GSTF Digital Library (GSTF-DL): Open Journal Systems (Global Science and Technology Forum)
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Reducing Icy Conditions Over Bridges, Through Passive
Full text linkIcy road conditions are a major cause for car crashes. 70% of all roads in the United States are 8 located in icy regions, and winter and snow related maintenance account for 20% of the roads 9 maintenance budgets (FHWA, 2017), Snow also reduces the average road speed by 30 to 40% on 10 roads. More than 450 people are killed each year in the United States due to icy conditions on 11 roads (icyroadsaftey.co, 2015) of which more than 10% of these deaths are caused by accidents 12 over icy bridges. Due to this, many innovative systems have been designed and used to prevent 13 bridge icing. Most of these systems either use heat sources to heat the bridges’ surfaces or 14 chemical spray to melt the ice that forms over bridges. Unfortunately, these systems are usually 15 costly and require regular maintenance. Many researchers contributed bridge icing to the fact that 16 bridges are suspended above ground resulting in bridge surfaces to freeze before adjacent roads, 17 thus bridge decks lose heat from both the top and bottom surfaces while roads gain some heat 18 from their contact with the ground. However, field monitoring and building simulation showed 19 that the thermal properties of bridge surfaces are the true determining factor as to why bridges 20 freeze before adjacent roads. Furthermore, icy bridge surfaces become dangerous when 1) the 21 bridge’s surface reaches freezing point before adjacent roads, and 2) the existence of water or 22 GSTF Journal of Engineering Technology (JET) Vol.5 No.1, 2018© The Author(s) 2018. This article is published with open access by the GSTFDOI: 10.5176/ 2251-3701_5. 1.109snow over bridges when adjacent roads are dry (preferential icing). This research presents 23 literature review related to bridge freezing. The research also used field observation of a 175-mile 24 highway section during a snowstorm to investigate icing conditions over bridges. This research 25 revealed that while bridges might freeze before roads during early night hours, dangerous icing 26 formation over bridges occurs when snow is shoveled against the bridges’ parapets after 27 snowstorms. Thus, when air temperature rises above freezing, the snow melts and the water runs 28 over the bridges’ surfaces. When temperature drops again below freezing later at night, water can 29 freeze over bridges and create dangerous icy conditions. This research suggests that a 30 combination of applying paint with higher absorptive and lower emissive materials over bridges, 31 along with better snow removal practices, will reduce the dangerous icy conditions over bridges 32 significantly
Development and Pilot Test of a Chinese Medicine as Longevity Modality (CALM) Videos in Improving Hypertension Management in Chinese Immigrants: Feasibility of Educational and Storytelling Video
Full text linkCurrently, there are minimal educational materials customized for first-generation Chinese immigrants on hypertension management. The San Francisco Bay area has an increasingly large population of first-generation Chinese immigrants. Thus, the need for culturally sensitive and appropriate educational materials is critical for this vulnerable population to manage their hypertension. The aim of this study was to update and test the feasibility of the Chinese Medicine as Longevity Modality (CALM) DVD videos, including: 1) a patient education program using a Powerpoint file, conveyed via a video format; and 2) a storytelling video. The feasibility of the CALM videos was assessed by individual interviews using structured, open-ended questions to determine the participants’ comprehension of the video content and offering feedback and suggestions for the refinement of the videos. Findings generally demonstrated helpfulness of the proposed intervention protocol suggesting that educational materials that are culturally sensitive and appropriate are beneficial for the target population
Menopausal-specific quality of life among women in Hong Kong
Full text linkThis study aimed to explore the menopausal-specific quality of life and assess its relationship with the sociodemographic characteristics in menopausal and post-menopausal women in Hong Kong. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 218 women aged between 45 and 80 or over. The quality of life was assessed by Menopause-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (MENQOLTM). Results showed that the mean scores for vasomotor domain: 2.59 ± 1.71; psycho-social domain: 2.77 ± 1.39; physical domain: 2.89 ± 1.23 and sexual domain 2.60 ± 1.16. The physical domain had the highest score in menopausal and post-menopausal women. Univariate analysis demonstrated that younger and less educated working post-menopausal women perceive lower quality of life. Our findings suggest that menopausal-related symptoms affect the quality of life
Causal Model of Work Engagement among Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses Working in Long-Term Care Contexts in Japan
Full text linkThe objective of this study was to determine a causal process underlying work engagement, in which individual resources (i.e., resilience) and job resources influence work performance, mediated by work engagement in different types of nurses working in long-term care contexts. We investigated a work engagement causal model in which individual and job resources were set as antecedent factors, work engagement as a mediating factor, and work performance as the outcome, to clarify differences between registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs) working in long-term care contexts. We conducted a questionnaire-based survey with 1,786 Japanese nurses working in long-term care contexts in the Tohoku region. Using 1,269 respondents, we examined the causal model using structural equation modeling (SEM) and multiple population analysis to compare between RNs and LPNs. The results revealed a process whereby individual and job resources influenced work performance, mediated by work engagement, in RNs. In other words, greater individual and job resources enhance pride in work and positive emotion (i.e., work engagement), and greater positive emotion improves work performance. This process was not equivalent in LPNs. In LPNs, the most significant factor affecting work performance was the direct effect of job resources; moreover, the mediating effect of work engagement was not supported. The results demonstrated that in order to improve performance among LPNs working in long-term care contexts, it is important to provide job resource support, as well as to facilitate positive emotion through pride in one’s work
Entrepreneurial University Transformation in Indonesia: A Comprehensive Assessment of IPB
Full text linkThis article [1] explores university entrepreneurial transformation in Indonesia with a case of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB). Data and information were collected through a content analysis of university policy and educational documents, a structured survey with 331 respondents, in particular staff and students, and 21 in-depth interviews and 5 focus group discussions with 77 people comprising university top-management, faculty, students, and external stakeholders. The European Commission/OECD entrepreneurial university framework was applied for the data analysis. In addition, quantitative indicators were compared with 76 Indonesian and 15 Asian universities. Findings indicate that IPB is an entrepreneurial university from the perspective of research-based technology transfer and innovation. In addition, qualitative information indicates that the entrepreneurial development of the learning and teaching processes needs more attention, however when quantitatively assessed, the student entrepreneurship output is high in relation to many other universities. The results have relevance for the higher education community in terms of understanding the complexity of transforming knowledge institutions into more entrepreneurial organizations. The authors demonstrate a holistic assessment methodology and subsequently propose objective measurements for assessing the entrepreneurial status of a university
Changing of Asian Outlooks and New Travel Demands are the Emerging Factors for Expanding Tourism Markets Globally
Full text linkThis paper has focused on some basic Asian outlooks and inherited homogeneous characteristics, especially social & cultural traditions, values, ethnicity and emotions. These are predominant factors for the peoples of Southeast, South and East-Asian countries that have influenced much on decision-making matters in families as well as in societies. These influencing factors are also responsible for expanding tourism markets globally. Indeed, long period colonial exploitation & struggle and gradually social transformation have prepared Asian peoples growing their self-reliance, self-esteem and the economic uplift that have brought to changes more in their lifestyles and freethinking about the world and other societies. Asians’ long economic backwardness, prejudice and dominated anti-ethic values have been disappearing with faster growing of individualism, nationalism and economic development of Asian peoples. All these issues are more or less responsible for changing the outlook of Asian inhabitants and preparing them to be widened more their traveling perceptions about world tourism attractions and different society values. This paper has discussed elaborately on these factors and analysed the impacts on decision-making matters for tourism participation based on study survey results and other documents. Asian societies have been accustomed to modern technology & communication and the present global interactions are influencing them much in the new way of thinking, creating demand for visiting other societies and western world. Present young generations are thirst for sharing knowledge of unseen and unknown values with others. All these factors have some positive roles increasing the number of Asian travelers gradually. This paper also presents a habitual marketing nature and limits of expenditure of Asian travelers
Self-affinities of Folds and Incomplete Similarity
Full text linkA method to analyze self-affinities is introduced, andapplied to the large scale fold geometries of the Quaternary andTertiary in the inner belt of the Northeast Honshu Arc. Based onthis analysis, their geometries are found to be self-affine and canbe differently scaled in different directions. We recognize the selfaffinitiesfor the amplitude and the wavelength of folds, anddiscover a crossover from local to global altitude (vertical)variation of the geometries of folds in the Northeast Honshu Arc.Buckingham's Pi-theorem has been applied to similar systems ofinhomogeneous viscous Newtonian fluid under similar boundarycondition. However, Buckingham's Pi-theorem cannot give us theself-affinities of folds. A general renormalization-group argumentis proposed to the applicability of the similarity theory. By thisargument, we derive the self-affinities for the amplitude and thewavelength of folds as a parameter for the anisotropic stress field
A Comparison of the System of Public Housing in Hong Kong with the System of Public Housing in Spain
Full text linkThe goal of this paper is to briefly study the system of Public Housing in Hong Kong and Spain, and to compare them. On the one hand, Hong Kong has more than 7.2 million residents crammed into a relatively small land mass, a fact which, among others, provokes that real estate prices are extremely high. Because of the high prices, the Government has had to introduce a large system of public housing (almost a 46% of Hong Kong’s population lives under some of the Public Housing Schemes). On the other hand, in Spain, even though Public Housing has a constitutional basis, the system remains still very inefficient and far less important than in Hong Kong
Psychosocial Needs among Indonesian Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer
Full text linkThe aim of this study was to examine the importance of psychosocial needs and to identify the extent to which they are unmet among Indonesian women diagnosed with breast cancer. The descriptive with cross sectional study was used. The participants (n=132) were asked to complete the Psychosocial Needs Inventory (PNI), which consists of 7 categories with 48 items. The most important psychosocial needs was in ‘child care’ category, followed by ‘support network’, ‘interaction with health professionals’, ‘information’, ‘practical’, ‘identity’, and ‘emotional and spiritual’, respectively. Moreover, ‘practical needs’ was the most unmet psychosocial needs category, followed by childcare needs, emotional and spiritual needs, interaction with health professional needs, identity needs, support network needs, and information needs, respectively. The most unmet need item was ‘help with financial matters’ (42.4%). The high level of unmet needs across a wide range of psychosocial needs among cancer patients was related to low income in particular of the practical need. The findings provide useful information for nurses and health care providers to improvement the intervention to meet psychosocial needs among breast cancer patients
Application of GIS for Pavement Maintenance Prioritization Based on a New Approach at a Network Level
No full textNowadays, the pavement maintenance programming and preservation are considered as a necessity in road agencies. In other words, the road agencies have realized that using the decision support system such as pavement management system (PMS), which assists them to find cost-effective maintenance solutions, could be useful for managing pavement networks. Budget limitation compels road agencies to prioritize the maintenance of pavements. Actually, maintenance prioritization, which depends on various factors like pavement conditions, traffic volume, performance standards and financial constraints, is a necessity for the optimal use of the resources and selection of the better choices. The pavement management system, as a strategic tool, has been organized by collecting and retaining large amounts of data. The Geographical information system (GIS), as a practical tool, can be appropriate for data integrating, collecting, managing, analyzing and output presenting in PMS. Factors such as the significant cost of data collection, the lack of long-term pavement performance data and the lack of developed and calibrated pavement deterioration models, are important reasons that can affect the implementation of pavement management system and the pavement maintenance prioritization. In the absence of these main needs, providing a new and simple approach can be used as a short-term management decisions for pavement maintenance management. This paper, develops a short-term maintenance management approach in 2 scenarios (with and without budget limitation) at the network level, wherein prioritization is based mainly on pavement condition, treatment cost, importance of road performance and communication role (connectivity) and traffic range in the GIS environment. Furthermore, crack sealing, patching, and thin overlay have been chosen as maintenance activities. To check the results of the proposed method, the surface distress of flexible pavements in Ilam province, Iran, were investigated in 2013 through rapid visual evaluations. Moreover the geographical information system (GIS), as a strategic asset management tool, has been used to display pavement section distress and the result of prioritization