96 research outputs found
Doplor Sleep: Monitoring Hospital Soundscapes for Better Sleep Hygiene
No full textGood sleep is conducive to the recovery process of hospital patients - and yet, in many wards, sleep duration and quality can often be suboptimal, in part due to modifiable hospital-related sounds and noises. At the neurological ward of the Reinier de Graaf hospital in Delft, the Netherlands, we developed and evaluated a prototype information exchange system to raise awareness of specific sounds as disturbing patients' sleep. The system both classifies different relevant sound events and tracks sleep quality (using a Fitbit device). This information is then visualized for patients and staff to present the influence of the soundscape on patients' sleep hygiene in a friendly and comprehensive way. We discuss the design process, including a context study and various evaluations of the technology, interface, and created affordances. Our initial findings indicate that visualizing hospital soundscapes may, indeed, support both patients and staff in their efforts towards better sleep hygiene. Design AestheticsInternet of Thing
Human Capital, Capital Structure, and Employee Pay: An Empirical Analysis a Replicated Confirmation
No full textThis paper replicates the paper named Human capital, capital structure, and employee pay: An empirical analysis written by Thomas J. Chemmanur, Yingmei Cheng, and Tianming Zhang in 2013. In this paper, I examine the effect of market leverage on labor expenses to prove the predictions of Titman (1984) and Berk, Stanton, and Zechner (2010). Through the OLS regression analysis, I find that market leverage has a significantly positive effect on total, cash, equity-based compensation of chief executive officers (CEOs). So an increase market leverage will always lead to an incremental labor cost, and in fact labor costs will limit the use of debt to some extent
Detection and quantitation of nine fentanyl analogs in urine and oral fluid using QSight Triple Quad LC-MS/MS
No full textThe opioid epidemic has become a serious public health problem in the United States. The increasing abuse of synthetic opioids has raised concerns in the society. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid analgesic which has resulted in an increasing number of drug overdoses since 2013. In addition, fentanyl analogs, originally manufactured for use as analgesics or animal tranquilizers, have emerged in the United States drug market. Fentanyl and its analogs, similar to other opioids, work as full µ-agonists, binding with µ-receptors in the brain. Fentanyl and its analogs elicit more potent effects compared to the traditional opioids being abused such as morphine or heroin. With the emergence of fentanyl analogs in the drug market, identifying and differentiating those analogs becomes a challenge due to their structural similarities to fentanyl.
The purpose of this research was to develop a method of identifying and quantifying nine fentanyl analogs in urine and oral fluid using the QSight® Triple Quad LC-MS/MS, coupled with a Halo® C18, 2.7µm column. The method was validated based on AAFS Standards Board (ASB) Standard 036, Standard Practices for Method Validation in Forensic Toxicology. The analytes in this research included fentanyl, norfentanyl, acetyl fentanyl, carfentanil, cyclopropyl fentanyl, methoxyacetyl fentanyl, valeryl fentanyl, furanyl fentanyl and 4-anilino-N-phenethylpiperdine (4ANPP). All samples, calibrators, and quality controls (QC) were prepared by spiking certified reference standards into donated human urine or human oral fluid. Supported liquid extraction (SLE) was performed as the sample preparation method using ISOLUTE® SLE+ 1mL columns followed by evaporation. All samples were reconstituted with 200 µL methanol. The mobile phases used in this method were 5mM ammonium formate in Millipore water with 0.1% formic acid and methanol with 0.1% formic acid.
A 10-minute LC method achieved complete resolution of the analytes, with specific retention times ranging from 3.5 to 5.7 minutes. For urine and oral fluid analysis, the calibration range for all analytes was established from 1 to 70 ng/mL. The resulting r2 values were greater than 0.988 for all analytes. Bias and precision were evaluated at 3, 25 and 60 ng/mL, and bias and percent coefficient of variation (%CV) for within and between run precision had acceptable values within ±20%. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.1 ng/mL for most fentanyl analogs, with a LOD of 0.01 ng/mL for valeryl fentanyl and furanyl fentanyl. Carryover was not detected for any analytes in either matrix. Recovery of all compounds following SLE for both urine and oral fluid was above 50%. For urine, the ion enhancement and suppression of all analytes was within 25%. For oral fluid, the ion enhancement and suppression of most analytes was within 25% except valeryl fentanyl, which experienced suppression of 35%. The matrices analyzed had no interference effect on the detection or quantitation of analytes in this method. The interference effects of different commonly encountered drugs were studied and showed minimal impacts on the results generated from this method. All analytes were stable for up to 72 hours at room temperature, except cyclopropyl fentanyl.
In conclusion, using the QSight® Triple Quad LC-MS/MS following SLE effectively identified and quantified fentanyl analogs present in both urine and oral fluid. This method has shown its potential to be applied to casework samples for fentanyl analogs detection
A Machine with Short-Term, Episodic, and Semantic Memory Systems
No full textInspired by the cognitive science theory of the explicit human memory systems, we have modeled an agent with short-term, episodic, and semantic memory systems, each of which is modeled with a knowledge graph. To evaluate this system and analyze the behavior of this agent, we designed and released our own reinforcement learning agent environment, the Room , where an agent has to learn how to encode, store, and retrieve memories to maximize its return by answering questions. We show that our deep Q-learning based agent successfully learns whether a short-term memory should be forgotten, or rather be stored in the episodic or semantic memory systems. Our experiments indicate that an agent with human-like memory systems can outperform an agent without this memory structure in the environment
Deep characteristics analysis on travel time of emergency traffic
No full textOwing to the rapid development of emergency rescue transportation in cities and the frequent emergencies, demand for emergency rescue is increasing drastically. How to select an emergency rescue route quickly and shorten the rescue travel time under the condition of limited urban road resources is of great significance. Based on the characteristics analysis of emergency rescue, this paper classifies priority levels of different emergency traffic, moreover, the travel times are also analysed with three scenarios: 1) emergency rescue vehicles encountering no queues; 2) encountered queues but lanes available; 3) encountered queues with no available lanes. Related case study shows that model in this paper can effectively shorten travel time of emergency traffic in the route and improve its efficiency.Accepted Author ManuscriptTransport and Plannin
Doplor Sleep: Friendly feedback towards a better hospital soundscape for sleep
No full textRecently in the Netherlands, researchers have found that sleep duration and quality were suboptimal in the hospital. Evidence proved that many modifiable hospitalrelated factors negatively associate with patients' sleep (JAMA Internal Medicine, 2018). The sound factor is the most significant sleep disturbance in the hospital. In this graduation project, collaborating with Reiner de Graaf hospital and Critical Alarms lab, an information exchange system was proposed to raise awareness of sound as sleep disturbance. The system captures the sound-producing events and visualizes them with visually attractive graphics. In this system, we use the smartphone as the sound captor. The recorded sounds are processed locally on the phone and converted into information such as sound level and the category it belongs to (alarm, speech, incidental sounds, or snore). Fitbit is implemented in the system to collect sleep information. To both patients and medical staff, The Doplor sleep system presents the influence of sound on sleep in a friendly and comprehensive way. During this project, a functioning prototype was developed. We have tested its functionality and user experience with the potential users
The Use of Business Intelligence Tool to Support Business Decision Making : BI on Product Portfolio Decision to a New Product of MLS Company
No full textBusiness intelligence is a term that be mentioned very often in recent years. More and more organizations applied business intelligence to survive and to be more competitive than before. Simultaneously, a lot of BI tool suppliers emerge in this market. Besides, most nowadays BI tool supports self-service without professional IT background requirements. Decision makers benefits a lot from BI tool utilization.
The purpose of this thesis is to explore BI capabilities and how BI tool could assist users to achieve the goal. More specifically, the author of the thesis will present how self-service BI tool that be used to analyse business patterns and trends, in order to help the author make decision and suggestion.
The thesis consists of two parts: the first part is the theory part, as a support to the empirical part, that review the basic knowledge of business intelligence such as the definition, the capa-bilities and the basic process; in the second part, the empirical one, the author will show the process of BI tool usage to a real company case.
The research method covers both qualitative and quantitative method, but the former one is the major method. Specifically, the approaches include literature research, market research through questionnaire, data collection, management and analysis, and quantitative analysis as well.
The research result aims to give suggestion on product portfolio to a real company case. To do so, the thesis will be progressed from a variety of aspects regarding to the product portfo-lio. And all the reports and analysis will be presented in the empirical part
Design and Practice: How product designers are adapting to real-world market shifts
No full textMFA DesignThis paper explores how product designers can adapt to the needs of the evolving real economy through interdisciplinary learning and practice. Based on product design, the study investigates the shifting role of design in response to increasingly complex and
dynamic market conditions. By initiating a design-driven service system to support marginalised artisanal producers such as housewives and students with limited production capacity, the author investigates how designers can co-create branding, marketing and sales strategies for artisanal products. The research combines an interdisciplinary approach and hands-on entrepreneurial practices to identify extended competencies that designers must acquire, including digital marketing, supply chain awareness, and user-centred service design, ultimately aiming to redefine the function of product designers as facilitators of inclusive economic participation and adaptive innovation
Thermo-mechanical reliability studies of lead-free solder interconnects
No full textSolder interconnections, also known as solder joints, are the weakest link in electronics packaging. Reliability of these miniature joints is of utmost interest - especially in safety-critical applications in the automotive, medical, aerospace, power grid and oil and drilling sectors. Studies have shown that these joints' critical thermal and mechanical loading culminate in accelerated creep, fatigue, and a combination of these joints' induced failures. The ball grid array (BGA) components being an integral part of many electronic modules functioning in mission-critical systems. This study investigates the response of solder joints in BGA to crucial reliability influencing parameters derived from creep, visco-plastic and fatigue damage of the joints. These are the plastic strain, shear strain, plastic shear strain, creep energy density, strain energy density, deformation, equivalent (Von-Mises) stress etc. The parameters' obtained magnitudes are inputted into established life prediction models – Coffin-Manson, Engelmaier, Solomon (Low cycle fatigue) and Syed (Accumulated creep energy density) – to determine several BGA assemblies' fatigue lives.
The joints are subjected to thermal, mechanical and random vibration loadings. The finite element analysis (FEA) is employed in a commercial software package to model and simulate the responses of the solder joints of the representative assemblies' finite element models. As the magnitude and rate of degradation of solder joints in the BGA significantly depend on the composition of the solder alloys used to assembly the BGA on the printed circuit board, this research studies the response of various mainstream lead-free Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) solders (SAC305, SAC387, SAC396 and SAC405) and benchmarked those with lead-based eutectic solder (Sn63Pb37).
In the creep response study, the effects of thermal ageing and temperature cycling on these solder alloys' behaviours are explored. The results show superior creep properties for SAC405 and SAC396 lead-free solder alloys. The lead-free SAC405 solder joint is the most effective solder under thermal cycling condition, and the SAC396 solder joint is the most effective solder under isothermal ageing operation. The finding shows that SAC405 and SAC396 solders accumulated the minimum magnitudes of stress, strain rate, deformation rate and strain energy density than any other solder considered in this study. The hysteresis loops show that lead-free SAC405 has the lowest dissipated energy per cycle. Thus the highest fatigue life, followed by eutectic lead-based Sn63Pb37 solder. The solder with the highest dissipated energy per cycle was lead-free SAC305, SAC387 and SAC396 solder alloys.
In the thermal fatigue life prediction research, four different lead-free (SAC305, SAC387, SAC396 and SAC405) and one eutectic lead-based (Sn63Pb37) solder alloys are defined against their thermal fatigue lives (TFLs) to predict their mean-time-to-failure for preventive maintenance advice. Five finite elements (FE) models of the assemblies of the BGAs with the different solder alloy compositions and properties are created with SolidWorks. The models are subjected to standard IEC 60749-25 temperature cycling in ANSYS 19.0 mechanical package environment. SAC405 joints have the highest predicted TFL of circa 13.2 years, while SAC387 joints have the least life of circa 1.4 years. The predicted lives are inversely proportional to the magnitude of the areas of stress-strain hysteresis loops of the solder joints. The prediction models are significantly consistent in predicted magnitudes across the solder joints irrespective of the damage parameters used. Several failure modes drive solder joints and damage mechanics from the research and understand an essential variation in the models' predicted values. This investigation presents a method of managing preventive maintenance time of BGA electronic components in mission-critical systems. It recommends developing a novel life prediction model based on a combination of the damage parameters for enhanced prediction.
The FEA random vibration simulation test results showed that different solder alloys have a comparable performance during random vibration testing. The fatigue life result shows that SAC405 and SAC396 have the highest fatigue lives before being prone to failure. As a result of the FEA simulation outcomes with the application of Coffin-Manson's empirical formula, the author can predict the fatigue life of solder joint alloys to a higher degree of accuracy of average ~93% in an actual service environment such as the one experienced under-the-hood of an automobile and aerospace. Therefore, it is concluded that the combination of FEA simulation and empirical formulas employed in this study could be used in the computation and prediction of the fatigue life of solder joint alloys when subjected to random vibration. Based on the thermal and mechanical responses of lead-free SAC405 and SAC396 solder alloys, they are recommended as a suitable replacement of lead-based eutectic Sn63Pb37 solder alloy for improved device thermo-mechanical operations when subjected to random vibration (non-deterministic vibration).
The FEA simulation studies' outcomes are validated using experimental and analytical-based reviews in published and peer-reviewed literature
[[alternative]]Junior high school students' conceptions in animal reproduction
No full text[[abstract]]This research used two-tier diagnostic test and structured interview as instrument to explore junior high school students’ conceptions in animal reproduction. There were 568 students participating in two-tier diagnostic test and 18 of these students were selected to take part in structured interview. The findings showed that most students could understand the meaning and phenomenon of reproduction. Students’ common alternative conceptions in animal reproduction were as following: (1) students thought reproductive process must through fertilization, they lacked conceptions about asexual reproduction. (2). Students didn’t fully understand that homogenous chromosomes separate during meiosis and the gametes are haploid. (3). Students didn’t understand that through sexual reproduction offspring got new combinations of alleles and variations in traits which means a lot in population evolution. (4). Students didn’t know the existence of internal fertilization for evolution of land-dwelling animal. They thought nourishing offspring and hatching behavior as essential elements for animals to adapt land environment. (5). Students didn’t well understand ovoviviparity. About reproductive techniques issue, some students didn’t include artificial offspring creating in the domain of reproduction, and, others showed some alternative conceptions, such as: (1). “Test-tube baby” created by in vitro fertilization should be a kind of asexual reproduction. (2) “Test-tube baby” birth from a tube should be a kind of asexual reproduction. (3) Creating clone sheep were sexual reproduction. Concerning environmental factors that influence animal reproduction, students thought reproductive behavior would be affected if natural environment changed, but less effected if animals lived in zoo. This research revealed that students’ alternative conceptions in animal reproduction might hinder them from constructing genetic and evolutional conceptions. Even after learning reproduction, students could not successfully apply what they learned on solving reproductive technical problems. To help students achieve meaningful learning, science teachers should understand what students already knew and what alternative conceptions students might hold and, then, plan teaching programs accordingly. The findings of this research also could help teachers and textbook authors develop materials for junior high school students.
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