7,142 research outputs found
Meditation Awareness Training (MAT) for work-related wellbeing and job performance: a randomised controlled trial
No full textDue to its potential to concurrently improve work-related wellbeing (WRW) and job performance, occupational stakeholders are becoming increasingly interested in the applications of meditation. The present study conducted the first randomized controlled trial to assess the effects of meditation on outcomes relating to both WRW and job performance. Office-based middle-hierarchy managers (n = 152) received an eight-week meditation intervention (Meditation Awareness Training; MAT) or an active control intervention. MAT participants demonstrated significant and sustainable improvements (with strong effect sizes) over control-group participants in levels of work-related stress, job satisfaction, psychological distress, and employer-rated job performance. There are a number of novel implications: (i) meditation can effectuate a perceptual shift in how employees experience their work and psychological environment and may thus constitute a cost-effective WRW intervention, (ii) meditation-based (i.e., present-moment-focussed) working styles may be more effective than goal-based (i.e., future-orientated) working styles, and (iii) meditation may reduce the separation made by employees between their own interests and those of the organizations they work for
Voorlopige resultaten proeven Zinkcon mat
No full textResultaten proeven met de Zinkcon mat in de stroomgoot in Lith op ware grootte.KWP-collectio
Applying the method of fundamental solutions to harmonic problems with singular boundary conditions
No full textThe method of fundamental solutions (MFS) is known to produce highly accurate numerical results for elliptic boundary value problems (BVP) with smooth boundary conditions, posed in analytic domains. However, due to the analyticity of the shape
functions in its approximation basis, theMFS is usually disregarded when the boundary functions possess singularities. In this work we present a modification of the classical MFS which can be applied for the numerical solution of the Laplace BVP with Dirichlet boundary conditions exhibiting jump discontinuities. In particular, a set of harmonic functions with discontinuous boundary traces is added to the MFS basis. The accuracy of the proposed method is compared with the results form the classical MFS.The financial support from Center for Computational and Stochastic Mathematics (CEMAT–IST) through Fundac¸ ˜ao para a Ciˆencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) projects PEst-OE/MAT/UI0822/2014 and EXCL/MAT-NAN/0114/2012 is gratefully acknowledged
Fotoreportage Samenstellen van de mat voor de grote legproef II
No full textFoto’s van het maken van een proefmat (gaasmat verschillende lagen met filtermateriaal), het oprollen van de mat; bij de fabriek in Kats
The proposed goodyear modular mat type scrap tire floating breakwater
No full textScrap tires are proposed as a construction material for building large floating mat type breakwater devices. The Goodyear scrap tire floating breakwater assemblies are formed by securing together modular bundles of tightly interlocked scrap tires with high strength rope/cable, or special corrosion resistant steel rods. This construction procedure yields an easily installed, readily adaptable breakwater structure which has high energy absorbing capacity for normal loading conditions but which deforms and yields when subjected to overloads. The proposed designs rely on a modular bundle concept where a relatively few tires are secured together to form a small easily assemble de portable building unit which,serves as a basic building block from which giant breakwater devices can be constructed. Flotation is provided by placing a small amount of buoyant material in the crown of each tire or by filling approximately 10%) of the tires with buoyant foam. The design possibilities using scrap tire building modules are virtually limiless. Tires may be laced together to form large flat single or multiple thickness shallow mats. They may be stacked vertically in single or multiple thickness bundles like bricks in a wall to form curtain type barriers. Variutions in breakwater draft are made possible by adding modules above or below to vary the thickness and by combining constructions such as hanging a curtain on a mat structure. Also, mats with varying buoyancy may be moored on an incline for more efficient energy absorption
Application of MAT device to characterize the adhesive bonding strength of membrane in orthotropic steel deck bridges
No full textIn order to characterize adequately the adhesive bonding strength of the various membranes with surrounding materials on orthotropic steel decks and collect the necessary parameters for FE modeling, details of the Membrane Adhesion Test (MAT) have been introduced. Analytical constitutive relations of MAT device have been derived on the basis of Williams (1997). Furthermore, on the basis of experimental data obtained from MAT, ranking of the bonding characteristics of various membrane products is demonstrated as well as the role of other influencing factors, such as the types of substrate and test temperatures.Structural EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Tail dependence under sample failures
No full textWhen collecting samples, sometimes failures of observations occur and consequently missing data. This can have an impact on the analysis and subsequent inference, especially if the study focuses on the extreme values where the data is more scarce. In this work, we analyze the effect of different types of failures on the dependence within the tail of a stationary series. We will also present some examples.The first author was supported by Portuguese Funds through FCT — Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within the Projects UID/MAT/00013/2013 of Centre of Mathematics of the University of Minho, UID/Multi/04621/2019 of Center for Computational and Stochastic Mathematics, UID/MAT/00006/2019 of Centre of Statistics and Its Applications, and PTDC/MAT-STA/28243/2017. The second author was partially supported by the research unit UID/MAT/00212/2019 — FCT (Funda¸c˜ao para a Ciˆencia e a Tecnologia)
Neural Networks to Predict Financial Time Series in a Minority Game Context
No full textIn this paper we consider financial time series from U.S. Fixed Income Market, S&P500, Exchange Market and Oil Market. It is well known that financial time series reveal some anomalies as regards the Efficient Market Hypotesis and some scaling behavior is evident such as fat tails and clustered volatility. This suggests to consider financial time serie as "pseudo"-random time series. For this kind of time series the power of prediction of neural networks has been shown to be appreciable. We first consider the financial time serie from the Minority Game point of view and than we apply a neural network with learning algorithm in order to analyze its prediction power. We show that Fixed Income Market presents many differences from other markets in terms of predictability as a measure of market efficiency.Minority Game, Learning Algorithms, Neural Networks, Financial Time Series, Efficient Market Hypotesis
Prevalence of inversion positive and inversion negative mating type (MAT) alleles and MAT heterokaryons in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in the United States.
No full textSclerotinia sclerotiorum is a yield limiting pathogen of several economically important crops, and it reproduces sexually by self-fertilization. Based on the presence of an inversion in the mating type locus, S. sclerotiorum can be grouped as inversion negative (Inv- MAT) and inversion positive (Inv+ MAT) isolates. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Inv- and Inv+ MAT S. sclerotiorum isolates across the United States. In total, 164 isolates from 16 hosts and 22 states were evaluated, including 87 isolates from North Dakota-northern Minnesota and 47 isolates from soybean. PCR screening was performed separately for Inv- and Inv+ MAT with specific primers. Of the two kinds of MAT homokaryons, Inv- MAT isolates were the most frequent (31.7%) and were identified in 15 states. Another 12.8% of isolates were Inv+ MAT, and were identified in 8 states. The majority (55.5%) of isolates screened were MAT heterokaryons, and these were identified from 18 states and 11 hosts. The implications of MAT heterokaryons for the biology and management of S. sclerotiorum are discussed.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author
Combined Wave and Surge Overtopping of Levees: Flow Hydrodynamics and Articulated Concrete Mat Stability
No full textA 1-to-25 scale physical model of a typical cross section of the levee along the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) was con-structed at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center\u92s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory in Vicksburg, MS. The purpose of the physical model was to obtain hydrodynamic measurements of unsteady flow conditions caused by combined wave and surge overtopping of the levee, and to examine the feasibility of using articulated concrete mats (ACMs) for levee protection during this type of overtopping event. Specifically, the U.S. Army Engineer District, New Orleans, was interested in determining whether the same ACMs used by the Corps\u92 Mat Sinking Unit to protect river banks could be used to protect the MRGO levee against surge and wave overtopping. When the storm surge elevation was 0.75 ft above the levee crest, the stability tests indicated the ACMs were prone to uplift on the lower portion of the levee protected-side slope for even relatively mild wave overtopping. An increase in wave height created mat roll-up instability at the toe of the flood-side levee slope, indicating the need to bury or anchor the leading and tailing edges of the mats. Mat stability could be increased with additional anchoring or increasing mat thickness. Tests were also conducted to document the hydrodynamics associated with combined wave and surge over-topping. The primary parameters were three overtopping surge levels (+1, +3, and +5 ft); three significant wave heights (3, 6, and 9 ft); and three peak wave periods (6, 10, and 14 sec) for a total of 27 unique conditions. Measurements included the incident irregular waves and time series of water elevations at seven locations on the crest and protected-side slope of the levee. Horizontal flow velocity was recorded near the leeward levee crest shoulder, and the velocity was then combined with water elevation to estimate the unsteady instantaneous discharge over the levee. Discharge cumulative probability distributions were determined using the Weibull probability distribution, and a predictive equation was developed for the distribution of overtopping discharge as a function of wave and surge parameters
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