Conventional Calculator Research Articles

Analysis of Consumptive Financing for Civil Servants at Bank Nagari Conventional and Sharia Bukittinggi

Consumer financing has become an essential product in the banking industry. Civil Servants (PNS) are one of the significant groups in the consumer financing market. The provision of consumer financing for PNS is not only available in conventional financial institutions but also increasingly prevalent in Islamic financial institutions. This study aims to analyze and compare the interest rate systems in conventional banks, namely sliding, flat, and annuity, with the interest rate system in Islamic banks, namely the declining margin annuity method applied by Bank Nagari in consumer financing. This research method uses a qualitative approach with in-depth interviews with PNS who are customers of Bank Nagari Syariah Bukittinggi and simulation data on the Bank Nagari Conventional website Calculator. Based on interest calculations, it is evident that the method with the least bank interest income is the sliding method at Bank Nagari Conventional, followed by the declining margin annuity method at Bank Nagari Syariah. Thus, this study provides valuable insights for PNS customers in choosing financing products that are beneficial to customers and align with their needs and values

Improving the insulin therapy for diabetic patients using optimal impulsive disturbance rejection: Continuous time approach

The paper proposes a new model-based optimization approach to improve the clinical efficiency of compensatory insulin bolus treatment in diabetic patients, aiming to mitigate the consequences of diabetes. The most important contribution of this paper is a novel methodology for determining the optimal parameters of insulin treatment, namely the size and timing of insulin boluses, to effectively compensate for carbohydrate intake. This concept can be seen as the so-called optimal model-based bolus calculator. The presented theoretical framework deals with the problem of optimal disturbance rejection in impulsive systems by minimizing an integral quadratic cost function. The methodology considers a personalized empirical transfer function model with static gains and time constants as the only parameters assumed to be known, making the bolus calculator more straightforward to implement in clinical practice. Contrary to other techniques, the proposed methodology considers impulsive insulin administration in the form of boluses, which is more feasible than continuous infusion. In contrast to the conventional bolus calculator, the proposed algorithm allows for maximizing therapy performance by optimizing the relative time of insulin bolus administration with respect to carbohydrate intake. Another feature to highlight is that the solution of the optimization problem can be obtained analytically, hence no numerical iterative solvers are required. Additionally, the continuous-time domain approach allows for a much finer adjustments of the insulin administration timing compared to discrete-time models. The proposed approach was validated in an in-silico study, which demonstrated the importance of systematically determined insulin–carbohydrate ratio and the relative delay between disturbance and its compensation. The results showed that the proposed optimal bolus calculator outperforms the traditional suboptimal formula.

EVALUATION OF BIM APPLICATION FOR WATER EFFICIENCY ASSESSMENT

ABSTRACT Application of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in architecture, engineering, and construction industry is known for its productivity and efficiency. Green BIM is one of the recent applications that aids users in achieving sustainability and/or improved building performance objectives through design and analysis of digital semantic models. The focus is on the application of green BIM for water efficiency (WE) analysis in accordance with the Malaysian Green Building Index (GBI) as a sustainability assessment tool. Revit Green Project Template (RGPT) and Autodesk Green Building Studio (GBS) as two available BIM tools were selected to evaluate and compare the applicability of each method for GBI WE assessment. To resolve the limitations identified from each evaluated method, automated GBI assessment tool (AGBIA) was developed as an alternative. The AGBIA as a supporting tool was established with the use of Dynamo, a visual programming tool to compensate for the limitations faced in the investigated methods. The practicality of each method was explored using a hypothetical model in Revit to automate information correspondent to 10 water efficiency assessment points and generate reports and documents necessary for the GBI design stage certification. The final phase involves verification of results obtained from each method using the conventional GBI WE calculator. AGBIA is suitable for the green BIM users in Malaysia based on the flexibility and automation over defining and assigning green parameters that are in line with the local context, the direct link of green information to the model, as well as the detail of presented data.

Numerical Review of Jones–Wilkins–Lee Parameters for Trinitrotoluene Explosive in Free-Air Blast

AbstractThe analysis of complex blast scenarios typically requires advanced computational methods such as multi-material Eulerian and coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian (CEL) analysis where Jones–Wilkins–Lee (JWL) equation of state is used to model the explosive material. While multiple sets of empirical JWL parameters for trinitrotoluene (TNT) explosives have been published over the past few decades, there is also a lack of guidelines and comparative studies on their applications for the blast analysis. A standardized description of the explosive material behavior allows for a better interpretation of results from research studies involving different blast scenarios and JWL parameters. In this paper, the authors utilize numerical finite element (FE) simulations to investigate the influence of different TNT JWL parameter sets on the blast wave characteristics of a free-air blast across different scaled distances. Utilizing multi-material Eulerian analysis, a series of spherical free-air blasts involving a 100-kg TNT charge modeled with different TNT JWL parameters are conducted. The blast wave characteristics including the incident overpressure, impulse, and time of arrival (TOA) are benchmarked against the empirical-based Kingery–Bulmash air blast formulations through the conventional weapon effect calculator conwep. It was found that the incident overpressure and impulse are highly sensitive to the JWL parameters, with differences as high as 40% at smaller scaled distances, while the influence on TOA is much less significant. This paper hopes to provide a guide for future users on the appropriate JWL parameter sets to model the air blast events involving TNT explosives.

Residual Refractive Astigmatism following Toric Intraocular Lens Implantation without Consideration of Posterior Corneal Astigmatism during Cataract Surgery with Low Anterior Keratometric Astigmatism upto 2.5 Dioptres

ABSTRACTPurpose: To determine the refractive astigmatism following toric intraocular lens (tIOL) implantation without consideration of posterior keratometric astigmatism with a conventional tIOL calculator for eyes with low keratometric astigmatism (0.75D to 2.5D) and to theoretically compare the outcomes with predicted refractive astigmatism using a calculator with Barrett’s formula.Methods: 34 eyes (34 patients) were assessed with Scheimpflug imaging and underwent tIOL implantation employing conventional tIOL calculator. Eyes were grouped on preoperative keratometric astigmatism as against-the-rule (ATR), with-the-rule (WTR), and oblique (OB). The refractive astigmatism was assessed at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months postoperatively and was classified as ATR, WTR, and OB. Theoretical refractive astigmatism calculations were performed for the same eyes using Barrett’s formula.Results: Preoperatively keratometric astigamtism was ATR, WTR, and OB in 32%, 53% and 15% of eyes. At 12 months, in ATR, WTR and OB groups, 45.5%, 16.7% and 60% had ATR refractive astigmatism; 16.7%, 0%, and 20% had WTR refractive astigmatism; 55.6%, 54.5% and 20% were emmetropic (no sphere and cylinder) respectively. There was a significant difference between the theoretical predicted postoperative refractive astigmatism using conventional tIOL calculator and Barrett’s formula (P < .05). Postoperative refractive astigmatism was not significantly different from the theoretical predicted refractive astigmatism with Barrett’s formula but it was significantly higher than that with a conventional tIOL calculator.Conclusions: At 12 months, with a conventional tIOL calculator, postoperative emmetropia is achieved in half, two third and one-fifth of eyes with preoperatively ATR, WTR, and OB keratometric astigamtism respectively. Around 1/4th WTR keratometric astigamtism eyes preoperatively were overcorrected to ATR refractive astigmatism whereas ½ATR remained undercorrected at 12 months Outcomes achieved were dissimilar to predicted outcomes with a conventional tIOL calculator but similar to those with Barrett’s formula.

An Adaptive Nonlinear Basal-Bolus Calculator for Patients With Type 1 Diabetes.

Bolus calculators help patients with type 1 diabetes to mitigate the effect of meals on their blood glucose by administering a large amount of insulin at mealtime. Intraindividual changes in patients physiology and nonlinearity in insulin-glucose dynamics pose a challenge to the accuracy of such calculators. We propose a method based on a continuous-discrete unscented Kalman filter to continuously track the postprandial glucose dynamics and the insulin sensitivity. We augment the Medtronic Virtual Patient (MVP) model to simulate noise-corrupted data from a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). The basal rate is determined by calculating the steady state of the model and is adjusted once a day before breakfast. The bolus size is determined by optimizing the postprandial glucose values based on an estimate of the insulin sensitivity and states, as well as the announced meal size. Following meal announcements, the meal compartment and the meal time constant are estimated, otherwise insulin sensitivity is estimated. We compare the performance of a conventional linear bolus calculator with the proposed bolus calculator. The proposed basal-bolus calculator significantly improves the time spent in glucose target ( P < .01) compared to the conventional bolus calculator. An adaptive nonlinear basal-bolus calculator can efficiently compensate for physiological changes. Further clinical studies will be needed to validate the results.

A DNA-based system for selecting and displaying the combined result of two input variables.

Oligonucleotide-based technologies for biosensing or bio-regulation produce huge amounts of rich high-dimensional information. There is a consequent need for flexible means to combine diverse pieces of such information to form useful derivative outputs, and to display those immediately. Here we demonstrate this capability in a DNA-based system that takes two input numbers, represented in DNA strands, and returns the result of their multiplication, writing this as a number in a display. Unlike a conventional calculator, this system operates by selecting the result from a library of solutions rather than through logic operations. The multiplicative example demonstrated here illustrates a much more general capability—to generate a unique output for any distinct pair of DNA inputs. The system thereby functions as a lookup table and could be a key component in future, more powerful data-processing systems for diagnostics and sensing.

Three-dimensional analytical solution of acoustic emission or microseismic source location under cube monitoring network

To find the analytical solution of the acoustic emission/microseismic(AE/MS) source location coordinates, the sensor location coordinates were optimized and simplified. A cube monitoring network of sensor location was selected, and the AE/MS source localization equations were established. A location method with P-wave velocity by analytical solutions (P-VAS) was obtained with these equations. The virtual location tests show that the relocation results of analytical method are fully consistent with the actual coordinates for events both inside and outside the monitoring network; whereas the location error of traditional time difference method is between 0.01 and 0.03 m for events inside the sensor array, and the location errors are larger, which is up to 1080986 m for events outside the sensor array. The broken pencil location tests were carried out in the cross section of 100 mm×98 mm, 350 mm-length granite rock specimen using five AE sensors. Five AE sources were relocated with the conventional method and the P-VAS method. For the four events outside monitoring network, the positioning accuracy by P-VAS method is higher than that by the traditional method, and the location accuracy of the larger one can be increased by 17.61 mm. The results of both virtual and broken pencil location tests show that the proposed analytical solution is effective to improve the positioning accuracy. It can locate the coordinates of AE/MS source only using simple four arithmetic operations, without determining the fitting initial value and iterative calculation, which can be solved by a conventional calculator or Microsoft Excel.

Intravenous anaesthesia for thoracic procedures

Total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) is indicated for procedures in which inhalational anesthetics may not be safely or effectively delivered, including endobronchial procedures using flexible or rigid bronchoscopy and proximal airway-disrupting surgeries. TIVA may also be beneficial in lung volume reduction surgery, lung transplantation, and thymectomy. TIVA is safer and more practical for thoracic procedures performed outside of the operating room, such as off-site locations, military field, or impoverished areas of the world. Target-controlled infusion (TCI) is a relatively new delivery system for TIVA that is based on pharmacokinetic models to optimize intravenous anesthetic delivery. TCI has many advantages over conventional calculator pumps but is not currently available in the United States. Because well-established MAC-type systems for intravenous anesthetics are not available, anesthetic depth monitors are useful in monitoring patients undergoing TIVA. Propofol, dexmedetomidine, ketamine, lidocaine, and remifentanil may be used in combination with anesthetic depth monitoring to execute an effective TIVA regimen. This chapter reviews the balanced TIVA technique currently used at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

A simple, accurate and effective polymorphic method to determine phase compositions of SiC-based ceramics

A new polymorphic method to determine phase compositions of SiC-based ceramics from their X-ray diffraction profiles has been proposed. Basically, this polymorphic method differs from others already proposed in the literature as follows: (1) a set of parameters is introduced to take into account the possible overlap between different groups of peaks and, (2) a square system is used instead of an overdetermined system to determine the phase composition. The accuracy of the method has subsequently been evaluated using a set of standard X-ray diffraction patterns as a benchmark and the corresponding absolute mean and maximum errors were found to be as low as 2.7 and 6.4%, respectively. In addition, it was also found that the method is much more effective than its polymorphic counterparts, as no physically meaningless negative compositions were found in this study. Moreover, the practical application of the method is quite simple and the phase composition can be determined quickly even using a conventional scientific pocket calculator. We have then demonstrated that the use of the proposed method to determine phase compositions of SiC-based ceramics has several important advantages over other polymorphic methods in terms of enhanced simplicity, accuracy and effectiveness. Parallel analyses of a commercially available α-SiC powder and of a liquid-phase-sintered SiC ceramic further reinforced these arguments.

Evaluation of Conventional, Serial, and Chord Keyboard Options for Mail Encoding

The motivation for the experiment was the integration of a work station display component and a suitable data entry device. Keying performance with three candi- date keyboards was evaluated: (1) a one-handed conventional calculator keyboard, (2) a two-handed 10-key serial keyboard, and (3) a two-handed 10-key chord keyboard. Subjects were trained to criteria on a numerical data entry task and subsequently tested for performance in encoding five-digit strings. Measures of encoding response time and encoding errors showed a substantial advantage in training time for the calculator keyboard and two-handed serial keyboard over the two-handed chord keyboard.

Solutions of the integral equation of diffusion and the random walk model for continuous plumes and instantaneous puffs in the atmospheric boundary layer

The integral equation method is related to the random walk modelling that has proved so effective and popular in recent years. The I.E. method, by using simple probability techniques, avoids the inefficient determination of thousands of trajectories in order to build up concentration profiles. In fact it is so simple and efficient it can be run on a conventional programmable calculator. The method is applied to passive material being released from an elevated source within a neutrally stable surface layer over a uniform surface, and also to an instantaneous release when the effect of wind shear is examined. The latter scenario is also studied using random walk techniques and a comparison of the solutions obtained. Agreement is very good, although downwind spread is shown to be quite sensitive to gridlength size in the I.E. method.

Construction of a simple spike counter for analysis of electrophysiological recording data

A method for constructing a simple spike counter from a conventional calculator by taking advantage of the “adding display to memory” function [(M+) key] is described. The modification involves connecting the (M+) key to a dissecting pin and to a metallic notebook binder which is taped on to a transparent plastic sheet. The plastic sheet can then be placed on top of a polygraph record. After entering “1” into the calculator, a spike can be counted by making a single contact between the pin and the metal fastener. The total number of spikes counted can be displayed on the calculator by pressing the key for memory recall. The spike counter described herein is suitable for counting extracellular action potentials recorded on chart paper as well as other biological signals such as the rate of contraction of muscle.

Computation of pore-size distribution in terms of surface area

A simple method is suggested for computing pore-size distributions in terms of surface areas, instead of pore volumes, directly from low-temperature desorption isotherms of nitrogen. The method yields areas and distribution patterns which are very similar to those obtained with the BJH method, but the computational procedure is much simpler and can be handled conveniently with a conventional desk calculator.

Special-purpose slide rules as exemplified by a rule for maintaining a constant exposure in successive autoradiographs with iodine-131.

WHENEVER a particular type of calculation is to be repeated frequently, the use of slide rules, nomograms or graphs eliminates a major part of the time required. This is frequently the case in problems involving isotopes of short half-life. Because radioactive decay is exponential, the conventional mechanical calculator is of little help. An ordinary slide rule is far from ideal, and its use requires familiarity with the mathematics of exponential decay. Therefore a simple special purpose rule has been devised to solve a specific problem. The utility of this rule should make it of general interest and may encourage the development of other rules for special purposes.

A New Approach to the Study of Simultaneous Unbalances [includes discussion

A new method of studying simultaneous unbalances with the aid of a network calculator is discussed. Such unbalances may occur in power systems when faults involve more than one circuit of a double-circuit line; when the line-to-ground or line-to-line faults are accompanied by open conductors; when simultaneous faults occur at more than one location, as can result from overvoltages due to one fault causing insulation breakdown at some point removed from the original fault; and from faults which involve two or more circuits of different voltage levels, as sometimes occur when subtransmission and primary distribution circuits are carried on the same pole structures. The method enables one to include the general case of Z1≠Z2, with only conventional passive network calculator impedances and 1-to-1 ratio transformers being required. No negative impedances, mutual impedances between networks, or "imaginary" turn-ratio transformers are required, even for cases involving wyedelta transformations between the unbalances. Applications to conditions of simultaneous faults and open conductors are discussed.