scholarly journals Development of methods for studying and assessing the reliability of roads at the stages of their design

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anatoly Bazhanov
Keyword(s):  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Statistical Approach ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Probability Of Failure ◽  
Road Maintenance ◽  
Pattern Recognition Theory ◽  
Recognition Theory ◽  
Road Data ◽  
Data Design ◽  
Over Time

The article outlines the problems of research and evaluation of the reliability of highways at the stages of their design. As a result of the study, a three-stage method of obtaining generalized statistically homogeneous information on the same type of roads was developed based on sufficiently rigorous methods and models of pattern recognition theory, theories of similarity and dimensions, and a new predictive method for analyzing the condition of roads for their further use of the information obtained for the study and evaluation of the probability of failure-free operation of new road structures. The technique is based on taking into account the maximum use of experience in the design of highways-analogues of the world’s leading countries with high levels of reliability. The use of the probabilistic-statistical approach proposed in this work to assessing the reliability of roads, taking into account the risk of their road construction’s destruction over time during road maintenance, can be used as a priori and predictive calculation information in a quantitative study of the reliability of new road modifications and their elements on stages of road data design. The results of the study carried out in this paper allow us to conclude that the provisions of the developed methodology make a significant contribution to the process of studying and evaluating the reliability of roads, which during the design stages can contribute to a significant adjustment.

scholarly journals Road Maintenance in Africa: Approaches and Perspectives

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 01005
Author(s):  
Mostafa Hassan M
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Dominant Mode ◽  
Poor Health ◽  
Operating Costs ◽  
Road Maintenance ◽  
Significant Progress ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Over Time

In Africa, roads are the dominant mode of passenger and freight transport, for which the need is growing rapidly. It is noticeable that most of the African countries do not do enough to ensure the sustainability of road infrastructure as it has been widely reported that roads are affected, to varying degrees, by premature deterioration. Most of the African countries have adopted institutional reforms, notably entailing the creation of road funds and road agencies, and made significant progress on road maintenance. However, many challenges remain to be addressed in all of them to ensure appropriate maintenance. Although spending on road maintenance has increased over time in all African countries it remains insufficient to cover the needs. Poorly maintained roads constrain mobility, significantly raise vehicle operating costs, increase accident rates and their associated human and property costs, and aggravate isolation, poverty, poor health, and illiteracy in rural communities. This paper focuses, in particular, on road maintenance in some African countries considering types of road maintenance and the different approaches aiming at a comparison to reflect on similarities and differences.

scholarly journals P34 Characteristics, diagnosis and management of Cushing’s disease - A systematic review and meta-analysis

BJS Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chan Hee Koh ◽  
Danyal Z Khan ◽  
Ronneil Digpal ◽  
Hugo Layard Horsfall ◽  
Hani J Marcus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Cushing’S Disease ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Pituitary Surgery ◽  
Serum Cortisol ◽  
Cushing's Disease ◽  
Diagnosis And Management ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Introduction The clinical practice and research in the diagnosis and management of Cushing’s disease remains heterogeneous and challenging to this day. We sought to establish the characteristics of Cushing’s disease, and the trends in diagnosis, management and reporting in this field. Methods Searches of PubMed and Embase were conducted. Study protocol was registered a-priori. Random-effects analyses were conducted to establish numerical estimates. Results Our screening returned 159 papers. The average age of adult patients with Cushing’s disease was 39.3, and 13.6 for children. The male:female ratio was 1:3. 8% of patients had undergone previous transsphenoidal resection. The ratio of macroadenomas: microadenomas:imaging-undetectable adenomas was 18:53:29. The most commonly reported preoperative biochemical investigations were serum cortisol (average 26.4µg/dL) and ACTH (77.5pg/dL). Postoperative cortisol was most frequently used to define remission (74.8%), most commonly with threshold of 5µg/dL (44.8%). Average remission rates were 77.8% with recurrence rate of 13.9%. Median follow-up was 38 months. Majority of papers reported age (81.9%) and sex (79.4%). Only 56.6% reported whether their patients had previous pituitary surgery. 45.3% reported whether their adenomas were macroadenoma, microadenoma or undetectable. Only 24.1% reported preoperative cortisol, and this did not improve over time. 60.4% reported numerical thresholds for cortisol in defining remission, and this improved significantly over time (p = 0.004). Visual inspection of bubbleplots showed increasing preference for threshold of 5µg/dL. 70.4% reported the length of follow up. Conclusion We quantified the characteristics of Cushing’s disease, and analysed the trends in investigation and reporting. This review may help to inform future efforts in forming guidelines for research and clinical practice.

Changes in the contents of corporate codes of ethics: an institutional interpretation

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jang B. Singh
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
Legal Authority ◽  
Valuable Contribution ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovative Management ◽  
Study Population ◽  
Over Time

Purpose – The purpose of this paper was to examine changes in the contents of Canadian corporate codes of ethics over a period of two decades from an institutionalization perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The paper tracks changes in the contents of the codes of large Canadian corporations longitudinally by analyzing their contents at two points over two decades, in 1992 and 2012. In particular, the paper tests three hypotheses related to the institutionalization of codes. Findings – It was found that the codes have become more prescriptive, they are more concerned with social responsibility and are more likely to identify their moral and legal authority. Overall, the findings support an institutional interpretation of the observed changes. Research limitations/implications – While large corporations are critical in establishing new and innovative management practices, their selection as the study population limits the generalizabilty of the findings. Another limitation of this paper is that it used an a priori determined set of items to analyze the contents of the codes and while this was needed to facilitate the comparison across time, it also meant that some important items were not clearly identified. Originality/value – Codes of ethics are the foundation of ethics programs in corporations and their contents could be critical in the development of a culture of ethics in corporations. This paper makes a valuable contribution to research on business ethics by analyzing the codes of ethics of the largest corporations in Canada at two points over two decades. The need to track changes in corporate codes of ethics over time has been advocated by several researchers, but longitudinal studies in this area are rare.

scholarly journals Primary Science Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectancy: A Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (9) ◽  
pp. 79-91
Author(s):  
Gillian Ward ◽  
◽  
Helen Dixon ◽  
Helen Withy ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Science Teachers ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Experienced Teachers ◽  
Outcome Expectancy ◽  
Primary Science ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Over Time

Self-efficacious teachers are critical in the development of students’ positive attitudes towards science and scientific literacy yet to date little attention has been given to studies of experienced teachers of primary science and development of their self-efficacy (SE) beliefs. The aim of this study was to explore how two experienced teachers of primary science built their SE beliefs and outcome expectancy. Bandura’s (1977) SE framework provided the conceptual lens to understand participants’ experiences and beliefs. Findings suggest that teachers’ SE beliefs had developed over time, creating a foundation for a strong expectancy outcome. Each of the sources of influence made a significant contribution to their beliefs about their science teaching capability and the value of science. Seemingly, their strong outcome expectancy enabled them to be persistent and resilient, overcoming challenges as they arose. We argue that a strong expectancy outcome is necessary to ensure SE does not weaken over time.

scholarly journals Fibromyalgia Impact Reduction Using Online Personal Health Informatics: Longitudinal Observational Study

10.2196/15819 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. e15819
Author(s):  
William Collinge ◽  
Robert Soltysik ◽  
Paul Yarnold
Keyword(s):  
Health Informatics ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Personal Health ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Cumulative Number ◽  
Impact Reduction ◽  
Health Diary ◽  
Over Time

Background Personal health informatics have the potential to help patients discover personalized health management strategies that influence outcomes. Fibromyalgia (FM) is a complex chronic illness requiring individualized strategies that may be informed by analysis of personal health informatics data. An online health diary program with dynamic feedback was developed to assist patients with FM in identifying symptom management strategies that predict their personal outcomes, and found reduced symptom levels associated with program use. Objective The aim of this study was to determine longitudinal associations between program use and functional impact of FM as measured by scores on a standardized assessment instrument, the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ). Methods Participants were self-identified as diagnosed with FM and recruited via online FM advocacy websites. Participants used an online health diary program (“SMARTLog”) to report symptom ratings, behaviors, and management strategies used. Based on single-subject analysis of the accumulated data over time, individualized recommendations (“SMARTProfile”) were then provided by the automated feedback program. Indices of program use comprised of cumulative numbers of SMARTLogs completed and SMARTProfiles received. Participants included in this analysis met a priori criteria of sufficient program use to generate SMARTProfiles (ie, ≥22 SMARTLogs completed). Users completed the FIQ at baseline and again each subsequent month of program use as follow-up data for analysis. Kendall tau-b, a nonparametric statistic that measures both the strength and direction of an ordinal association between two repeated measured variables, was computed between all included FIQ scores and both indices of program use for each subject at the time of each completed FIQ. Results A total of 76 users met the a priori use criteria. The mean baseline FIQ score was 61.6 (SD 14.7). There were 342 FIQ scores generated for longitudinal analysis via Kendall tau-b. Statistically significant inverse associations were found over time between FIQ scores and (1) the cumulative number of SMARTLogs completed (tau-b=–0.135, P<.001); and (2) the cumulative number of SMARTProfiles received (tau-b=–0.133, P<.001). Users who completed 61 or more SMARTLogs had mean follow-up scores of 49.9 (n=25, 33% of the sample), an 18.9% drop in FM impact. Users who generated 11 or more new SMARTProfiles had mean follow-up scores of 51.8 (n=23, 30% of the sample), a 15.9% drop. Conclusions Significant inverse associations were found between FIQ scores and both indices of program use, with FIQ scores declining as use increased. Based on established criteria for rating FM severity, the top one-third of users in terms of use had clinically significant reductions from “severe” to “moderate” FM impact. These findings underscore the value of self-management interventions with low burden, high usability, and high perceived relevance to the user. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02515552; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02515552

Efficient Reliability Assessment With the Conditional Probability Method

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rami Mansour ◽  
Mårten Olsson
Keyword(s):  
Conditional Probability ◽  
Structural Reliability ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Reliability Assessment ◽  
Probability Of Failure ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Probability Method ◽  
Probability Of Survival ◽  
Design Variables ◽  
Reliability Method

Reliability assessment is an important procedure in engineering design in which the probability of failure or equivalently the probability of survival is computed based on appropriate design criteria and model behavior. In this paper, a new approximate and efficient reliability assessment method is proposed: the conditional probability method (CPM). Focus is set on computational efficiency and the proposed method is applied to classical load-strength structural reliability problems. The core of the approach is in the computation of the probability of failure starting from the conditional probability of failure given the load. The number of function evaluations to compute the probability of failure is a priori known to be 3n + 2 in CPM, where n is the number of stochastic design variables excluding the strength. The necessary number of function evaluations for the reliability assessment, which may correspond to expensive computations, is therefore substantially lower in CPM than in the existing structural reliability methods such as the widely used first-order reliability method (FORM).

Bioactivity as a function of structure VIII. Application of pattern recognition theory to the classification of bicycloorthoesters

1980 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-137
Author(s):  
P. F. Potashnikov ◽  
V. I. Fetisov ◽  
V. V. Ezhov ◽  
B. I. Dan'shin ◽  
G. A. Sokol'skii
Keyword(s):  
Pattern Recognition ◽  
Pattern Recognition Theory ◽  
Recognition Theory

scholarly journals Enhancing Integrity to Strengthen Organizational Performance of Local Authorities in Malaysia

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2.29) ◽  
pp. 326
Author(s):  
Ahmad Fadzli Ahmad Tajuddin ◽  
Anis Yusal Yusoff ◽  
Mohd Rezaidi Ishak
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Feedback Loop ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Over Time

The main theme of this paper encompasses on the operationalization of the notion of integrity focusing on the performance of local authorities (LAs) in Malaysia. Specifically, the study applies the Community Integrity Building (CIB) concept which highlighted on the significant contribution of tripartite parties in gearing for better organizational performance namely community monitors, contractors and LAs. Furthermore, CIB creates an enhanced feedback loop of continuous improvement and vigilance, creating better community over time. The study also pioneered on measuring of fix rate methodology and integrity approach objectively; thus bridging the gap between conceptualization and operationalization spectrum. Finally, the paper concludes by enlightening and giving some insights on the potentials of CIB approach and changing the typical art of doing things in public service especially with regards to integrity agenda vis-‘a-vis building stronger local community.              

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