Universal Credit and Automated Decision Making: A Case of the Digital Tail Wagging the Policy Dog?

Intended to simplify the benefit system and ’make work pay’, Universal Credit (UC) is the UK’s first ‘digital by design’ benefit. Proponents of UC highlight the greater efficiency and effectiveness of digitalisation, while critics point to costly IT write-offs and the ‘digital divide’ between people with the skills and resources to access digital technologies, and those without. Less attention has been paid to automation in UC and its effects on the people subject to these rapidly developing technologies. Findings from research exploring couples’ experiences of claiming UC suggest that automated processes for assessing entitlement and calculating payment may be creating additional administrative burdens for some claimants. Rigid design parameters built into UC’s digital architecture may also restrict options for policy reform. The article calls for a broadening of thinking and research about digitalisation in welfare systems to include questions of administrative burden and the wider effects and impacts on claimants.

Modeling And Design Of Rigid Connections Between Columns And Flat Slabs

When it comes to the statical calculation and the design of the connection between reinforced concrete flat slabs and columns, the usual practice is to assume a hinged connection. However, in many cases this assumption does not reflect the actual behavior of the connection and a rigid design should be targeted in order to transfer the moments from the slab into the column. This project aims to develop adequate strut-and-tie models in order to find practical solutions on how to transfer the moments from flat slabs into their supporting columns or in other words how to design a rigid slab-column connection. Special emphasis is devoted to solutions for the use of precast columns because the arrangement of the reinforcement is often limited

Modeling And Design Of Rigid Connections Between Columns And Flat Slabs

When it comes to the statical calculation and the design of the connection between reinforced concrete flat slabs and columns, the usual practice is to assume a hinged connection. However, in many cases this assumption does not reflect the actual behavior of the connection and a rigid design should be targeted in order to transfer the moments from the slab into the column. This project aims to develop adequate strut-and-tie models in order to find practical solutions on how to transfer the moments from flat slabs into their supporting columns or in other words how to design a rigid slab-column connection. Special emphasis is devoted to solutions for the use of precast columns because the arrangement of the reinforcement is often limited

Design of Multi Tool Holding Attachment for Radial Drill Machine

In many small scale industries General Purpose radial drill machine is used for drilling. On which many jobs are performed by just changing the tool. A special table is required to place the tool. Tables consume a large floor space. To overcome this problem there is a need to design a multi tool holding attachment for radial drill machine. The main purpose of this paper is to design a multi tool holding attachment for radial drill machine. The best solution for this is use of multi tool holding attachment. Here the multiple tools holding attachment can be fixed on the column of the radial drill machine. At a time four tools can be placed on the tool holder. The attachment can revolve about the axis of the column of the radial drill machine. Installing this attachment will reduce the required of floor space. The analysis of the multi tool holding attachment was done on Ansys software. It will also reduce the fatigue to worker which is caused due to regular bending, for changing the tool. Reduction in fatigue improves the decision making quality of the worker and improve his productivity. It’s easy installation and rigid design make it durable and cost efficient.

Prescriptive Grammar for Clinical Prescribing Workflow

Health information technology is being increasingly introduced into the healthcare environment with its benefits of providing safer and more effective practices. However, the new solutions are brought in issues of implementing them with existing clinical workflows and presents a variety of solutions that do not work well together. For healthcare professionals that want total control over their work, existing solutions can appear rigid and inflexible for their needs. Other solutions can also appear cumbersome as they take user experience for granted with their focus on ease of access. This research presents a prescriptive grammar for prescribing of medications which address the problems of fractured clinical workflow and rigid design of current prescribing tools. The author's solution uses a fully validated Parser Combinator Grammar with an Integrated Development Environment for the construction of prescriptions that once completed, are entered into an electronic health record using the HL7 standard.

Material and Cost Solutions Used for Construction of Upper Layers of the Road Pavement Structures

Availability and variety of materials and technologies used for construction of roads allows for searching for solutions which are the best and optimal in the economical range. The article presents the analysis of various design solutions (susceptible, semi-rigid, and rigid pavements) depending on material and cost solutions. In case of susceptible and semi-rigid pavements the first layer subjected to direct influence of traffic and weather conditions is the grindable layer. It may be made from various mineral and asphalt mixtures: stone mastic asphalt (SMA), asphalt concrete (AC), porous asphalt (PA), asphalt concrete for very thin layers (BBTM), and mastic asphalt (MA). The costs of realization of 4 cm of the grindable layer vary from 40.37 PLN to 50.65 PLN (1 PLN = 0.26 USD) depending on used mixture. Another layer in the susceptible and semi-rigid pavements is the binding layer, and the realization cost per 1m2 of the binding layer e.g. of type B is from 53.46 PLN to 71.37 PLN depending on used mixture and traffic category. The materials used for realization of the binding layer are the mineral and asphalt mixtures, in particular the asphalt concrete of three recommended graining - AC 11, AC 16, and AC 22. The material and cost optimization of the typical solutions of the pavement design, taking all layers into consideration, allowed for determining the “economical” solutions not only for a given traffic category, but also for a given type. Savings in case of the same design types are from approximately 11 PLN to over 12 PLN for the susceptible and semi-rigid design, and from 0.39 PLN to 0.49 PLN in case of realization of 1 m2 of the rigid design.

Stability of the anterior arm of three different Hyrax hybrid expanders: an in vitro study

ABSTRACT Introduction: The force applied to the teeth by fixed orthopaedic expanders has previously been studied, but not the force applied to the orthodontic mini-implant (OMI) used to expand the maxilla with Hyrax hybrid expanders (HHE). Objective: The aim of this article was to evaluate the clinical safety of the components (OMI, abutment and double wire arms) of three different force-transmitting systems (FTS) for conducting orthopaedic maxillary expansion: Jeil Medical & Tiger Dental™, Microdent™ and Ortholox™. Methods: For the realization of this in vitro study of the resistance to mechanical load, three different abutment types (bonded, screwed on, and coupling) and three different OMIs’ diameters (Jeil™ 2.5 mm, Microdent™ 1.6 mm and Ortholox™ 2.2 mm) were used. Ten tests for each of these three FTS were carried out in a static lateral load in artificial bone blocks (Sawbones™) by a Galdabini universal testing machine, then comparing its performance. Comparisons of loads, deformations and fractures were carried out by means of radiographs of FTS components in each case. Results: At 1- mm load and within the elastic deformation, FTS values ranged from 67 ± 13 N to 183 ± 48 N. Under great deformations, Jeil & Tiger™ was the one who withstood the greatest loads, with an average 378 ± 22 N; followed by Microdent™, with 201 ± 18 N, and Ortholox™, with 103 ± 10 N. At 3 mm load, the OMIs shaft bends and deforms when the diameter is smaller than 2.5 mm. The abutment fixation is crucial to transmit forces and moments. Conclusions: The present study shows the importance of a rigid design of the different components of HHEs, and also that HHEs would be suitable for maxillary expansion in adolescents and young adults, since its mean expansion forces exceed 120N. Furthermore, early abutment detachment or smaller mini-implants diameter would only be appropriate for children.

Novel Way for Continuous Filtration of Large Volumes of Water in Environmental Monitoring System

During ecological researches and monitoring of the natural aquatic environment it is very often necessary to carry out filtration of water large volumes for extraction on filters the weighed components, and for subsequent analysis of mineral and organic suspension’s structure. The installations applied now for vacuum filtration have a number of essential restrictions. The most important deficiency of existing installations for vacuum filtration is the use of a leak-tight receiver with rigid design. At intensive filtration such receiver has to have a large volume that limits filtration installation’s possibilities for transportation and afield operation. Need of a vacuum pump’s protection against a filtrate intrusion demands constant monitoring for receiver filling at the large filtration volume. During receiver filling the filtration process needs to be interrupted for filtrate removal from the receiver, but sometimes such interruption significantly complicates the filtration process. In this paper is described the developed new mobile installation for continuous vacuum filtration based on a closed cycle water-jet pump for vacuum generation. The proposed installation for vacuum filtration of natural water’s weighed components allows carry out filtration of water large volumes in the continuous mode. The installation hasn’t a leak-tight vacuum receiver so that it has small dimensions.