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Impact of Minimum Unit Pricing among people who are alcohol dependent and accessing treatment services: Technical appendix structured interview data
Get PDFThis appendix provides additional methodological detail on Work Package 1 (WP1) of the project described in the main report. In particular, it provides information on our recruitment and interview procedures as well as a full description of the content of the structured interview and example copies of the data collection instruments. Some material is repeated from the main report to allow this appendix to be read as a standalone methodological document
An Efficient Method for Complex Antenna Design Based on a Self Adaptive Surrogate Model Assisted Optimization Technique
No full textSurrogate models are widely used in antenna design for optimization efficiency improvement. Currently, the targeted antennas often have a small number of design variables and specifications, and the surrogate model training time is short. However, modern antennas become increasingly complex, which needs much more design variables and specifications, making the training time become a new bottleneck, i.e., in some cases, even longer than electromagnetic (EM) simulation time. Therefore, a new method, called training cost reduced surrogate model-assisted hybrid differential evolution for complex antenna optimization (TR-SADEA), is presented in this article. The key innovations include: 1) a self-adaptive Gaussian process surrogate modeling method with a significantly reduced training time while mostly maintaining the antenna performance prediction accuracy and 2) a new hybrid surrogate model-assisted antenna optimization framework that reduces the training time and increases the convergence speed. An indoor base station antenna with 2G to 5G cellular bands (45 design variables and 12 specifications) and a 5G outdoor base station antenna (23 design variables and 18 specifications) are used to demonstrate TR-SADEA. Experimental results show that more than 90% of the training time and about 20% iterations (simulations and surrogate modeling) are reduced compared to a state-of-the-art method while obtaining high antenna performance
The role of occupational therapy in accessible tourism
Get PDFDisability is an increasing area of scholarship across all areas of citizenship due to the 182 signatory
nations to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Accessible tourism
is one area of the convention that is becoming increasingly important and popular among
tourism scholars and practitioners alike. Yet, existing literature recognises the uncertainty
among practitioners of what essentially entails accessible tourism, with a lack of awareness toward
the wider disability spectrum clearly present. However, tourism scholars and practitioners
have yet to acknowledge the role of occupational therapy in delivering accessible
tourism experiences in the areas of hard infrastructure development (transport, built environment,
destination management) and quality service experience development (adaptive activity,
interpretation, universal experience development). This is despite their expertise in understanding
the capacities of individuals with a wide range of disabilities and how environments
might be adapted to increase inclusivity. This note finds a need exists for interdisciplinary approaches
to accessible tourism research
Implications for voltage control with increased distributed generation on interconnected power networks
Get PDFElectrical distribution networks in the UK are likely to experience increasing levels of distributed and renewable generation connections in the near future; emphasised by the 2019 government pledge to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. This paper focuses on a specific group of 33/11kV transformers on a meshed network in the UK and aims to model how the introduction of wind and solar farms on the interconnected 11kV distribution network could affect automatic voltage control devices upstream
Health and financial costs of adverse childhood experiences in 28 European countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Get PDFBackground
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with increased health risks across the life course. We aimed to estimate the annual health and financial burden of ACEs for 28 European countries.
Methods
In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, Criminal Justice Databases, and Education Resources Information Center for quantitative studies (published Jan 1, 1990, to Sept 8, 2020) that reported prevalence of ACEs and risks of health outcomes associated with ACEs. Pooled relative risks were calculated for associations between ACEs and harmful alcohol use, smoking, illicit drug use, high body-mass index, depression, anxiety, interpersonal violence, cancer, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and respiratory disease. Country-level ACE prevalence was calculated using available data. Country-level population attributable fractions (PAFs) due to ACEs were generated and applied to 2019 estimates of disability-adjusted life-years. Financial costs (US0·1 billion (Montenegro) to $129·4 billion (Germany) and were equivalent to between 1·1% (Sweden and Turkey) and 6·0% (Ukraine) of nations’ gross domestic products.
Interpretation
Availability of ACE data varies widely between countries and country-level estimates cannot be directly compared. However, findings suggest ACEs are associated with major health and financial costs across European countries. The cost of not investing to prevent ACEs must be recognised, particularly as countries look to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, which interrupted services and education, and potentially increased risk factors for ACEs
The resistance in management accounting practices towards a neoliberal economy
Get PDFPurpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the resistance in management accounting practices (MAPs) in a developing economy in the manufacturing and service sectors in Vietnam.
Design/methodology/approach
Data collection was carried out using survey questionnaires in Vietnamese language. The questionnaires were distributed to selected respondents from the manufacturing and service organisations in Vietnam. Textual structuralism was used to analyse different categories of data, i.e. survey questionnaires, photos and qualitative texts obtained from the literature.
Findings
The findings indicate that the usage of MAPs is more prevalent in the manufacturing sector than in the service sector. In addition, various traditional and contemporary MAPs are being used concurrently in Vietnam, which challenges the classical twofold dichotomy between mere socialism and mere neoliberalism.
Research limitations/implications
The textual and photographic structuralism is used in this study to analyse primary data (geography and society and time) in a static setting. Hence, it does not analyse the research phenomena in a dynamic equilibrium setting to view the development of the research phenomena over time. Further research could expand data collection to include longitudinal and dynamic settings.
Practical implications
MAPs can be implemented in economic systems ranging from command to capitalist systems. Although most countries in the world follow a mixed economic system, specific MAPs could be designed for a transitional economic system such as that of Vietnam. This affects both theorists and practitioners in Vietnam applying sustainable MAPs to boost a country's competitiveness during transition.
Originality/value
This study expands understanding of the conformity of MAPs in relation to economic systems under the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) – the ruling party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Understanding the differences in the way these MAPs are utilised constitutes an essential area of the accounting discipline to advance MAPs in Vietnamese enterprises and progress theoretical development of sustainable MAPs
Slowness as a Strategy of the Contemporary through Films
Get PDFIn Future Studies and the History of Technology accelerating change is a perceived increase in the rate of technological change throughout history. This may suggest faster and more profound change in the future and may or may not be accompanied by equally profound social and cultural change. Responding to the accelerating technological landscape and contemporary life, this paper researches how the concept of ‘time’ plays a significant role. The author, an experimental filmmaker, charts an experiential journey within several pivotal ‘dream films’, along with relevant artists’ moving images in relation to time and slowness in the moving image as critical media. As contemporary life has become more and more fast paced, and one year on the impact of COVID-19 is still being felt, the idea of stillness is beginning to become a more desirable commodity. The author explores ‘slow cinema’, acknowledging seminal directors Andrei Tarkovsky and Claire Denis, as well as art films which frequently emphasise long takes, offering minimalist aesthetics with little or no narrative. In an endeavour to portray different temporalities and reveal and allude to the invisibility of time, the author relates to Julia Kristeva’s notions of intertextuality, transposition and time, and Lutz Koepnik’s concept of slowness as a strategy of the contemporary. The author discusses four ‘dream films’, where painterly, poetic, non-linear narratives, and in-between spaces are played out: FRIDA Travels to Ibiza, Cycle, Llafarganu Papagei and Frock
Ubiquitous Control of a CNC Machine: Proof of Concept for Industrial IoT Applications
Get PDFIn this paper, an integrated system to control and manage a state-of-the-art industrial computer numerical control (CNC) machine (Studer S33) using a commercially available tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tablet S2) is presented as a proof of concept (PoC) for the ubiquitous control of industrial machines. As a PoC, the proposed system provides useful insights to support the further development of full-fledged systems for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. The proposed system allows for the quasi-decentralisation of the control architecture of conventional programmable logic controller (PLC)-based industrial control systems (ICSs) through data and information exchange over the transmission control protocol and the internet protocol (TCP/IP) suite using multiple agents. Based on the TCP/IP suite, a network device (Samsung Galaxy Tablet S2) and a process field net (PROFINET) device (Siemens Simatic S7-1200) are interfaced using a single-board computer (Raspberry Pi 4). An override system mainly comprising emergency stop and acknowledge buttons is also configured using the single-board computer. The input signals from the override system are transmitted to the PROFINET device (i.e., the industrial control unit (ICU)) over TCP/IP. A fully functional working prototype is realised as a PoC for an integrated system designated for the wireless and ubiquitous control of the CNC machine. The working prototype as an entity mainly comprises a mobile (handheld) touch-sensitive human-machine interface (HMI), a shielded single-board computer, and an override system, all fitted into a compact case with physical dimensions of 300 mm by 180 mm by 175 mm. To avert potential cyber attacks or threats to a reasonable extent and to guarantee the security of the PoC, a multi-factor authentication (MFA) including an administrative password and an IP address is implemented to control the access to the web-based ubiquitous HMI proffered by the PoC
Dual-Polarized Highly Folded Bowtie Antenna With Slotted Self-Grounded Structure for Sub-6 GHz 5G Applications
No full textIn this communication, a novel dual-polarized highly folded self-grounded Bowtie antenna that is excited through I-shaped slots is proposed for applications in sub-6 GHz 5G multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems. The antenna consists of two pairs of folded radiation petals whose base is embedded in a double layer of FR-4 substrate with a common ground-plane which is sandwiched between the two substrate layers. The ground-plane is defected with two I-shaped slots located under the radiation elements. Each pair of radiation elements are excited through a microstrip line on the top layer with RF signal that is 180° out of phase with respect to each other. The RF signal is coupled to the pair of feedlines on the top layer through the I-shaped slots from the two microstrip feedlines on the underside of the second substrate. The proposed feed mechanism gets rid of the otherwise bulky balun. The Bowtie antenna is a compact solution with dimensions of 32 × 32 ×33.8 mm 3 . Measured results have verified that the antenna operates over a frequency range of 3.1–5 GHz and exhibits an average gain and antenna efficiency in the vertical and horizontal polarizations of 7.5 dBi and 82.6%, respectively
A Dual-Band Metasurface-Based Antenna with Shorting Pins
Get PDFA dual-band metasurface (MTS)-based antenna can be realized by composite right-/left-handed (CRLH) structures for wireless power transfer or ambient wireless energy harvesting. The bandwidth in the right-handed (RH) region can be obtained by exciting different desired transverse magnetic (TM) modes while that in the left-handed (LH) region can be achieved by mushroom radiating structures. The position choice of shorting pins in mushroom structures is significant since it will not only affect the potential bandwidth in the RH region, but also be related to the resonant frequencies in the LH region. The positions of the shorting pins will be chosen where the Electric field distribution is minimal for modes excited in the RH region. The proposed dual-band MTS-based antenna with an overall size of 0.375 λ0×0.375λ0×0.035 λ0 can achieve 25% and 48% fractional bandwidths, and 5.0 and 9.6 dBi peak gains in the lower and higher frequency band, respectively