Advanced Management Strategies Research Articles

Volumetric efficiency estimation based on neural networks to reduce the experimental effort in engine base calibration

Over the last decades, internal combustion engines have undergone a continuous evolution to achieve better performance, lower pollutant emissions and reduced fuel consumption. This evolution involved changes in the engine architecture needed to perform advanced management strategies. Therefore, Variable Valve Actuation, Exhaust Gas Recirculation, Gasoline Direct Injection, turbocharging and powertrain hybridization have widely equipped modern internal combustion engines. However, the effective management of a such complex system is due to the contemporaneous development of the on-board Engine electronic Control Unit. In fact, the additional degrees of freedom available for the engine regulation highly increased the complexity of engine control and management, resulting in a very expensive and long calibration process. For this reason, this study proposes an effective methodology based on the use of Neural Networks to overcome some critical issues concerning the calibration of engine control parameters. NN are adopted to provide a detailed engine data sheet starting from a reduced number of experimental data. To verify the potential of the proposed methodology, this detailed data set is subsequently used as input to a specific Computer Aided Calibration algorithm developed by the authors and the achievable calibration performance are evaluated. In particular, the calibration performance was assessed with reference to a specific ECU function in this paper. The research clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach since the calibration performance falls within acceptable limits even after a 60% cut of the experimental data usually acquired for calibration purposes, highlighting how the use of neural networks can allow a significant reduction of the experimental effort along with its related times and costs.

GIS-based design and analysis of preventive health management system for vehicles using ANFIS

The health of a vehicle gets affected by different parameters having uncertainties such as past running hours, vehicle operating condition, the consumption rate of fuel, etc. which in turn influence the health of a transportation system as a whole. In this work, a geographical information system (GIS)-based adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) has been utilised for the advanced prognostic and health management strategy of the vehicle to assess the condition of the vehicle from a precautionary preservation perspective, so as to enhance the ability of credentials of proactive malfunction circumstances. The case study corroborates the effectiveness of the proposed ANFIS technique. It provides the proposal of safeguarding the operation for pragmatic applications with consideration of all uncertainties, the domino effect on the health of the transportation system.

Effect of a Strategy of a Supraglottic Airway Device vs Tracheal Intubation During Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest on Functional Outcome

The optimal approach to airway management during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is unknown. To determine whether a supraglottic airway device (SGA) is superior to tracheal intubation (TI) as the initial advanced airway management strategy in adults with nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Multicenter, cluster randomized clinical trial of paramedics from 4 ambulance services in England responding to emergencies for approximately 21 million people. Patients aged 18 years or older who had a nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and were treated by a participating paramedic were enrolled automatically under a waiver of consent between June 2015 and August 2017; follow-up ended in February 2018. Paramedics were randomized 1:1 to use TI (764 paramedics) or SGA (759 paramedics) as their initial advanced airway management strategy. The primary outcome was modified Rankin Scale score at hospital discharge or 30 days after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, whichever occurred sooner. Modified Rankin Scale score was divided into 2 ranges: 0-3 (good outcome) or 4-6 (poor outcome; 6 = death). Secondary outcomes included ventilation success, regurgitation, and aspiration. A total of 9296 patients (4886 in the SGA group and 4410 in the TI group) were enrolled (median age, 73 years; 3373 were women [36.3%]), and the modified Rankin Scale score was known for 9289 patients. In the SGA group, 311 of 4882 patients (6.4%) had a good outcome (modified Rankin Scale score range, 0-3) vs 300 of 4407 patients (6.8%) in the TI group (adjusted risk difference [RD], -0.6% [95% CI, -1.6% to 0.4%]). Initial ventilation was successful in 4255 of 4868 patients (87.4%) in the SGA group compared with 3473 of 4397 patients (79.0%) in the TI group (adjusted RD, 8.3% [95% CI, 6.3% to 10.2%]). However, patients randomized to receive TI were less likely to receive advanced airway management (3419 of 4404 patients [77.6%] vs 4161 of 4883 patients [85.2%] in the SGA group). Two of the secondary outcomes (regurgitation and aspiration) were not significantly different between groups (regurgitation: 1268 of 4865 patients [26.1%] in the SGA group vs 1072 of 4372 patients [24.5%] in the TI group; adjusted RD, 1.4% [95% CI, -0.6% to 3.4%]; aspiration: 729 of 4824 patients [15.1%] vs 647 of 4337 patients [14.9%], respectively; adjusted RD, 0.1% [95% CI, -1.5% to 1.8%]). Among patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, randomization to a strategy of advanced airway management with a supraglottic airway device compared with tracheal intubation did not result in a favorable functional outcome at 30 days. ISRCTN Identifier: 08256118.

Managing Cd Containing Waste—Caught by the Past, the Circular Economy Needs New Answers

What is understood by the circular economy concept is the re-use and recycling of used materials and waste. In many used products, hazardous compounds are found or might be present either because of the products’ present intended use or former applications that have been banned in the meantime. Clearly, recycling activities should not endanger man and environment through carryover of contaminants. To learn more about how hazardous chemicals in waste impede the circular economy, it is necessary to investigate the ways in which products containing hazardous compounds have been handled up to now in order to avoid secondary contamination. For this study, cadmium (Cd) in NiCd batteries and accumulators and Cd compounds used as stabilisers for PVC profiles were selected as examples. The situation in the European Union was analysed, with a focus on legislation, collection, recycling, disposal and the further fate of “co-recycled” Cd. Insufficient collection rates, partially unsafe disposal and carryover were identified as the main problems. An advanced management strategy for Cd and its compounds is needed in order to mitigate problems in the circular economy. Used products containing hazardous substances ought to be recycled without contaminating the environment or recycled materials. The results suggest that circular economy is faced with different, partially insurmountable challenges.

Evaluation of Advanced Data Centre Power Management Strategies

In recent work, we proposed a new specification language for power management strategies as an extension to our AnyLogic-based simulation framework for the trade-off analysis of power and performance in data centres. In this paper, we study the quality of such advanced power management strategies based on both power and performance measurement data collected during system operation. These strategies take a wide variety of state variables into account. In order to ensure the quality of new strategies, they are studied for stability, efficiency, adaptability and robustness; these qualities will be formally defined. This paper presents an evaluation approach for these qualities for several power management strategies inspired by strategies presented in the literature (and extensions thereof). We show that the choice of power management strategy depends both on which qualities are given the highest priority and on the used state information. The new power management strategies show significant reductions in energy consumption in our case of up to 54% energy (compared to an “always on” strategy) for a typical data centre workload for a small 30-server cluster.

Diffusion Layers with Localized Hydrophilic Domains: Influence of Electron Energy on Spatial Resolution

The development of advanced water management strategies for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) could enable further improvements in power density, and therefore decrease the cost. A recently developed approach, consisting on electron radiation grafting using masks, has been utilized to fabricate gas diffusion layers with patterned wettability [1]. These novel materials feature hydrophilic, straightforward pathways for the transport of liquid water; and hydrophobic, low-resistance domains for the transport of reactant gases [2]. It has been recently demonstrated that PEFCs performance can be improved by employing the modified gas diffusion layers on the cathode side, due to the segregated distribution of liquid water that leads to reduced mass transport overpotentials [3]. However, further improvements in resolution are required to fabricate advanced porous materials with localized properties for various applications [4]. Pursuant to this goal, simulations can be used, in tandem with experiments, to elucidate the dominating parameters that influence the resolution (e.g. electron energy, mask-to-sample separation). Moreover, simulations can be utilized in a predictive fashion to calculate the electron beam parameters required to fabricate a given material. In this presentation, we will discuss the influence of electron beam energy on the spatial resolution of porous materials typically used in PEFCs. A combination of experiments and Monte-Carlo simulations was employed to advance the fundamental understanding of mask-assisted through-volume modifications of thick porous substrates. Interestingly, we found that an energy of, at least, 140 keV was required to modify throughout the complete thickness and that the use of energies lower than 300 keV results in a blurring in the adjacent regions. Additionally, we will discuss the influence of housing materials on the back-scattered radiation. Finally, and due to its practical relevance, we will discuss the possibility of selectively modifying one layer out of a bi-layered material (i.e. GDL-MPL arrangement). [1] Forner-Cuenca, A. et al., Adv. Mater. 27, 6317–6322 (2015). [2] Forner-Cuenca, A. et al., J. Electrochem. Soc. 163, F1038–F1048 (2016). [3] Forner-Cuenca, A. et al., J. Electrochem. Soc. 163, F1389–F1398 (2016). [4] Forner Cuenca, A. et al., Radiat. Phys. Chem. 135, 133–141 (2017). Acknowledgments AFC gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (P2EZP2_172183).

사립식물원 공익적 기능의 중요도 및 가치평가 연구†

The role of the botanical garden in securing biodiversity, responding to climate change, and sustainable development in modern cities is becoming more important. Private botanical gardens that lead the domestic botanical culture are declining due to complex reasons such as an increase of tourist destinations, lack of policy support, lack of introduction of advanced management strategies, and similar leisure activities to national and public botanical gardens. The Private Botanical Garden not only has a large number of plant species with high conservation value, but also provides various public utilities as a cultural and educational space and government efforts are needed to activate the operation of this amenity. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the value of public functions provided by private botanical gardens using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). In this way, the government aims to provide a basis for policy and institutional support for private botanical gardens. The main results are as follows. First, public utility functions provided by private botanical gardens were recognized as ‘preservation’ (23.4%), ‘recreation and tourism’ (17.5%) and ‘research’ (16.6%) in order of analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Second, ‘heritage value’ (33.0%) and ‘existence value’ (32.5%) were recognized as significant among the values ​​provided by private botanical gardens. Third, the willingness to pay (WTP) to preserve the public functions of the private botanical garden was 12,234 won. Based on this, the economic value of all private botanical gardens in the whole country was estimated, resulting in about 233.8 billion won. There is a need to revise laws and regulations related to financial support for the revitalization and quality improvement of private botanical gardens. It is also necessary to establish a cooperative operating system between national, public and private botanical gardens.

Coastal wetland change detection using high spatial resolution KOMPSAT-2 imagery

Coastal wetlands store terrestrial carbon and conserve biodiversity, thus playing an essential ecological role. Reliable regional-scale assessments of wetland dynamics, such as analysis of land use and land cover (LULC), and coastal monitoring, provide important hydrographical and socio-geographical information. Remote sensing images, such as Earth Observation satellite data, are useful for examining temporal LULC changes and providing environmental monitoring data. This study presents a method of mapping and monitoring changes in coastal LULC using classified multispectral images acquired by the Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite-2 (KOMPSAT-2). Wetland changes are monitored in three different protected tidal flats areas on the coastal boundary of the Korean Peninsula with the Yellow Sea, for the period of 2008 - 2015. High overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient values for the accuracy assessment indicate the suitability of LULC classification using high spatial resolution KOMPSAT imagery, even when an unsupervised classification approach is adopted. The LULC maps were analyzed and evaluated using post-classification change detection methods. Results showed spatial decreases of 6 and 20% for mixed forest and wetlands in the Gyeonggi area, respectively, but no significant changes over time for Jeonbuk and Jeonnam. There was a 12% increase in developed areas for Gyeonggi but only 1.9 and 6% for Jeonbuk and Jeonnam, respectively. LULC change is thus easily identified through a pixel-based analysis of multispectral KOMPSAT-2 images over time. Such data are useful for environmental and policy managers when developing advanced coastal management strategies.

The Vehicle Routing Problem with Release and Due Dates

A novel extension of the classical vehicle routing and scheduling problems is introduced that integrates aspects of machine scheduling into vehicle routing. Associated with each customer order is a release date that defines the earliest time that the order is available to leave the depot for delivery and a due date that indicates the time by which the order should ideally be delivered to the customer. The objective is to minimize a convex combination of the operational costs and customer service level, represented by the total distance traveled and the total weighted tardiness of delivery, respectively. A path-relinking algorithm (PRA) is proposed to address the problem, and a variety of benchmark instances are generated to evaluate its performance. The PRA exploits the efficiency and aggressive improvement of neighborhood search but relies on a new path-relinking procedure and advanced population management strategies to navigate the search space effectively. To provide a comparator algorithm to the PRA, we embed the neighborhood search into a standard iterated local search algorithm (ILS). Extensive computational experiments on the benchmark instances show that the newly defined features have a significant and varied impact on the problem, and the performance of the PRA dominates that of the ILS algorithm. The online supplement is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2017.0756 .

Challenges And Opportunities in Applying Vibration Based Condition Monitoring in Railways

Electrical rotating machines are among the most common assets used in industry. In railways applications these devices are present in fixed and rolling stock systems, such as turnouts and traction components. Condition based maintenance (CBM) of rotating machines may significantly improve the availability of critical railway assets. Moreover, by efficiently assessing the state of health of targeted components, it becomes possible to introduce advanced asset management strategies for life cycle cost optimization. In comparison with traditional maintenance approaches, health monitoring enables better maintenance scheduling, fleet size optimization and maintenance costs reduction. CBM applied to rotating machines has been actively studied by many researchers in a wide variety of fields such as: signal processing, anomaly detection, failure diagnostic and failure prognostics. However, there is still a considerable gap between the methods studied in research and the ones successfully applied in industry, and especially in the railway field. This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities for application of CBM methods to electrical rotating machines in railway applications. For the purpose of illustration, a case study focusing on traction motor bearings is considered. Time domain and frequencydomain signal processing techniques are employed to extract features from bearing degradation data. The data analyzed in the present study have been obtained in a bearing test bench and during a test conducted on a real traction motor used in trains. The results of the considered methods are discussed and future research directions are suggested.

Enhanced Flow Boiling Using Radial Open Microchannels With Manifold and Offset Strip Fins

The increasing demand for designing effective cooling solutions in high power density electronic components has resulted in exploring advanced thermal management strategies. Over the past decade, phase-change cooling has received widespread recognition due to its ability to dissipate large heat fluxes while maintaining low temperature differences. In this paper, a radial flow boiling configuration through a central inlet was studied. This configuration is particularly suited for chip cooling application. Two heat transfer surfaces with (a) radial microchannels, and (b) offset strip fins were fabricated and their flow boiling performance with distilled water was obtained. Furthermore, the effect of the liquid flow rate on the boiling performance and enhancement mechanisms was also investigated in this study. At a flow rate of 240 mL/min, a maximum heat flux of 369 W/cm2 at a wall superheat of 49 °C and a pressure drop of 59 kPa was achieved with the radial microchannels, while the offset strip fins achieved a maximum heat flux of 618 W/cm2 at a wall superheat of 20 °C. Increasing the flow rate to 320 mL/min resulted in a heat flux of 897 W/cm2 demonstrating the potential of using a radial configuration for enhancing the boiling performance. The increase in flow cross-sectional area was shown to be responsible for the reduced pressure drop when compared to straight microchannel configurations. The high-speed imaging incorporated in each test provided valuable insight and understanding into the flow patterns and underlying mechanism in these geometries. With the ease of implementation, highly stable flow, and further optimization possibilities with different microchannel and taper configurations, the radial geometry is expected to provide significant performance enhancement well beyond a critical heat flux (CHF) of 1 kW/cm2.

A review: Optimizing performance of Floating Storage and Regasification Units (FSRU) by applying advanced LNG tank pressure management strategies

Summary The demand for Floating Storage and Regasification Units (FSRU) has grown rapidly worldwide since the first unit was commissioned in 2005 and opened many new markets to LNG trade. Technology has evolved leading to a fleet of FSRU ranging from relatively cheap conversions from LNG carriers (LNGC) to larger-capacity, new-build vessels with higher-tank-pressure ratings. The different types of FSRU ideally require operating procedures tailored to their specific designs, capacities, and tank-pressure ratings. Currently, many of the operating practices developed for the lower-tank pressure ratings of LNGC are applied as a matter of routine across the FSRU fleet, leading to operating inefficiencies. There are therefore significant opportunities to improve operating efficiencies on many FSRU and thereby reduce onboard gas consumption and atmospheric emissions, particularly regarding ship-to-ship (STS)-transfer procedures and LNG cargo rollover-protection strategies. Additional non-standard use of recondensing equipment, recirculating condensed boil-off gas as warm LNG back to the cargo tanks, can also reduce unnecessary shipboard consumption of gas. These savings can be achieved without any capital investments or modifications. STS transfers for LNG were first performed in 2007 and are a relatively new, but now routine necessity for FSRU operations. The operating efficiency associated with STS transfers can be significantly improved by adopting 12 straightforward measures. Some of the STS transfer improvement measures recommended involve an increase (beyond current practices) of cooperation, planning, and coordination of tank pressures between discharging and receiving vessels. The adoption of proactive prevention and mitigation measures to limit the potential tank pressure increases associated with LNG cargo rollover events can also appreciably reduce shipboard gas consumption and improve FSRU operating efficiency at no additional cost. Other operating efficiency gains focused on tank-vapor-handling equipment are also attainable for the higher-pressure rated FSRU.

A Pore Network Modelling Study of Fuel Cell Gas Diffusion Layers with Patterned Wettability

Further improvements in power density of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are required to lower the cost. At high current densities, mass transport related resistances limit the performance due to, mainly, a poor water management within the cell. It is therefore paramount to develop advanced water management strategies to maximize power output. In this context, diffusion layers play a notable role. They must ensure efficient gas transport toward the catalyst layer while removing the electrochemically produced liquid water in the opposite flow direction. A substantial amount of work has been carried out to improve gas diffusion layers (GDLs) and microporous layer over the last years, mainly controlling microstructural features, such as pore sizes, fiber arrangements and porosities, and hydrophobic coating load and distribution [1]. Our group has recently developed an approach consisting of artificially creating hydrophilic patterns throughout the entire GDL thickness using the radiation grafting method. The hydrophilic areas act as low pressure liquid water removal pathways, therefore liberating the remaining areas for the gas to flow throughout less tortuous domains [2]. The performance of PEFCs was significantly increased thanks to the use of the modified GDLs [3]. However, there is still plenty of room for improvement. Capillary pressure is the driving force for liquid water transport and it is influenced by the microstructure and liquid-solid interaction [4]. It therefore stands to reason that, for a given application, further optimization can be achieved when selecting the appropriate diffusion layer microstructure and wettability ratio. While the first experimental data investigating the effect of GDL morphology, contact angle and coating load has been recently published, these experiments require notable infrastructure and time efforts [5]. For that reason, modelling capillary pressure experiments using pore network models can be a valid approach to theoretically assess optimal material parameters. The open-source OpenPNM framework, which has been extensively used in recent fuel cell literature [6], was the software of choice for this investigation. In this talk we will start by presenting the model physics in which a modification of the Washburn equation has been used as required in the intermediate wettability range where this model fails to predict accurately water imbibition and the validation strategy. The definition of coating load and contact angle will be discussed. A good agreement was obtained between model and experiments, specially investigating the influence of coating load, contact angle and pore size distributions. In the second part of the talk, we will provide some material design guidelines based on model output information to maximize the quality of water segregation in GDLs with patterned wettability.

Genetic characterization of Western European noble crayfish populations (Astacus astacus) for advanced conservation management strategies

One central goal of conservation biology is to conserve the genetic diversity of species in order to protect their adaptive potential. The main objective of this study was to identify management units (MUs) for the threatened noble crayfish (Astacus astacus) in Western Europe by utilizing sequence and microsatellite analysis to determine populations in need of focused conservation programs. With the analysis of noble crayfish from 31 sampling sites from Belgium, France, The Netherlands and Germany, and further comparison of this data with a European-wide dataset, we propose four distinct MUs: the French Meuse (MU 1), the French Rhine (MU 2), the Belgian Scheldt and Meuse (MU 3) as well as populations from the French Seine (MU 4). This knowledge enables advanced A. astacus conservation management practises in these catchments by distinguishing between outbreeding and inbreeding populations and by preserving the maximum genetic diversity. When required, a high genetic diversity can be conserved by strengthen existing populations via stocking with populations that either bear the most common haplotype or population-specific private haplotypes in order to maintain recent and regional adaptions. Above all, stocking with populations that exhibit haplotypes from outside Western Europe should be avoided in these catchments. This study supports the preservation of the genetic diversity of noble crayfish in Western Europe and provides thus a proposition for advanced conservation management.

M2DC – Modular Microserver DataCentre with heterogeneous hardware

The Modular Microserver DataCentre (M2DC) project investigates, develops and demonstrates a modular, highly-efficient, cost-optimized server architecture composed of heterogeneous microserver computing resources. The resulting server architecture will be able to be tailored to meet requirements from a wide range of application domains. M2DC is built on three main pillars: a flexible server architecture that can be easily customised, maintained and updated; advanced management strategies and system efficiency enhancements (SEE); well-defined interfaces to the surrounding software data centre ecosystem. In this paper, we focus in particular on the thermal management strategies and on the initial benchmarking of the Aarch64 ARM architecture.

(Energy Technology Division Graduate Student Award Address) Advanced Water Management in Fuel Cells Using Engineered Gas Diffusion Layers with Patterned Wettability: From Concept to Fuel Cell Application

The water management in PEFCs is a rather complex issue. On one hand side, some water is needed in order to hydrate a proton conductive membrane and ionomer in the catalyst layers. Therefore, humidified gases are fed into the cell. On the other hand, excessive amounts of water in the porous layers lead to blockage of available pores for gas transport and consequently increased mass transfer limitations, especially at high current densities when large amounts of water are produced. The gas diffusion layers (GDLs) are highly porous carbon fiber materials which are sandwiched between electrodes and flow fields and provide several functionalities: conduction of electricity and heat, mechanical integrity of the membrane, distribution of reactant gases and removal of the liquid water produced. These functions imply a triple set of contradictory requirements: high diffusivity of the gas phase, high permeability of the water phase, and high thermal and electrical conductivity of the solid phase. The creation of artificial pathways for water removal within the porous material would permit the development of advanced water management strategies; however none of the existing approaches proposed a method to produce such materials in a way compatible with mass productions. To tackle this issue, we invented a method to produce GDLs with patterned wettability based on radiation grafting [1]. The method permits creating hydrophilic patterns throughout the complete material thickness while the remaining areas remain hydrophobic [2]. The first part of the talk will focus on the synthetic method details [3] and particularly on the effect that electron beam energy has on the achievable resolution of the hydrophilic patterns [4]. In the second part, the capillary pressure characteristic of the modified materials will be shown and the influence of various material parameters (substrate type, pattern width, coating load, etc.) will be discussed. The water distribution was imaged at various capillary pressures using neutron radiography (NR) and X-ray tomographic microscopy [5]. Finally, electrochemical characterization of operando cells combined with NR will demonstrate the potential of these materials to improve power density at various conditions [6]. [1] P. Boillat et al., 2014 European Patent 15165515.6. [2] A. Forner-Cuenca et al., Adv. Mater. 2015, 27, 6317-6322. [3] A. Forner-Cuenca et al., J. Electrochem. Soc. 2016, 163 (8), F788-F801. [4] A. Forner-Cuenca et al., Radiat. Phys. Chem., Submitted. [5] A. Forner-Cuenca et al., J. Electrochem. Soc. 2016, 163(9), F1038-F1048. [6] A. Forner-Cuenca et al., J. Electrochem. Soc. 2016, 163 (13), F1389-F1398.

External Factors That Influence the Practice of Radiology: Proceedings of the International Society for Strategic Studies in Radiology Meeting.

In both the United States and Europe, efforts to reduce soaring health care costs have led to intense scrutiny of both standard and innovative uses of imaging. Given that the United States spends a larger share of its gross domestic product on health care than any other nation and also has the most varied health care financing and delivery systems in the world, it has become an especially fertile environment for developing and testing approaches to controlling health care costs and value. This report focuses on recent reforms that have had a dampening effect on imaging use in the United States and provides a glimpse of obstacles that imaging practices may soon face or are already facing in other countries. On the basis of material presented at the 2015 meeting of the International Society for Strategic Studies in Radiology, this report outlines the effects of reforms aimed at (a) controlling imaging use, (b) controlling payer expense through changes in benefit design, and (c) controlling both costs and quality through "value-based" payment schemes. Reasons are considered for radiology practices on both sides of the Atlantic about why the emphasis needs to shift from providing a large volume of imaging services to increasing the value of imaging as manifested in clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, and overall system savings. Options for facilitating the shift from volume to value are discussed, from the use of advanced management strategies that improve workflow to the creation of programs for patient engagement, the development of new clinical decision-making support tools, and the validation of clinically relevant imaging biomarkers. Radiologists in collaboration with industry must enhance their efforts to expand the performance of comparative effectiveness research to establish the value of these initiatives, while being mindful of the importance of minimizing conflicts of interest. © RSNA, 2017.

Abstract TP280: AF and Urgent Bleeding Management Strategies: Effect of Online CME

Introduction: Although anticoagulant therapy with non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) has demonstrated safety in multiple clinical trials in the setting of stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (SPAF), a small percentage of patients experience urgent bleeding, which may require advanced bleeding management strategies, including NOAC reversal. Hypothesis: A video-based online continuing medical education (CME) activity can improve the knowledge and competence of cardiologists regarding strategies for managing anticoagulant-related urgent bleeding events Methods: An online CME activity was developed as a 25-minute roundtable discussion with 4 leading experts. The activity included a transcript of the discussion and a downloadable slide deck to highlight and reinforce key data. The effects of education were assessed using a linked pre-assessment/post-assessment study design. For all questions combined, the McNemar’s chi-square test was used to assess differences from pre- to post-assessment. P values are shown as a measure of significance; P values <.05 are statistically significant. Cramer’s V was used to calculate the effect size (>30=large effect size, 0.16-0.30=medium effect size, <0.16=small effect size) Results: For cardiologists who participated in the CME activity, comparison of individually linked pre-assessment question responses to the respective post-assessment question responses demonstrates statistically significant improvements (N = 187; P =0.002). A total of 33% of cardiologists answered all 4 pre-assessment questions correctly with 48% answering all post-assessment questions correctly. Significant mprovements were demonstrated: 1) A 23% relative improvement in the knowledge of the mechanism of action for idarucizumab (70% pre-assessment vs 86% post-assessment; P<0.001; V=0.194); 2) A 22% relative improvement in the knowledge of the specificity of andexanet alfa (69% vs 84%; P<0.05; V=0.176). Conclusion: The statistically significant improvements observed in this online CME roundtable discussion demonstrate the benefits of educating the appropriate target audience base with aptly designed educational activities.

Predicting arterial breakdown probability: A data mining approach

ABSTRACTPredicting the probability of traffic breakdown can be used as an important input for creating advanced traffic management strategies that are specifically implemented to reduce this probability. However, most, if not all, past research on the probability of breakdown has focused on freeways. This study focuses on the prediction of arterial breakdown probability based on archived traffic data for use in real-time transportation system operations. The breakdown of an arterial segment is defined in this study as a segment's operating condition under the level of service F according to the highway capacity manual threshold, although any other level of service could be used. Data from point detection and automatic vehicle identification matching technologies are aggregated in space and time to allow their use as inputs to the prediction model. A decision tree approach, combined with binary logistic regression, is used in this study to predict the breakdown probability based on these inputs. The model is validated using data not used in the development of the model. The research shows that the root mean square error and the mean absolute error of the prediction was 13.6 and 11%, respectively. The analysis also shows that the best set of parameters used in the prediction can be different for different links, due to the various causes of breakdown and characteristics of different links. Predicting the probability of breakdown in ahead of time will allow the agencies to change the signal-timing plan that can delay or eliminate the breakdown.

Optimization of a Gas Switching Combustion process through advanced heat management strategies

Gas Switching Combustion (GSC) is a promising new process concept for energy efficient power production with integrated CO2 capture. In comparison to conventional Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) carried out in interconnected fluidized beds, the GSC concept will be substantially easier to design and scale up, especially for pressurized conditions. One potential drawback of the GSC concept is the gradual temperature variation over the transient process cycle, which leads to a drop in electric efficiency of the plant. This article investigates heat management strategies to mitigate this issue both through simulations and experiments. Simulation studies of the GSC concept integrated into an IGCC power plant show that heat management using a nitrogen recycle stream can increase plant efficiency by 3 percentage points to 41.6% while maintaining CO2 capture ratios close to 90%. Reactive multiphase flow simulations of the GSC reactor also showed that heat management can eliminate fuel slip problems. In addition, the GSC concept offers the potential to remove the need for a nitrogen recycle stream by implementing a concentrated air injection that extracts heat while only a small percentage of oxygen reacts. Experiments have shown that, similar to nitrogen recycle, this strategy reduces transient temperature variations across the cycle and therefore merits further investigation.