Effects Of Different Strategies Research Articles

Calcium fertilization strategy to improve production and quality of ‘Tommy Atkins’ mango in semi-arid conditions

ABSTRACT Calcium (Ca) is an essential element for the development of mango plants. New technologies are emerging in the market to assist the production process, such as organic acids and amino acids. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different strategies of Ca fertilization on the production and physical-chemical quality of ‘Tommy Atkins’ mango grown under Brazilian semi-arid conditions. The experiment was carried out in two commercial mango orchards, following a randomized block design, with four replications and four plants per block. The factorial design was composed by three formulations of Ca-based products and three forms of application. Fruit were harvested at the physiological maturity to determine yield and quality. There was no statistical difference among treatments for the incidence of internal physiological disorders in mangoes, with mean values ranging from 0.08% to 0.38%. Fruit production and physical-chemical quality were affected by the different Ca formulations and forms of application. Fruit production ranged from 21.5 to 44.4 kg per plant. The Ca foliar application plus fertigation in the form of CaCl2.2 H2O resulted in higher production, as well as higher fruit weight and lower weight loss at 40 days after harvest.

Enhancement the Performance of Multi-Level and Multi-Commodity in Supply Chain: A Simulation Approach

In today's global economy, effective supply chain management plays a pivotal role in the success of a business. The repercussions of a business strategy on the entire supply chain remain uncertain until it is implemented. Utilizing simulations offers the opportunity to gauge performance before implementing the strategy. The primary aim of employing supply chain simulation is to analyze the effects of different strategies on profit enhancement and cost reduction across all supply chain tiers. This research paper has formulated a discrete event simulation model using Arena software to evaluate and enhance the operational efficiency of the detergent supply chain. The problem involves multiple levels and commodities, encompassing four manufacturers, two intermediate storage warehouses, and four main distributors following an (s, S) inventory control approach. Shortages are permitted, leading to a partial loss or back-ordering of products. The overarching objective is to minimize the overall inventory costs within the system, accounting for holding costs at each tier, managing shortages, and the expense incurred due to lost sales. A range of scenarios are developed to set control parameters, with the evaluation of supply chain performance falling into two main categories: financial and operational considerations.

Workplace health promotion programs among health workers: a systematic literature review

Objective: To identify the effect of workplace health promotion activities (WHPA) on the health status of health personnel. Methodology: A systematic literature review was performed. Six computerized databases were used to search for studies on the effect of at least one health promotion activity on the health status of health personnel. Studies were included if they were published in peer-reviewed and indexed journals and were written either in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. Information such as study population, sample size, type of study, outcome, and health promotion activities performed were extracted from each publication. All the included articles were measured in terms of their methodological quality, including the risk of bias. Results: Lower scores on perceived stress, emotional exhaustion, and mood symptoms were reported. An improvement in sleep hours and quality and a reduction in dietary sodium intake were informed. Improvements in participants’ dietary habits, weight loss, and body fat percentage, along with increased physical activity and a reduction in pain levels were reported. A reduction in the prevalence of cigarette smoking was found. Conclusions: WHPAs can enhance physical and mental health, and overall well-being, and encouraging healthier behaviors among health personnel. Most of the studies targeting mental health focused their efforts primarily on reducing healthcare workers’ perceived stress. WHPAs that addressed both diet and physical activity behaviors were more effective at improving weight outcomes than those that used only one approximation. Overall, this study offers valuable information on the impact of worksite-based health promotion interventions, including the effect of different strategies applied

Understanding the Impact of Vaccination and Self-Defense Measures on Epidemic Dynamics Using an Embedded Optimization and Evolutionary Game Theory Methodology.

Explaining how individual choice and government policy can appear in the same context in real society is one of the most challenging scientific problems. Controlling infectious diseases requires effective prevention and control measures, including vaccination and self-defense measures. In this context, optimal control strategies incorporating vaccination and self-defense measures have been proposed using the framework of evolutionary game theory. This approach accounts for individuals' behavior and interactions in a population. It can provide insights into the effectiveness of different strategies for controlling the spread of infectious diseases. The optimal control strategy involves balancing the costs and benefits of vaccination, considering the dynamic interplay between the infected and susceptible populations. By combining evolutionary game theory with optimal control theory, we can identify the optimal allocation of resources for vaccination and self-defense measures, which can maximize the control of infectious diseases while minimizing costs. The model is utilized to analyze public health policies diseases, such as vaccination and self-defense strategies, to mitigate the spread of infectious in the context of delayed decision-making.

Testing pathways to scale: study protocol for a three-arm randomized controlled trial of a centralized and a decentralized (“Train the Trainers”) dissemination of a mental health program for Kenyan adolescents

BackgroundProviding care in Kenya to all youth in need is difficult because of a shortage of professional providers and societal stigma. Previous trials of the Anansi model, which involves delivering low-touch mental health interventions through a tiered caregiving model (including lay-providers, supervisors, and clinical experts), have shown its effectiveness for reducing depression and anxiety symptoms in school-going Kenyan adolescents. In this trial, we aim to assess two different scale-up strategies by comparing centralized implementation (i.e., by the organization that designed the Anansi model) against implementation through an implementing partner.MethodsIn this three-arm trial, 1600 adolescents aged 13 to 20 years will be randomized to receive the Shamiri intervention from either the Shamiri Institute or an implementation partner or to be placed in the treatment as usual (TAU) control group. The implementation partner will be trained and supplied with protocols to ensure that the same procedures are followed by both implementors. Implementation activities will run concurrently for both implementors. The Shamiri intervention will be delivered by trained lay providers to groups of 10–15 adolescents over four weekly sessions which will take place in secondary schools in Machakos and Makueni counties in Kenya. The TAU group will receive the usual care offered by their respective schools. Outcomes will be assessed at baseline, midpoint (2 weeks), endpoint (4 weeks), and 1 month follow-up. The analysis will be based on an intent-to-treat approach. Mixed effects models will be used to assess trajectories over time of the primary outcomes (anxiety and depressive symptoms, mental well-being, perceived social support, and academic performance) and secondary outcomes for the intervention groups and the control group. Effect sizes will be computed for the mean differences of the intervention and control arms at midpoint, endpoint, and follow-up.DiscussionThis trial will provide insight into the comparative effectiveness of different strategies for scaling a school-based mental health care model. Findings will also indicate areas for improved efficiency of the model to enhance its replicability by other implementors.Trial registrationPan African Clinical Trials Registry (PACTR) (ID: PACTR202305589854478, Approved: 02/05/2023).

Strategies for optimizing electronic tips service profit

Electronic tip systems have become very popular in the era of cashless payments. With the widespread use of such services, the problem of maximizing profits has arisen, which concerns both establishments using electronic tip services and the services themselves that provide such services. Identifying factors that influence guests’ economic behavior when leaving tips will allow for the creation of an optimal strategy to increase the efficiency of the system. This study used data on the profits of the electronic tip service in public catering establishments. A simulation model was created to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of different strategies; a methodology for finding the optimal strategy was described; and a clustering of establishments was performed using analysis of variance to customize the optimal strategy.

Do Affordable, Clean, and Modern Energy Matter for Environmental Sustainability? The Dynamic Effects of Different Strategies of Renewable Energy, Carbon Emissions, and Trade Openness on Sustainable Economic Growth

Do Affordable, Clean, and Modern Energy Matter for Environmental Sustainability? The Dynamic Effects of Different Strategies of Renewable Energy, Carbon Emissions, and Trade Openness on Sustainable Economic Growth

Does clean energy matter? The dynamic effects of different strategies of renewable energy, carbon emissions, and trade openness on sustainable economic growth

Does clean energy matter? The dynamic effects of different strategies of renewable energy, carbon emissions, and trade openness on sustainable economic growth

Maximizing Annual Energy Yield in a Grid-Connected PV Solar Power Plant: Analysis of Seasonal Tilt Angle and Solar Tracking Strategies

Harnessing the abundant solar resources holds great potential for sustainable energy generation. This research paper delves into a comprehensive analysis of seasonal tilt and solar tracking strategy scenarios for a 15 MW grid-connected PV solar power plant situated in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. The study investigates the impact of fixed tilt, seasonal tilt, SAHST (single-axis horizontal solar tracking), and SAVST (single-axis vertical solar tracking) on energy yield, considering technical, economic, and environmental aspects. In the first scenario, a fixed tilt angle of 31 degrees was employed. The second scenario explored the use of seasonal tilt angles, with a summer tilt angle of 15 degrees and a winter tilt angle of 30 degrees. The third scenario analyzed SAHST. Finally, the fourth scenario focused on implementing SAVST. SAVST proved to be an exceptional solution, showcasing a remarkable increase in annual energy yield, and generating an additional 6680 MWh/year, 6336 MWh/year, and 5084 MWh/year compared to fixed, seasonal, and SAHST scenarios, respectively. As a result, surplus energy yielded an income of USD 554,440.00 per year compared to fixed tilt. However, the investment cost for the solar tracking system amounted to USD 1,451,932, accompanied by an annual operation and maintenance cost of 0.007 USD/W/year. The analysis revealed a promising payback period of 3 years, confirming the economic feasibility of this investment. The findings underscore the effectiveness of different strategies for optimizing solar power generation in the Kandahar region. Notably, the installation of SAVST emerged as an influential solution, significantly increasing power production. These research outcomes bear practical implications for solar tracking strategies for addressing the load challenges faced by Kandahar province and offer valuable insights for the operators and operation of solar power plants in similar regions.

Analysis of Impact of the Holocaust on the Characters in Enermies, A Love Story from the Perspective of Trauma Theory

Holocaust literature has been widely concerned in the field of literature. Based on trauma theory, this article analyzes the impact of the Holocaust on the characters in Singer's Enemy, A Love Story. This study is mainly divided into three parts: trauma theory and overview of war trauma, trauma sources of characters, trauma symptoms of characters and trauma recovery status. The study found that the characters in the novel are generally traumatized by the Holocaust. They suffer from flashbacks of painful memories, hypervigilance and fear, but they are also repairing the trauma through their own efforts or the help of others. Further research is needed to explore the wider impact of the Holocaust on individuals and groups and the effectiveness of different strategies for repairing trauma.

Effectiveness of penile ventral curvature correction and the trend of hypospadias repair: a prospective study of the national center in China

BackgroundHypospadias repair is a complex surgical procedure that involves correcting penile ventral curvature (VC) and performing urethroplasty. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of different strategies for VC correction...

Inclusiveness of Women's Empowerment in Muslim Societies

This article engages contemporary scholarly literature on women’s empowerment in Muslim societies, examining various indicators and challenges to women’s empowerment and analyzing case studies to assess the effectiveness of different strategies and initiatives. Furthermore, the research explores the norms of women’s empowerment from the perspective of Abrahamic religions, arguing that, despite having historically patriarchal norms, these religions actively worked towards promoting gender equality. In Muslim societies, cultural practices and interpretations limited women’s autonomy. Ongoing efforts within Islamic scholarship and activism strive to reconcile these practices with Islamic values and advance gender equality. Despite notable progress in recent times, the findings highlight cultural, legal, and institutional barriers that hinder women from realizing their full potential. To overcome these obstacles, this article suggests operating within existing cultural and religious frameworks to challenge gender stereotypes and encourage fair gender relations. Ultimately, the article emphasizes the importance of increased collaboration and knowledge-sharing to prioritize women’s empowerment as a fundamental development goal. By creating an environment that fosters the full participation and inclusion of women in all aspects, Muslim societies can unlock the immense potential of their female population, leading to sustainable development and social progress for all.

Utilization of whole health services among veterans with spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/D): Early insights from the VA SCI/D system of care

Context/Objective Our objective was to describe early participation in Whole Health programs across the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Spinal Cord Injuries and Disorders (SCI/D) System of Care. Design Retrospective analysis of VHA administrative data. Setting The VHA SCI/D System of Care. Participants Veterans with SCI/D included in the FY2019 cumulative VHA SCI/D Registry cohort with living status during FY2017, FY2018, and FY2019. Interventions N/A. Outcome Measures We assessed the number of encounters and unique Veterans with SCI/D, and the percent of Veterans with SCI/D, who utilized each Whole Health (WH) program available in VA. Results Utilization of WH Pathway and well-being Programs increased from 62 encounters to 1703 encounters between FY2017 and FY2019 (representing 0.09% to 3.13% of Veterans with SCI/D). Utilization of chiropractic care rose from 130 encounters to 418 encounters during the same time period. Similarly, utilization of complementary and integrative health programs increased from 886 encounters to 2655 encounters (representing 1.09% to 3.11% of Veterans; FY2017 to 2019). We also report utilization of specific WH programs. Conclusion Participation in WH services has been increasing among Veterans with SCI/D who receive health care from the VHA SCI/D System of Care. However, utilization among Veterans with SCI/D remains low overall, and targeted efforts to increase WH program reach are needed. Additional information about the relative effectiveness of different strategies to support WH implementation is also needed, to ensure strategies likely to have the most impact are prioritized.

Kidney Segmentations Using CNN models

For medical diagnostic tests, kidney segmentation from high-volume imagery is an important major. Since 3D medical images need a lot of GPU memory, slices and patches are used for training and inference in traditional neural network variant architectures, which necessarily slows down contextual learning. In this research, Mobile Net and Efficient Net CNN models were trained for segmenting human kidney images generated from The Human Biomolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP). The purpose of this work is to evaluate the effectiveness of different strategies for Glomeruli identification in order to solve the issue. The high size images were decoded to be fitted and trained in the models first, then the CNN models were trained. The CNN models result show that the Efficient Net has the highest accuracy rate with 99.49 %, and Mobile Net with 99.33 %.

Breaking the mold: examining the effectiveness of techniques to reduce motivated reasoning

ABSTRACT Extensive research in the social sciences has shown that people tend to engage in motivated reasoning when processing information. However, one area of inquiry that has been lacking is examining the effectiveness of different strategies that aim to decrease motivated reasoning. In this paper, we examine three strategies that have been shown to decrease motivated reasoning: accuracy motivation, the common ingroup identity model, and self-affirmation. We begin by replicating previous findings examining the effectiveness of each of these strategies in reducing motivated reasoning. We then extend this line of inquiry by comparing the effects of these three strategies against one another to determine if one of them is more effective at reducing motivated reasoning. To test our hypotheses, we used an experimental design and recruited participants from Prolific.

A Data-Driven Solution for Energy Management Strategy of Hybrid Electric Vehicles Based on Uncertainty-Aware Model-Based Offline Reinforcement Learning

Energy management strategy (EMS) is the key technology to improving the fuel efficiency of hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). In recent years, the development of artificial intelligence has enabled tremendous advances by utilizing reinforcement learning (RL) for training and deploying deep neural network-based EMS. However, in contrast to the fields of deep learning such as computer vision and natural language processing which mainly rely on large-scale offline datasets, most RL-based policies must be trained online by trial-and-error with the initial performance being almost arbitrary. Such a paradigm is considered inefficient and unsafe for industrial automation and can only be used to tackle the EMS problems in the simulation world. Considering large historical interactive datasets are readily available in EMS domain, if a RL algorithm can be used to extract a policy purely offline from the prior collected dataset and improve upon data logging policy, the current issues including sample inefficiency, unsafe exploration, and simulation-to-real gap that prevent the widespread use of RL methods could be mitigated to a great extent. To this end, this paper presents a feasible algorithmic framework for model-based offline RL. Unlike vanilla RL approaches without any consideration against distributional shift, a data-driven dynamic model is built before the policy training using RL. After that, two techniques namely conservative MDP and state regularization are augmented which is proved to be effective against model over exploitation. A hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test is used to evaluate the real-time performance and effectiveness of different strategies on a real controller, and it is found that the proposed naïve data-driven model-based offline RL algorithm can already solve the distributional shift problem inherent in vanilla RL to a large extent. Furthermore, by incorporating the guidance of uncertainty-awareness, a near optimal policy can be obtained by using only the dataset from a sub-optimal controller.

Coordinated suppression strategies for passive and active resonances of the MMC‐HVDC AC‐side system on the medium‐ and high‐frequency bands

AbstractThe medium‐ and high‐frequency resonance between modular multilevel converters (MMCs) and the AC grid has attracted increasing attention due to the frequent occurrence of resonance events in recent years. Therefore, resonance issues are analyzed, and corresponding suppression strategies are proposed in this paper. First, the analytical expression of the MMC AC‐side impedance is established. Then, the mechanism and influencing factors of different types of resonances, including active resonance and passive resonance, are analyzed to provide a more comprehensive perspective. To aid the suppression of these resonances, resonance risk indexes are defined to evaluate the resonance risk, and then the suppression effects of different strategies are compared through analytical calculations. Subsequently, coordinated resonance suppression strategies suitable for different resonance situations are proposed. The key points of the suppression strategies are to suppress the negative damping of MMC impedance at the resonance frequency and improve the integrated impedance of the MMC AC‐side system. Finally, the proposed suppression strategies are verified by simulation results.

A Monte Carlo Assessment of the Effect of Different Ventilation Strategies to Mitigate the COVID-19 Contagion Risk in Educational Buildings

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has increased the general awareness of the importance of proper ventilation in the indoor environment to reduce the contagion risk. In particular, attention has been paid to specific categories of buildings, such as schools, due to two factors: (1) high occupancy density and (2) the presence of young and sometimes more susceptible people. Despite the high level of alertness towards the ventilation of classrooms, robust analyses of the effectiveness of the different strategies to mitigate the contagion risk have been difficult to perform. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing, and many factors, such as the presence of multiple viral strains, use of facial masks, progression in vaccination, and installation of air purifiers and other sanitization devices, make it difficult to fully quantify the impact of room ventilation by simply analysing available monitoring data. Moreover, mitigation strategies related to ventilation are often dynamic, increasing the complexity of the problem to assess. In this framework, this work proposes a new Monte Carlo method integrated with building performance simulation to evaluate the number of infected occupants under different scenarios, considering also the dynamic boundary conditions. The described approach has been applied to a case study classroom at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, analysing almost 100 different scenarios and discussing the effectiveness of different ventilation strategies traditionally adopted to ensure suitable IAQ according to CO2 concentration limits. Results highlight the importance of combining different solutions (e.g., mixed-mode ventilation and facial masks) to limit the risk for both students and lecturers.

Effective Feedback Strategy for Formative Assessment in an Integrated Medical Neuroscience Course.

Despite the different benefits of formative assessments in an integrated medical curriculum, the effective strategies to provide feedback to medical students to benefit from the different merits of formative assessment are not fully understood. This study aims to determine the effect of different strategies of formative feedback on students' outcomes in a medical neuroscience course. We compared medical students' performance in summative examinations in the academic year that formative feedback was provided using in-person discussion and compared such performances with the academic year when the feedback was provided by written rationales or a combination of written rationales and in-person discussion. We also surveyed medical students' preferences for whether written or in-person formative feedback is a better strategy to provide feedback at the end of each course. ANOVA found a significant difference in summative performance scores for those scoring ≥ 70% when formative feedback was provided by providing a rationale, in-person, and a combination of both ([F (2,80) = 247.60, P < 0.001]. Post hoc analysis revealed a significant and highest performance when feedback was provided using the written rationale approach (***P < 0.05), followed by in-person (**P < 0.05). In contrast, the least performance was recorded when formative feedback was provided using a combination of providing a written rationale for the answers to the questions and in-person discussion of the questions (*P < 0.05). Students' preferred approach for receiving formative feedback for their formative assessment was highest for written rationale (***P < 0.05), followed by in-person or a combination of in-person and written rationale (**P < 0.05). Our results found that medical students preferred a written formative feedback approach, which was associated with better student performance on the summative examination. This study reveals the importance of developing effective strategies to provide formative feedback to medical students for medical students to fully benefit from the merits of formative assessment in an integrated medical school curriculum.

Betweenness Centrality-Based seismic risk management for bridge transportation networks

Although bridges are integral parts of transportation networks, they are vulnerable to natural hazards. The damage incurred during these natural hazards events leads to network disruptions and hinders post-event recovery. Therefore, improving the seismic performance of transportation networks is critical. This paper proposes an origin–destination pair betweenness centrality (BC)-based methodology to rank bridges according to their importance in a complex bridge network. The proposed methodology is an easy-to-use approach that considers user equilibrium and topology and significantly shorten the computational time. In addition, this study proposes two strategies including the retrofit of bridges and construction of new bridges based on the BC importance of bridges to mitigate the seismic risk of bride networks. A well-studied bridge network in California was used to demonstrate the application and the effect of different strategies was compared in this study. Bridges located at the shortest path significantly affect the seismic performance of bridge networks, indicating there is no need to rehabilitate or replace all bridges under budget constraints. Also, constructing five new bridges based on BC importance improved seismic performance of the bridge network much more than retrofitting 21 bridges. Moreover, the proposed methodology presents a significant reduction in computational time (only 1/30 compared with an existing study) in resolving the importance of bridges in a network and can be applied to provide useful information for disaster management teams to mitigate the seismic risk of bridge networks.