Naresuan University Journal
Not a member yet
39887 research outputs found
Sort by
Unified Multi-speed Analysis (UMA) for the Condition Monitoring of Aero-Engines
No full textFor rotating machinery in which speeds and dynamics constantly change, performing vibration-based condition monitoring can be challenging. Thus, an effort is made here to develop a Unified Multi-speed fault diagnosis technique that can exploit useful vibration information available at various speeds from a rotating machine in a single analysis. Commonly applied indicators are computed from data collected from a rig at different speeds for a baseline case and different faults. Four separate analyses are performed: single speed at a single bearing, integrated features from multiple speeds at a single bearing, single speed for integrated features from multiple bearings and the proposed Unified Multi-speed analysis. The Unified Multi-speed approach produces the most conspicuous separation and isolation among the conditions tested. Observations made here suggest integration of more dynamic features available at different speeds improves the learning process of the tool; which could prove useful for aero-engine condition monitoring
A qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the Advancing Quality pay-for-performance programme in the NHS North West
No full textAdvancing Quality (AQ) is a voluntary programme providing financial incentives for improvement in the quality of care provided to NHS patients in the north-west of England.Objectives(1) To identify the impact of AQ on key stakeholders and clinical practice; (2) to assess its cost-effectiveness; (3) to identify key factors that assist or impede its successful implementation; and (4) to provide lessons for the wider implementation of pay-for-performance schemes across the NHS.DesignWe tested whether or not the financial incentives of AQ had an impact on mortality using two methods: a between-region difference-in-differences analysis comparing the North West region and the rest of England for the incentivised and non-incentivised conditions and a triple-difference analysis comparing performance on the incentivised conditions, as well as the non-incentivised conditions, in the North West region and the rest of England. A cost-effectiveness analysis of AQ based on the first 18 months of the programme was also undertaken. We used interviews and observation to explore how and why changes occurred.ResultsRisk-adjusted mortality rates for all three of the conditions we studied (pneumonia, heart failure and myocardial infarction) decreased in both the North West region and the rest of England during the first 18 months of the scheme. The reduction in mortality for incentivised conditions was greater in the North West region than in the rest of England. Compared with non-incentivised conditions within the North West region, there was a significant reduction in overall mortality for incentivised conditions, comprising a statistically significant reduction in pneumonia and non-significant reductions in the other two conditions. Comparing mortality for the incentivised conditions with mortality for these conditions in other regions, there was a significant reduction in overall mortality in the North West region, again made up of individually significant reductions in pneumonia and non-significant reductions in the other two conditions. The reduction in mortality over the 18-month period studied for non-incentivised conditions was not significantly different between the North West region and the rest of England. The between-region difference-in-differences analysis after 42 months showed that risk-adjusted mortality for the incentivised conditions fell in the rest of England and the North West region. This reduction in the rest of England was significantly larger than in the North West region and was concentrated in pneumonia. However, the reductions in mortality were larger for the non-incentivised conditions in the North West region than in the rest of England between these periods. For incentivised conditions, the triple-difference analysis shows a larger reduction in mortality for the rest of England than in the North West region between the short- and long-term periods.ConclusionsBased on the first 18 months, the AQ programme was a relatively effective and cost-effective intervention. However, findings at 42 months are open to interpretation. One interpretation is that the short-term improvements were not sustained and that the observed improvements in mortality in the non-incentivised conditions within hospitals participating in AQ were unrelated to the programme. An alternative interpretation is that these improvements are related to the positive spillover effect of AQ. Further research should be undertaken to determine the explanation for the findings.<br/
Millimetre polarization of the protoplanetary nebula OH 231.8+4.2: a follow-up study with CARMA
No full textTeacher education as intercultural practice:Narratives of Spanish-medium practicum experiences in Western Sahara refugee camps in Algeria
No full textThe effect of complex black carbon microphysics on the determination of the optical properties of brown carbon
No full textAssessment of the impacts of brown carbon (BrC) requires accurate determination of its physical properties, but a model must be invoked to derive these from instrument data. Ambient measurements were made in London at a site influenced by traffic and solid fuel (principally wood) burning, apportioned by single particle soot photometer data and optical properties measured using multiwavelength photoacoustic spectroscopy. Two models were applied: a commonly used Mie model treating the particles as single-coated spheres and a Rayleigh-Debye-Gans approximation treating them as aggregates of smaller-coated monomers. The derived solid fuel BrC parameters at 405nm were found to be highly sensitive to the model treatment, with a mass absorption cross section ranging from 0.47 to 1.81m(2)/g and imaginary refractive index from 0.013 to 0.062. This demonstrates that a detailed knowledge of particle morphology must be obtained and invoked to accurately parameterize BrC properties based on aerosol phase measurements
Reliability of a frailty index based on the clinical assessment of health deficits in C57BL/6J mice.
No full textSources of pathology underlying listening disorders in children.
No full textSome children referred to audiology and developmental disability services have listening difficulties, despite normal audiograms. These children may be tested for 'auditory processing disorder' (APD), a controversial construct suggesting that neural dysfunction in the central auditory system leads to impaired auditory perception. An important question, not currently tested in clinical evaluation, is whether listening difficulties result from problems with bottom-up auditory sensory processing or top-down modulating cognition. Perceptual variability and poor performance on standardized tests suggest that listening difficulties are primarily cognitive in origin. However, evidence for impaired olivocochlear function and temporal processing deficits may implicate peripheral or central auditory dysfunction in some cases. Wide-spread, top-down modulation of auditory cortical, brainstem and ear function suggests that afferent and efferent control systems may not be simple to segregate. During normal maturation, hearing appears to develop in proportion to the complexity of both stimuli and tasks. But some younger individuals have mature hearing, highlighting individual differences that suggest APD may be due to a generalized developmental delay. Recent studies have investigated specific hypotheses showing, for example, that spatial hearing and executive function are compromised in some children with listening difficulties. Using speech stimuli (e.g. consonant-vowel syllables) to examine auditory brainstem responses, and psychophysiological relations between dichotic hearing and cortical physiology, various effects of auditory experience and development point the way to promising approaches for further studies of APD. Newer technology, from genetic sequencing to MRI, may have the sensitivity to test whether and how frequently APD is associated with impaired processing in the auditory system
Sporting Justifications under EU Free Movement and Competition Law: The case of the football "transfer system"
No full textGoverning bodies have significant autonomy in the organisation of professional sport in the EU, a situation now supported by Article 165 TFEU. However the post-Lisbon competence for sport does not grant any exemption for practices that infringe fundamental freedoms or competition law; such infringements can only be justified where they are a proportionate response to an inherent need in that sport. The football ‘transfer system’ has been the subject of a series of EU law challenges, but continues to place obstacles in the way of the free movement of players between Member States and may restrict the ability of most clubs to compete for the elite players. Court of Arbitration for Sport decisions in transfer dispute cases have entrenched this situation, and recent evidence casts doubt on both the ability of the authorities to justify the current system and the 2001 decision by the European Commission to sign it off as being an acceptable balance between the rights of the stakeholders