Construction Of Charts Research Articles

Control charts for monitoring accumulating adverse event count frequencies from single and multiple blinded trials.

Conventional practice monitors accumulating information about drug safety in terms of the numbers of adverse events reported from trials in a drug development program. Estimates of between-treatment adverse event risk differences can be obtained readily from unblinded trials with adjustment for differences among trials using conventional statistical methods. Recent regulatory guidelines require monitoring the cumulative frequency of adverse event reports to identify possible between-treatment adverse event risk differences without unblinding ongoing trials. Conventional statistical methods for assessing between-treatment adverse event risks cannot be applied when the trials are blinded. However, CUSUM charts can be used to monitor the accumulation of adverse event occurrences. CUSUM charts for monitoring adverse event occurrence in a Bayesian paradigm are based on assumptions about the process generating the adverse event counts in a trial as expressed by informative prior distributions. This article describes the construction of control charts for monitoring adverse event occurrence based on statistical models for the processes, characterizes their statistical properties, and describes how to construct useful prior distributions. Application of the approach to two adverse events of interest in a real trial gave nearly identical results for binomial and Poisson observed event count likelihoods. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Optimization of Time Structures in Manufacturing Management by using Scheduling Software Lekin

In each manufacturing plant it is one of the basic requirements to produce the largest quantity of products in the shortest time and at the lowest price. In performance of these requirements used are diverse modern methods, technologies and software which ensure the efficiency improvement of manufacturing, costs minimization, production time minimization etc. Presented article is focused on time structures optimization of real manufacturing process of engineering component by using scheduling software Lekin. It is based on theoretical scientific knowledge on which is afterwards found the optimal layout of the manufacturing process in practice. The optimal layout it created by construction and analysis of Gantt charts in scheduling software Lekin with minimum production time condition.

The Politics of Paternalism: Adult and Youth Perspectives on Youth Voice in Public Policy

Background/Context Over the last two decades, youth involvement in policy advocacy has increased sharply, through youth councils, organizing coalitions, and new media forums. Currently 12 states and 140 American cities have youth councils or commissions established to advise policymakers on the impact of their legislation on youth. Despite their growing presence, we know little about what these councils do, how they are viewed, or how, if at all, they influence policy-making processes. Purpose This study explores manifestations of adultism during the first 4 years of the Ballou City Youth Commission (BCYC) from the perspectives of 22 youth members and adult allies. Research Design Though primarily interview-based, this study also draws on field notes collected during a BCYC meeting and a BCYC community forum and organizational artifacts to explore the nature and dynamics of adultism as they played out in BCYC. Data Collection and Analysis In-depth, individual interviews were conducted with 11 current and former youth commissioners and 11 adults who represented the target audience for BCYC's work or who partnered with the commission on various initiatives. The theoretical framework of adultism guided the analysis, which included open and axial coding, memo writing, and the construction of matrices and charts to track emergent patterns. Findings/Results Using a critical theory lens, we find that adultism has played a prominent role in limiting BCYC from achieving the goals laid out in its charter. We identify a “roller coaster of adultism” that illustrates how weak initial structures coupled with deeply entrenched views of youths’ limited capacity adversely impacted the functioning of BCYC and propelled a cycle of externalized and internalized adultism. Conclusions The study adds to the scant literature on youth voice in public policy, raises six clear implications for policy and practice, and extends theory by illustrating the complex ways in which external and internalized forms of adultism interact with and reinforce each other.

Assessment of DPOAE test-retest difference curves via hierarchical Gaussian processes.

Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) testing is a promising alternative to behavioral hearing tests and auditory brainstem response testing of pediatric cancer patients. The central goal of this study is to assess whether significant changes in the DPOAE frequency/emissions curve (DP-gram) occur in pediatric patients in a test-retest scenario. This is accomplished through the construction of normal reference charts, or credible regions, that DP-gram differences lie in, as well as contour probabilities that measure how abnormal (or in a certain sense rare) a test-retest difference is. A challenge is that the data were collected over varying frequencies, at different time points from baseline, and on possibly one or both ears. A hierarchical structural equation Gaussian process model is proposed to handle the different sources of correlation in the emissions measurements, wherein both subject-specific random effects and variance components governing the smoothness and variability of each child's Gaussian process are coupled together.

A design method for the prediction of load distribution in hollow-core floors

A general design method is provided to predict the load distribution at serviceability condition in hollow-core floors formed by precast units linked together through cast in place reinforced concrete joints. Each panel forming the floor is schematized as a Saint-Venant beam connected to the others by means of rotational hinges. In this way, the only unknowns of the solving system, characterized by an exponential dichotomy, are represented by shear forces transmitted along joints. The model is first validated through comparisons with significant experimental results available in the literature, and subsequently applied to the construction of design charts to be used in current practice. These latter are also compared with the provisions on load distribution effects suggested by European Standard UNI EN 1168, pointing out some limitations of current design procedures and suggesting possible improvements.

Quality Control of Biodiesel Content of B7 Blends of Methyl Jatropha and Methyl Crambe Biodiesels Using Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy and Multivariate Control Charts Based on Net Analyte Signal

In this work, mid-infrared spectroscopy and multivariate control charts based on the net analyte signal (NAS) were applied for quality control of B7 (7% biodiesel and 93% diesel) biodiesel/diesel blends of jatropha oil methyl esters (JOME) and crambe oil methyl esters (COME) relative to the biodiesel content. The construction of the multivariate control charts was based on the decomposition of the spectral signal of samples prepared within quality specifications. Three charts were generated: (i) a NAS chart to monitor the content of the biodiesel in the blend, (ii) an interference chart to monitor the diesel content, and (iii) a residual chart to monitor any systematic variations. For each chart developed, statistical limits were established using the same samples prepared under normal operating conditions, with biodiesel content between 6.5% and 7.5%, considering the range of ±0.5% (v/v) permitted by the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels. To validate the control charts, new in-control and out-of-control samples relative to the biodiesel content were prepared. Of the two sets of out-of-control samples, the biodiesel content of one set (D) was below 6.5% (v/v) and the other set (E) was above 7.5%. The third set (C) of validation samples was prepared with biodiesel content within control of the quality specifications. The analytical methodology developed for each model (JOME and COME) was rapid, efficient, and able to correctly monitor the compliant and noncompliant samples relative to the biodiesel content in B7 biodiesel/diesel blends, demonstrating that this methodology is an alternative route to be used by the supervisory bodies for quality control of these types of biodiesel.

Robustness of retrospective weighted control charts

This study considers the construction of control charts when outliers could occur in the data. Simply increasing the width of control limits will make it more difficult to detect an out-of-control signal. This study aims to determine weights for each observation by measuring their respective distances to the average. The study proposes a retrospective weighted average and weighted inter-quartile range (WIQR) control chart based on the normal distribution that accounts for the false alarm rate, special causes, outliers, and a combination of special causes and outliers that might exist within the process. In addition to validating the detection effectiveness of the proposed control charts, this study also compares various average-type and range-type control charts for detecting the outliers and special causes. The proposed control charts show superior detection effectiveness in four tested scenarios compared to other types of control charts. Finally, the study also illustrates the practical application of the control charts for measuring the tensile strength of a deformed bar in coil. [Received 10 February 2014; Revised 21 August 2015; Revised 3 November 2015; Accepted 14 December 2015]

Development of the Portuguese version of a standardized reading test: the Radner-Coimbra Charts.

To develop 27 short sentence optotypes for the Portuguese version of the Radner Reading Charts. Thirty-four Portuguese sentences were constructed following the concept of the Radner Reading Charts to obtain highly comparable sentences in terms of lexical difficulty, syntactical complexity, word length, number of syllables, and position of words. A long text (106 words) at the 5th grade reading level was also tested to assess the validity of the reading speeds obtained with the short sentences. The short sentences and long text were tested in 50 volunteers with similar educational backgrounds (mean age 30.98 years ± 6.99 years, range 19-47 years). Reading speeds were measured with a stop-watch and reported as words per minute (wpm). The reading time for each of the short sentences to be selected for the chart was defined as falling within the range of the mean ± 0.40 × standard deviation (SD). The overall mean reading speed for each of the short sentences was 235.43 ± 36.39 wpm. The 27 sentences with a mean between 220.8 and 250.0 wpm (overall mean ± 0.40 × SD) were selected for construction of the reading charts. The mean reading speed for the long text was 212.42 ± 26.20 wpm. Correlation between the selected short sentences and long text was high (r =0.86). Reliability analysis yielded an overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.97. The 27 short Portuguese sentences were highly comparable in terms of syntactical structure, number, position and length of words, lexical difficulty, and reading length. This reading test can overcome the limitations of the current tests for homogeneity and comparability, reducing subjectivity in the evaluation of the functional outcomes of medical and surgical ophthalmologic treatments.

Integration of PGD-virtual charts into an engineering design process

This article deals with the efficient construction of approximations of fields and quantities of interest used in geometric optimisation of complex shapes that can be encountered in engineering structures. The strategy, which is developed herein, is based on the construction of virtual charts that allow, once computed offline, to optimise the structure for a negligible online CPU cost. These virtual charts can be used as a powerful numerical decision support tool during the design of industrial structures. They are built using the proper generalized decomposition (PGD) that offers a very convenient framework to solve parametrised problems. In this paper, particular attention has been paid to the integration of the procedure into a genuine engineering design process. In particular, a dedicated methodology is proposed to interface the PGD approach with commercial software.

Development and field application of a multivariate statistical process control framework for health-monitoring of transportation infrastructure

We present a two-part multivariate statistical process control framework to support health-monitoring of transportation infrastructure. The first part consists of estimation of regression and ARIMA–GARCH models to explain, predict, and control for common-cause variation in the data, i.e., changes that can be attributed to usual operating conditions, including traffic loads, environmental effects, and damage when present throughout the data. The second part of the framework consists of using multivariate control charts to simultaneously analyze the standardized innovations of the aforementioned models in order to detect possible special-cause or extraordinary events, such as unique/infrequent traffic, weather, or the onset of damage. The proposed approach revolves around construction of T2 control charts as a framework to jointly monitor the evolution and contemporaneous correlation of a set of measurements. The approach provides significant practical/computational advantages over individual analysis of multiple structural properties, and addresses technical problems stemming from ignoring the relationships among them.To illustrate the framework, we analyze strain and displacement data from the monitoring system on the Hurley Bridge (Wisconsin Structure B-26-7). Data were collected from 1 April 2010 to 28 June 2012. Analysis of 7 measurement sequences collected over the 27month planning horizon revealed 6 possible special-cause events. In terms of outlier interpretation, we use Mason–Young–Tracy Decomposition to establish the contribution of (subsets of) the measurements. Also, we link the most significant special-cause events, in terms of magnitude and duration, to unusual changes in weather and traffic. To conclude, we compare the proposed approach and benchmark the empirical results with Principal Component Analysis, perhaps, the most common alternative appearing in the literature.

Control Charts for the Lognormal Mean

Among a set of tools that form the core of statistical process control, statistical control charts are most commonly used for controlling, monitoring, and improving processes. The conventional control charts are based on the assumption that the distribution of the quality characteristic to be monitored follows the normal distribution. However, in real applications, many process distributions may follow a positively skewed distribution such as the lognormal distribution. In this study, we discuss the construction of several control charts for monitoring the mean of the lognormal distribution. A real example is used to demonstrate how these charts can be applied in practice. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Computation of Smooth Manifolds Via Rigorous Multi-parameter Continuation in Infinite Dimensions

In this paper, we introduce a constructive rigorous numerical method to compute smooth manifolds implicitly defined by infinite-dimensional nonlinear operators. We compute a simplicial triangulation of the manifold using a multi-parameter continuation method on a finite-dimensional projection. The triangulation is then used to construct local charts and an atlas of the manifold in the infinite-dimensional domain of the operator. The idea behind the construction of the smooth charts is to use the radii polynomial approach to verify the hypotheses of the uniform contraction principle over a simplex. The construction of the manifold is globalized by proving smoothness along the edge of adjacent simplices. We apply the method to compute portions of a two-dimensional manifold of equilibria of the Cahn---Hilliard equation.

X-MR control chart for autocorrelated fuzzy data using D p,q -distance

A control chart is a tool for investigating whether the variation in a production process is random or assignable. X − M R control chart is a binary control chart on which average values of process and moving range between observations are used to discover the variability in the process. In an ordinary control chart, the data are crisp values but sometimes, the data are generated as vague and uncertain values because of some of environmental conditions and other factors. In such cases, fuzzy sets theory is a useful tool for analyzing data. On the other hand, the assumption of independence between observations cannot be accepted because the probability of false warning will increase if the data are autocorrelated and their correlation is ignored. In this article, we will discuss the construction of fuzzy control charts for autocorrelated fuzzy observations and employment of ranking method in order to find out whether the observations are in or out of control. In fact, by using defined D p,q -distance between fuzzy numbers, we calculate their variance, covariance, and autocorrelation coefficient. The autocorrelation coefficient is used in order to modify the limit of control chart. By using D p,q -distance, we present a new approach for constructing control charts.

Comparison of traditional, trimmed traditional and robust Youden charts

BackgroundTraditional Youden chart can be distorted by non-normally distributed data. Here, an optimized Youden chart was developed and compared with the traditional and trimmed traditional Youden charts. MethodsThe urea concentrations were determined by 28 laboratories to provide data for the construction of Youden charts. Normality of these data was tested. Outliers were excluded prior to construction of the trimmed traditional Youden chart. Non-robust and robust estimators were computed to construct the traditional and robust Youden charts, respectively. Robust between-laboratory z-score (ZBi) and within-laboratory z-score (ZWi) were obtained to assess whether or not these charts can reasonably present the urea results. Expected outcomes were the points related to acceptable (|ZBi| and |ZWi|≤2), questionable (2<|ZBi|<3 and/or 2<|ZWi|<3), and unacceptable (|ZBi| and/or |ZWi|≥3) results fall inside, on/near, and outside the ellipse, respectively. ResultsOnly the data from lot 201111 are non-normally distributed. Five- and 2-pair outliers are excluded from the data of lots 201111 and 201112, respectively. The concordance rates of the traditional, trimmed traditional and robust Youden charts are 87.1%, 92.9%, and 94.3%, respectively. ConclusionsAmong the three charts, the robust Youden chart presents the urea results best.

Cognitive Russian Modeling in the System of Corporate Governmance

The scientific article represents the Russian model qualitative specifics in the corporate governance based on the international trends in corporate reporting management solutions of "standardization" and "mathematization" of construction of fuzzy cognitive charts and cognitive modeling instruments. The main peculiarities of three qualitative “configurations” of agency problems related to corporate governance in the Russian companies and the specifics of information openness have been analyzed in the article, with the dissonance factors drawn out, thus allowing to systematize semi-structured factors into their relationship and interaction, which affect the quality of management in the Russian corporations and worldwide. Modern opportunities of realizing strategic business –planning modelling survey with the help of that cognitive method give the companies more flexible investment and business ogranization of researching target needs, opportunities effective management increasing, working out effective strategies and long-term plans of developing. All this contributes to the deterioration of the quality parameters of corporate governance. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2p442

Qualitative and Quantitative Monitoring of Methyl Cotton Biodiesel Content in Biodiesel/Diesel Blends Using MIR Spectroscopy and Chemometrics Tools

This paper presents methodologies for monitoring the quality of methyl cotton biodiesel in biodiesel/diesel blends using mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIR) and chemometrics tools. The first method relates to the construction of multivariate control charts with the aim of qualitatively monitoring the samples according to the Brazilian specification for biodiesel in the biodiesel/diesel blends (7.00 ± 0.5% v/v of biodiesel). The second concerns the construction of partial least squares (PLS) to determine the content of the biodiesel in the biodiesel/diesel blend. The PLS model was validated from multivariate figures of merit according to the guidelines of ASTM E1655-05 and IUPAC. The results from both methods were satisfactory for both qualitative and quantitative monitoring. Therefore, the proposed methodologies for monitoring the quality of biodiesel in biodiesel/diesel blends are fast, practical, economical and efficient and can be used by industries and service stations.

A New Database Visualization Framework for the Automatic Construction of Non-standard Charts: Re-creating the Chart of Napoleon's Russian Campaign of 1812

In the last decade, research on database visualization has made great progress in automatically constructing charts composed of standard primitive charts. The next research challenge is to automatically construct non-standard charts which cannot be simply composed with standard primitive types of charts. One typical example is the chart of Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812. As to the challenge of automatic construction of such complex charts, we may classify conventional visualization frameworks into two categories. The first category asks users to procedurally define non-standard charts by programming. The second category asks users to declaratively define non-standard charts with their logical specification using a given library of graphical objects. Here we will propose a new visualization framework in the second category for automatically constructing non-standard charts from their logical specifications and discuss how to apply our framework to create custom-made geovisualization charts. Such a specification is described by one or more pairs of data view schemata (DVSs) and chart view schemata (CVSs). Each DVS is used for manipulating the data store in a database. Each CVS is used for defining the rendered appearances of the different chart components. Using our framework, users can easily re-create and extend such complex non-standard charts as the chart of Napoleon's campaign by simply providing their logical specifications.

Engineering model of crack development in metals and alloys under corrosive hydrogenous media

The number of constructions with elements that are directly exposed to corrosive hydrogenous media is growing all over the world. This is why the problems of the design of engineering models of crack development in the elements of machines and constructions continuously affected by corrosive hydrogenous media are urgent. As compared to all other aspects of engineering modeling, special attention is being paid to approaches to the construction of kinetic energy charts of crack growth that are considered the main engineering tool of service life forecasting for elements that develop cracks. One such approach is described below.

P15.18: Simpler is better: a comparison of methods for construction of fetal reference charts

<scp>P</scp>15.18: Simpler is better: a comparison of methods for construction of fetal reference charts

Modulation instability of solutions to the complex Ginzburg–Landau equation

The modulation instability of continuous-wave (CW) solutions of the complex Ginzburg–Landau equation (CGLE), with arbitrary intensity-dependent nonlinearity, is studied. The variational approach and standard linear stability analysis are used to investigate the stability of CW and to obtain the criteria for modulation stability in the general form. Analytical stability criteria are established, enabling the construction of charts of stable fixed points of the cubic–quintic CGLE. We show that the evolution of modulationally stable and unstable CWs depends on the CGLE parameters. The analytical predictions for plane wave stability are confirmed by exhaustive numerical simulations.