General Evaluation Method Research Articles

Emulgel

Topical delivery of drugs is one of the ideal routes of administrating a wide range of drug candidates and emulgels are emerging as a novel formulation, which exhibited the characteristics of both the emulsions and gels. Emulgel demonstrated improved penetrability during several studies and it is able to deliver hydrophilic as well as hydrophobic drugs and hence overcome the limitations of traditionally available topical preparations. More stable and effective emulgels can be prepared by nanonizing and micronizing the globules of emulsions, which improves the stability and half-life of Emulgels. The commercial availability along with the presence of strong clinical pipeline of emulgels is indicating towards the acceptance of this formulation while several advantages associated with this approach is also suggesting towards its potential as ideal topical drug delivery system. This article enlisted in-depth information about the emulgels, its components and structure along with the general method of production, evaluation and future scenario of this approach. The article also involved information about the patents insight, commercially available products and previously used drugs for developing stable emulgels.

Emulgel: A revolution in topical drug delivery system

Topical delivery of drugs is one of the ideal routes of administrating a wide range of drug candidates and emulgels are emerging as a novel formulation, which exhibited the characteristics of both the emulsions and gels. Emulgel demonstrated improved penetrability during several studies and it is able to deliver hydrophilic as well as hydrophobic drugs and hence overcome the limitations of traditionally available topical preparations. More stable and effective emulgels can be prepared by nanonizing and micronizing the globules of emulsions, which improves the stability and half-life of Emulgels. The commercial availability along with the presence of strong clinical pipeline of emulgels is indicating towards the acceptance of this formulation while several advantages associated with this approach is also suggesting towards its potential as ideal topical drug delivery system. This article enlisted in-depth information about the emulgels, its components and structure along with the general method of production, evaluation and future scenario of this approach. The article also involved information about the patents insight, commercially available products and previously used drugs for developing stable emulgels.

Experimental study of the formation and diffusion of soap bubbles for wrapping and transporting indoor airborne pollution

A novel soap-bubble-assisted local exhaust ventilation (SBA–LEV) system is proposed in this study, which uses soap bubbles to separate centralized released airborne pollutants from ambient air and prevents mixing and dilution in the pollutant diffusion process. Four SBA-LEV system modes were proposed, and the formation and free diffusion of the soap bubbles in Mode A were studied by using a single-nozzle air-supply experimental setup. The velocity range of the soap bubble formation was determined, and the relationship between the maximum bubble-forming flow velocity and nozzle diameter was obtained. For a given nozzle diameter, the diameters of the generated soap bubbles were essentially the same and independent of the blowing velocity. Moreover, the soap bubble diameter increased linearly with an increase in nozzle diameter. In the soap bubble diffusion process, it showed that the moving trajectory of a soap bubble is similar to a parabola, and the error between the theoretical and experimental values was less than 20%. Moreover, it indicated that the diffusion range of a soap bubble group expanded with an increase in diffusion height. When the blowing velocity was near the minimum critical airflow velocity, the diffusion range of soap bubbles is the smallest and suitable for capture. Finally, a general design and efficiency evaluation method of the SBA–LEV system was discussed. The SBA-LEV system can effectively reduce the difficulty of pollutant capture by exhaust airflow and the required exhaust air volume, and finally improve the pollutant-removal and energy-saving efficiency of LEV system.

Mitigation of blast effects through novel energy-dissipating connectors

Explosions generate overpressures that can cause irreparable damage to structures. For many buildings, especially critical infrastructure, continued operation after an explosive attack is essential. The use of energy-dissipating methods will enable the protection of a structure and occupants from a blast and permit the timely repair and re-occupation of the building after an event. The concept behind the system presented is the creation of panels that can be used as cladding for structures. The panels are connected to the main structure using energy-dissipating component assemblies around the panel edge. When subjected to a blast load the panels transfer the blast pressure through the assemblies, thereby reducing the forces transmitted to the underlying structure. After an event, the panels and energy-dissipating component assemblies can be replaced quickly and easily, allowing the building to be reoccupied in a short time after an attack. This study focuses on the characterization of energy-dissipating component assemblies using static and dynamic laboratory testing. A predictive theory, supported by a single degree of freedom model, is developed and a general evaluation method proposed. Further laboratory testing expands the characterization of behaviour of the assemblies through experiments, with a blast generator in tension tests and in simulated blast panel tests. The time histories developed from tension tests are then compared to examine the effect of loading rate. The investigations on blast panels also include a comparison with predictions to determine whether the latter can describe the global behaviour of the system. Lastly, the response of the energy-dissipating component assemblies is evaluated in full-scale field blast tests on cladding panels.

A Method for Analog Space Missions Risk Analysis

In this paper, we provide a general risk evaluation method for analog simulation missions, in terms of identification of potential hazards and risks, which could affect the positive outcome of a pre-designed mission. The risk analysis method considers the risk evaluation of each mission's foreseen experiment, and the evaluation of other general factors which could have an impact on the entire operation. The scope of this analysis is to ensure that all the undertaken operations are analysed and well defined. We paid special attention to the assessment of the safety issues related to the execution of the experiments. The methodology includes elements of the Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and the development of a specific risk-reduction strategy, appropriately scaled and simplified for the space simulation mission scope. Also, we introduced the Risk Cube concept, a new useful tool that can be applied to other types of Space missions. It represents a higher level of abstraction, yet characterized by a simpler approach. The added value of the Risk Cube concept is that it is possible to identify all the domains of occurrence of the risks, visualize the interconnection of the different risks, and contribute to creating a mental map whose aim is to identify all the possible factors and requirements that could have some influence on the outcome of the risk analysis.

A prospective cross-sectional study estimated glomerular filtration rate from creatinine and cystatin C in adults with solid tumors

Current guidelines recommend estimating glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) using creatinine (eGFRcr) with the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation as the first test for GFR evaluation, but the Cockcroft-Gault (CG) equation is still commonly used in oncology practice and clinical trials despite increasing evidence of its inaccuracy compared to measured GFR (mGFR). Guidelines recommend eGFR using cystatin C (eGFRcys) or both markers (eGFRcr-cys) as a confirmatory test, but neither was carefully evaluated in cancer patients. Therefore, we compared performance of the CKD-EPI equations and others to the CG equation in adults with a variety of solid tumors. The mGFR was determined by plasma clearance of 51Cr-EDTA. Bias was defined as the median of the differences between mGFR and eGFR while accuracy was defined as the percentage of estimates that differed by more than 30% from the measured GFR (1-P30). We prospectively recruited 1,200 patients between April 2015 and September 2017 with a mean age and mGFR of 58.8 years and 78.4 ml/min/1.73m2, respectively. Bias among eGFRcr equations varied from -8.1 to+6.1 ml/min/1.73 m2. CG was the least accurate, 1-P30 (95% confidence interval) was 24.9 (22.4- 27.3)%; CKD-EPI had 1-P30 of 19.1 (16.8-21.2)% while eGFRcr-cys had the best performance: bias -2.0 (-2.6 to -1.1) ml/min/1.73m2 and 1-P30 7.8 (6.3-9.4)%. Thus, the CG equation should not be preferred over CKD-EPI equation, and eGFRcr-cys can be used as a confirmatory test in adults with solid tumors. Hence, a major policy implication would be to adopt general practice guideline-recommended methods for GFR evaluation in oncology practice and clinical trials.

Study on shear behavior and damage constitutive model of tendon-grout interface

Ground anchors are responsible for maintaining the stability and integrity as well as controlling the deformation, displacement, and crack development in the surrounding ground. Tendon-grout (T-G) interface, which is the weak part of anchorage structures, affects the anchorage performance of the ground anchor during load-transfer processes. To investigate the shear mechanical properties of the tendon-grout interface, a series of pull-out tests were conducted on anchorage element under constant radial stiffness boundary conditions. Moreover, the equivalent calculation for the constant radial stiffness boundary condition was analyzed. The mechanical performance of cement grouts cured for different periods was investigated, including the compressive strength and shear strength. Additionally, the failure modes of tendon-grout systems and effects of different tendon quantity, spacing and offset, were assessed. The failure evolution mechanism of the interface during the pull-out process was clarified. In addition, the microscopic structural characteristics of the tendon-grout interface were investigated. Two interfacial shear stress-displacement relationships were developed based on the interface failure modes, i.e., stress attenuation type and ideal elasto-plastic type. According to the test results, the peak strength of the interface increased with the tendon spacing, while the residual strength decreased. The effect of the tendon offset on the shear stiffness and strength of the interface is significant. A damage constitutive model was proposed to model the shear behavior of the tendon-grout interface. The proposed model verified by comparing with the test results and further adopted in pull-out test simulation. The conclusions will provide a better understanding on the shear behaviors of tendon-grout interface, and facilitate the development of a general evaluation method for ground anchor systems.

Concatenation of Pre-Trained Convolutional Neural Networks for Enhanced COVID-19 Screening Using Transfer Learning Technique

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is the most prevalent coronavirus infection with respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, dyspnea, pneumonia, and weariness being typical in the early stages. On the other hand, COVID-19 has a direct impact on the circulatory and respiratory systems as it causes a failure to some human organs or severe respiratory distress in extreme circumstances. Early diagnosis of COVID-19 is extremely important for the medical community to limit its spread. For a large number of suspected cases, manual diagnostic methods based on the analysis of chest images are insufficient. Faced with this situation, artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have shown great potential in automatic diagnostic tasks. This paper aims at proposing a fast and precise medical diagnosis support system (MDSS) that can distinguish COVID-19 precisely in chest-X-ray images. This MDSS uses a concatenation technique that aims to combine pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNN) depend on the transfer learning (TL) technique to build a highly accurate model. The models enable storage and application of knowledge learned from a pre-trained CNN to a new task, viz., COVID-19 case detection. For this purpose, we employed the concatenation method to aggregate the performances of numerous pre-trained models to confirm the reliability of the proposed method for identifying the patients with COVID-19 disease from X-ray images. The proposed system was trialed on a dataset that included four classes: normal, viral-pneumonia, tuberculosis, and COVID-19 cases. Various general evaluation methods were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model. The first proposed model achieved an accuracy rate of 99.80% while the second model reached an accuracy of 99.71%.

The European Autumn Migration Pattern of the Garden Warbler, Sylvia borin – A Basic Analysis of Orientation Cage Field Data

Abstract The introduction of an effective method for studying the local headings of migrants using ‘orientation cages’ has made it possible to study the migration patterns of small passerine nocturnal migrants. Numerous papers have been published on varied samples of local data collected using this method. A rough generalization was presented at the 2019 Meeting of the European Ornithologists Union and subsequently published in The Ring. Case studies on data collected for the Blackcap have already been published, and further studies on other species were suggested. The presented work is the next study of this kind, on the migration pattern of the Garden Warbler, using data from orientation tests collected in autumn as part of the work of the SEEN (SE European Bird Migration Network). The data comprises 2,593 tests performed at 31 ringing sites in Central/Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The paper continues the discussion of application of the method to present migration patterns in a geographically wide territory. The general data evaluation methods in this work are exactly as described in the earlier papers. The paper discusses azimuths of arrival and departure tracks at every ringing site, their linearity, number relations between departing and arriving headings, and the general pattern of migration streams followed by different groups of migrants. The hypothesis put forth earlier, stating that the arrival/departure heading axes shown in studies using orientation cages are situated linearly, is once again confirmed and can be used as a general assumption in this type of study. The average deviations are very small and are negligible for drawing general migration patterns. In some cases, however, there were deviations caused by the geographic location of the study site. This problem should be discussed in more detail when more species data become available. Nine migration streams are defined in the study area, which are presented, for simplicity, using different names and colours on maps. Southward and south-eastward streams are dominant and distributed similarly to the streams of the Blackcap. The most pronounced is a stream shown in yellow (YELLOW stream), which is directed from the wide area of central and eastern Europe to the Arabian Peninsula. The BLACK and NAVY streams are the most intriguing (running nearly longitudinally) and require a great deal of attention in further analyses of migration in the Mediterranean. Two styles of presentation of the species migration pattern are discussed, of which the location style of presentation seems to be more precise. The simpler presentation style that shows only general heading axes could be used to compare the general patterns of different species.

General performance evaluation method of integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC) system

As a novel solar energy utilization method, integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC) system has the advantages of low investment and high efficiency, and has been paid more and more attention. How to evaluate the effectiveness of solar energy integration in different ISCC systems has become a significant issue. In this paper, based on the second law of thermodynamics and the principle of energy cascade utilization, according to different kinds of integration methods, different kinds of basic ISCC system models are divided and established; Compared with the gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) system and solar energy generating system (SEGS), the effects caused by the integration of solar energy are revealed: the superimposed effect of the fuel saving factor and the efficiency enhancement of efficiency promotion factor are given. The comprehensive evaluation factor with simultaneous consideration of both the fuel saving factor and the efficiency promotion factor is put forward. Meanwhile, the applications of this evaluation factor in actual cases of this evaluation factor are also studied. This paper provides a novel evaluation method for comprehensively evaluate two different ISCC systems which will propose valuable guidance for further evaluation research of ISCC system.

Formulation design and mechanism study of hydrogel based on computational pharmaceutics theories

Formulation design and mechanism study of the drug delivery system (DDS) is an important but difficult subject in pharmaceutical research. The study of formulation factors is the most time- and labor-consuming work of formulation design. In this paper, a multiscale computational pharmaceutics strategy was developed to guide the systematic study of formulation factors of a typical polymer-based DDS, hydrogel, and further to guide the formulation design. According to the strategy, the combination of solubility parameter (δ) and diffusion coefficient (D) calculated by the AA-MD simulation was suggested as the general evaluation method for the matrix screening of the hydrogels at the pre-formulation stage. At the formulation design stage, the CG-MD simulation method was suggested to predict the morphology and drug-releasing behavior of the hydrogels under different formulation factors. The influence mechanism can be explained by the combination of multiple parameters, such as the microstructure diagram, the radius of gyration (Rg), the radial distribution function (RDF), and the free diffusion volume (Vdiffusion). The simulation results are in good agreement with the in vitro release experiment, indicating that the strategy has good applicability.

Safety Evaluation of Fog Warning Systems in a Connected Vehicle Environment Based on Sample Entropy

Changes in driving behavior caused by reduced visibility in fog can lead to crashes. To improve driving safety in fog weather, a fog warning system based on connected vehicle (CV) technology is proposed. From the perspective of human factors, this study evaluates the driving safety based on drivers’ speed change under different fog levels (i.e., no fog, light fog, and heavy fog) and different technical levels (i.e., normal, with a dynamic message sign (DMS), and with a human-machine interface (HMI)). The driving behavior data were collected by a driving simulation experiment. The experimental road was divided into three zones: clear zone, transition zone, and fog zone. To quantify the change of vehicle speed comprehensively, the speed and acceleration were selected. Meanwhile, the vehicle speed safety entropy and acceleration safety entropy were proposed based on sample entropy theory. Furthermore, the changes of each index in different zones were analyzed. The results show that the use of fog warning system can improve speed stability and driving safety in fog zones and can make the driver decelerate in advance with a smaller deceleration before entering the fog zones. The higher the technical level is, the earlier the driver decelerates. Under the condition of light fog, the fog warning system with HMI has a better effect in terms of improving speed stability, while under the condition of heavy fog, there is little difference between the two technical levels. In general, this study proposed a novel safety evaluation index and a general evaluation method of the fog warning system.

Finite Element Analysis of Structural Behavior of Sliding-Type Blast-Resistant Doors Based on Blast Loading Conditions

In current specifications, it is assumed that the structural performance is the same if the same deflection occurs, regardless of the structural characteristics or explosive conditions. However, depending on the structural characteristics and explosion conditions, structural responses may differ. Therefore, flexural deflection and shear need to be considered. In this study, the differences in the structural behaviors of steel-concrete sliding-type blast doors in the impulsive, dynamic, and quasi-static regions were analyzed using the finite element method. The results showed that in the impulsive region and under significant impact forces, shear failure occurred at the initial behavioral step, and the door was more vulnerable to shear than in the dynamic and quasi-static regions. Furthermore, in the impulsive region, a relatively large deformation occurred in the wheel installed on the lower part of the door, affecting functionality, such as opening and closing. Because combined flexural-shear and direct shear failures cause more damage than flexural failure, they must be considered during the design process, and further studies are required to develop a generalized evaluation method and design criteria to reflect the shear effect.

Safety assessment of the small welded pipe system by the test and FEA

Failures of small pipe systems continue to occur frequently at nuclear power plants and aerospace equipment resulting in degraded systems and unscheduled downtime. Currently, there is a lack of detailed technical requirements and evaluation criteria for the small pipe in the existing design codes. In the design code, if referring to the general fatigue evaluation method for metal parts, the results may be too conservative. It has been shown that fatigue tests based on structural parts can significantly extend the component life by recently studies. At the same time, for the small pipe, the influence of the crack propagation stage on the fatigue life (S–N curve) is usually ignored in the existing evaluation process. On the other hand, fatigue-related failures are generally detected as small cracks or leaks before major pressure boundary ruptures occur, so the “Leak-Before-Break” (LBB) can be also applied for the small pipe. This study is undertaken to improve the understanding of the fatigue life of the small pipe (comparing the pipe test results with the data in the code) and the characteristics of fatigue crack propagation. Also, the applicability of the LBB concept is discussed. The results show that the S–N curve obtained by the pipe test is higher than that gained by the standard specimen. The crack propagation life accounts about 3% of the fatigue life in the study case. The critical failure mode is dominated by the plastic collapse; it is therefore shown that the plastic collapse load or critical crack size can be increased by increasing the tensile strength of the materials. A safety factor of 9.25 for the LBB assessment is contained in the case; therefore, it is also useful to warn the final fracture of the pipe by installing a leak detection system.

Efficient Evaluation of Matrix Polynomials beyond the Paterson–Stockmeyer Method

Recently, two general methods for evaluating matrix polynomials requiring one matrix product less than the Paterson–Stockmeyer method were proposed, where the cost of evaluating a matrix polynomial is given asymptotically by the total number of matrix product evaluations. An analysis of the stability of those methods was given and the methods have been applied to Taylor-based implementations for computing the exponential, the cosine and the hyperbolic tangent matrix functions. Moreover, a particular example for the evaluation of the matrix exponential Taylor approximation of degree 15 requiring four matrix products was given, whereas the maximum polynomial degree available using Paterson–Stockmeyer method with four matrix products is 9. Based on this example, a new family of methods for evaluating matrix polynomials more efficiently than the Paterson–Stockmeyer method was proposed, having the potential to achieve a much higher efficiency, i.e., requiring less matrix products for evaluating a matrix polynomial of certain degree, or increasing the available degree for the same cost. However, the difficulty of these family of methods lies in the calculation of the coefficients involved for the evaluation of general matrix polynomials and approximations. In this paper, we provide a general matrix polynomial evaluation method for evaluating matrix polynomials requiring two matrix products less than the Paterson-Stockmeyer method for degrees higher than 30. Moreover, we provide general methods for evaluating matrix polynomial approximations of degrees 15 and 21 with four and five matrix product evaluations, respectively, whereas the maximum available degrees for the same cost with the Paterson–Stockmeyer method are 9 and 12, respectively. Finally, practical examples for evaluating Taylor approximations of the matrix cosine and the matrix logarithm accurately and efficiently with these new methods are given.

A general approach for the machining quality evaluation of S-shaped specimen based on POS-SQP algorithm and Monte Carlo method

In S-shaped specimens which are frequently used to reflect the machining ability of machine tools, the surface error refers to the distance between the points on the actual machining surface to their relevant points on the design surface. The proper measurement of this error is crucial for evaluating the machining quality of S-shaped specimens. During the process of error measurement, improper registration between the measurement coordinate system and the design coordinate system, as well as neglected uncertainty remain the main obstacles for the quality evaluation of S-shaped specimens. This study proposes a general method for the high-precision machining quality evaluation of S-shaped specimens that overcomes both problems. By applying the non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) surface molding technology, the surface of S-shaped specimen was reconstructed. Based on the minimum area principle and the particle swarm optimization-sequential quadratic programming (POS-SQP) algorithm, a surface error model of S-shaped specimen was developed. This model minimizes the maximum distance of the transacted measurement points to the design surface. It can be used to obtain the optimal registration matrix of the measurement coordinate system, with minimal surface error of S-shaped specimen. Additional common algorithms were also adopted to search the optimal registration matrix for comparison. Accounting for the random characteristics of basic parameters and the nonlinearity of surface error model, an uncertainty model of the surface error of S-shaped specimen was established based on the Monte Carlo method. This could obtain the actual tolerance zone of the surface error, according to which, the allowable tolerance zone of the surface error was optimized and a defined evaluation result of machining quality of S-shaped specimen was obtained. Then, a general approach for the evaluation of the machining quality of S-shaped specimen was developed based on POS-SQP algorithm and Monte Carlo method. This approach was implemented in a case study though a series of experiments. The experimental results identified the proposed approach as effective in improving the measurement quality and the evaluation of the machining quality of S-shaped specimens can thus be performed within an allowable tolerance zone.

GIScience research at the 2021 Esri User Conference

GIScience research at the 2021 Esri User Conference

GIS.LSP: A soft computing logic method and tool for geospatial suitability analysis

AbstractThis research study extends the Logic Scoring of Preference (LSP) as a general multicriteria evaluation (MCE) method by presenting and evaluating a new GIS.LSP method and software tool implemented within the geographic information systems (GIS) environment. For the evaluation and validation of the method and software tool, we describe a case study of urban densification suitability analysis using geospatial data for the Metro Vancouver Region, Canada. The criteria, LSP structures, and aggregators groups were developed from the perspective of urban developers who are key stakeholders in the densification process. We compare two group of aggregators and perform sensitivity and cost–suitability analysis of the LSP method by variation of input suitability scores, input attributes, and aggregators. The results indicate the GIS.LSP method is effective in providing a flexible and sensitive workflow to create realistic and justifiable outcomes from complex criteria that are bounded by stakeholders' goals and requirements.

АНАЛИТИЧЕСКИЙ ИНСТРУМЕНТАРИЙ ОЦЕНКИ УПРАВЛЕНЧЕСКОЙ ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТИ НА УРОВНЕ ПРЕДПРИЯТИЯ

The article is devoted to the enterprise management system, which consists of several sub-systems represented by marketing, human resources, finance, logistics, etc. The author considers the ana-lytical tools for assessing enterprise management, which consists of general scientific, computational, heuris-tic and combined evaluation methods. Several directions are proposed for evaluating the effectiveness of enterprise management, work on which should be carried out simultaneously.

Health Condition Assessment of Marine Systems Based on an Improved Radar Chart

Since health assessment plays a significant role in marine systems (MSs), it has caught the attention of researchers. In this study, a powerful evaluation method called an improved radar chart was developed as a means of reliability estimation. General evaluation methods applied in the comprehensive evaluation of MS are slightly insufficient in terms of considering index coordination. However, the application of a radar chart can solve this problem. To improving the shortcomings of a traditional radar chart, the fuzzy centralization statistical theory and the entropy weight were combined in this study to obtain the comprehensive weight. The weight could be converted into an angle, and it could reflect the influence degree of the indexes on the evaluation objects. Additionally, an angle bisector was introduced as an index axis, and the eigenvector was extracted to get the unique evaluation result. The result showed that the proposed method could achieve the continuous online monitoring of the system state, and the reliable and accurate assessment results were able to provide a reference for condition-based maintenance and decision-making.