engineers B31.1 (ANSI/ASME) were developed for plants having design lives in the 25- to 30-year regime based upon relatively short-term base metal creep data. These guidelines use a simplified approach for the piping analysis. Two types of stress criteria must be satisfied. The first type is longitudinal plus torsion stress checks for several types of loading conditions versus the material allowable stresses. The second type is an independent minimum wall thickness check which considers the hoop stress versus the material allowable stress. Seven case histories have been evaluated to estimate the minimum piping system creep life based on the current ANSI/ASME B31.1 finite element type of analysis, which is a traditional approach, versus a multiaxial stress state type of analysis. In nearly every case, the equivalent stress methodology predicted significantly higher stresses. Consequently, the equivalent stress methodology resulted in 11 to 96% lower time to rupture values as compared to the values predicted using ANSI/ASME B31.1 stresses

NPP component maintenance and life management in Russia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tutnov, I.; Lyssakov, V.

2002-01-01

This report represents the conceptual strategies (ideas) on life management programs for nuclear power plants. Use of the optimum programs for NPP's NDE, maintenance service, operation and service life can provide the best economic benefit for the utilities. The paper presents general approaches to life management, maintenance service, and risks of operating and service life of NPPs in Russia. The report offers some optimized ways for the solution of these important tasks

Steam generator life management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

King, P.; McGillivray, R.; Reinhardt, W.; Millman, J.; King, B.; Schneider, W.

2003-01-01

'Full-Text:' Steam Generator Life Management responsibility embodies doing whatever is necessary to maintain the steam generation equipment of a nuclear plant in effective, reliable service. All comes together in that most critical deliverable, namely the submission of the documentation which wins approval for return to service after an outage program. Life management must address all aspects of SG reliability over the life of the plant. Nevertheless, the life management activities leading up to return to service approval is where all of it converges. Steam Generator Life Management activities entail four types of work, all equally important in supporting the objective of successful operation. These activities are i) engineering functions; including identification of inspection and maintenance requirements, outage planning and scope definition plus engineering assessment, design and analysis as necessary to support equipment operation, ii) fitness of service work; including the expert evaluation of degradation mechanisms, disposition of defects for return to service or not, and the fitness for service analysis as required to justify ongoing operation with acceptable defects, iii) inspection work; including large scale eddy current inspection of tubing, the definition of defect size and character, code inspections of pressure vessel integrity and visual inspections for integrity and iv) maintenance work; including repairs, retrofits, cleaning and modifications, all as necessary to implement the measures defined during activities i) through iii). The paper discusses the approach and execution of the program for the achievement of the above objectives and particularly of items i) and ii). (author)

Beyond Race and Gender: Motivating Enlisted Personnel to Remain in Today's Military

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Moore, Brenda

2001-01-01

... to remain in the military than do the race, gender, or racial climate variables. Satisfaction with pay and benefits has a significant positive effect on the likelihood that respondents will stay in the military, but pride in service is more robust...

Estimation of residual life of boiler tubes using steamside oxide scale thickness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vikrant, K.S.N.; Ramareddy, G.V.; Pavan, A.H.V.; Singh, Kulvir

2013-01-01

In thermal power plants, remaining-life-estimation of boiler tubes is required at regular intervals for a safer and a better functionality of boilers. In this paper, a new method is proposed for the residual life estimation of service exposed boiler tubes using Non-Destructive Ultrasonic Oxide scale thickness measurements, average metal temperature and creep master curve. While steady state conduction heat transfer equations are solved to calculate the average metal temperature, creep master curve is generated from short term stress rupture data of rupture life less than 5000 h on a virgin material. In the present study, the residual life of T22 (2.25Cr-1Mo) service exposed Platen Superheater tube is estimated using two master creep curves, i.e. Larson-Miller Parametric (LMP) method of standard ASME T22 creep data and Wilshire approach of short term stress rupture data of T22. As the residual life is calculated from fundamental conduction heat transfer theory and creep rupture data, the proposed method can be applied for different grades of boiler materials. -- Highlights: ► Residual life is calculated from non-destructive oxide scale thickness, creep master curve and average metal temperature. ► A new method is proposed for calculating residual life using above parameters and from conduction heat transfer principles. ► The method can be applied to different boiler grades for estimating residual life and hence the method is generic

Association between obesity, quality of life, physical activity and health service utilization in primary care patients with osteoarthritis.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rosemann, T.J.; Grol, R.P.T.M.; Herman, K.; Wensing, M.J.P.; Szecsenyi, J.

2008-01-01

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE: To assess the association of obesity with quality of life, health service utilization and physical activity in a large sample of primary care patients with osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: Data were retrieved from the PraxArt project, representing a cohort of 1021 primary care

Mechanical property tests in hot gas environment for evaluation of life expectancy of aero-engine turbine blades and for assessment of procedures for prolonging service life. Mechanische Pruefung unter Heissgasatmosphaere zur Ermittlung der Lebenserwartung von Fluggasturbinenschaufeln und zur Bewertung von Verfahren zur Lebensdauerverlaengerung

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peichl, L

1984-01-01

The aim of this programme was the determination and optimization of mechanical testing procedures in order to enable a service life prediction for turbine blades as well as to measure the life consumption of blades which have already been in service. Under these testing conditions procedures were to be investigated which lead to a prolongation of the service life of the blades. The results have shown that the rig test at constant values of load and temperature, which are typical for service conditions, is sufficient for the laboratory simulation. The life consumption of blades run in the engine can be determined by measuring the residual creep life in the rig test. Using the resulting data the life consumption of a particular blade run in the engine can be estimated by the non-destructive measurement of its elongation. The precision of residual life prediction is raised by respecting the master heat and porosity of the blades. From the investigation of high-temperature corrosion resistant coatings it follows that IN 100 can be protected against the attack of sea salt over its whole creep life by coating with a precious metal modified aluminide or by LPPS- or EB-PVD-MCrAlY-coatings. By aluminising, the cooling channels of turbine blades can be protected against oxidation over more than 700 h in the temperature/load cycling test. However, the coating technique used is only applicable under laboratory conditions. In contrary, internal coating by pulse aluminising, which is compatible to production conditions, showed less oxidation resistance.

Remaining Useful Life Estimation using Time Trajectory Tracking and Support Vector Machines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galar, D; Kumar, U; Lee, J; Zhao, W

2012-01-01

In this paper, a novel RUL prediction method inspired by feature maps and SVM classifiers is proposed. The historical instances of a system with life-time condition data are used to create a classification by SVM hyper planes. For a test instance of the same system, whose RUL is to be estimated, degradation speed is evaluated by computing the minimal distance defined based on the degradation trajectories, i.e. the approach of the system to the hyper plane that segregates good and bad condition data at different time horizon. Therefore, the final RUL of a specific component can be estimated and global RUL information can then be obtained by aggregating the multiple RUL estimations using a density estimation method.

Factors influencing the end of the service life of protective gloves used in car repair shops: a preliminary report.

Science.gov (United States)

Emilia, Irzmańska; Agnieszka, Stefko; Katarzyna, Dyńska-Kukulska

2015-01-01

The paper presents the results of an end-of-service-life study on 2 kinds of protective gloves designed for workplaces in which workers are exposed to mineral oils and mechanical factors. The authors developed their own end-of-service-life study method that takes into account factors occurring during real-life use of protective gloves. The examined gloves were subjected to mechanical, chemical, and physical factors. The objective of the study was to compare the protective in new gloves subjected to a laboratory simulation test and in gloves used at workplaces in car repair shops. A further goal was to design a glove assessment procedure that would ensure comprehensive analysis of the actual level of performance provided by gloves exposed to selected chemical and mechanical factors as well as subjected to the influence of temperature and humidity, mechanical damage, and chemical degradation of material. The results lead to the conclusion that simultaneous exposure of protective gloves to mechanical, chemical, and physical factors significantly decreases their performance levels. Furthermore, similar performance levels were obtained for gloves subjected to laboratory simulation tests and for those used in the workplace.

Population cycles: generalities, exceptions and remaining mysteries

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Population cycles are one of nature's great mysteries. For almost a hundred years, innumerable studies have probed the causes of cyclic dynamics in snowshoe hares, voles and lemmings, forest Lepidoptera and grouse. Even though cyclic species have very different life histories, similarities in mechanisms related to their dynamics are apparent. In addition to high reproductive rates and density-related mortality from predators, pathogens or parasitoids, other characteristics include transgenerational reduced reproduction and dispersal with increasing-peak densities, and genetic similarity among populations. Experiments to stop cyclic dynamics and comparisons of cyclic and noncyclic populations provide some understanding but both reproduction and mortality must be considered. What determines variation in amplitude and periodicity of population outbreaks remains a mystery. PMID:29563267

Proceedings of the topical meeting on nuclear power plant life extension

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1988-01-01

This book contains the proceedings of the topical meeting on nuclear power plant life extension. The sessions are organized under the following headings: Perspectives on nuclear power plant life extension, the potential for additional years of power production, NRC and industry life extension initiatives, concrete and structures degradation and evaluation of useful remaining life, plant life extension programs, Reactor pressure vessel and intervals degradation and evaluation of useful remaining life, life extension decision making issues and institutions, systems degradation and evaluation of remaining life, monitoring and repair, design records and maintenance activities for life extension, Mechanical and electrical component degradation and evaluation of remaining life, expert systems and other techniques for enhanced and continued operation, life extension aspect of codes, standards, and related technologies, piping and valve degradation and evaluation of useful remaining life

Ecosystem Services

Science.gov (United States)

Ecosystem goods and services are the many life-sustaining benefits we receive from nature and contribute to environmental and human health and well-being. Ecosystem-focused research will develop methods to measure ecosystem goods and services.

State of the Art in Life Assessment for High Temperature Components Using Replication Method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Duck Hee; Choi, Hyun Sun

2010-01-01

The power generation and chemical industry have been subjected to further material degradation with long term operations and need to predict the remaining service life of components, such as reformer tube and turbine rotor, that have operated at elevated temperatures. As a non-destructive technique, replication method with reliable metallurgical life and microstructural soundness assessment has been recognized with strongly useful method until now. Developments of this method have variously accomplished by new quantitative approach, such as carbide analysis, with A-parameter and grain deformation method. An overview of replication, some new techniques for material degradation and life assessment were introduced in this paper. Also, on-site applications and its reasonableness were described. As a result of having analyzed microstructure by replication method, carbide approach was quantitatively useful to life assessment

Mathematical modeling of the heat transfer for determining the depth of thawing basin buildings with long service life

Science.gov (United States)

Sirditov, Ivan; Stepanov, Sergei

2017-11-01

In this paper, a numerical study of the problem of determining a thawing basin in the permafrost soil for buildings with a long service life is carried out using two methods, with the formulas of set of rules 25.13330.2012 "Soil bases and foundations on permafrost soils" and using a mathematical model.

Advances in Modeling Concrete Service Life : Proceedings of 4th International RILEM PhD Workshop

CERN Document Server

Gulikers, Joost

2012-01-01

In this book, a critical analysis is made on service life models related to reinforcement corrosion. The contributors are on the frontier of knowledge in the field of durability of reinforced concrete. Topics covered in the book include: causes and mechanisms of deterioration, transport mechanisms in concrete, numerical modeling of concrete behavior, durability modeling and prediction, reliability approach to structural design for durability, structural behavior following degradation of concrete structures, deterioration and repair of concrete structures, and corrosion measurement techniques.

Feasibility of a rural palliative supportive service.

Science.gov (United States)

Pesut, B; Hooper, B P; Robinson, C A; Bottorff, J L; Sawatzky, R; Dalhuisen, M

2015-01-01

Healthcare models for the delivery of palliative care to rural populations encounter common challenges: service gaps, the cost of the service in relation to the population, sustainability, and difficulty in demonstrating improvements in outcomes. Although it is widely agreed that a community capacity-building approach to rural palliative care is essential, how that approach can be achieved, evaluated and sustained remains in question. The purpose of this community-based research project is to test the feasibility and identify potential outcomes of implementing a rural palliative supportive service (RPaSS) for older adults living with life-limiting chronic illness and their family caregiver in the community. This paper reports on the feasibility aspects of the study. RPaSS is being conducted in two co-located rural communities with populations of approximately 10 000 and no specialized palliative services. Participants living with life-limiting chronic illness and their family caregivers are visited bi-weekly in the home by a nurse coordinator who facilitates symptom management, teaching, referrals, psychosocial and spiritual support, advance care planning, community support for practical tasks, and telephone-based support for individuals who must commute outside of the rural community for care. Mixed-method collection strategies are used to collect data on visit patterns; healthcare utilization; family caregiver needs; and participant needs, functional performance and quality of life. A community-based advisory committee worked with the investigative team over a 1-year period to plan RPaSS, negotiating the best fit between research methods and the needs of the community. Recruitment took longer than anticipated with service capacity being reached at 8 months. Estimated service capacity of one nurse coordinator, based on bi-weekly visits, is 25 participants and their family caregivers. A total of 393 in-person visits and 53 telephone visits were conducted between

Northeast Inspection Services, Inc. boresonic inspection system evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nottingham, L.D.; Sabourin, P.F.; Presson, J.H.

1993-04-01

Turbine rotor reliability and remaining life assessment are continuing concerns to electric utilities. Over the years, boresonic inspection and evaluation have served as primary components in rotor remaining life assessment. Beginning with an evaluation of TREES by EPRI in 1982, a series of reports that document the detection and sizing capabilities of several boresonic systems have been made available. These studies should provide utilities with a better understanding of system performance and lead to improved reliability when predicting rotor remaining life. In 1990, the procedures followed for evaluating rotor boresonic performance capabilities were changed to transfer a greater portion of the data analysis function to the participating vendor. This change from previous policy was instituted so that the evaluation results would better reflect the ''final answer'' that a vendor would provide in a real rotor inspection and also to reduce the cost of an evaluation. Among the first vendors to participate in the new performance demonstration was Northeast Inspection Services, Inc. (NISI). The tests reported herein were conducted by NISI personnel under the guidelines of the new plan. Details of the new evaluation plan are also presented. Rotor bore blocks containing surface-connected fatigue cracks, embedded glass beads, and embedded radial-axial oriented disks were used in the evaluation. Data were collected during twenty-five independent passes through the blocks. The evaluation consisted of statistical characterization of the detection capabilities, flaw sizing and location accuracy, and repeatability of the inspection system. The results of the evaluation are included in this report

Specification of life cycle assessment in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abbaspour, M.; Kargari, N.; Mastouri, R.

2008-01-01

Life Cycle Assessment is an environmental management tool for assessing the environmental impacts of a product of a process. life cycle assessment involves the evaluation of environmental impacts through all stages of life cycle of a product or process. In other words life cycle assessment has a c radle to grave a pproach. Some results of life cycle assessment consist of pollution prevention, energy efficient system, material conservation, economic system and sustainable development. All power generation technologies affect the environment in one way or another. The main environmental impact does not always occur during operation of power plant. The life cycle assessment of nuclear power has entailed studying the entire fuel cycle from mine to deep repository, as well as the construction, operation and demolition of the power station. Nuclear power plays an important role in electricity production for several countries. even though the use of nuclear power remains controversial. But due to the shortage of fossil fuel energy resources many countries have started to try more alternation to their sources of energy production. A life cycle assessment could detect all environmental impacts of nuclear power from extracting resources, building facilities and transporting material through the final conversion to useful energy services

Feasibility of a UK community-based, eTherapy mental health service in Greater Manchester: repeated-measures and between-groups study of 'Living Life to the Full Interactive', 'Sleepio' and 'Breaking Free Online' at 'Self Help Services'.

Science.gov (United States)

Elison, Sarah; Ward, Jonathan; Williams, Chris; Espie, Colin; Davies, Glyn; Dugdale, Stephanie; Ragan, Kathryn; Chisnall, Leanne; Lidbetter, Nicky; Smith, Keith

2017-07-20

There is increasing evidence to support the effectiveness of eTherapies for mental health, although limited data have been reported from community-based services. Therefore, this service evaluation reports on feasibility and outcomes from an eTherapy mental health service. 'Self Help Services', an Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) eTherapy service in Greater Manchester. 1068 service users referred to the service for secondary care for their mental health difficulties. Participants were triaged into one of three eTherapy programmes: 'Living Life to the Full Interactive' for low mood, stress and anxiety; 'Sleepio' for insomnia; and 'Breaking Free Online' for substance misuse, depending on clinical need. Standardised psychometric assessments of depression, anxiety and social functioning, collected as part of the IAPT Minimum Data Set, were conducted at baseline and post-treatment. Data indicated baseline differences, with the Breaking Free Online group having higher scores for depression and anxiety than the Living Life to the Full Interactive (depression CI 1.27 to 3.21, pmental health scores were found within all three groups (all pmental health difficulties (pmental health difficulties and suggest that eTherapies may be a useful addition to treatment offering in community-based services. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Alcohol service provision for older people in an area experiencing high alcohol use and health inequalities.

Science.gov (United States)

McCabe, Karen E; Ling, Jonathan; Wilson, Graeme B; Crosland, Ann; Kaner, Eileen F S; Haighton, Catherine A

2016-03-01

UK society is ageing. Older people who drink alcohol, drink more than those from previous generations, drink more frequently than other age groups and are more likely to drink at home and alone. Alcohol problems in later life however are often under-detected and under-reported meaning older people experiencing alcohol problems have high levels of unmet need. This study sought to identify existing services within South of Tyne, North East England to capture the extent of service provision for older drinkers and identify any gaps. The Age UK definition of 'older people' (aged 50 and over) was used. Services were contacted by telephone, managers or their deputy took part in semi-structured interviews. Forty six service providers were identified. Only one provided a specific intervention for older drinkers. Others typically provided services for age 18+. Among providers, there was no definitive definition of an older person. Data collection procedures within many organisations did not enable them to confirm whether older people were accessing services. Where alcohol was used alongside other drugs, alcohol use could remain unrecorded. To enable alcohol services to meet the needs of older people, greater understanding is needed of the patterns of drinking in later life, the experiences of older people, the scale and scope of the issue and guidance as to the most appropriate action to take. An awareness of the issues related to alcohol use in later life also needs to be integrated into commissioning of other services that impact upon older people. © Royal Society for Public Health 2015.

Service Modeling for Service Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Shimomura, Yoshiki; Tomiyama, Tetsuo

Intensification of service and knowledge contents within product life cycles is considered crucial for dematerialization, in particular, to design optimal product-service systems from the viewpoint of environmentally conscious design and manufacturing in advanced post industrial societies. In addition to the environmental limitations, we are facing social limitations which include limitations of markets to accept increasing numbers of mass-produced artifacts and such environmental and social limitations are restraining economic growth. To attack and remove these problems, we need to reconsider the current mass production paradigm and to make products have more added values largely from knowledge and service contents to compensate volume reduction under the concept of dematerialization. Namely, dematerialization of products needs to enrich service contents. However, service was mainly discussed within marketing and has been mostly neglected within traditional engineering. Therefore, we need new engineering methods to look at services, rather than just functions, called "Service Engineering." To establish service engineering, this paper proposes a modeling technique of service.

Work-family conflict, health services and medication use among dual-income couples in Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Christiaens, Wendy; Bracke, Piet

2014-03-01

Combination pressure or work-life imbalance is linked to adverse health. However, it remains unclear how work-family conflict is related to healthcare utilisation. Does work-family conflict function as a barrier or as a facilitator in relation to the use of health services and prescription medication? Lack of time may prevent people from visiting a doctor when they feel unwell. However, combination pressure can also be expected to intensify the use of health services, as the need for a quick fix is prioritised. Further, do women and men differ in their susceptibility to medicalisation and time pressure resulting from work-life imbalance? This article investigates the use of health services and prescription medication of dual-income couples with children, based on data from 23 countries in the European Social Survey round 2 (N(women) = 3755; N(men) = 3142). It was found that medical services and prescription medications are used more frequently in dual-income couples experiencing work-to-family spillover, but for women only this is irrespective of their self-reported health. Family-to-work spillover does not result in increased health service or medication use for either men or women. While women opt for a medical response to work-life imbalance, men's reluctance to seek formal health support is confirmed. © 2013 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness © 2013 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness/John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Geriatric infrastructure, BRAC, and ecosystem service markets? End-of-life decisions for dams, roads, and offshore platforms (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Doyle, M. W.

2010-12-01

US infrastructure expanded dramatically in the mid-20th century, and now includes more than 79,000 dams, 15,000 miles of levees, 3.7 million miles of roads, 600,000 miles of sewer pipe, 500,000 onshore oil wells, and over 4,000 offshore oil platforms. Many structures have been in place for 50 years or more, and an increasing portion of national infrastructure is approaching or exceeding its originally intended design life. Bringing national infrastructure to acceptable levels would cost nearly 10% of the US annual GDP. Decommissioning infrastructure can decrease public spending and increase public safety while facilitating economic expansion and ecological restoration. While most infrastructure remains critical to the national economy, a substantial amount is obsolete or declining in importance. Over 11,000 dams are abandoned, and of nearly 400,000 miles of road on its lands, the U.S. Forest Service considers one-fourth non-essential and often non-functional. Removing obsolete infrastructure allows greater focus and funding on maintaining or improving infrastructure most critical to society. Moreover, a concerted program of infrastructure decommissioning promises significant long-term cost savings, and is a necessary step before more substantial, systematic changes are possible, like those needed to address the new energy sources and shifting climate. One key challenge for infrastructure reform is how to prioritize and implement such a widespread and politically-charged series of decisions. Two approaches are proposed for different scales. For small, private infrastructure, emerging state and federal ecosystem service markets can provide an economic impetus to push infrastructure removal. Ecosystem market mechanisms may also be most effective at identifying those projects with the greatest ecological bang for the buck. Examples where this approach has proved successful include dam removal for stream mitigation under the Clean Water Act, and levee decommissioning on

Service life prediction. Development of models for predicting the service life of power plant components subject to thermomechanical creep fatigue; Lebensdauervorhersage. Entwicklung von Modellen zur Lebensdauervorhersage von Kraftwerksbauteilen unter thermisch-mechanischer Kriechermuedungsbeanspruchung. Abschlussbericht

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cui, L.; Scholz, A. [Technische Univ. Darmstadt (Germany). Institut fuer Werkstoffkunde; Hartrott, P. von; Schlesinger, M. [Fraunhofer-Institut fuer Werkstoffmechanik (IWM), Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany)

2009-07-01

Extensive use is made of massive components of heat resistant and highly heat resistant materials in installations of the power and heating industry. These components are exposed to varying thermomechanical stress as a result of ramping-up and down processes. In this research project two computer-assisted methods of predicting service life until crack initiation were extended to include cases of thermomechanical multi-axis stress conducive to creep fatigue and of superposition of high-cycle stress on power plant components. Investigations were limited to rotor steel of type X12CrMoWVNbN10-1-1. Complex thermomechanical multi-axis experiments were performed on round, notched and cruciform test specimens of close-to-life dimensions in order to demonstrate by experiment the validity of these models. The results of these calculations showed an acceptable degree of agreement between experiment and simulation for both models. Calculations on earlier TMF experiments performed at IfW on hollow specimens of 1%CrMoNiV showed good predictability for both the SARA and the ThoMat programme. Calculations on experiments performed at MPA Stuttgart on model bodies consisting of the same 1%CrMoNiV showed a predictability of acceptable variability considering the complexity of the stresses involved. A further outcome of this project is that the use of SARA appears universally suitable for the construction of new plants and in the service area, while the use of ThoMat appears suited for detail optimisation in the development process.

LEVERAGING AGING MATERIALS DATA TO SUPPORT EXTENSION OF TRANSPORTATION SHIPPING PACKAGES SERVICE LIFE

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dunn, K. [Savannah River National Laboratory; Bellamy, S. [Savannah River National Laboratory; Daugherty, W. [Savannah River National Laboratory; Sindelar, R. [Savannah River National Laboratory; Skidmore, E. [Savannah River National Laboratory

2013-08-18

Nuclear material inventories are increasingly being transferred to interim storage locations where they may reside for extended periods of time. Use of a shipping package to store nuclear materials after the transfer has become more common for a variety of reasons. Shipping packages are robust and have a qualified pedigree for performance in normal operation and accident conditions but are only certified over an approved transportation window. The continued use of shipping packages to contain nuclear material during interim storage will result in reduced overall costs and reduced exposure to workers. However, the shipping package materials of construction must maintain integrity as specified by the safety basis of the storage facility throughout the storage period, which is typically well beyond the certified transportation window. In many ways, the certification processes required for interim storage of nuclear materials in shipping packages is similar to life extension programs required for dry cask storage systems for commercial nuclear fuels. The storage of spent nuclear fuel in dry cask storage systems is federally-regulated, and over 1500 individual dry casks have been in successful service up to 20 years in the US. The uncertainty in final disposition will likely require extended storage of this fuel well beyond initial license periods and perhaps multiple re-licenses may be needed. Thus, both the shipping packages and the dry cask storage systems require materials integrity assessments and assurance of continued satisfactory materials performance over times not considered in the original evaluation processes. Test programs for the shipping packages have been established to obtain aging data on materials of construction to demonstrate continued system integrity. The collective data may be coupled with similar data for the dry cask storage systems and used to support extending the service life of shipping packages in both transportation and storage.

Evaluating weather factors and material response during outdoor exposure to determine accelerated test protocols for predicting service life

Science.gov (United States)

R. Sam Williams; Steven Lacher; Corey Halpin; Christopher White

2005-01-01

To develop service life prediction methods for the study of sealants, a fully instrumented weather station was installed at an outdoor test site near Madison, WI. Temperature, relative humidiy, rainfall, ultraviolet (UV) radiation at 18 wavelengths, and wind speed and direction are being continuously measured and stored. The weather data can be integrated over time to...

Effectiveness of various public private partnership pavement rehabilitation treatments: A big data informatics survival analysis of pavement service life : final report.

Science.gov (United States)

2017-09-29

Past research efforts have used a wide variety of methodological approaches to analyze pavement performance indicators, pavement rehabilitation treatments, and pavement service life. Using big data informatics methods, the intent of this study is to ...

FAMILY-WORK CONFLICT AND LIFE SATISFACTION AMONG WORKERS OF ANKARA YOUTH SERVICES AND PROVINCIAL DIRECTORATE OF SPORTS ACCORDING TO DIFFERENT VARIABLES

OpenAIRE

Mustafa Önder; Burhan; Emrah

2016-01-01

In this study Work-Family Conflict, Family-Work Conflict and Life Satisfaction were carried out to indicate 329 staff’s relationship between each other, who work in Ankara Youth Services and Sports Province Management, by determining whether work-family conflict, family-work conflict and life satisfaction differientiate or not according to socio-demographic variables. According to obtained results, it was concluded that gender, age, having management position, number of children and duration ...

What are your priorities right now? Identifying service needs across recovery stages to inform service development.

Science.gov (United States)

Laudet, Alexandre B; White, William

2010-01-01

Substance use disorders (SUD) are, for many, chronic conditions that are typically associated with severe impairments in multiple areas of functioning. "Recovery" from SUD is, for most, a lengthy process; improvements in other areas of functioning do not necessarily follow the attainment of abstinence. The current SUD service model providing intense, short-term, symptom-focused services is ill-suited to address these issues. A recovery-oriented model of care is emerging, which provides coordinated recovery-support services using a chronic-care model of sustained recovery management. Information is needed about substance users' priorities, particularly persons in recovery who are not currently enrolled in treatment, to guide the development of recovery-oriented systems. As a first step in filling this gap, we present qualitative data on current life priorities among a sample of individuals that collectively represent successive recovery stages (N = 356). Findings suggest that many areas of functioning remain challenging long after abstinence is attained, most notably employment and education, family/social relations, and housing. Although the ranking of priorities changes somewhat across recovery stages, employment is consistently the second most important priority, behind working on one's recovery. Study limitations are noted, and the implications of findings for the development and evaluation of recovery-oriented services are discussed.

The EMBRACE web service collection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pettifer, S.; Ison, J.; Kalas, M.

2010-01-01

The EMBRACE (European Model for Bioinformatics Research and Community Education) web service collection is the culmination of a 5-year project that set out to investigate issues involved in developing and deploying web services for use in the life sciences. The project concluded that in order...... for web services to achieve widespread adoption, standards must be defined for the choice of web service technology, for semantically annotating both service function and the data exchanged, and a mechanism for discovering services must be provided. Building on this, the project developed: EDAM......, an ontology for describing life science web services; BioXSD, a schema for exchanging data between services; and a centralized registry (http://www.embraceregistry.net) that collects together around 1000 services developed by the consortium partners. This article presents the current status of the collection...

Health Care Service Needs and Correlates of Quality of Life: A Case Study of Elderly Chinese Immigrants in Canada

Science.gov (United States)

Chow, Henry P. H.

2012-01-01

This study explored the health care service needs and the major correlates of quality of life among 127 community-dwelling elderly Chinese immigrants in a western Canadian city. Participants were interviewed in their homes by trained, bilingual interviewers employing a structured questionnaire that covered a wide range of topics including health…

Service quality and clinical outcomes: an example from mental health rehabilitation services in England.

Science.gov (United States)

Killaspy, Helen; Marston, Louise; Omar, Rumana Z; Green, Nicholas; Harrison, Isobel; Lean, Melanie; Holloway, Frank; Craig, Tom; Leavey, Gerard; King, Michael

2013-01-01

Current health policy assumes better quality services lead to better outcomes. To investigate the relationship between quality of mental health rehabilitation services in England, local deprivation, service user characteristics and clinical outcomes. Standardised tools were used to assess the quality of mental health rehabilitation units and service users' autonomy, quality of life, experiences of care and ratings of the therapeutic milieu. Multiple level modelling investigated relationships between service quality, service user characteristics and outcomes. A total of 52/60 (87%) National Health Service trusts participated, comprising 133 units and 739 service users. All aspects of service quality were positively associated with service users' autonomy, experiences of care and therapeutic milieu, but there was no association with quality of life. Quality of care is linked to better clinical outcomes in people with complex and longer-term mental health problems. Thus, investing in quality is likely to show real clinical gains.

Satellite lithium-ion battery remaining useful life estimation with an iterative updated RVM fused with the KF algorithm

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Yuchen SONG; Datong LIU; Yandong HOU; Jinxiang YU; Yu PENG

2018-01-01

Lithium-ion batteries have become the third-generation space batteries and are widely utilized in a series of spacecraft. Remaining Useful Life (RUL) estimation is essential to a spacecraft as the battery is a critical part and determines the lifetime and reliability. The Relevance Vector Machine (RVM) is a data-driven algorithm used to estimate a battery's RUL due to its sparse fea-ture and uncertainty management capability. Especially, some of the regressive cases indicate that the RVM can obtain a better short-term prediction performance rather than long-term prediction. As a nonlinear kernel learning algorithm, the coefficient matrix and relevance vectors are fixed once the RVM training is conducted. Moreover, the RVM can be simply influenced by the noise with the training data. Thus, this work proposes an iterative updated approach to improve the long-term prediction performance for a battery's RUL prediction. Firstly, when a new estimator is output by the RVM, the Kalman filter is applied to optimize this estimator with a physical degradation model. Then, this optimized estimator is added into the training set as an on-line sample, the RVM model is re-trained, and the coefficient matrix and relevance vectors can be dynamically adjusted to make next iterative prediction. Experimental results with a commercial battery test data set and a satellite battery data set both indicate that the proposed method can achieve a better per-formance for RUL estimation.

Satellite lithium-ion battery remaining useful life estimation with an iterative updated RVM fused with the KF algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuchen SONG

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Lithium-ion batteries have become the third-generation space batteries and are widely utilized in a series of spacecraft. Remaining Useful Life (RUL estimation is essential to a spacecraft as the battery is a critical part and determines the lifetime and reliability. The Relevance Vector Machine (RVM is a data-driven algorithm used to estimate a battery’s RUL due to its sparse feature and uncertainty management capability. Especially, some of the regressive cases indicate that the RVM can obtain a better short-term prediction performance rather than long-term prediction. As a nonlinear kernel learning algorithm, the coefficient matrix and relevance vectors are fixed once the RVM training is conducted. Moreover, the RVM can be simply influenced by the noise with the training data. Thus, this work proposes an iterative updated approach to improve the long-term prediction performance for a battery’s RUL prediction. Firstly, when a new estimator is output by the RVM, the Kalman filter is applied to optimize this estimator with a physical degradation model. Then, this optimized estimator is added into the training set as an on-line sample, the RVM model is re-trained, and the coefficient matrix and relevance vectors can be dynamically adjusted to make next iterative prediction. Experimental results with a commercial battery test data set and a satellite battery data set both indicate that the proposed method can achieve a better performance for RUL estimation.

What works in 'real life' to facilitate home deaths and fewer hospital admissions for those at end of life?: results from a realist evaluation of new palliative care services in two English counties.

Science.gov (United States)

Wye, Lesley; Lasseter, Gemma; Percival, John; Duncan, Lorna; Simmonds, Bethany; Purdy, Sarah

2014-01-01

WE EVALUATED END OF LIFE CARE SERVICES IN TWO ENGLISH COUNTIES INCLUDING: coordination centres, telephone advice line, 'Discharge in Reach' nurses, a specialist community personal care team and community nurse educators. Elsewhere, we published findings detailing high family carer satisfaction and fewer hospital admissions, Accident and Emergency attendances and hospital deaths for service users compared to controls. The aim of this paper is to discuss what contributed to those outcomes. Using realist evaluation, data collection included documentation (e.g. referral databases), 15 observations of services and interviews with 43 family carers and 105 professionals. Data were analysed using framework analysis, applying realist evaluation concepts. Findings were discussed at successive team meetings and further data was collected until team consensus was reached. Services 'worked' primarily for those with cancer with 'fast track' funding who were close to death. Factors contributing to success included services staffed with experienced palliative care professionals with dedicated (and sufficient) time for difficult conversations with family carers, patients and/or clinical colleagues about death and the practicalities of caring for the dying. Using their formal and informal knowledge of the local healthcare system, they accessed community resources to support homecare and delivered excellent services. This engendered confidence and reassurance for staff, family carers and patients, possibly contributing to less hospital admissions and A&E attendances and more home deaths. With demand for 24-hour end of life care growing and care provision fragmented across health and social care boundaries, services like these that cut across organisational sectors may become more important. They offer an overview to help navigate those desiring a home death through the system.

Wind turbine blade life-time assessment model for preventive planning of operation and maintenance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Florian, Mihai; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

2014-01-01

Out of the total wind turbine failure events, blade damage accounts for a substantial part, with some studies estimating it at around 23%. Current operation and maintenance (O&M) practices typically make use of corrective type maintenance as the basic approach, implying high costs for repair...... of information on the blades structural health to the decision maker. Further, inspections of the blades are often performed in connection with service. In light of the obtained information, a preventive type of maintenance becomes feasible, with the potential of predicting the blades remaining life to support O......&M decisions for avoiding major failure events. The present paper presents a fracture mechanics based model for estimating the remaining life of a wind turbine blade, focusing on the crack propagation in the blades adhesive joints. A generic crack propagation model is built in Matlab based on a Paris law...

Wind Turbine Blade Life-Time Assessment Model for Preventive Planning of Operation and Maintenance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Florian, Mihai; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

2015-01-01

Out of the total wind turbine failure events, blade damage accounts for a substantial part, with some studies estimating it at around 23%. Current operation and maintenance (O&M) practices typically make use of corrective type maintenance as the basic approach, implying high costs for repair...... of information on the blades structural health to the decision maker. Further, inspections of the blades are often performed in connection with service. In light of the obtained information, a preventive type of maintenance becomes feasible, with the potential of predicting the blades remaining life to support O......&M decisions for avoiding major failure events. The present paper presents a fracture mechanics based model for estimating the remaining life of a wind turbine blade, focusing on the crack propagation in the blades adhesive joints. A generic crack propagation model is built in Matlab based on a Paris law...

Life management of SG for WWER plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trunov, N. B.; Dragunov, Yu. G.; Banyuk, G. F.

2004-01-01

Nowadays, 252 steam generators (SG) of horizontal type are in operation at WWER plants constructed by the Russian designs. In connection with end of the specified service life of the reactor plant equal to 30 years the activities are performed on service life extension of the main equipment including the SG. At some Units, throughout the design service life of SG there were problems resulting in necessity of SG replacement. At the same time the SGs at some Units are in successful operation above the design service life. This report deals with the peculiarities of operation of the horizontal SGs and the problems to be highlighted as the most important for service life extension. The main component to determine possibility for SG service life extension is the SG tubing. As the operating experience shows it is water chemistry of the secondary circuit that is the main factor influencing operability of the SG tubing. Therefore, differences in water chemistry organization leads to significant differences in operability of the SG tubing at various Units and in some cases within one Unit. Owing to the fact that the cases of water chemistry disturbance and the process of tubes fouling with the corrosion products of the main condensate system are not excluded, the damages continue to occur. Tube integrity shall be inspected by eddy current method using the various instrument complexes. This method has certain disadvantages but allows to estimate the degree and direction of degradation processes. The results of eddy current test (ECT) can be used to determine the plugging criterion for defective tubes. The significant number of defective tubes at some Units makes a choice of the plugging criterion to be an important problem, on which solution the SG safety, reliability and service life depends. The report deals with directions of activities in service life management for the SG at WWER plants. Main activities are improvement of water chemistry and non-destructive tests.(author)

A Numerical Model for Estimation of Service Life of Tribological Systems of the Piston Engine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Gavrilov

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This article describes, develops and applies approach of the interaction of rough surfaces for one of the tasks of simulation of tribological systems of the piston engine. In this paper we described the general approach to building a model of interaction between rough surfaces, leading to the analysis of the Markov process. Given the initial data and the method of calculating the trajectory of movable elements on the lubricating layer, we determined the tribological parameters defining the service life of tribological systems of the piston engine on the example of crankshaft bearings.

Life estimation I and C cable insulation materials based on accelerated life testing accelerated life testing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santhosh, T.V.; Ramteke, P.K.; Shrestha, N.B.; Ahirwar, A.K.; Gopika, V.

2016-01-01

Accelerated Iife tests are becoming increasingly popular in today's industry due to the need for obtaining life data quickly and reliably. Life testing of products under higher stress levels without introducing additional failure modes can provide significant savings of both time and money. Correct analysis of data gathered via such accelerated life testing will yield parameters and other information for the product's life under use stress conditions. To be of practical use in assessing the operational behaviour of cables in NPPs, laboratory ageing aims to mimic the type of degradation observed under operational conditions. Conditions of testing therefore need to be carefully chosen to ensure that the degradation mechanism occurring in the accelerated tests are similar to those which occur in service. This paper presents the results of an investigation in which the elongation-at-break (EAB) measurements were carried on a typical control cable to predict the mean life at service conditions. A low voltage polyvinyl chloride (PVC) insulated and PVC sheathed control cable, used in NPP instrumentation and control (I and C) applications, was subjected thermal ageing at three elevated temperatures

On the application of thermodynamics of corrosion for service life design of concrete structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Küter, Andre; Geiker, Mette Rica; Møller, Per

2010-01-01

There are unexploited possibilities in the application of thermodynamics of corrosion for service life design (SLD) of concrete structures. Thermodynamics provides means for insightful descriptions of corrosion mechanisms and of corrosion protection mechanisms. Strategies for corrosion protection...... of the application of thermodynamics for SLD and gives examples of two applications: description of corrosion processes and design of countermeasures. Emphasis is set on chloride induced corrosion....... can be based on thermodynamically consistent corrosion mechanisms and evaluation of existing and design of new countermeasures can be performed using thermodynamics. Similarly, materials concepts for embedded electrodes can be designed using thermodynamics. The present paper provides a brief outline...

Service Life Prediction of Wood Claddings by in-situ Measurement of Wood Moisture Content

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Engelund, Emil Tang; Lindegaard, Berit; Morsing, Niels

2009-01-01

of wood moisture are done by in-situ resistance moisture meters (Lindegaard and Morsing 2006). The aim is that the test should form the basis of evaluation of the maintenance requirements and the prediction of service life of the surface treatment and the wood/construction. At the moment 60 test racks...... are exposed. This study examines the data from the first five years of outdoor exposure using data from a test rack with a water-borne acrylic coating and a test rack with ICP coating for case studies. The moisture content data was converted into weekly average and weekly variation values which gave a deeper...

Assessment of the potential for exploitation of the remaining reserves of coal in Poland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wodarski, K.; Bijanska, J.

2014-01-01

In mining areas belonging to the Polish mining companies, there is a significant amount of coal, contained in remaining reserves, that have not been exploited so far. For years, the mines have been evaluating the possibility of its exploitation, since it would expand its resource base and would extend its useful life. In addition, exploitation of the remaining reserves can minimize stress concentration zones in the soil, the rebel y improving conditions for maintenance of excavations and limiting the risk of shock rock. (Author)

Work–Life Interventions

OpenAIRE

He Lu Calvin Ong; Senthu Jeyaraj

2014-01-01

Despite disparities in the conceptualization of work–life balance (WLB) and work–life harmony (WLH) in the literature, there remains no evidence till date to validate these differences. Furthermore, there are currently no insights that shed light on the relationship between work–life initiatives and key business strategies of contemporary organizations. Hence, the current study investigated the differences between the ...

Trends in health surveillance and joint service delivery for pastoralists in West and Central Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Abakar, M F; Schelling, E; Béchir, M; Ngandolo, B N; Pfister, K; Alfaroukh, I O; Hassane, H M; Zinsstag, J

2016-11-01

In most sub-Saharan African countries, pastoralism represents an important economic resource and contributes significantly to national growth; however, challenges remain, particularly in providing social services to pastoralists (especially health and education) and in avoiding conflict with local sedentary communities and local authorities. All of this takes place while pastoralists try to maintain their mobile lifestyle within a rapidly changing ecosystem. Transdisciplinary approaches, such as 'One Health', which covers both human and animal health, have proven effective in delivering services and reaching mobile pastoralists in remote areas. The pastoralist way of life could be described as being linked to both their livestock and their environment, which makes social science an important element when researching the delivery and adaptation of social services to pastoralists. Early or pre-diagnostic detection of emerging and endemic infectious disease remains a vital aspect of health surveillance targeted at preventing further transmission and spread. Community-based syndromic surveillance, coupled with visual mobile phone technology, adapted to the high levels of illiteracy among nomads, could offer an alternative to existing health surveillance systems. Such an approach could contribute to accelerated reporting, which could in turn lead to targeted intervention among mobile pastoralists in sub-Saharan Africa. Although considerable efforts have been made towards integrating mobile pastoralists into social services, obstacles remain to the adoption of a clear, specific and sustainable policy on pastoralism in sub-Saharan Africa.

Organizational performance focused on users' quality of life: The role of service climate and "contribution-to-others" wellbeing beliefs.

Science.gov (United States)

Pătraș, Luminița; Martínez-Tur, Vicente; Estreder, Yolanda; Gracia, Esther; Moliner, Carolina; Peiró, José María

2018-06-01

The investigation of organizational factors as precursors of the quality of life (QoL) of service users in organizations for individuals with intellectual disability has been relatively neglected.With this in mind, this study tests the mediation of service climate between employee's "contribution-to-others" wellbeing beliefs (COWBs) and organizational performance focused on the QoL of individuals with intellectual disability. A total of 104 organizations participated in the study. Data were collected from 885 employees and 809 family members of individuals with intellectual disability. The results of the multilevel mediation model supported the hypotheses. When employees believe that their own wellbeing depends on helping others (COWBs) service climate reported by employees is stimulated. Service climate in turn was associated with organizational performance focused on QoL of people with intellectual disability, assessed by family members. The manuscript concludes with theoretical and practical implications of the study. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Control of the Onboard Microgravity Environment and Extension of the Service Life of the Long-Term Space Station

Science.gov (United States)

Titov, V. A.

2018-03-01

The problem of control of the on-board microgravity environment in order to extend the service life of the long-term space station has been discussed. Software developed for the ISS and the results of identifying dynamic models and external impacts based on telemetry data have been presented. Proposals for controlling the onboard microgravity environment for future long-term space stations have been formulated.

Athletes Off the Field: A Model for Team Building and Leadership Development through Service Learning. Linking Learning with Life.

Science.gov (United States)

Haughey, Laurie

This booklet provides step-by-step guidelines for developing a leadership-through-service-learning component for a school athletic team. It is based on a program called LIFE LINE (Leaders in Football and Education) founded in 1996 as a peer leadership group that would increase team unity and success both on and off the field. The guide summarizes…

Organisation of services for managing ADHD.

Science.gov (United States)

Coghill, D R

2017-10-01

There is considerable variation in practice, both between and with different countries in the management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Whilst there is no one optimal model of service organisation there are general principles of care that can be introduced to reduce this variability. There are frequent debates and discussions about which professional group is best placed to manage ADHD at different points in the life cycle. Who delivers care is however less important than ensuring that training schemes provide adequate exposure, training and experience to both the core and non-core skills required to provide a comprehensive package of care. Most evidence-based guidelines recommend a multi-modal, multi-professional and multi-agency approach. Many also promote the use of both stepped care and shared care approaches for the management of ADHD. As most of those with ADHD continue to have ADHD-related problems into adulthood, it is important to consider how best to transition care into adulthood and think about who should deliver care to adults with ADHD. Young people with ADHD should generally be transferred to adult mental health services if they continue to have significant symptoms of ADHD or other coexisting conditions that require treatment. Unfortunately services for adults with ADHD remain relatively scarce across much of the world and some adult psychiatrists remain unsure of the diagnosis and uncertain about the appropriate use of ADHD medications in adults, but there is a strong case for increased services for adults. ADHD is on the one hand easy to treat; it is much more difficult to treat well. Although optimised care for ADHD requires routine measurement of outcomes, this often does not happen in routine clinical practice. Focusing on optimising symptoms and minimising adverse effects can significantly improve both short- and long-term outcomes.

Semiempirical Methodology for Estimating the Service Life of Concrete Deck Panels Strengthened with Fiber-Reinforced Polymer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eon-Kyoung Kim

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Deterioration of concrete bridge decks affects their durability, safety, and function. It is therefore necessary to conduct structural rehabilitation of damaged concrete decks by strengthening them with fiber-reinforced polymer. Of the recent studies on the strengthened structures, most have focused on static behavior; only a few studies have investigated fatigue behavior. Accurate analysis of fatigue in concrete deck performance requires a more realistic simulated moving load. This study developed a theoretical live-load model to reflect the effect of moving vehicle loads, based on a statistical approach to the measurement of real traffic loads over various time periods in Korea. It assessed the fatigue life and strengthening effect of bridge decks strengthened with either carbon fiber sheets or grid carbon fiber polymer plastic using probabilistic and reliability analyses. It used extrapolations and simulations to derive maximum load effects for time periods ranging from 1 day to 75 years. Limited fatigue tests were conducted and probabilistic and reliability analyses were carried out on the strengthened concrete bridge deck specimens to predict the extended fatigue life. Analysis results indicated that strengthened concrete decks provide sufficient resistance against increasing truck loads during the service life of a bridge.

Collaborative Business Services Provision

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Camarinha-Matos, L.M.; Afsarmanesh, H.; Oliveira, A.I.; Ferrada, F.; Hammoudi, S.; Maciaszek, L.A.; Cordeiro, J.; Dietz, J.L.G.

2013-01-01

The association of services to manufactured products, leading to service-enhanced products, is an important mechanism for value creation and differentiation. This is particularly relevant in the case of complex, highly customized and long-life products. Suitable servicing in this context typically

Variation in Older Adult Characteristics by Residence Type and Use of Home- and Community-Based Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heidi H. Ewen

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Background: The majority of older adults prefer to remain in their homes, or to “age-in-place.” To accomplish this goal, many older adults will rely upon home- and community-based services (HCBS for support. However, the availability and accessibility of HCBS may differ based on whether the older adult lives in the community or in a senior housing apartment facility. Methods: This paper reports findings from the Pathways to Life Quality study of residential change and stability among seniors in upstate New York. Data were analyzed from 663 older adults living in one of three housing types: service-rich facilities, service-poor facilities, and community-dwelling in single-family homes. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to examine factors associated with residence type. A linear regression model was fitted to examine factors associated with HCBS utilization. Results: When compared to community-dwelling older adults, those residing in service-rich and service-poor facilities were more likely to be older, report more activity limitations, and provide less instrumental assistance to others. Those in service-poor facilities were more likely to have poorer mental health and lower perceived purpose in life. The three leading HCBS utilized were senior centers (20%, homemaker services (19%, and transportation services (18%. More HCBS utilization was associated with participants who resided in service-poor housing, were older, were female, and had more activity limitations. More HCBS utilization was also associated with those who received instrumental support, had higher perceived purpose in life, and poorer mental health. Conclusions: Findings suggest that older adults’ residential environment is associated with their health status and HCBS utilization. Building upon the Person–Environment Fit theories, dedicated efforts are needed to introduce and expand upon existing HCBS available to facility residents to address physical and

Variation in Older Adult Characteristics by Residence Type and Use of Home- and Community-Based Services

Science.gov (United States)

Ewen, Heidi H.; Washington, Tiffany R.; Emerson, Kerstin G.; Carswell, Andrew T.; Smith, Matthew Lee

2017-01-01

Background: The majority of older adults prefer to remain in their homes, or to “age-in-place.” To accomplish this goal, many older adults will rely upon home- and community-based services (HCBS) for support. However, the availability and accessibility of HCBS may differ based on whether the older adult lives in the community or in a senior housing apartment facility. Methods: This paper reports findings from the Pathways to Life Quality study of residential change and stability among seniors in upstate New York. Data were analyzed from 663 older adults living in one of three housing types: service-rich facilities, service-poor facilities, and community-dwelling in single-family homes. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to examine factors associated with residence type. A linear regression model was fitted to examine factors associated with HCBS utilization. Results: When compared to community-dwelling older adults, those residing in service-rich and service-poor facilities were more likely to be older, report more activity limitations, and provide less instrumental assistance to others. Those in service-poor facilities were more likely to have poorer mental health and lower perceived purpose in life. The three leading HCBS utilized were senior centers (20%), homemaker services (19%), and transportation services (18%). More HCBS utilization was associated with participants who resided in service-poor housing, were older, were female, and had more activity limitations. More HCBS utilization was also associated with those who received instrumental support, had higher perceived purpose in life, and poorer mental health. Conclusions: Findings suggest that older adults’ residential environment is associated with their health status and HCBS utilization. Building upon the Person–Environment Fit theories, dedicated efforts are needed to introduce and expand upon existing HCBS available to facility residents to address physical and mental health needs

Service-life prediction of reinforced concrete structures in subsurface environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kwon, Ki Jung; Jung, Hae Ryong; Park, Joo Wan [Korea Radioactive Waste Agency, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-03-15

This paper focuses on the estimation of durability and service-life of reinforced concrete structures in Wolsong Low- and intermediate-level wastes Disposal Center (WLDC) in Korea. There are six disposal silos located in the saturated environment. The silo concrete is degraded due to reactions with groundwater and chemical attacks, and finally it will lose its properties as a transport barrier. The infiltration of sulfate and magnesium, leaching of potassium hydroxide, and chlorine induced corrosion are the most significant factors for degradation of reinforced concrete structure in underground environment. From the result of evaluation of the degradation time for each factor, the degradation rate of the reinforced concrete due to sulfate and magnesium is 1.308×10{sup -3} cm/yr, and it is estimated to take 48,000 years for full degradation while potassium hydroxide is leached in depth of less than 1.5 cm at 1,000 years after the initiation of degradation. In case of chlorine induced corrosion, it takes 1,648 years to initiate corrosion in the main reinforced bar and 2,288 years to reach the lifetime limit of the structural integrity, and thus it is evaluated as the most significant factor.

The Relationship of Perceptions of Service and Support Adequacy to Family Quality of Life for Families of Children with Deafblindness

Science.gov (United States)

Kyzar, Kathleen

2010-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between families' perceptions of supports and services and family quality of life (FQOL) for families of children with deafblindness, and the potential of satisfaction with family-professional partnerships and child age as moderators of this relationship. The study was guided by the Unified Theory of Family…

Life cycle management of service water systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Egan, Geoffrey R.; Besuner, Philip M.; Mahajan, Sat P.

2004-01-01

As nuclear plants age, more attention must focus on age and time dependent degradation mechanisms such as corrosion, erosion, fatigue, etc. These degradation mechanisms can best be managed by developing a life cycle management plan which integrates past historical data, current conditions and future performance needs. In this paper we present two examples of life cycle management. In the first example, the 20-year maintenance history of a sea water cooling system (cement-lined, cast iron) is reviewed to develop attributes like maintenance cost, spare part inventory, corrosion, and repair data. Based on this information, the future expected damage rate was forecast. The cost of managing the future damage was compared with the cost to replace (in kind and with upgraded materials. A decision optimization scheme was developed to choose the least cost option from: a) Run as-is and repair; b) replace in kind; or c) replace with upgraded material and better design. In the second example, life cycle management techniques were developed for a ceilcote lined steel pipe cooling water system. Screens (fixed and traveling), filters, pumps, motors, valves, and piping were evaluated. (author)

Plant Betterment as Anticipated Measure For Plant Life Management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Louvat, J. P.

1991-01-01

A lot of modifications have been made since critically on each of the 28 standardized 900 MW class PWR units in France. Most of this technical upgrading was accomplished to facilitate operation, improve availability, or bring the unit design in line with evolving regulatory requirements, but a substantial part of the modifications was dedicated to Plant Life Management. As part of the program launched by EDF for plant life management, this paper introduces the Frustum's contribution for plant betterment and enhancement of reactor operation concurrently to ensure or extend plant service life. The solutions contemplated in this field are provided to reduce the frequency of unexpected reactor trip occurrences, to mitigate their negative effects or to smooth off the reactor operation and thus the magnitude of associated transients. The lifetime evaluation of NPP is basically an economical exercise, which tries to determine how long the operation of the plant will remain competitive, taking into account the long term perspective maintenance costs. There cannot be any conflict between lifetime and safety considerations, based upon the pituitary requisite that the safety requirement must be met at any time of the operation. Plant life management needs a consistent approach that can not be improvised on a case by case basis. Instead, it must be kept in mind from the very beginning of unit operation. This is the sense of the backfitting and technical upgrading carried out in France for the PWRs of the 900 MW class. It is thanks to this necessary anticipation that plant life will be actually managed, giving benefit both from the standpoint of availability and from that of the service lives of sensitive components. Substantial savings will thus be obtained

On the value of SHM in the context of service life integrity management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qin, Jianjun; Thöns, Sebastian; Faber, Michael Havbro

2015-01-01

This paper addresses the optimization of structural health monitoring(SHM) before its implementation on the basis of its Value of Information (VoI). The approach for the quantification of the value of SHM builds upon a service life cost assessment and generic structural performance model...... in conjunction with the observation, i.e. monitoring, of deterioration increments. The structural performance is described with a generic deterioration model to be calibrated to the relevant structural deterioration mechanism, such as e.g. fatigue and corrosion. The generic deterioration model allows...... for the incorporation of monitored damage increments and accounts for the precision of the data by considering the statistical uncertainties, i.e. the amount of monitoring data due to the monitoring period, and by considering the measurement uncertainty. The value of structural health monitoring is then quantified...

Are satisfaction with and self-management of personal assistance services associated with the life satisfaction of persons with physical disabilities?

Science.gov (United States)

Fleming-Castaldy, Rita P

2011-01-01

To examine the relationships between satisfaction with and self-management of personal assistance services (PAS) and the quality of life (QoL) of persons with disabilities. To test the postulate that consumer-directed PAS can fulfil the human need for control and contribute to a satisfactory life. A survey compared the perspectives of persons using consumer-directed PAS versus those using agency-directed. A Personal Data Form obtained demographics and PAS characteristics. The Quality of Life Inventory measured life satisfaction. A PAS questionnaire measured perceptions about the management of, desire for control of, and satisfaction with PAS. Data were analysed using SPSS®- 14. Significant relationships were found between QoL and satisfaction with PAS (p perceived control of PAS and satisfaction with PAS (p satisfaction with their PAS (p satisfaction, and QoL support the value of consumer-directed programmes. Rehabilitation professionals can use this knowledge to develop, implement and research practises that enable self-management.

42 CFR 410.40 - Coverage of ambulance services.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

..., which are defined in § 414.605 of this chapter: (1) Basic life support (BLS) (emergency and nonemergency). (2) Advanced life support, level 1 (ALS1) (emergency and nonemergency). (3) Advanced life support... Coverage of ambulance services. (a). Basic rules. Medicare Part B covers ambulance services if the...

Life Cycle Thinking and Integrated Product Deliveries in renovation projects: Extending the concept of Integrated Product Deliveries with Product Service Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schipull Kauschen, Jan

2012-01-01

extension to the concept of IPDs discussed. Due to extended product responsibility, the concept of PSSs will offer new possibilities of planning and pre-defining life cycles of IPDs more precisely than for regular building components. Reducing or eliminating point-of-sales will induce producers to optimize...... on renovation projects from Denmark, using different forms of IPDs for façade renovation and discusses the different stakeholder’s perspectives on life cycle thinking and their interests and values regarding sustainable building. Furthermore is the concept of Product Service Systems (PSS) as a valuable...

Effect of a home-based end-of-life nursing service on hospital use at the end of life and place of death: a study using administrative data and matched controls.

Science.gov (United States)

Chitnis, X A; Georghiou, T; Steventon, A; Bardsley, M J

2013-12-01

To assess the effect of routinely delivered home-based end-of-life care on hospital use at the end of life and place of death. Retrospective analysis using matched controls and administrative data. Community-based care in England. 29,538 people aged over 18 who received Marie Curie nursing support compared with 29,538 controls individually matched on variables including: age, socioeconomic deprivation, prior hospital use, number of chronic conditions and prior diagnostic history. Home-based end-of-life nursing care delivered by the Marie Curie Nursing Service (MCNS), compared with end-of-life care available to those who did not receive MCNS care. Proportion of people who died at home; numbers of emergency and elective inpatient admissions, outpatient attendances and attendances at emergency departments in the period until death; and notional costs of hospital care. Intervention patients were significantly more likely to die at home and less likely to die in hospital than matched controls (unadjusted OR 6.16, 95% CI 5.94 to 6.38, pnursing for longer. Home-based end-of-life care offers the potential to reduce demand for acute hospital care and increase the number of people able to die at home.

New fossil remains of Homo naledi from the Lesedi Chamber, South Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Hawks, John; Elliott, Marina; Schmid, Peter; Churchill, Steven E; de Ruiter, Darryl J; Roberts, Eric M; Hilbert-Wolf, Hannah; Garvin, Heather M; Williams, Scott A; Delezene, Lucas K; Feuerriegel, Elen M; Randolph-Quinney, Patrick; Kivell, Tracy L; Laird, Myra F; Tawane, Gaokgatlhe; DeSilva, Jeremy M; Bailey, Shara E; Brophy, Juliet K; Meyer, Marc R; Skinner, Matthew M; Tocheri, Matthew W; VanSickle, Caroline; Walker, Christopher S; Campbell, Timothy L; Kuhn, Brian; Kruger, Ashley; Tucker, Steven; Gurtov, Alia; Hlophe, Nompumelelo; Hunter, Rick; Morris, Hannah; Peixotto, Becca; Ramalepa, Maropeng; van Rooyen, Dirk; Tsikoane, Mathabela; Boshoff, Pedro; Dirks, Paul HGM; Berger, Lee R

2017-01-01

The Rising Star cave system has produced abundant fossil hominin remains within the Dinaledi Chamber, representing a minimum of 15 individuals attributed to Homo naledi. Further exploration led to the discovery of hominin material, now comprising 131 hominin specimens, within a second chamber, the Lesedi Chamber. The Lesedi Chamber is far separated from the Dinaledi Chamber within the Rising Star cave system, and represents a second depositional context for hominin remains. In each of three collection areas within the Lesedi Chamber, diagnostic skeletal material allows a clear attribution to H. naledi. Both adult and immature material is present. The hominin remains represent at least three individuals based upon duplication of elements, but more individuals are likely present based upon the spatial context. The most significant specimen is the near-complete cranium of a large individual, designated LES1, with an endocranial volume of approximately 610 ml and associated postcranial remains. The Lesedi Chamber skeletal sample extends our knowledge of the morphology and variation of H. naledi, and evidence of H. naledi from both recovery localities shows a consistent pattern of differentiation from other hominin species. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24232.001 PMID:28483039

Prognostics and Life Beyond 60 for Nuclear Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Leonard J. Bond; Pradeep Ramuhalli; Magdy S. Tawfik; Nancy J. Lybeck

2011-06-01

Safe, secure, reliable and sustainable energy supply is vital for advanced and industrialized life styles. To meet growing energy demand there is interest in longer term operation (LTO) for the existing nuclear power plant fleet and enhancing capabilities in new build. There is increasing use of condition based maintenance (CBM) for active components and periodic in service inspection (ISI) for passive systems: there is growing interest in deploying on-line monitoring. Opportunities exist to move beyond monitoring and diagnosis based on pattern recognition and anomaly detection to and prognostics with the ability to provide an estimate of remaining useful life (RUL). The adoption of digital I&C systems provides a framework within which added functionality including on-line monitoring can be deployed, and used to maintain and even potentially enhance safety, while at the same time improving planning and reducing both operations and maintenance costs.

Defining Quality of Life in the Children of Parents with Severe Mental Illness: A Preliminary Stakeholder-Led Model

Science.gov (United States)

Bee, Penny; Berzins, Kathryn; Calam, Rachel; Pryjmachuk, Steven; Abel, Kathryn M.

2013-01-01

Severe parental mental illness poses a challenge to quality of life (QoL) in a substantial number of children and adolescents, and improving the lives of these children is of urgent political and public health concern. This study used a bottom-up qualitative approach to develop a new stakeholder-led model of quality of life relevant to this population. Qualitative data were collected from 19 individuals participating in focus groups or individual interviews. Participants comprised 8 clinical academics, health and social care professionals or voluntary agency representatives; 5 parents and 6 young people (aged 13–18 yrs) with lived experience of severe parental mental illness. Data underwent inductive thematic analysis for the purposes of informing a population-specific quality of life model. Fifty nine individual themes were identified and grouped into 11 key ‘meta-themes’. Mapping each meta-theme against existing child-centred quality of life concepts revealed a multi-dimensional model that endorsed, to a greater or lesser degree, the core domains of generic quality of life models. Three new population-specific priorities were also observed: i) the alleviation of parental mental health symptoms, ii) improved problem-based coping skills and iii) increased mental health literacy. The identification of these priorities raises questions regarding the validity of generic quality of life measures to monitor the effectiveness of services for families and children affected by severe mental illness. New, age-appropriate instruments that better reflect the life priorities and unique challenges faced by the children of parents with severe mental illness may need to be developed. Challenges then remain in augmenting and adapting service design and delivery mechanisms better to meet these needs. Future child and adult mental health services need to work seamlessly alongside statutory education and social care services and a growing number of relevant third sector

Defining quality of life in the children of parents with severe mental illness: a preliminary stakeholder-led model.

Science.gov (United States)

Bee, Penny; Berzins, Kathryn; Calam, Rachel; Pryjmachuk, Steven; Abel, Kathryn M

2013-01-01

Severe parental mental illness poses a challenge to quality of life (QoL) in a substantial number of children and adolescents, and improving the lives of these children is of urgent political and public health concern. This study used a bottom-up qualitative approach to develop a new stakeholder-led model of quality of life relevant to this population. Qualitative data were collected from 19 individuals participating in focus groups or individual interviews. Participants comprised 8 clinical academics, health and social care professionals or voluntary agency representatives; 5 parents and 6 young people (aged 13-18 yrs) with lived experience of severe parental mental illness. Data underwent inductive thematic analysis for the purposes of informing a population-specific quality of life model. Fifty nine individual themes were identified and grouped into 11 key 'meta-themes'. Mapping each meta-theme against existing child-centred quality of life concepts revealed a multi-dimensional model that endorsed, to a greater or lesser degree, the core domains of generic quality of life models. Three new population-specific priorities were also observed: i) the alleviation of parental mental health symptoms, ii) improved problem-based coping skills and iii) increased mental health literacy. The identification of these priorities raises questions regarding the validity of generic quality of life measures to monitor the effectiveness of services for families and children affected by severe mental illness. New, age-appropriate instruments that better reflect the life priorities and unique challenges faced by the children of parents with severe mental illness may need to be developed. Challenges then remain in augmenting and adapting service design and delivery mechanisms better to meet these needs. Future child and adult mental health services need to work seamlessly alongside statutory education and social care services and a growing number of relevant third sector providers to

Defining quality of life in the children of parents with severe mental illness: a preliminary stakeholder-led model.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Penny Bee

Full Text Available Severe parental mental illness poses a challenge to quality of life (QoL in a substantial number of children and adolescents, and improving the lives of these children is of urgent political and public health concern. This study used a bottom-up qualitative approach to develop a new stakeholder-led model of quality of life relevant to this population. Qualitative data were collected from 19 individuals participating in focus groups or individual interviews. Participants comprised 8 clinical academics, health and social care professionals or voluntary agency representatives; 5 parents and 6 young people (aged 13-18 yrs with lived experience of severe parental mental illness. Data underwent inductive thematic analysis for the purposes of informing a population-specific quality of life model. Fifty nine individual themes were identified and grouped into 11 key 'meta-themes'. Mapping each meta-theme against existing child-centred quality of life concepts revealed a multi-dimensional model that endorsed, to a greater or lesser degree, the core domains of generic quality of life models. Three new population-specific priorities were also observed: i the alleviation of parental mental health symptoms, ii improved problem-based coping skills and iii increased mental health literacy. The identification of these priorities raises questions regarding the validity of generic quality of life measures to monitor the effectiveness of services for families and children affected by severe mental illness. New, age-appropriate instruments that better reflect the life priorities and unique challenges faced by the children of parents with severe mental illness may need to be developed. Challenges then remain in augmenting and adapting service design and delivery mechanisms better to meet these needs. Future child and adult mental health services need to work seamlessly alongside statutory education and social care services and a growing number of relevant third

A study comparing changes in loading conditions of an extended service life system using aluminum 2024-T351

Science.gov (United States)

Beal, Roger Zack

The current fiscally austere environment prevalent in the military and industry is driving extreme measures to save money. In the United States Air Force, this has driven enormous efforts to trim sustainment spending on extended life aircraft. The challenge to the aerospace engineer is to ensure flight safety in the midst of this economic pressure. One method of cutting costs is to increase the time an aircraft is in service by delaying the point when the aircraft is taken out of service for depot maintenance. To ensure flight safety, in depth fatigue and fracture analysis needs to be accomplished to assess increasing the inspection interval. The purpose of this study was to determine the sensitivity of Aluminum 2024-T351 alloy, a common material used in tension dominated aerospace applications, to two different loading spectra---one that is aggressive and the other that is benign. This was accomplished by conducting five different combinations of the two spectra, developing computer simulations using the AFGROW software and comparing with the measured data. The results showed that the material demonstrated significantly different behavior between the two spectra. These results provide a valuable tool for the aerospace engineer for fatigue life prediction and inspection interval evaluation.

On using continuoas Markov processes for unit service life evaluation taking as an example the RBMK-1000 gate-regulating valve

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klemin, A.I.; Emel'yanov, V.S.; Rabchun, A.V.

1984-01-01

A technique is sugfested for estimating service life indices of equipment based on describing the process of the equipment ageing by continuous Markov diffusion process. It is noted that a number of problems on estimating durability indices of products is reduced to problems of estimating characteristics of the time of the first attainment of the preset boundary (boundaries) by a random process describing the ageing of a product. The methods of statistic estimation of the drift and diffusion coefficient in the continuous Markov diffusion process are considered formulae for their point and interval estimates are presented. A special description is given for a case of a stationary process and determining in this case mathematical expectation and dispersion of the time of the first attainment of a boundary (boundaries). The method of numerical simulation of the diffusion process with constant drift and diffusion coefficients is also described; results obtained on the basis of such a simulation are discussed. An example of using the suggested technique for quantitative estimate of the service life for the RBMK-1000 gate-regulating value is given

Mass Customization Services

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Friedrich, Gerhard

Topics of the IMCM’08 & PETO’08 and this book are: Mass customization in service, mass customizing financial services, mass customization in supply networks, implementation issues in logistics, product life cycle and mass customization. The research field of mass customization is more than 15 years...

Computer Aided Product Service Systems Design : Service CAD and Its integration with Life Cycle Simulation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Komoto, H.

2009-01-01

Integration of product design into service design, or vice versa, is considered to bring more efficient and effective value addition. Besides EcoDesign tools and methods, a methodology to design such an integration of products and services from a systemic perspective, or product-service systems

Life expectancy in bipolar disorder

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kessing, Lars Vedel; Vradi, Eleni; Andersen, Per Kragh

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVE: Life expectancy in patients with bipolar disorder has been reported to be decreased by 11 to 20 years. These calculations are based on data for individuals at the age of 15 years. However, this may be misleading for patients with bipolar disorder in general as most patients have a later...... onset of illness. The aim of the present study was to calculate the remaining life expectancy for patients of different ages with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. METHODS: Using nationwide registers of all inpatient and outpatient contacts to all psychiatric hospitals in Denmark from 1970 to 2012 we...... remaining life expectancy in bipolar disorder and that of the general population decreased with age, indicating that patients with bipolar disorder start losing life-years during early and mid-adulthood. CONCLUSIONS: Life expectancy in bipolar disorder is decreased substantially, but less so than previously...

Influence of accessibility of services on Quality of Life of school children with Cerebral Palsy in Latvia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cibule L.

2012-10-01

Full Text Available The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of accessibility of services and health related factors on Quality of Life (QoL of school children with Cerebral Palsy (CP in Latvia. 80 children 47 boys and 33 girls with CP and their parents from all regions of Latvia took part in the study. Mean age of participants was 11,7 (SD± 3,5 years. 50 children without diagnosed chronic diseases formed the control group. Validated evaluation tools were used in the study (KIDSCREEN-52, GMFCS- E&R. The results show lower QoL in children with CP in comparison with their healthy peers and European children. QoL is influenced by the level of gross motor functions, lack of coordination of services, lack of rehabilitation infrastructure and presence of environmental barriers in Latvia.

Extending service life of steam generators by sleeving tubes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gutzwiller, J.E.

1982-01-01

Steam generator tubes that are failing due to IGA in the tubesheet crevice can be kept in service by using the basic sealable sleeve design developed by BandW. Variations of the present sleeve design could significantly reduce the number of tubes that must be plugged each year. Sleeving had the potential of keeping 28 percent more tubes in service during 1979. Lowering the overall rate at which tubes are removed from service by plugging will reduce the probability of having to derate the plant or replace the steam generator. Considering tomorrow's replacement power costs, sleeving to keep tubes in service is a practical and sound investment

Current Size and Remaining Market Potential of the U.S. Energy Service Company Industry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stuart, Elizabeth [Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Larsen, Peter H. [Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Goldman, Charles A. [Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Gilligan, Donald [Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); National Association of Energy Services Companies

2013-06-27

In this study, we analyze the market size, growth projections and industry trends in the U.S. ESCO industry, drawing on information from interviews with ESCO executives conducted in late 2012. We define ESCOs as energy service companies for whom performance -based contracting is a key business activity; 45 companies met our definition of an ESCO. We were able to interview 35 of these companies, which represents ~78% response rate. The non-respondent ESCOs were small companies in terms of revenue, representing about 2% of industry revenues.

The importance of content and face validity in instrument development: lessons learnt from service users when developing the Recovering Quality of Life measure (ReQoL).

Science.gov (United States)

Connell, Janice; Carlton, Jill; Grundy, Andrew; Taylor Buck, Elizabeth; Keetharuth, Anju Devianee; Ricketts, Thomas; Barkham, Michael; Robotham, Dan; Rose, Diana; Brazier, John

2018-07-01

Service user involvement in instrument development is increasingly recognised as important, but is often not done and seldom reported. This has adverse implications for the content validity of a measure. The aim of this paper is to identify the types of items that service users felt were important to be included or excluded from a new Recovering Quality of Life measure for people with mental health difficulties. Potential items were presented to service users in face-to-face structured individual interviews and focus groups. The items were primarily taken or adapted from current measures and covered themes identified from earlier qualitative work as being important to quality of life. Content and thematic analysis was undertaken to identify the types of items which were either important or unacceptable to service users. We identified five key themes of the types of items that service users found acceptable or unacceptable; the items should be relevant and meaningful, unambiguous, easy to answer particularly when distressed, do not cause further upset, and be non-judgemental. Importantly, this was from the perspective of the service user. This research has underlined the importance of service users' views on the acceptability and validity of items for use in developing a new measure. Whether or not service users favoured an item was associated with their ability or intention to respond accurately and honestly to the item which will impact on the validity and sensitivity of the measure.

ACB Service Final Closure

CERN Multimedia

IT Department

2004-01-01

As previously announced in CERN weekly Bulletin 18/2004 of 26 April 2004, and following a discussion at the Desktop Forum on 28 October, the Automatic Call Back (ACB) service will be definitely closed on Friday 10 December 2004. If the ACB phone number is dialed after that date over plain telephone or ISDN, the call will remain unanswered. Therefore, the remaining ACB users are encouraged to switch as soon as possible to ISPs (Internet Service Providers) which provide equivalent or better service. Some suggestions on how to make alternative arrangements have been made available on the Remote Access web site. IT Department

Life cycle assessment needs predictive spatial modelling for biodiversity and ecosystem services

Science.gov (United States)

Chaplin-Kramer, Rebecca; Sim, Sarah; Hamel, Perrine; Bryant, Benjamin; Noe, Ryan; Mueller, Carina; Rigarlsford, Giles; Kulak, Michal; Kowal, Virginia; Sharp, Richard; Clavreul, Julie; Price, Edward; Polasky, Stephen; Ruckelshaus, Mary; Daily, Gretchen

2017-01-01

International corporations in an increasingly globalized economy exert a major influence on the planet's land use and resources through their product design and material sourcing decisions. Many companies use life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate their sustainability, yet commonly-used LCA methodologies lack the spatial resolution and predictive ecological information to reveal key impacts on climate, water and biodiversity. We present advances for LCA that integrate spatially explicit modelling of land change and ecosystem services in a Land-Use Change Improved (LUCI)-LCA. Comparing increased demand for bioplastics derived from two alternative feedstock-location scenarios for maize and sugarcane, we find that the LUCI-LCA approach yields results opposite to those of standard LCA for greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption, and of different magnitudes for soil erosion and biodiversity. This approach highlights the importance of including information about where and how land-use change and related impacts will occur in supply chain and innovation decisions. PMID:28429710

Life cycle assessment needs predictive spatial modelling for biodiversity and ecosystem services

Science.gov (United States)

Chaplin-Kramer, Rebecca; Sim, Sarah; Hamel, Perrine; Bryant, Benjamin; Noe, Ryan; Mueller, Carina; Rigarlsford, Giles; Kulak, Michal; Kowal, Virginia; Sharp, Richard; Clavreul, Julie; Price, Edward; Polasky, Stephen; Ruckelshaus, Mary; Daily, Gretchen

2017-04-01

International corporations in an increasingly globalized economy exert a major influence on the planet's land use and resources through their product design and material sourcing decisions. Many companies use life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate their sustainability, yet commonly-used LCA methodologies lack the spatial resolution and predictive ecological information to reveal key impacts on climate, water and biodiversity. We present advances for LCA that integrate spatially explicit modelling of land change and ecosystem services in a Land-Use Change Improved (LUCI)-LCA. Comparing increased demand for bioplastics derived from two alternative feedstock-location scenarios for maize and sugarcane, we find that the LUCI-LCA approach yields results opposite to those of standard LCA for greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption, and of different magnitudes for soil erosion and biodiversity. This approach highlights the importance of including information about where and how land-use change and related impacts will occur in supply chain and innovation decisions.

Life cycle assessment needs predictive spatial modelling for biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Science.gov (United States)

Chaplin-Kramer, Rebecca; Sim, Sarah; Hamel, Perrine; Bryant, Benjamin; Noe, Ryan; Mueller, Carina; Rigarlsford, Giles; Kulak, Michal; Kowal, Virginia; Sharp, Richard; Clavreul, Julie; Price, Edward; Polasky, Stephen; Ruckelshaus, Mary; Daily, Gretchen

2017-04-21

International corporations in an increasingly globalized economy exert a major influence on the planet's land use and resources through their product design and material sourcing decisions. Many companies use life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate their sustainability, yet commonly-used LCA methodologies lack the spatial resolution and predictive ecological information to reveal key impacts on climate, water and biodiversity. We present advances for LCA that integrate spatially explicit modelling of land change and ecosystem services in a Land-Use Change Improved (LUCI)-LCA. Comparing increased demand for bioplastics derived from two alternative feedstock-location scenarios for maize and sugarcane, we find that the LUCI-LCA approach yields results opposite to those of standard LCA for greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption, and of different magnitudes for soil erosion and biodiversity. This approach highlights the importance of including information about where and how land-use change and related impacts will occur in supply chain and innovation decisions.

Quality of Life in Europe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Norina Popovici

2016-01-01

Many times we wondered why people want a certain comfort in exchange for sacrifices on longterm: we want houses, cars, holidays, quality services. All our life we work and give up many tothings (maybe more important than achieving material benefits. It's about quality of life. In thispaper we analyzed the quality of life in Europe addressing several factors, such as subjective wellbeing,living standards and material constraints, work-life balance, family life and social life,health and education.

Value Retention, Service Life, Use Intensity and Long-Term Productivity of Wood Chippers as Obtained from Contractor Records

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raffaele Spinelli

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Acknowledging the absence of up-to-date empirical data on the value retention, service life and annual use of chipping machinery, in 2017 the authors surveyed the records kept by 50 contractors offering biomass chipping services. The machine fleet and operations in this survey could be taken as representative for most of Europe, where the biomass sector is well established and is facing further expansion. Data collection included the whole chipping unit, comprised of chipper, carrier and loader. Manually-fed units were excluded from the survey. The data pointed at a service life up to and exceeding 10,000 h and 10 years, which relieved any concerns about poor durability. Value retention was good, and may exceed that of other mainstream forestry equipment. Engine power was the main explanatory variable in any models to predict purchase price and productivity. The effect of this variable could explain most of the variability (>80% in the purchase price and productivity data. Results also pointed at the essential equivalence in price and productivity between PTO-driven (i.e., tractor powered and independent-engine chippers, once differences in engine power are accounted for. However, the distribution of purchase price between different components of the chipping unit was different between the two unit types, with the chipper accounting for a larger proportion of the total investment in independent-engine units. Machine power was also different, with most PTO-driven units being significantly smaller than independent-engine units, due to the limitations of existing tractors. Furthermore, half of the carriers assigned to a PTO-driven unit were subject to flexible use, i.e., they were not solely used for chipping work.

A computational approach for thermomechanical fatigue life prediction of dissimilarly welded superheater tubes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Krishnasamy, Ram-Kumar; Seifert, Thomas; Siegele, Dieter [Fraunhofer-Institut fuer Werkstoffmechanik (IWM), Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany)

2010-07-01

In this paper a computational approach for fatigue life prediction of dissimilarly welded superheater tubes is presented and applied to a dissimilar weld between tubes made of the nickel base alloy Alloy617 tube and the 12% chromium steel VM12. The approach comprises the calculation of the residual stresses in the welded tubes with a multi-pass dissimilar welding simulation, the relaxation of the residual stresses in a post weld heat treatment (PWHT) simulation and the fatigue life prediction using the remaining residual stresses as initial condition. A cyclic fiscoplasticity model is used to calculate the transient stresses and strains under thermocyclic service loadings. The fatigue life is predicted with a damage parameter which is based on fracture mechanics. The adjustable parameters of the model are determined based on LCF and TMF experiments. The simulations show, that the residual stresses that remain after PWHT further relax in the first loading cycles. The predicted fatigue lives depend on the residual stresses and, thus, on the choice of the loading cycle in which the damage parameter is evaluated. It the first loading cycle, where residual stresses are still present, is considered, lower fatigue lives are predicted compared to predictions considering loading cycles with relaxed residual stresses. (orig.)

LifeSteps: An Evidence-based Health Promotion Program for Underserved Populations – A Community Service Learning Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melanie Austin-McCain

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Chronic diseases are the most common, costly, and preventable of all health problems in the United States. Chronic diseases represent the leading causes of death and are experienced at higher rates by minority populations (CDC, 2012. Innovative community-based health promotion programs are recommended that meet the diverse needs of underserved populations (Yeary, et al., 2011. LifeSteps is being developed as an evidence-based health promotion program focusing on health and wellness, a domain area defined within the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF, 2008. LifeSteps will utilize a client-centered approach to coach individuals in making health behavior changes. Fieldwork and service-learning components are incorporated integrating clinical practice, academic study, and collaboration with community providers. Program evaluation measures based on the Transtheoretical Model (TTM have been identified to address all phases of program planning. The LifeSteps health promotion program aligns with local, national, and international objectives and addresses the need for programs that meet the diverse needs of underserved populations. Occupational therapists are in a unique position for implementing community-based interventions that promote health and contribute to a healthier society.

The soil life cycle

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leeuwen, van J.P.

2016-01-01

Soil is one of the most important natural resource for life on Earth and provides important ecosystem services, such as food production, carbon sequestration, water regulation and contaminant attenuation. Soil quality, defined as the soil’s ability to provide these services, is drastically

The effectiveness of communication-skills training interventions in end-of-life noncancer care in acute hospital-based services: A systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Lord, Laura; Clark-Carter, David; Grove, Amy

2016-08-01

A systematic review was conducted in order to explore the effectiveness of communication-skills training interventions in end-of-life care with noncancer acute-based healthcare staff. Articles were included if they (1) focused on communication-skills training in end-of-life/palliative care for noncancer acute-based staff and (2) reported an outcome related to behavior change with regard to communication. Sixteen online databases were searched, which resulted in 4,038 potential articles. Screening of titles left 393 articles that met the inclusion criteria. Abstracts (n = 346) and full-text articles (n = 47) were reviewed, leaving 10 papers that met the criteria for our review. All articles explored the effect of communication-skills training on aspects of staff behavior; one study measured the effect on self-efficacy, another explored the impact on knowledge and competence, and another measured comfort levels in discussing the end of life with patients/families. Seven studies measured a number of outcomes, including confidence, attitude, preparedness, stress, and communication skills. Few studies have focused on end-of-life communication-skills training in noncancer acute-based services. Those that do have report positive effects on staff behavior with regard to communication about the end of life with patients and families. The studies varied in terms of the population studied and the health services involved, and they scored only moderately or weakly on quality. It is a challenge to draw a definite conclusion about the effectiveness of training interventions in end-of-life communication because of this. However, the findings from our review demonstrate the potential effectiveness of a range of training interventions with healthcare professionals on confidence, attitude, self-efficacy, and communication skills. Further research is needed to fully explore the effectiveness of existing training interventions in this population, and evidence using objective measures

Multi-objective optimization of swash plate forging process parameters for the die wear/service life improvement

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, X. F.; Wang, L. G.; Wu, H.; Liu, S. S.

2017-12-01

For the forging process of the swash plate, the author designed a kind of multi-index orthogonal experiment. Based on the Archard wear model, the influences of billet temperature, die temperature, forming speed, top die hardness and friction coefficient on forming load and die wear were numerically simulated by DEFORM software. Through the analysis of experimental results, the best forging process parameters were optimized and determined, which could effectively reduce the die wear and prolong the die service life. It is significant to increase the practical production of enterprise, especially to reduce the production cost and to promote enterprise profit.

An integrated unscented kalman filter and relevance vector regression approach for lithium-ion battery remaining useful life and short-term capacity prediction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zheng, Xiujuan; Fang, Huajing

2015-01-01

The gradual decreasing capacity of lithium-ion batteries can serve as a health indicator for tracking the degradation of lithium-ion batteries. It is important to predict the capacity of a lithium-ion battery for future cycles to assess its health condition and remaining useful life (RUL). In this paper, a novel method is developed using unscented Kalman filter (UKF) with relevance vector regression (RVR) and applied to RUL and short-term capacity prediction of batteries. A RVR model is employed as a nonlinear time-series prediction model to predict the UKF future residuals which otherwise remain zero during the prediction period. Taking the prediction step into account, the predictive value through the RVR method and the latest real residual value constitute the future evolution of the residuals with a time-varying weighting scheme. Next, the future residuals are utilized by UKF to recursively estimate the battery parameters for predicting RUL and short-term capacity. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is validated and compared to other predictors with the experimental data. According to the experimental and analysis results, the proposed approach has high reliability and prediction accuracy, which can be applied to battery monitoring and prognostics, as well as generalized to other prognostic applications. - Highlights: • An integrated method is proposed for RUL prediction as well as short-term capacity prediction. • Relevance vector regression model is employed as a nonlinear time-series prediction model. • Unscented Kalman filter is used to recursively update the states for battery model parameters during the prediction. • A time-varying weighting scheme is utilized to improve the accuracy of the RUL prediction. • The proposed method demonstrates high reliability and prediction accuracy.

The biodiversity-dependent ecosystem service debt.

Science.gov (United States)

Isbell, Forest; Tilman, David; Polasky, Stephen; Loreau, Michel

2015-02-01

Habitat destruction is driving biodiversity loss in remaining ecosystems, and ecosystem functioning and services often directly depend on biodiversity. Thus, biodiversity loss is likely creating an ecosystem service debt: a gradual loss of biodiversity-dependent benefits that people obtain from remaining fragments of natural ecosystems. Here, we develop an approach for quantifying ecosystem service debts, and illustrate its use to estimate how one anthropogenic driver, habitat destruction, could indirectly diminish one ecosystem service, carbon storage, by creating an extinction debt. We estimate that c. 2-21 Pg C could be gradually emitted globally in remaining ecosystem fragments because of plant species loss caused by nearby habitat destruction. The wide range for this estimate reflects substantial uncertainties in how many plant species will be lost, how much species loss will impact ecosystem functioning and whether plant species loss will decrease soil carbon. Our exploratory analysis suggests that biodiversity-dependent ecosystem service debts can be globally substantial, even when locally small, if they occur diffusely across vast areas of remaining ecosystems. There is substantial value in conserving not only the quantity (area), but also the quality (biodiversity) of natural ecosystems for the sustainable provision of ecosystem services. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Service Orientation in Manufacturing Firms : Understanding Challenges with Service Business Logic

OpenAIRE

Löfberg, Nina

2014-01-01

Globalisation and competition from low-cost countries has pushed manufacturing firms towards offering services to remain competitive. However, increasing the service orientation of a manufacturing firm to find new ways of value (co-)creation has presented several challenges, such as the fact that services do not provide the expected revenues, and resistance from both the sales force and from customers towards services. The aim of this thesis is to understand challenges linked to increasing se...

An origin of life on Mars.

Science.gov (United States)

McKay, Christopher P

2010-04-01

Evidence of past liquid water on the surface of Mars suggests that this world once had habitable conditions and leads to the question of life. If there was life on Mars, it would be interesting to determine if it represented a separate origin from life on Earth. To determine the biochemistry and genetics of life on Mars requires that we have access to an organism or the biological remains of one-possibly preserved in ancient permafrost. A way to determine if organic material found on Mars represents the remains of an alien biological system could be based on the observation that biological systems select certain organic molecules over others that are chemically similar (e.g., chirality in amino acids).

Treatment satisfaction of patients undergoing ranibizumab therapy for neovascular age-related macular degeneration in a real-life setting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gohil R

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Rishma Gohil,1,2 Roxanne Crosby-Nwaobi,1,2 Angus Forbes,2 Ben J Burton,3 Philip Hykin,1 Sobha Sivaprasad1,4 1National Institute for Health Research Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre, London, 2Diabetes Nursing, King’s College London, London, 3Ophthalmology Department, James Paget University Hospital, Great Yarmouth, 4Laser and Retinal Research Unit, King’s College Hospital, London, UK Context: Treatment satisfaction with a loading phase of monthly injections for 3 months followed by a pro-re-nata regimen of ranibizumab in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD remains unclear.Aims: The aim was to evaluate the treatment satisfaction of persons with nAMD treated with ranibizumab in a real-life setting.Settings and design: A cross-sectional study was conducted across three eye clinics within the National Health Service in the UK, where treatment is provided free at point of contact.Materials and methods: A total of 250 patients were selected randomly for the study. Treatment satisfaction was assessed using the Macular Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire. Data were collected on satisfaction of the service provided (Client Service Questionnaire-8 and the patients’ demographic and quality of life and treatment history. Factors governing treatment questionnaire were determined.Results: The most important factors that determined the satisfaction were the service provided at the clinic (Client Service Questionnaire-8, health-related quality of life (EQ-5D-3L, and duration of AMD. Visual acuity changes were rated as less important than one would have expected.Conclusion: The study result suggested that treatment satisfaction for nAMD was governed by the perception of being reviewed and injected regularly over a long period of time than the actual change in visual acuity from the treatment. Keyword: macular treatment satisfaction questionnaire, patient related outcome measure, treatment history, quality of life 

ACB Service Final Closure

CERN Multimedia

IT Department

2004-01-01

As previously announced in CERN weekly Bulletin 18/2004 of 26th April 2004, and following a discussion at the Desktop Forum on 28th October, the Automatic Call Back (ACB) service will be definitely closed on Friday 10th December 2004. If the ACB phone number is dialed after that date over plain telephone or ISDN, the call will remain unanswered. Therefore, the remaining ACB users are encouraged to switch as soon as possible to ISPs (Internet Service Providers) which provide equivalent or better service. Some suggestions on how to make alternative arrangements have been made available on the Remote Access web site: http://www.cern.ch/ras IT Department

Improving health related quality of life among rural hypertensive patients through the integrative strategy of health services delivery: a quasi-experimental trial from Chongqing, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Miao, Yudong; Zhang, Liang; Sparring, Vibeke; Sandeep, Sandeep; Tang, Wenxi; Sun, Xiaowei; Feng, Da; Ye, Ting

2016-08-23

Integrative strategy of health services delivery has been proven to be effective in economically developed countries, where the healthcare systems have enough qualified primary care providers. However rural China lacks such providers to act as gatekeeper, besides, Chinese rural hypertensive patients are usually of old age, more likely to be exposed to health risk factors and they experience a greater socio-economic burden. All these Chinese rural setting specific features make the effectiveness of integrative strategy of health services in improving health related quality of life among Chinese rural hypertensive patients uncertain. In order to assess the impact of integrative strategy of health services delivery on health related quality of life among Chinese rural hypertensive patients, a two-year quasi-experimental trial was conducted in Chongqing, China. At baseline the sample enrolled 1006 hypertensive patients into intervention group and 420 hypertensive patients into control group. Physicians from village clinics, town hospitals and county hospitals worked collaboratively to deliver multidisciplinary health services for the intervention group, while physicians in the control group provided services without cooperation. The quality of life was studied by SF-36 Scale. Blood pressures were reported by town hospitals. The Difference-in-Differences model was used to estimate the differences in SF-36 score and blood pressure of both groups to assess the impact. The study showed that at baseline there was no statistical difference in SF-36 scores between both groups. While at follow-up the intervention group scored higher in overall SF-36, Role Physical, Body Pain, Social Functioning and Role Emotional than the control group. The Difference-in-Differences result demonstrated that there were statistical differences in SF-36 total score (p = 0.011), Role Physical (p = 0.027), Social Functioning (p = 0.000), Role Emotional (p = 0.002) between both

First-Year Analysis of a New, Home-Based Palliative Care Program Offered Jointly by a Community Hospital and Local Visiting Nurse Service.

Science.gov (United States)

Pouliot, Katherine; Weisse, Carol S; Pratt, David S; DiSorbo, Philip

2017-03-01

There is a growing need for home-based palliative care services, especially for seriously ill individuals who want to avoid hospitalizations and remain with their regular outside care providers. To evaluate the effectiveness of Care Choices, a new in-home palliative care program provided by the Visiting Nurse Services of Northeastern New York and Ellis Medicine's community hospital serving New York's Capital District. This prospective cohort study assessed patient outcomes over the course of 1 year for 123 patients (49 men and 74 women) with serious illnesses who were new enrollees in the program. Quality of life was assessed at baseline and after 1 month on service. Satisfaction with care was measured after 1 and 3 months on service. The number of emergency department visits and inpatient hospitalizations pre- and postenrollment was measured for all enrollees. Patients were highly satisfied (72.7%-100%) with their initial care and reported greater satisfaction ( P care service. An in-home palliative care program offered jointly through a visiting nurse service and community hospital may be a successful model for providing quality care that satisfies chronically ill patients' desire to remain at home and avoid hospital admissions.

Development of augmented reality system for servicing electromechanical equipment

Science.gov (United States)

Zhukovskiy, Y.; Koteleva, N.

2018-05-01

Electromechanical equipment is widely used. It is used in industrial enterprises, in the spheres of public services, in everyday life, etc. Maintenance servicing of electromechanical equipment is an important part of its life cycle. High-quality and timely service can extend the life of the electromechanical equipment. The creation of special systems that simplify the process of servicing electromechanical equipment is an urgent task. Such systems can shorten the time for maintenance of electrical equipment, and, therefore, reduce the cost of maintenance in general. This article presents an analysis of information on the operation of service services for maintenance and repair of electromechanical equipment, identifies the list of services, and estimates the time required to perform basic service operations. The structure of the augmented reality system is presented, the ways of interaction of the augmented reality system with the automated control systems working at the enterprise are presented.

Boiler-turbine life extension

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Natzkov, S. [TOTEMA, Ltd., Sofia (Bulgaria); Nikolov, M. [CERB, Sofia (Bulgaria)

1995-12-01

The design life of the main power equipment-boilers and turbines is about 105 working hours. The possibilities for life extension are after normatively regulated control tests. The diagnostics and methodology for Boilers and Turbines Elements Remaining Life Assessment using up to date computer programs, destructive and nondestructive control of metal of key elements of units equipment, metal creep and low cycle fatigue calculations. As well as data for most common damages and some technical decisions for elements life extension are presented.

Lung Abscess Remains a Life-Threatening Condition in Pediatrics – A Case Report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chirteș Ioana Raluca

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Pulmonary abscess or lung abscess is a lung infection which destroys the lung parenchyma leading to cavitations and central necrosis in localised areas formed by thick-walled purulent material. It can be primary or secondary. Lung abscesses can occur at any age, but it seems that paediatric pulmonary abscess morbidity is lower than in adults. We present the case of a one year and 5-month-old male child admitted to our clinic for fever, loss of appetite and an overall altered general status. Laboratory tests revealed elevated inflammatory biomarkers, leukocytosis with neutrophilia, anaemia, thrombocytosis, low serum iron concentration and increased lactate dehydrogenase level. Despite wide-spectrum antibiotic therapy, the patient’s progress remained poor after seven days of treatment and a CT scan established the diagnosis of a large lung abscess. Despite changing the antibiotic therapy, surgical intervention was eventually needed. There was a slow but steady improvment and eventually, the patient was discharged after approximately five weeks.

Behavioral and quality-of-life outcomes in different service models for methadone maintenance treatment in Vietnam.

Science.gov (United States)

Tran, Bach Xuan; Nguyen, Long Hoang; Nong, Vuong Minh; Nguyen, Cuong Tat; Phan, Huong Thu Thi; Latkin, Carl A

2016-02-02

Integrating HIV/AIDS and methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) services with existing health care delivery system is critical in sustaining efforts to fight HIV/AIDS in large injection-driven epidemics. However, efficiency of different integrative service models is unknown. This study assessed behavioral and health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) outcomes of MMT in four service delivery models and explored factors associated with these outcomes of interest. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in two HIV epicenters in Vietnam: Hanoi and Nam Dinh Province. All patients in five selected MMT clinics were invited to participate, and 1016 were interviewed (80-90% response rate). Respondents had a mean age of 35.8, taken MMT for average 16.5 months and 3.3% on MMT for 36-60 months. The MMT integrated with rural district health center (DHC) has the highest prevalence of concurrent drug use (11.3%). The percentage of condom use (last sexual intercourse) with primary and casual partners was lowest in the MMT at urban DHCs. Patients at the rural DHC reported very high proportions of pain/discomfort (37.8%), anxiety/depression (43.1%), and mobility (13.3%). In regression models, poorer HRQOL outcomes were found in MMT models in the rural areas or without general health care, and among those patients who were HIV positive, reported concurrent drug use, and had higher numbers of previous drug rehabilitation episodes. Mobility and anxiety/depression are factors that increased the likelihood of concurrent drug use among MMT patients. Outcomes of MMT were diverse across different integrative service models. Policies on rapid expansion of the MMT program in Vietnam should also emphasize on the integration with comprehensive health care services including psychological supports for patients.

Energy use in repairs by cover concrete replacement or silane treatment for extending service life of chloride-exposed concrete structures

Science.gov (United States)

Petcherdchoo, A.

2018-05-01

In this study, the service life of repaired concrete structures under chloride environment is predicted. This prediction is performed by considering the mechanism of chloride ion diffusion using the partial differential equation (PDE) of the Fick’s second law. The one-dimensional PDE cannot simply be solved, when concrete structures are cyclically repaired with cover concrete replacement or silane treatment. The difficulty is encountered in solving position-dependent chloride profile and diffusion coefficient after repairs. In order to remedy the difficulty, the finite difference method is used. By virtue of numerical computation, the position-dependent chloride profile can be treated position by position. And, based on the Crank-Nicolson scheme, a proper formulation embedded with position-dependent diffusion coefficient can be derived. By using the aforementioned idea, position- and time-dependent chloride ion concentration profiles for concrete structures with repairs can be calculated and shown, and their service life can be predicted. Moreover, the use of energy in different repair actions is also considered for comparison. From the study, it is found that repairs can control rebar corrosion and/or concrete cracking depending on repair actions.

'Silent voices' in health services research: ethnicity and socioeconomic variation in participation in studies of quality of life in childhood visual disability.

Science.gov (United States)

Tadic, Valerie; Hamblion, Esther Louise; Keeley, Sarah; Cumberland, Phillippa; Lewando Hundt, Gillian; Rahi, Jugnoo Sangeeta

2010-04-01

Purpose. To investigate patterns of participation of visually impaired (VI) children and their families in health services research. Methods. The authors compared clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of children and their families who participated with those who did not participate in two studies of quality of life (QoL) of VI children. In Study 1, the authors interviewed VI children and adolescents, aged 10 to 15 years, about their vision-related quality of life (VRQoL) as the first phase of a program to develop a VRQoL instrument for this population. One hundred seven children with visual impairment (visual acuity in the better eye LogMar worse than 0.51) were invited to participate in the interviews. Study 2 investigated health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of VI children using an existing generic instrument, administered in a postal survey. 151 VI children and adolescents, aged 2 to 16 years, with hereditary retinal disorders were invited to participate in the survey. Results. The overall participation level was below 50%. In both studies, participants from white ethnic and more affluent socioeconomic backgrounds were overrepresented. Participation did not vary by age, sex, or clinical characteristics. Conclusions. The authors suggest that there are barriers to participation in child- and family-centered research on childhood visual disability for children from socioeconomically deprived or ethnic minority groups. They urge assessment and reporting of participation patterns in further health services research on childhood visual disability. Failure to recognize that there are "silent voices" is likely to have important implications for equitable and appropriate service planning and provision for VI children.

Data as a service a framework for providing reusable enterprise data services

CERN Document Server

Sarkar, Pushpak

2015-01-01

Data as a Service shows how organizations can leverage "data as a service" by providing real-life case studies on the various and innovative architectures and related patterns. Comprehensive approach to introducing data as a service in any organization. A re-usable and flexible SOA based architecture framework. Roadmap to introduce 'big data as a service' for potential clients. Presents a thorough description of each component in the DaaS reference architecture so readers can implement solutions.

End of Life Strategies Among Patients with Advanced Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

Science.gov (United States)

Gershon, Andrea S; Maclagan, Laura C; Luo, Jin; To, Teresa; Kendzerska, Tetyana; Stanbrook, Matthew B; Bourbeau, Jean; Etches, Jacob; Aaron, Shawn D

2018-06-11

The burden of advanced COPD is high globally; however, little is known about how often end of life strategies are used by this population. To describe trends in the use of end of life care strategies by people with advanced COPD in Ontario, Canada. A population-based repeated cross-sectional study examining end of life care strategies in individuals with advanced COPD was conducted. Annual proportions of individuals who received formal palliative care, long-term oxygen therapy or opioids from 2004 to 2014 were determined. Results were age- and sex- standardized as well as stratified by age, sex, socioeconomic status, urban/rural residence and immigrant status. Measurement/Main Results: There were 151,912 persons with advanced COPD in Ontario between 2004 and 2014. Use of formal palliative care services increased 1% per year from 5.3% in 2004 to 14.3% in 2014 (p value for trend COPD using end of life strategies, although increasing, remains low. Efforts should focus on increasing access to such strategies as well as educating patients and providers of their benefits.

Staying in nursing: what factors determine whether nurses intend to remain employed?

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, Matthew R; Tourangeau, Ann E

2012-07-01

To test a model of eight thematic determinants of whether nurses intend to remain in nursing roles. Despite the dramatic increase in the supply of nurses in England over the past decade, a combination of the economic downturn, funding constraints and more generally an ageing nursing population means that healthcare organizations are likely to encounter long-term problems in the recruitment and retention of nursing staff. Survey. Data were collected from a large staff survey conducted in the National Health Service in England between September-December 2009. A multi-level model was tested using MPlus statistical software on a sub-sample of 16,707 nurses drawn from 167 healthcare organizations. Findings were generally supportive of the proposed model. Nurses who reported being psychologically engaged with their jobs reported a lower intention to leave their current job. The perceived availability of developmental opportunities, being able to achieve a good work-life balance and whether nurses' encountered work pressures were also influencing factors on their turnover intentions. However, relationships formed with colleagues and patients displayed comparatively small relationships with turnover intentions. The focus at the local level needs to be on promoting employee engagement by equipping staff with the resources (physical and monetary) and control to enable them to perform their tasks to standards they aspire to and creating a work environment where staff are fully involved in the wider running of their organizations, communicating to staff that patient care is important and the top priority of the organization. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The effect of quality circles on job satisfaction and quality of work-life of staff in emergency medical services.

Science.gov (United States)

Hosseinabadi, Reza; Karampourian, Arezou; Beiranvand, Shoorangiz; Pournia, Yadollah

2013-10-01

Quality circles, as a participatory management technique, offer one alternative for dealing with frustration and discontent of today's workers. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of implementation of quality circles on nurses' quality of work-life and job satisfaction. In this study, two emergency medical services (EMS) of Hamedan province were selected and randomly assigned as the experimental and control groups. After the experimental group was trained and quality circles were established in this group, the levels of quality of work-life and job satisfaction were measured in the two groups. Then, the statistical analyses were performed using t-test. After the intervention, the results showed significant differences between the scores of motivational factors (p=0.001), the total scores of job satisfaction (p=0.003), and the scores of some quality of work life (QWL) conceptual categories including the use and development of capacities (p=0.008), the total space of life (p=0.003), and the total scores of QWL (p=0.031) in the experimental group compared to those in the control group. This study confirms the effectiveness of quality circles in improving quality of work-life and job satisfaction of nurses working in EMS, and offers their application as a management method that can be used by EMS managers. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Asset life cycle plans: twelve steps to assist strategic decision-making in asset life cycle management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ruitenburg, Richard Jacob; Braaksma, Anne Johannes Jan; van Dongen, Leonardus Adriana Maria; Carnero, Maria Carmen; Gonzalez-Prida, Vicente

2017-01-01

Effective management of physical assets should deliver maximum business value. Therefore, Asset Management standards such as PAS 55 and ISO 55000 ask for a life cycle approach. However, most existing methods focus only on the short term of the asset's life or the estimation of its remaining life.

Managing online service recovery : procedures, justice and customer satisfaction

OpenAIRE

Singh, Jaywant; Crisafulli, Benedetta

2016-01-01

Purpose The Internet has changed the way services are delivered and has created new forms of customer-firm interactions. Whilst online service failures remain inevitable, the Internet offers opportunities for delivering efficient service recovery through the online channel. Notwithstanding, research evidence on how firms can deliver online service recovery remains scarce. This study investigates the impact of two online service recovery strategies - online information and te...

Accelerated life assessment of coating on the radar structure components in coastal environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zhe; Ming, ZhiMao

2016-07-04

This paper aimed to build an accelerated life test scheme and carry out quantitative analysis between accelerated life test in the laboratory and actual service for the coating composed of epoxy primer and polyurethane paint on structure components of some kind of radar served in the coastal environment of South China Sea. The accelerated life test scheme was built based on the service environment and failure analysis of the coating. The quantitative analysis between accelerated life test and actual service was conducted by comparing the gloss loss, discoloration, chalking, blistering, cracking and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy of the coating. The main factors leading to the coating failure were ultraviolet radiation, temperature, moisture, salt fog and loads, the accelerated life test included ultraviolet radiation, damp heat, thermal shock, fatigue and salt spray. The quantitative relationship was that one cycle of the accelerated life test was equal to actual service for one year. It was established that one cycle of the accelerated life test was equal to actual service for one year. It provided a precise way to predict actual service life of newly developed coatings for the manufacturer.

Optimum hospice at home services for end-of-life care: protocol of a mixed-methods study employing realist evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Butler, Claire; Brigden, Charlotte; Gage, Heather; Williams, Peter; Holdsworth, Laura; Greene, Kay; Wee, Bee; Barclay, Stephen; Wilson, Patricia

2018-05-16

Hospice at home (HAH) services aim to enable patients to be cared for and die in their place of choice, if that is at home, and to achieve a 'good death'. There is a considerable range of HAH services operating in England. The published evidence focuses on evaluations of individual services which vary considerably, and there is a lack of consistency in terms of the outcome measures reported. The evidence, therefore, does not provide generalisable information, so the question 'What are the features of hospice at home service models that work, for whom, and under what circumstances?' remains unanswered. The study aims to answer this question. This is a mixed-methods study in three phases informed by realist evaluation methodology. All HAH services in England will be invited to participate in a telephone survey to enable the development of a typology of services. In the second phase, case study sites representing the different service types will collect patient data and recruit carers, service managers and commissioners to gather quantitative and qualitative data about service provision and outcomes. A third phase will synthesise and refine the results through consensus workshops. The first survey phase has university ethics approval and the second phase, Integrated Research Application System (IRAS) and Health Research Authority (HRA) approval (IRAS ID:205986, REC:17/LO/0880); the third phase does not require ethics approval. Dissemination will be facilitated by project coapplicants with established connections to national policy-making forums, in addition to publications, conference presentations and reports targeted to service providers and commissioners. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Marketing concepts for pharmaceutical service development.

Science.gov (United States)

Grauer, D W

1981-02-01

Marketing concepts as a mechanism to help pharmacy develop, communicate, and sell future pharmaceutical services to consumers are discussed. Pharmacy as a profession must define itself broadly to take advantage of future growth opportunities. These growth opportunities will be realized from unmet health-care needs and changing consumer life style trends and values. New services must therefore be oriented toward consumers (i.e., patients, health professionals, and third-party agencies) to gain acceptance. Dispensing and drug-knowledge-distribution pharmaceutical services are reviewed by a product life cycle analysis of sales profits versus time. A marketing mix for new pharmaceutical services is developed consisting of service, price, distribution, and promotion strategies. Marketing can encompass those key elements necessary to meet the organizational goals of pharmacy and provide a systematic, disciplined approach for presenting a new service to consumers.

76 FR 58037 - Notice of Inventory Completion for Native American Human Remains and Associated Funerary Objects...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-19

... Mexico; and Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico. History and Description of the Remains Upon preparation for... Historical Society (History Colorado), Denver, CO; Correction AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior. ACTION...-10909, February 20, 2001). The Colorado Historical Society (History Colorado) completed an inventory of...

Prevalence of remaining horizontal instability in high-grade acromioclavicular joint injuries surgically managed.

Science.gov (United States)

Cisneros, Luis Natera; Reiriz, Juan Sarasquete

2017-04-01

To determine the prevalence of remaining horizontal instability in high-grade acromioclavicular joint (ACJ) injuries surgically managed by means of four different surgical strategies and to assess its relation to the clinical outcomes and the quality of life. In this multicentric non-randomized retrospective study, 53 patients with high-grade ACJ injuries surgically managed (by means of open or arthroscopic surgery) were clinically and radiographically assessed at 24 months or more after shoulder surgery. The presence of post-surgical remaining horizontal instability was evaluated by means of Alexander or axillary X-ray views. The study population was divided into two groups: patients with evidence of post-surgical remaining horizontal instability and patients without evidence of post-surgical remaining horizontal instability at the last follow-up visit. The relationship between remaining horizontal instability and the quality-of-life questionnaires was analyzed. 18.87% (10/53) of the Alexander or axillary X-rays views showed post-surgical remaining horizontal instability at the last follow-up visit (INSTAB-group). Results of the questionnaires were: (1) physical SF36 score (INSTAB-group 57.02 ± 3.17  and NO-INSTAB-group 57.66 ± 3.30, p = 0.583); (2) mental SF36 score (INSTAB-group 53.95 ± 3.98  and NO-INSTAB-group 55.71 ± 3.30, p = 0.150); (3) NRS for pain (INSTAB-group 1.30 ± 1.49 and NO-INSTAB-group 0.83  ± 1.08, p = 0.260); (4) DASH questionnaire (INSTAB-group 5.27 ± 5.42 and NO-INSTAB-group 3.06 ± 2.30, p = 0.049); (5) Constant score (INSTAB-group 93.4 ± 3.5 and NO-INSTAB-group 94.83  ± 4.3, p = 0.333); and Global satisfaction (INSTAB-group 8.7  ± 0.95 and NO-INSTAB-group 8.64 ± 1.03, p = 0.874). Independently of the type of procedure, post-surgical remaining horizontal instability was present in almost one-fifth of the patients, and this group of patients showed a significantly worse DASH score. The

An Origin of Life on Mars

Science.gov (United States)

McKay, Christopher P.

2010-01-01

Evidence of past liquid water on the surface of Mars suggests that this world once had habitable conditions and leads to the question of life. If there was life on Mars, it would be interesting to determine if it represented a separate origin from life on Earth. To determine the biochemistry and genetics of life on Mars requires that we have access to an organism or the biological remains of one—possibly preserved in ancient permafrost. A way to determine if organic material found on Mars represents the remains of an alien biological system could be based on the observation that biological systems select certain organic molecules over others that are chemically similar (e.g., chirality in amino acids). PMID:20452949

The factor of time in the life cycle assessment of housing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klunder, G.; van Nunen, H.

2003-01-01

Conducting life cycle assessments, or LCAs, involves many uncertainties, including those related to the factor of time. Time is very important in the environmental assessment of housing, because of the relatively long service life of houses. During a house's service life many changes occur, which

Corrosion evaluation of service water system materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stein, A.A.; Felder, C.M.; Martin, R.L.

1994-01-01

The availability and reliability of the service water system is critical for safe operation of a nuclear power plant. Degradation of the system piping and components has forced utilities to re-evaluate the corrosion behavior of current and alternative system materials, to support assessments of the remaining service life of the service water system, selection of replacement materials, implementation of corrosion protection methods and corrosion monitoring programs, and identification of maintenance and operational constraints consistent with the materials used. TU Electric and Stone and Webster developed a service water materials evaluation program for the Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station. Because of the length of exposure and the generic interest in this program by the nuclear power industry, EPRI joined TU to co-sponsor the test program. The program was designed to evaluate the corrosion behavior of current system materials and candidate replacement materials and to determine the operational and design changes which could improve the corrosion performance of the system. Although the test program was designed to be representative of service water system materials and environments targeted to conditions at Comanche Peak, these conditions are typical of and relevant to other fresh water cooled nuclear service water systems. Testing was performed in raw water and water treated with biocide under typical service water operating conditions including continuous flow, intermittent flow, and stagnant conditions. The test program evaluated the 300 Series and 6% molybdenum stainless steels, copper-nickel, titanium, carbon steel, and a formed-in-place nonmetallic pipe lining to determine susceptibility to general, crevice, and microbiologically influenced corrosion and pitting attack. This report presents the results of the test program after 4 years of exposure

Identification and documentation of persons being in palliative phase regardless of age, diagnosis and places of care, and their use of a sitting service at the end of life.

Science.gov (United States)

Wallerstedt, Birgitta; Sahlberg-Blom, Eva; Benzein, Eva; Andershed, Birgitta

2012-09-01

Older persons and persons with diseases other than cancer are often discriminated against when applying for palliative care despite growing numbers of both older persons and individuals with chronic diseases. An intention for palliative care in Sweden is that all persons in the final stage of life, irrespective of age, domicile, diagnosis, and care place shall have access to palliative care on equal terms. One way to support these persons in final stage of life and their relatives is to offer sitting service. To describe individuals who were identified and documented as being in a palliative phase in a Swedish municipality, with respect to demographics, use of a sitting service, continuity of care in the last month of life and the place of death. A second aim was to describe and compare the groups who received/did not receive sitting services related to the aforementioned variables. Retrospective data from nursing records and palliative care identification forms were analyzed with descriptive and analytic statistical methods. Among individuals deceased during 2007, 51% were identified and documented as being in palliative phase. The majority was older people (mean 83 years) with a noncancer diagnosis (58%). Twenty-eight individuals (16%) had received a sitting service between 8 and 249 hours (one extreme value = 2211). It is indicated that sitting service significantly increased the possibility of dying at home (p = 0.00004), but did not affect how often the place of care changed during the last month of life. A small sample from a Swedish context must be considered. These results can be related to an awareness in the municipality that led to adopting the concept of palliative care as not only for those with a cancer diagnosis. 2012 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences © 2012 Nordic College of Caring Science.

Successful outsourcing: improving quality of life through integrated support services.

Science.gov (United States)

Bates, Jason; Sharratt, Martin; King, John

2014-01-01

This article examines the way that non-clinical support services are provided in healthcare settings through outsourcing partnerships. The integrated support services model and benefits to patient experience and safety as well as organizational efficiency and effectiveness are explored through an examination of services at a busy urban community hospital.

Unmet Support Service Needs and Health-Related Quality of Life among Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer: The AYA HOPE Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ashley Wilder Smith

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Cancer for adolescents and young adults (AYA differs from younger and older patients; AYA face medical challenges while navigating social and developmental transitions. Research suggests that these patients are under- or inadequately served by current support services, which may affect health-related quality of life (HRQOL.Methods: We examined unmet service needs and HRQOL in the National Cancer Institute’s Adolescent and Young Adult Health Outcomes and Patient Experience (AYA HOPE study, a population-based cohort (n=484, age 15-39, diagnosed with cancer 6-14 months prior, in 2007-2009. Unmet service needs were psychosocial, physical, spiritual, and financial services where respondents endorsed that they needed, but did not receive, a listed service. Linear regression models tested associations between any or specific unmet service needs and HRQOL, adjusting for demographic, medical and health insurance variables.Results: Over one-third of respondents reported at least one unmet service need. The most common were financial (16%, mental health (15%, and support group (14% services. Adjusted models showed that having any unmet service need was associated with worse overall HRQOL, fatigue, physical, emotional, social, and school/work functioning, and mental health (p’s<0.0001. Specific unmet services were related to particular outcomes (e.g., needing pain management was associated with worse overall HRQOL, physical and social functioning (p’s<0.001. Needing mental health services had the strongest associations with worse HRQOL outcomes; needing physical/occupational therapy was most consistently associated with poorer functioning across domains.Discussion: Unmet service needs in AYAs recently diagnosed with cancer are associated with worse HRQOL. Research should examine developmentally appropriate, relevant practices to improve access to services demonstrated to adversely impact HRQOL, particularly physical therapy and mental

A probabilistic degradation model for the estimation of the remaining life distribution of feeders

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yuan, X.-X.; Pandey, M.D.; Bickel, G.A.

2006-01-01

Wall thinning due to flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) is a pervasive form of degradation in the outlet feeder pipes of the primary heat transport system of CANDU reactors. The prediction of the end-of-life of a feeder from wall thickness measurement data is confounded by the sampling and temporal uncertainties associated with the FAC degradation phenomenon. Traditional regression-based statistical methods deal with only the sampling uncertainties, leaving the temporal uncertainties unresolved. This paper presents an advanced probabilistic model, which is able to integrate the temporal uncertainties into the prediction of lifetime. In particular, a random gamma process model is proposed to model the FAC process and it is calibrated with a set of wall thickness measurements using the method of maximum likelihood. This information can be used to establish an optimum strategy for inspection and replacement of feeders. (author)

Map of Life - A Dashboard for Monitoring Planetary Species Distributions

Science.gov (United States)

Jetz, W.

2016-12-01

Geographic information about biodiversity is vital for understanding the many services nature provides and their potential changes, yet remains unreliable and often insufficient. By integrating a wide range of knowledge about species distributions and their dynamics over time, Map of Life supports global biodiversity education, monitoring, research and decision-making. Built on a scalable web platform geared for large biodiversity and environmental data, Map of Life endeavors provides species range information globally and species lists for any area. With data and technology provided by NASA and Google Earth Engine, tools under development use remote sensing-based environmental layers to enable on-the-fly predictions of species distributions, range changes, and early warning signals for threatened species. The ultimate vision is a globally connected, collaborative knowledge- and tool-base for regional and local biodiversity decision-making, education, monitoring, and projection. For currently available tools, more information and to follow progress, go to MOL.org.

42 CFR 137.105 - May a Self-Governance Tribe carryover from one year to the next any funds that remain at the end...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false May a Self-Governance Tribe carryover from one year to the next any funds that remain at the end of the funding agreement? 137.105 Section 137.105 Public Health PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES TRIBAL...

An End of Service Life Assessment of PMMA Lenses from Veteran Concentrator Photovoltaic Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)