Operational Analysis Research Articles

The Conciliarist Idea of Islam in the Quattrocento—Prelude and Legacy

This contribution intends to examine the impact of Conciliarism (1414–1439) on the Christian vision of Islam in the Quattrocento. The analysis of the thought of bishops such as Nicholas of Cusa (d. 1464) and John of Segovia (d. 1458) is understandable only through the evolution of the Latin world with regard to Islam, moving from the Corpus Toletanum (12th century) and the impact of the Crusades in the Levant (1096–1291) and in Europe. This forwardness is rooted in the process of “Islamic Christianization,” an analytical operation lasting three centuries, during which Koranic Christology was to play a primary role. It will be through this “Christ-centric” process that from the Renaissance, the Ottoman empire, the great enemy of Western Christianity, will be appreciated for some of its peculiar facets. The weakening of the concept of heresy and of Catholic ecclesiastical authoritarianism in decreeing what heresy was probably one of the “indirect” outcomes of that dialogical “Moment of Vision” between Christianity and Islam. The further fragmentation of the Church of Rome, after the failure of Conciliarism and the outgrowth of the reformed Churches in the 16th century, favored a preliminary different understanding of the religiosity of others.

Framework for contextual consulting practices in adherence for decentralized data-driven decision making

<p>With the rising adoption of technological advancement and industry-based automation standards, the area of consulting firms is gradually evolving to keep up this pace towards incorporating sophisticated analytical operation for facilitating value-added consulting services. Review of existing practices of consulting firm shows increasing adoption of analytical process which leads to complex form of operation towards knowledge discovery of consulting data. Hence, this manuscript introduces a framework of contextual consulting practices where the core idea is to incorporate a baseline structure of knowledge discovery associated with consulting data in adherence of industry 4.0 automation standards. The framework takes the input of streamed consulting diversified data governed by a template-based entry-points where the consulting data is subjected to series of transformation operation that not only preprocess the consulting data but also optimizes the data to enhance its data quality. The study model is implemented in MATLAB considering an extensive analytical framework towards data-driven decision making and decentralization to exhibit proposed model to offer better analytical performance in contrast to existing study models.</p>

Sustainable Social Business: Contribution of Social Innovation and Civil Society

This work aims to identify the contribution of Social Innovation (SI) and Civil Society (CS) in the construction and development of Sustainable Social Businesses (SSB). In the first stage, a bibliometric analysis was conducted, tracking research from the last five years related to Social Innovation and the participation of Civil Society in Social Businesses. The CAPES Journals database was used, and based on the applied criteria, 53 articles from various sources were found. Subsequently, a Descriptive Bibliometric Review was carried out to gather preliminary data to identify the studies. This review considered the country of research application, the presence of SI, the participation of CS, and the type of Social Business. After identifying the cases studied in Brazil, totaling 4 articles, an Analytical Bibliometric Review of these studies was conducted to deepen the analysis and achieve the objective of this study. In this Analytical Review, the type and operation of SI, the level of CS involvement, and the identification of actors and the relevance of this link for business development were considered. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of SI for the continuation of development and profound changes in society. They also show that, like Business and Technological Innovation, SI is growing exponentially and is not limited to philanthropic activities but occupies spaces in significant economic activities. Regarding the achievement of the proposed objective, the results also show that the studied Social Businesses are intrinsically linked to SI and depend on the participation of CS, either as direct actors or as the target audience. This implies that these businesses rely on both these elements to exist and thrive. For future studies, it is relevant to measure the socio-environmental impacts generated by these Social Businesses in their surroundings and in society as a whole.

On Computing the Time-varying Distance between Moving Bodies

A moving body is a geometry that may translate and rotate over time. Computing the time-varying distance between moving bodies and surrounding static and moving objects is crucial to many application domains including safety at sea, logistics robots, and autonomous vehicles. Not only is it a relevant analytical operation in itself, but also it forms the basis of other operations, such as finding the nearest approach distance between two moving objects. Most moving objects databases represent moving objects using a point representation, and the computed temporal distance is thus inaccurate when working with large moving objects. This article presents an efficient algorithm to compute the temporal distance between a moving body and other static or moving geometries. We extend the idea of the V-Clip and Lin-Canney closest features algorithms of computational geometry to track the temporal evolution of the closest pair of features between two objects during their movement. We also present a working implementation of this algorithm in an open-source moving objects database and show, using a real-world example on AIS data, that this distance operator for moving bodies is only about 1.5 times as slow as the one for moving points while providing significant improvements in correctness and accuracy of the results.

Seasons and Human Health in the Hippocratic <em>Airs, Waters, and Places</em> and Hesiod’s <em>Works and Days</em>

This essay focuses on the doctor’s knowledge of seasonal patterns and their impact on human health in the Hippocratic Waters, Airs, and Places. Knowledge of the seasonal factor requires the doctor to master the general and the particular, to take the yearly period and scan it in two bi-seasonal periods with focus on summer and winter as the expected times for the outbreak of the diseases. Such looking-forward analytical operation is inscribed in the doctor’s capacity for pronoia. Due parallels are drawn between the doctor and the seer, on the one hand, and the Presocratic philosopher, on the other. Attention is also given to the early description of winter in Hesiod’s Works and Days: with its detrimental effects on human (and animal) bodies, it emerges as a poetic antecedent of the Hippocratic doctor’s knowledge.

Iodoform Reaction-Based Turbidimetry for Analysis of Alcohols in Hand Sanitizers

This work presents the first development of an analytical turbidimetric method for the determination of legal alcohols in alcohol-based hand sanitizer products. A typical iodoform reaction is exploited to form a yellow product in the form of precipitates. An iodoform test shows a positive result as yellow precipitates in the presence of ethanol and isopropanol; therefore, the test can only be used to distinguish between methanol and those legal alcohols. In the presence of molecular iodine (I2) and a strong alkaline solution, the legal alcohol is converted to the corresponding carbonyl compound (i.e., ethanol to acetaldehyde, isopropanol to acetone). The susceptibility of this intermediate towards the reaction with hydroxide ions (strong alkaline condition) results in formations of yellow precipitation of iodoform (CHI3) and a water-soluble carboxylate salt in the solution. Therefore, this change allows for the detection of legal alcohols through either naked-eye observation (as semi-quantitative analysis) or a common benchtop/portable photometer/spectrophotometer (as quantitative analysis) by means of turbidimetric analysis. In this work, turbidimetry is employed, which is a useful alternative detection method in analytical practice, especially with colored samples in hand sanitizing products. This is because they can employ wavelengths at which the colored solution does not absorb light. As a result of our developed method, the calibration plots are in the range of 30 to 100% (v/v) for both ethanol and isopropanol. The limit of detection (LOD) (3SD of y-intercept/slope) was found to be 7.4% (v/v) ethanol and 6.5% (v/v) isopropanol. Direct analysis of the non-pretreatment of the sample is achieved. The results indicate that our new proposed analytical method is fit for purpose and valid to detect the legal alcohols in alcohol-based hand sanitizing products for both international and Thai regulations (at least 70% (v/v)). Our quantitative results were also comparable to a standard analytical method, such as the use of a gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID). Our developed method and analytical operation could potentially be developed into a practically portable analysis.

A robust stress update algorithm for elastoplastic models without analytical derivation of the consistent tangent operator and loading/unloading estimation

AbstractA robust and concise implicit stress integration algorithm of elastoplastic models is presented. It does not require the loading/unloading estimation and analytical derivation operation for the stress update. First, the elastoplastic stress update problem is recast into an unconstrained minimization problem by utilizing the smooth function to bypass the loading/unloading estimation. Then, the object problem is solved by the line search method instead of the Newton method for better convergence. The consistent tangent operator is evaluated by the complex step derivative approximation without the subtraction cancellation error, which provides the quadratic convergence rate of global iteration. The rationality of the numerical consistent tangent operator is validated by the one obtained by the analytical derivation. A recently developed non‐orthogonal elastoplastic (NEP) clay model is implemented using the new algorithm. The algorithm is confirmed through comparing the numerical solution and the analytical one for a cavity expansion problem. The algorithm performance is assessed based on a series of geotechnical boundary value problems. It is found that the new algorithm is more robust than the one employed by ABAQUS. The source code of the model implementation can be downloaded from https://github.com/zhouxin615.

Simple solid-phase colorimetry for trace Cr(VI) by combination of complexation with diphenylcarbazide and ion-pair solid-phase extraction with sedimentable dispersed particulates.

A highly sensitive and simple solid-phase colorimetry for Cr(VI) was proposed. It was based on the ion-pair solid-phase extraction of Cr-diphenylcarbazide (DPC) complex with sedimentable dispersed particulates. The concentration of Cr(VI) was measured from the color tones obtained by image analysis of the photo of sediment. Various conditions, e.g., material and amounts of adsorbent particulates, chemical properties and concentration of counter ions, and pH, were optimized for the formation and quantitative extraction of the complex. In the recommended procedure, 1mL of sample was put into a 1.5mL microtube where powder form adsorbent and reagents, i.e., XAD-7HP particles, DPC, sodium dodecyl sulfate, amido sulfuric acid, and sodium chloride had been packed. The analytical operation was completed within 5min by gently shaking the microtube and allowing it to stand until enough amounts of particulates were deposited to take a picture. Chromium (VI) up to 2.0ppm was determined, and the detection limit was 0.0034ppm. The sensitivity was enough to determine Cr(VI) at lower concentrations than the water quality of standard (0.02ppm). This method was successfully applied to the analysis of simulated industrial wastewater samples. The stoichiometry of the extracted chemical species was also investigated by applying the same equilibrium model as the ion-pair solvent extraction.

Fluorescent sensor array for tetracyclines discrimination using a single Dye@MOF composite sensor

The incorporation of multiple sensing elements to a single sensor has been proposed by our group as an improvement for the array sensing technique with retaining the high selectivity of traditional multi-sensor based sensor array but largely simplifying the analytical operation. How to select reasonable sensing elements to construct the sensor is the key to improve the analytical performance. Herein, we propose a concept to solve this issue, that is, using the components which test different properties of analytes to discriminate them from various aspects. As a proof-of-principle trial, a MOF based composite sensor was designed to analyze tetracycline type antibiotics. The porphyrin-containing main ligand, naphthyl auxiliary ligand and rhodamine B guest were installed to response to the redox property, adsorption affinity and absorption/exchanging capability of the analyte, respectively. Six tetracycline homologous were clearly identified by this sensor, and it also exhibited good quantification performance. This method was successfully applied to the analysis of practical milk sample.

Computational Framework for Analytical Operation in Intelligent Transportation System using Big Data

Computational Framework for Analytical Operation in Intelligent Transportation System using Big Data

Development of an Analysis Model for Storm Sewer Networks Based on Grid Units

The Storm Water Management Model (SWWM), used for the analysis of storm sewer networks in urban areas, enables precise analysis of watershed runoff, hydraulic analysis and backwater effect in conduits, and so forth. However, it requires the specialized knowledge in parameter extraction, sewer network configuration, and analytical operation, it is somewhat difficult to access at the general engineering companies. Therefore, this study developed a grid-based simplified analysis model that is more convenient in terms of schematic design and feasibility review of storm sewer networks. This model can be used to analyze surface runoff, storm sewer network, and stormwater storage connection configuration at the grid unit, and it uses simplified formulas for basic runoff analysis and storm sewer network flow and storage analysis. In addition, this model can review the rough effects of stormwater storage and various infiltration facilities that can be linked to existing storm sewer network through size calculation of grid units. The developed model was applied to the storm sewer network in the coastal area of Gwangalli, Busan, and our results were compared with the results of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) SWMM. Similar results were obtained in terms of surface runoff and runoff within the storm sewer network, but there were some differences in the amount of storage and overflow. However, results were similar in the occurrence nodes and trends of overflow, and accordingly, it is expected to be useful for the purpose of this model and for simple feasibility studies of various design proposals and rough analysis results.

Принципи та моделі експертно-аналітичної методології підтримки формування адаптивних організаційних рішень за умов глибокої невизначеності

The paper depicts and analyzes Expert-Analytical Methodology named EAM DMDU to support Proactive Anti-crisis Decisions within Organizational Systems under deep uncertainty. Complex tools are proposed for Decisions Domain Knowledge analytical operation. The Benefit is no essential resource demands while keeping the basic principles to deal with deep uncertainty (uncertainties and inconsisten- cies eliciting; Decision vulnerabilities searching instead prediction; threats resilience priority over effectiveness). EAM DMDU enables Deliberative multi-staged Process for Adaptive Decision forming aimed at expected future conflict situation solving. The Process stages are: Problem situation Analysis, Impact on Problem Situation Goal Proposition, Goal proposals Assessment; Efforts for Goal achieving Proposals; Effort Proposals Assessment; reference Proposal option Selection and Decision adaptations accordingly to Decision Frame changes Recommendation. Knowledge operation is enabled with the procedures such as: formal analysis, individual expert assessment, Decision elements deliberative forming. EAM DMDU common information space of is based on Domain Ontology and ensures equal participants’ awareness, expert judgments with their arguments constructive representation and knowledge reuse. Expert-analytical Selection of Proposals uses their Perspectivity Model. It is a sub-goals hierarchy to achieve the goal being formed over previous Process stages. Hierarchy knot is represented with ontologically formalized definition for State of the Art corresponding sub-goal achievement. Leaf node depicts State of the Art with explicit expert Estimates of Certainty factor (from the Stanford model) being provided concerning its implementation through Decision element Proposal being assessed. The Estimate’s arguments are elements of information space used by expert. Under incomplete certainty of element expert provides its boundary values and State of the Art estimates both pessimistic and optimistic. Perspectivity Model contains also conditions for goal achievement violation being caused with environmental threats. Procedures for Estimates formal integration up to Model provide extreme estimates of Proposals Perspectivity and Robustness regarding current uncertainty. Under unsatisfactory properties of integrated Estimates their deliberative adjustment is carried out using Uncertainty Map and arguments provided. The final reference Decision contains selected Goal-Means option and guides to adapt it when decision frame changes. Further research is carried out for EAM DMDU instrumental tools development and its usage for defense resource management.

ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF CONTAMINATION OF ANALYTICAL SAMPLES DURING QUALITY CONTROL OF MEDICINES AND WORK WITHIN THE SAME LABORATORY ROOM WITH DIFFERENT SUBSTANCES

The aim of the stady. To determine the concentration of diclofenac sodium in the air of the working area within the same room in order to determine the possible contamination of the sample being analyzed, when simultaneously working with different substances of medicinal products.
 Materials and methods. Air sampling was carried out using a TYPHOON-S4 electric aspirator for 30 minutes at a speed of 20 l/min. The test to determine the concentration of diclofenac sodium in air was carried out by concentrating the analytical sample with regard to the microconcentration of the substance by the method of solid-phase extraction, using Oasis MCX 6cc (150 mg) LP Extraction Cartridges, after which desorption was carried out with a solvent - methanol. The obtained samples were analyzed by the method of high-performance liquid chromatography using a Dionex Ultimate 3000 chromatograph with a diode-matrix detector. The sensitivity of the method reaches ng/ml.
 The results. As part of the work, a specific, highly sensitive method for determining the concentration of sodium diclofenac in the air was developed and testing was carried out by determining the concentration of sodium diclofenac in the air of the working area during certain analytical operations (pouring, weighing the substance, crushing tablets containing the active pharmaceutical ingredient under analysis, homogenization). The linear dependence of the diclofenac sodium peak area on the concentration of the substance in the solution (0.025-10 μg/ml) has been proven. Based on the obtained data, it was established that the volatile microparticles of diclofenac sodium substance are subject to air deposition, and as a result, a certain amount of this API penetrates into the analyzed samples of other drugs nearby. This fact can lead to obtaining unreliable results during the control of the quality and safety of medicinal products, which can have negative consequences for preserving the health of the population when using medicinal products of inadequate quality. At the same time, the research results show a proportional decrease in the concentration of sodium diclofenac in the air of the working area within one laboratory room as the air aspiration distance from the analytical operation being performed increases. However, at a distance of 0.2 m, the content of sodium diclofenac in the air of the working area exceeds the MPC by two times. These results indicate not only the possible background contamination of the analytical sample during the simultaneous work of several or one operator with different APIs or ready-made medicinal products, but also the possible harm to the analyst's health.
 Conclusions. A technique for determining microconcentrations of the active substance in the air of the working area has been developed. It has been found that samples can be easily contaminated with microparticles from other sources if proper precautions are not taken during collection, sample preparation and analysis. Special care should be taken, precautions should be taken, and operating procedures should be developed to minimize the risk of unwanted migration of contaminants in the quality and safety control of medicinal products.

Information and analytical support for making well-informed administrative decisions in civil protection system

Purpose. To substantiate the basic requirements for information and to develop a quality evaluation method of the civil protection information and analytical support system operation in public administration. Methodology. During the research, a set of general and special methods were used: regular observation and comparative analysis, content analysis, logical generalization, quantitative and qualitative comparison, scientific abstraction and systematization. Aquality evaluation method of the civil protection information and analytical support system operation was applied, which led to outlining the quality of information as sufficient, corresponding with situation changes, and significant information for appropriate decision-making by the head of authority under certain conditions. Findings. The basic information requirements are substantiated and its quality is defined as a set of characteristics (adequacy, completeness, responsiveness and utility) that outlines the degree of its suitability for achieving the goals of the information and analytical support system in civil protection. The quality evaluation method of the information and analytical support system operation in civil protection during emergencies was elaborated; it allows evaluating quantitatively the correspondence of the quality of system operation with the requirements stipulating usage of the integrated indicator the extent of information and analytical support for the authority concerning its activity arrangement in emergencies. The obtained results of quality evaluation of the civil protection information and analytical support system operation were proposed to determine the rational method of its operation during the decision-making process by the head of authority under certain conditions. Originality. The evaluation criterion was defined: achieving the condition when the extent of implementing the information and analytical support is higher or equal to the required one and provides for further evaluation of the operation methods of the system. Practical value. It is proved that attaining the criterion of information and analytical support system operation quality in civil protection is a connecting link to the methodological approach. Therefore, there is a possibility to determine a rational method of the system operation using the hierarchical model of alternative method comparison taking into consideration analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which ensures the head of authority to perform the assigned tasks qualitatively, completely and timely.

Units of analysis in acquisition-performance criteria for "mastery": A systematic replication.

This study compared 2 units of analysis for assessing acquisition mastery during sight word instruction for 3 participants. The unit of analysis refers to the specific performances that criteria are applied to, either sets of stimuli or individual operants. In the Set Analysis condition, we applied the acquisition-performance criterion to the aggregated accuracy of a set of 4 target operants. In the Operant Analysis (OA) condition, we assessed the criterion for individual operants and replaced targets as they met the acquisition criterion. All participants acquired novel textual responses to sight words faster under the OA condition and response maintenance was similar between conditions. This study extended previous research by showing enhanced response maintenance in the OA condition by increasing the performance criterion from 1 observation of 100% accuracy to 2. This study also suggests a unique contribution of OA to quickening learning.

OPERATIONAL ANALYSIS IN SYSTEM DESIGN OF SUBMARINES DURING THE EARLY PHASES

This paper presents a new method for operational analysis (OA) as a tool in simulation based design (SBD) for Naval Integrated Complex Systems (NICS), here applied to the submarine domain. An operational analysis model is developed and described. The first step of the design process is to identify and collect the needs from the customer and stakeholders, from which requirements can be deduced and designed in an organized way, i.e. requirement elucidation. It is important to evaluate the benefits or penalties of each requirement on the design as early as possible during initial design. Thus the OA-model must be able to evaluate requirements aggregated in synthesised ships such as initial concepts, i.e. Play-Cards, as representations of a submarine concept in the functions domain where the first set of requirements are designed, and establish their Measure of Capability (MoC) and Measure of Effectiveness (MoE). The work has resulted in an OA-model for submarine design that can be used during the development and for evaluation during the life cycle of a submarine system. The purpose of integrating OA in the design process is to explore the design space and evaluate not only technical solutions and cost but also the system effect in the early phases and thereby find and describe a suitable design room. This will generate a more rapid knowledge growth compared to the classic basic ship design procedures which focus on technical performance and cost. It is expected that we not only reach a higher level of knowledge about the design object but also achieve higher precision in the compliance to needs and deduced and designed requirements by the use of an OA-model as an integrated tool during initial design. This approach also invites customer participation within the framework of integrated project teams.

Loss on ignition vs. thermogravimetric analysis: a comparative study to determine organic matter and carbonate content in sediments

Mass loss at specified temperatures has been used widely to determine amounts of organic matter and carbonate in sediment samples. The loss on ignition (LOI) method is cheap and simple, but is time-consuming and provides information only for specific, pre-determined temperatures. It also requires relatively large sample sizes and is destructive. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is an alternative method for determination of organic and carbonate content in sediment samples, and provides accurate and precise data in a time-efficient manner. We compared results from these two thermal analysis techniques, which were applied to sediment samples from a submerged landscape (Doggerland). An organic-rich peat sample and a silty fine-sand sample were used. An unpaired t-test was used to test agreement and repeatability of the two analytical techniques. One advantage of being able to monitor mass loss throughout the analytical operation is that free and bound moisture losses can be distinguished. TGA is less time-consuming, involves automated sample handling (minimising operator error), and can yield reliable data from sample masses (typically 30–50 mg), which are much smaller than those needed for LOI (typically 3–5 g). The unpaired t-test, along with precision and repeatability analyses led us to conclude that TGA can be used instead of LOI to provide reliable measures of organic matter and carbonate content in sediments, and has several advantages over LOI.

Analyte-triggered oxidase-mimetic activity loss of Ag3PO4/UiO-66 enables colorimetric detection of malathion completely free from bioenzymes

Detection of pesticide residues is important because it is related to food and environmental safety. Although lots of sensors have been developed and applied for pesticide analysis, most of them rely on the use of vulnerable bioenzymes, weakening the highlights of these sensors. Here we recommend a bioenzyme-free colorimetric assay of malathion, a typical organophosphorus pesticide, based on the analyte inducing the oxidase-mimicking activity loss of Ag3PO4/UiO-66. Compared to counterparts, the Ag3PO4/UiO-66 composite can provide enhanced oxidase-mimetic catalytic activity to trigger the 3,3′-tetramethylbenzidine chromogenic reaction with the participation of dissolved O2. When malathion exists, it rapidly adsorbs onto the composite surface via their unique interactions and significantly shields the oxidase-like activity of Ag3PO4/UiO-66, thus affecting the catalytic chromogenic reaction. With such a principle, sensing of malathion in a wide linear range (0.0083–5.333 μg/mL) was realized with a detection limit 7.5 ng/mL. Given no biological elements were involved in the proposed assay, it exhibited robust and reliable performance in determining malathion in practical samples. Furthermore, a chromogenic hydrogel-based smartphone sensing system was developed for instrument-free on-site analysis of malathion. With good analytical performance and facile operation, our assay and device will find promising applications in phosphothionate pesticide determination.

The Application of Mastery Criterion to Individual Operants and the Effects on Acquisition and Maintenance of Responses

Instructors assess the acquisition of new skills by delivering blocks of trials containing multiple operants. Mastery is evaluated as percentage correct across all operants in the block. The purpose of the current study was to investigate this traditional mastery criterion arrangement compared to an analysis of mastery at the level of individual operants. In both conditions, mastery criterion was 100% accuracy in one session. In the Set Analysis (SA) condition, accuracy was evaluated as average correct responding across all 4 target operants, or sight words, in a set. In the Operant Analysis (OA) condition, we taught 4 sight words simultaneously, assessed accuracy per sight word, and substituted new sight words into the set each time a single sight word was mastered. Overall, all 4 participants learned textual responses to sight words quicker in the OA condition, the reliability of maintenance was similar across conditions for 2 of 4 participants, and 4 of 4 participants maintained a higher or same number of responses from the OA condition compared to the SA condition. Implications for skill acquisition are discussed.

A Comprehensive Framework for Big Data Analytics in Education

With the adoption of cloud services for hosting knowledge delivery system in educational domain, there is a surplus quantity of education data being generated every day by current learning management system. Such data are associated with certain typical complexities that impose significant challenges for existing database management and analytics. Review of existing approaches towards educational data highlights that they do not offer full-fledged solution towards analytics and still there is an open-end problem. Therefore, the proposed system introduces a comprehensive framework which offers integrated operation of transformation, data quality, and predictive analytics. The emphasis is more towards achieving distributed analytical operation towards educational data in cloud. Implemented using analytical research methodology, the proposed system shows better analytical performance with respect to frequently used educational data analytical approaches.