Test Plan Research Articles

A study of mixer-feeder equipment operational reliability

Modern livestock development trends in the agricultural production structure include the use of feed mixers and distribution equipment. However, a stream of malfunctions and failures is reported for mixer-feeders due to factors that are specific to agricultural enterprises in Ukraine, which reduce the operational reliability of feed mixers and distributors. The study aims to evaluate the quantitative indicators of the in-service reliability of mixer-feeders and develop methods to improve them. The reliability test plan [NMT] was used, which implies a certain number of research objects (N), objects undergoing repair in case of performance loss (M), and tests terminated when the operating time (T) is reached. Initial information was collected and processed, and empirical data on the time between failures of KUHN PROFILE 12.2 DS and PROFILE 14.2 DS mixer-feeders in Ukraine were analysed. The analysis established that the faulty condition of mixers-feeders in the initial operation period is caused by the second complexity group failures. Failures related to the loss of the grinding and mixing mechanism, which limits the average time between failures of the feed mixture and distribution equipment, were identified among the second complexity malfunction group. A statistical analysis of the mixer-feeder failure occurrence was carried out. The failure probability of the grinding-mixing mechanism of the feed mixer was determined to be within the normal distribution law. The main parameters of the given theoretical distribution law were determined by calculation results. The calculations determined that the average time between failures is 3152.0 motor-hours; the standard deviation is 902.6 motor-hours; and the coefficient of variation is 0.40. An average time between failures of the study objects was proved to be consistent with the normal distribution law following Kolmogorov’s agreement criterion. Calculations determined that the average reliability index value, according to the normal distribution law, is within the confidence intervals: 1964.2 motor-hours – lower confidence limit; 4339.8 motor-hours – upper confidence limit. The obtained results may be used to improve the mixer-feeder operational reliability

BREATHLEssness in INDIA (BREATHE-INDIA)-Study protocol for the co-design of a community breathlessness intervention in India using realist methods and intervention mapping.

Breathlessness that persists despite treatment of causal disease(s) is disabling, associated with high therapy-related costs and poor socioeconomic outcomes. Low resource countries bear a disproportionate burden of respiratory problems, often characterised by disabling breathlessness. Low-cost self-management breathlessness-targeted interventions are effective and deliverable in community settings but have been developed in high-income countries. We aim to understand how breathlessness self-management works in 'real life' populations and cultural contexts, to develop programme theory and co-design a prototype intervention to improve persistent breathlessness management in India. Using a Realist approach, Intervention Mapping and the Medical Research Council Complex Intervention Framework we will undertake two phases of work supported by our Expert Group (of respiratory, primary, palliative care physicians) and key stakeholder groups (opinion leader clinicians, community health workers and people with lived experiences of breathlessness). 1) Realist review and evaluation to identify and refine evidence and theory for breathlessness self-management, producing intervention and implementation programme theory. We will identify literature through our Expert Group, scoping searches and systematic searches (Medline, Ebscohost, CINAHL, Scopus, Psychinfo). We will map intervention components to 'what works, for whom, and where.' 2) Intervention development using Intervention Mapping to map intervention and implementation programme theory to intervention components, develop materials to support intervention delivery, and co-design a prototype educational intervention ready for early acceptability and delivery-feasibility testing and evaluation planning in India. Use of stakeholder groups is to allow people with experience of breathlessness and/or its management to contribute their views on content developed by our team based upon review of secondary data sources. Experts and Stakeholders are therefore not research subjects but are included as extended members of the study team and will not follow informed consent procedures. Experts and stakeholders will be acknowledge in outputs arising from our project if they wish to be. Our review conduct will be consistent with RAMESES quality standards. At the conclusion of our study, we will have co-designed a breathlessness intervention for use in the community setting in India ready for further evaluation of: effectiveness, socioeconomic outcomes, acceptability and transferability to other low resource settings.

Optimal truncated sequential test for exponential distribution

In order to save on test costs, the optimal truncated sequential test (OTST) for the parameter of the exponential distribution is studied. According to Bayes decision theory, dynamic programming methods and procedures are established to solve the OTST. Through comparison with the test plans provided by international standard IEC 61124 and Russian national standard GOST R 27.402, the results show that the OTSTs solved by our new method can control the error probabilities strictly and save more synthetical expected test time (SETT). The OTSTs are also compared with the near-optimal ones solved by the sample space sorting method (SSSM). The results show that the test plans solved by these two methods are almost consistent. However, our new method is much faster in computation, especially when the maximum sample size (MSS) of a truncated sequential test increases. It can save 74.23% of the computational time compared with SSSM when the MSS equals 15. At last, the MSS of OTST is optimized. By optimizing the MSS, the corresponding OTST can save about 5% of the SETT compared to the one with the minimum MSS.

Abstract 285: Intraventricular And Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Secondary To Arteriovenous Malformation, A Diagnostic Neurologic Manifestation Of Osler‐Weber‐Rendu Disease

Introduction Osler‐Weber‐Rendu disease, also known as hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HTT), is a developmental vascular disease characterized by multiple arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) due to genetic defects in endothelial angiogenesis pathways. HHT is a clinical diagnosis based on the fulfillment of the Curacao Diagnostic Criteria, including involvement of internal organs with AVMs, significant recurrent nosebleeds, telangiectasias, and family history of HHT. HHT has a prevalence of 1.5 to 2 people/10,000, although this is considered a falsely low representation due to missed diagnosis and variable penetrance. Autosomal dominantly inherited heterozygous mutations disrupt the TGF‐beta‐mediated pathways causing aberrant blood vessel development with fragility and AVM formation. There are two forms of HHT: (HHT1) has a higher incidence in women and typically involves pulmonary and cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVM). Mutations in the endoglin gene are thought to be responsible for HTT1 and comprise approximately 61% of the cases. HTT2 is associated with a higher rate of liver AVMs, involves a mutation in Activin A Receptor‐Like Type 1 (ACVRL1), and is responsible for approximately 37% of cases. Other genetic mutations include SMAD4 and GDF2, which are transmitter and binding proteins and occur about 2% of the time. Methods Case report and review of literature Results Case:A 52‐year‐old woman with a large frontoparietal arteriovenous malformation originally found at the age of 17, with a history of frequent epistaxis, mucocutaneous telangiectasias and two children with epistaxis and telangiectasias. Her diagnosis of HHT was made at her third hjospitalization due to a non‐traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage. A Chest CT angiography and a CT angiography of the intra and extracranial vasculature demonstrated an extensive right holohemispheric cerebral AVM, an unruptured 8‐mm basilar artery aneurysm, and multiple enlarged pulmonary arteries with narrow inlet and outlets concerning for pulmonary AVMs. A subsequent digital subtraction angiogram (DSA) of the brain confirmed the extensive holohemispheric AVM, unruptured basilar artery aneurism with subarachnoid hemorrhage originating from the AVM. On examination she had multiple lingual, and hard/soft palate telangiectasias and an extensive anterior pedal telangiectasia. Given the heavy cerebral AVM burden with multiple cerebral artery feeders, the AVM angiosclerosis and basilar artery aneurysm embolization were deferred. The patient proceeded under medical management alone with a plan for personal and familial genetic testing. Conclusion HHT is a rare cause of cerebral AVMs at high risk of spontaneous bleeding. Managing these AVMs can be a challenge, given the extent and location of these. However, diagnosis of HHT can inform prognosis and guide medical management due to improved prognosis for HHT‐related AVMs and aneurysms compared to non‐HHT AVMs.

A Review of Achievement Test Development in Türkiye Regarding the Achievement Test Development Process

The purpose of this research is to determine to what extent the articles titled achievement test development, published between 2020-2023, meet the steps that should be followed during the achievement test development process. The research is a document review study within the scope of qualitative research. In determining the studies to be included in the research, consideration was given to the fact that the aim and title of the research included '...developing an achievement test', that the full text of the article was accessible, and that the research language was Turkish, and a total of 40 articles were included in the research. In the study, a coding list was created and used by the researcher, based on Turgut and Baykul's (2012) achievement test development steps. Data analysis of the research was carried out using the categorical analysis method, one of the types of content analysis. In the articles examined within the scope of the research, it is seen that there are deficiencies in almost all stages of the achievement test development process, starting from presenting the test plan based on the test plan to including the items to be included in the final test form. In line with the research results, it may be suggested that the achievement test development steps in the literature be taken into consideration in studies.

Stochastic Time Complexity Surfaces of Computing Node

The paper is devoted to the formal description of the running time of the user task on some virtual nodes in the computing network. Based on the probability theory framework, this time represents a random value with a finite mean and variance. For any class of user task, these moments are the functions of the node resources, task numerical characteristics, and the parameters of the current node state. These functions of the vector arguments can be treated as some surfaces in the multidimensional Euclidean spaces, so the proposed models are called the stochastic time complexity surfaces. The paper also presents a class of functions suitable for the description of both the mean and variance. They contain unknown parameters which should be estimated. The article includes the statement of the parameter identification problem given the statistical results of the node stress testing, recommendations concerning the test planning, and preprocessing of the raw experiment data. To illustrate the performance of the proposed model, the authors design it for an actual database application—the prototype of the passengers’ personal data anonymization system. Its application functions are classified into two user task classes: the data anonymization procedures and fulfillment of the statistical queries. The authors identify the stochastic time complexity surfaces for both task types. The additional testing experiments confirm the high performance of the suggested model and its applicability to the solution of the practical providers’ problems.

Optimum test condition setting and sample allocation for accelerated degradation tests under the last-exit-time failure mode

ABSTRACT Accelerated degradation tests (ADTs) have been widely adopted for products whose failure is defined as the first-passage-time (FPT) when the degradation path crosses a given threshold. However, for products whose failure is defined as the last-exit-time (LET), few studies related to ADT have been investigated. In this paper, we focus on designing an optimum test condition setting and sample allocation scheme for ADTs under the LET failure mode. In particular, the widely adopted Wiener process model and the generalized exponential acceleration model are used to describe the fluctuating degradation behaviors of products. By minimizing the asymptotic variance of mean-time-to-failure under the normal use condition, we design a two-level optimum test plan and a three-level compromise plan under the constraints of total sample size and stress region. The optimum plans are given in analytical forms, and we prove that the optimum plans under the FPT failure mode and LET failure mode are equivalent under some situations. Finally, a renewed selection method for the upper limit of the stress level in ADTs is proposed based on the prior ADT information from the perspective of accelerated mechanism equivalence. The proposed method is illustrated using a real-world application to rubber rings.

Working process and opening characteristics of soft insulator of pulse motor

AbstractIn this paper, a simulation test system for the working process of soft insulation is designed, using equivalent simulated ablation test methods combined with a CCD measuring system and micro electron microscope scanning technology, which can better describe the thermal properties and state of insulation after ablation. At the same time, a test plan for the opening characteristics of the insulator based on different ablation times and different opening structure sizes as the main influencing factors are designed. The experimental results show that the ablation test can well simulate the state of an actual pulse engine compartment after the ablation and the maximum relative error of the ablation rate can be controlled within 5 %. From the influence of ablation time on the opening characteristics of the insulator, it can be seen that the maximum axial deformation of the insulator is different from the relative value of the opening pressure. The radial deformation of the insulator is larger than that of the non‐ablated insulator and larger than the inner diameter of the insulator shell after ablation. From the influence of the size of the opening structure of the insulator (depth of weakening grooves) on the opening characteristics of the insulator, it can be seen that as the weakening groove depth of the compartment deepens, the original pressure change pattern disappears, and the opening pressure and opening time of the insulator decrease significantly.

Adaptive Test Suits Generation for Self-Adaptive Systems Using SPEA2 Algorithm

Self-adaptive systems are capable of reconfiguring themselves while in use to reduce the risks forced by environments for which they may not have been specifically designed. Runtime validation techniques are required because complex self-adaptive systems must consistently offer acceptable behavior for important services. The runtime testing can offer further confidence that a self-adaptive system will continue to act as intended even when operating in unknowable circumstances. This article introduces an evolutionary framework that supports adaptive testing for self-adaptive systems. The objective is to ensure that the adaptive systems continue to operate following its requirements and that both test plans and test cases continuously stay relevant to shifting operational conditions. The proposed approach using the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2 (SPEA2) algorithm facilitates both the execution and adaptation of runtime testing operations.

Equivalent conversion investigation of environmental corrosion of suspenders in long-span suspension bridge

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the equivalent relationship between accelerated corrosion tests and real environmental spectrum of suspenders in long-span suspension bridge considering multiple factors action. Design/methodology/approach Based on Faraday's law, corrosion current was used as a measure of metal corrosion, and the equivalent conversion relationship between laboratory environment and real service environment was established. The equivalent conversion method for bridge structural steel had been determined under different temperature, humidity, pH value and NaCl concentration conditions. The compilation of environmental spectra for large span bridges considering multiple factors and the principle of equivalent conversion have been proposed. Findings Environmental factors, including temperature, humidity, pH value and NaCl concentration, have significant impact on the corrosion degree of suspension steel wires, and only considering these two factors for equivalent conversion cannot accurately reflect the true service environment of the bridge. The 33.8-h salt spray accelerated corrosion test using the standard conditions can be equivalent to one year of suspenders corrosion in a real service environment. Originality/value The equivalent accelerated corrosion method for steel wires proposed in this study can effectively predict the corrosion degree of the suspenders, which has been verified to be correct and can provide theoretical guidance for the development of corrosion test plans for steel wires and engineering technical basis for anti-corrosion control and calendar life research of suspension bridge suspenders.

Improving weekend handover in a teaching hospital elective general surgery department.

Effective documentation and transfer of clinical information are vital for the continuity of care, patient safety, and maintaining medico-legal records, as outlined by the Royal College of Surgeons "Safe Handover: Guidance from the Working Time Directive working party". Our elective surgery weekend team cross-covers both Colorectal and Upper Gastrointestinal surgical specialties across multiple wards, which poses a significant challenge. The aim of this study was to improve the documentation of patients' weekend plans through the introduction of a weekend handover proforma. We reviewed the weekend plans of 199 patients overall. 41 records were initially reviewed over a 2-week period. The surgical multidisciplinary team was then surveyed to establish the need for an improved weekend handover. Following this, a weekend handover proforma was introduced as part of the Friday ward round and education on the expectations were provided at a local Surgery Clinical Governance meeting. The documentation of the weekend plan was reviewed for 158 patients over a 6-week period and a post-intervention survey was disseminated. The preliminary survey highlighted concerns for delayed discharges and patient safety over the weekend, with 88.2% of respondents agreeing a weekend handover proforma would be beneficial. The initial data confirmed inadequate documentation of diagnosis (19.5%), operation/procedure (28.1%), and weekend plans for blood tests (19.5%), discharge planning (2.4%), diet (46.3%), antibiotics (19.5%), intravenous (IV) fluids (22.0%), mobility (19.5%) and drain/wound care (37.5%). After education and implementing a weekend handover proforma, these results increased for documentation of diagnosis (61.2%), operation/procedure (83.2%), blood tests (59.7%), and discharge planning (85.8%). However, there was little improvement in diet (53.0%) and no improvement in the weekend plans for antibiotics (14.2%), IV fluids (17.2%), mobility (14.9%) and drain/wound care (20.2%). The post-intervention survey showed an improvement across all areas, notably continuity of care and patient safety, with 95.5% of individuals finding the weekend handover proforma aided in patient care over the weekend. Education of the ward team and implementation of a weekend handover proforma resulted in a marked improvement in the documentation of patients' weekend plans, which is essential to ensure the continuation of safe and effective patient care.

Human immunodeficiency virus care and management in incarcerated populations in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2010 and 2022: A narrative review.

Different countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have established guidelines to reduce HIV transmission and improve its management in prisons. This narrative review aimed to examine established literature on HIV care and management among incarcerated persons in SSA to identify successful interventions that could inform improved guidelines, policies, and practices related to the clinical care of this population. We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and TRIP Medical Databases in August 2022 for articles published between 1st January 2010 and 30th June 2022. We identified 27 eligible articles based on the Population/Concept/Context framework. HIV screening primarily involved mass campaigns rather than formal prison programmes, with limited implementation of universal testing and treatment. Although a few studies reported on access to antiretrovirals (ARVs), prisoners in urban areas and females had disproportionate access. Barriers identified include poor living conditions, high levels of stigma, and resource constraints. Inter-prison transfers, release from prison, and lack of established programmes hindered follow-up and linkage to care. The implementation of strategies such as universal testing and treatment, human resource strengthening, financing plans for testing, ARV care, and frequent assessment of risk could improve HIV care and management in prisons in SSA.

Life Prediction of TMR Current Sensor under Accelerated Degradation Test

Sensors are an important component of smart grids. This paper proposes an accelerated degradation test plan for magnetoresistive sensors and establishes a life prediction model based on performance degradation trajectories. Firstly, the structure and working principle of tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) current sensor are explained, and the performance degradation parameter is selected. Secondly, the Arrhenius model and basic concepts of accelerated degradation testing are introduced. Then, taking a certain model of the TMR current sensor as an example, the experiment is designed and the platform is constructed to obtain the performance degradation trajectory, and thus the life prediction is carried out.

Optimizing Size Consistency in Batch Roller Production: A Mixed Strategy Approach

The Double-Disk Straight Groove Lapping (DDSGL) technique, a novel approach to batch processing of bearing rollers, achieves high dimensional consistency by removing material through size comparison between multiple rollers in the processing area. To avoid collision between the rollers, the prevalent practice in DDSGL involves circulating the rollers in fixed linear sequences, an approach that impedes comprehensive size comparison throughout the entire batch of rollers. To counter this, we introduce a Dual-Channel Mixing Scheduling (DCMS) strategy that disrupts the roller sequence without triggering collisions. This strategy promotes extensive size comparison and enhances batch size consistency. To elucidate the operational principles of DCMS, we have developed a computational model grounded in DDSGL, designed simulation test plans under different mixing parameters, and summarized the number of direct comparisons, total comparisons, and differences in roller cycle times to determine the optimal combination of mixing parameters. Finally, structural modifications were made in the DDSGL system for validation studies under different mixing parameters. The test results show that the use of DCHS can reduce processing time by up to 50%, and the batch diameter change of the rollers can converge from 1.15 μm to as low as 0.76 μm. The industrial relevance of this research is significant; these improvements can lead to higher efficiency in the manufacturing process and improved quality of bearing rollers.

Action-oriented planning methods as a tool for improving regional governance in Switzerland: Evidence from the Sisslerfeld area

Faced with challenges such as rapid transformation of existing settlements, reorganisation of mobility patterns, and climate change mitigation management, the governance of spatial development in Switzerland demands institutional and procedural innovations, particularly noticeable at the regional scale. Although cantons, the middle-governmental tier between the federal and communal authorities (municipalities), play a coordinating role supported by numerous formal and informal planning instruments, the small size of the institutional territory, coupled with administrative decentralisation of the country and autonomy of the lowest administrative levels, often challenges a multi-governmental and multi-sectorial approach to regional spatial development. Against the concepts of regional governance, regional planning and the action-oriented planning, and using the mixed-method research approach (focusing on documentary analysis and ethnographic methods), the article critically assesses a planning method – test planning – applied in the process of creating a development vision of Sisslerfeld, the largest land reserve in the Swiss canton of Aargau. Research results highlight the potential and limitations of informal collaborative procedures and elucidate the approaches of critical actors in an effort to achieve joint institutional action.

Lexicographic Optimization-Based Planning for Single and Multiple Brain Metastasis Radiosurgery with Coplanar Arcs

This study validated a not yet commercially available fully-automated lexicographic optimization planning system (LOps) for single and multiple lesions intracranial stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). Forty-four consecutive SRS treatment plans (21 Gy/1 fx) delivered between November 2019 and August 2022 were retrospectively selected and automatically re-planned by LOps: 25 of them has 1 lesion, 13 had 2 lesions, 4 had 3 lesions, and 2 had 4 lesions. An a-priori assigned priority list, Wish List (WL), was used to define the sequential LO: 4 patient sets (tuning set) were necessary to tune each WL, for single lesion-plans (SLp) and multiple lesion-plans (MLp). While in manual plans (MP), the arc setup is freely chosen, the WL was tuned to use 2 coplanar arcs of 140° and 360° for SLp and MLp, respectively. A 0° and 90° collimator rotation were set for counter-clockwise and clockwise arcs, respectively. The fluence optimization is followed by a Monte Carlo calculation (MCc) with 1 mm-dose grid and 0.5%-statistical uncertainty. A target coverage as high as possible was requested, with at least 80% of the prescription dose covering 99% of the PTV. The main criteria for SLp approval were a brain V12Gy <10 cm3. In MLp this criterion can be overcome to get the minimum target coverage. The remaining 36 SRS plans (21 SL and 15 MLp) were automatically re-planned (testing set). Testing plans were compared in terms of dose-volume constraints, conformality, and monitor units (MUs). Statistical significance was assessed by performing the Wilcoxon test and plan delivery accuracy was verified by pre-treatment QA. WLs-tuning took 3 days. Overall manual and automatic MCc time can be estimated at 8 hours and 3 hours, respectively. Statistically significant increases in SLp and MLp target coverage (GTV_D98%: +3.0% SL, +5.7% ML, PTV_D98%: +4.4% SL, +13.4% ML) and conformity index were registered. Automatic plans showed acceptably higher median brain V12Gy (SL: MP 7.2 cm3, SLp 7.6 cm3; ML: MP 8.7 cm3, MLp 10.3 cm3). The SLp registered a lower median MU number (-4.2%) while MLp were obtained with a higher median number of MU (+9.8%). This not statistically significant difference did not affect gamma passing rates. The novel LOps produced high-quality clinically acceptable SRS SL and ML plans with coplanar arcs according to institutional-specific planning protocols, significantly reducing the overall planning time from about one working day for one MP to about 3 hours for one automatic plan. Together with comparable OAR sparing, the target coverage was significantly increased and the plan deliverability preserved.

Performance of Adaptive Deep Learning Models for Dose Predictions on High-Quality Cone-Beam Computed Tomography Images

Online plan generation remains a patient-specific and time-consuming process that can place a significant burden on clinics strained with staffing shortages. As previous research show that dose-volume histogram (DVH) prediction plays a crucial role in automatic treatment planning, the objective of this study is to assess the capability of adaptive deep learning models in predicting dose information in volumetric modulation radiotherapy plans using the high-quality CBCT images and contour information of organs-at-risk (OARs). The relationship between dose-volume histograms (DVHs) in radiotherapy plans and the geometric information of organs-at-risk (OAR) and planning target volume (PTV) has been well established. To evaluate the performance of the current state-of-the-art convolutional neural network (CNN) models including VIT3D and Unet3D, and intuitive machine learning methods (i.e., SVM and MLP), we implemented those models for dose prediction and conducted a comprehensive analysis with treatment plans created from images acquired from patients who consented to participate an IRB-approved imaging study designed to evaluate the imaging performance of the system. In total, 20 plans created by certified medical dosimetrists were employed in this study, with 15 used for training the machine-learning models and the remaining 5 used for performance testing. Two evaluation metrics were used: 1) root mean square error (RMSE) of the predicted dose and true dose and 2) time spent on dose prediction. The results of the analysis showed that the ViT-3D (Transformer) model had the lowest RMSE of 3.682 ±0.010, followed by the Unet-3D (CNN) model with an RMSE of. 3.973 ±0.021 The MLP model had an RMSE of 8.007 ±0.019 while the SVM model had the highest RMSE of 9.156 ±0.032. For a fair comparison, we use 4-fold cross validation (each has 15 training plans and 5 testing plans), and report the mean value with standard deviation. All models are optimized with Adam optimizer of a learning rate 0.01, and the training process is stopped after 100 epochs. These findings indicate that the ViT-3D (Transformer) model performed the best in terms of predicting the dose information in volumetric modulation radiotherapy plans based on the CBCT images and contour information of OARs. For tested plan which contains 81 CT images (512 × 512 resolution), the inference time to predict dose information with a general CPU machine (6-Core Intel Core i7) is about 1.5 minutes. With GPU resources, such as NVIDIA A100, the inference process can be finished within seconds. The study demonstrated that current state-of-the-art machine-learning models can achieve promising accuracy in dose prediction using high-quality CBCT images. A well-trained machine-learning model could offer clinicians a quick and reliable prediction of the true dose to patients in the case of significant anatomical changes or provide patient-specific optimization objectives if replanning is warranted.

Using Scorecards to Tune Ethos Directive Templates: An ARTIA Cervix Dosimetric Planning Study

The Adaptive Radiation Therapy Individualized Approach (ARTIA) Cervix clinical trial uses predefined clinical directive templates (CDT) combined with RapidPlan DVH estimations (DVHe) to guide plan optimization in the Ethos treatment planning system. The dosimetric scorecard tool (DST) quantifies improvements in plan quality. This is the first study to utilize the DST to tune an Ethos CDT to improve resulting plan quality. Iterative replanning was used to modify the draft CDT (CDT-1) in Ethos to generate a new CDT (CDT-2) that maximized the clinical consensus scorecard's total score compared toCDT-1. CDT-2 was established, and resulting plans were compared with and without a DVHe. Additional fixed field IMRT beam geometries were compared between CDT-1 and CDT-2, both with DVHe. After obtaining favorable results when comparing CDT-1 verses CDT-2 for two test cases, 10 additional cases were retrospectively identified and tested. For the initial test cases, CDT-2 decreased OAR doses without compromising PTV coverage (No DVHe). While both plans met the protocol target guidelines and OAR constraints, the scorecard was able to quantify the improvement with CDT-2 on a test case with a score of 166.1 (78.7%) vs CDT-1, 163.87 (77.6%). When CDT-2 was combined with the DVHe, it still marginally outperformed CDT-1: 168.73 (76%) versus 166.13 (74.8%). Plan quality was further improved by increasing the total number of fields to 19. Combining CDT-2 and DVHe with a 19-field geometry resulted in the greatest benefit at 184.6 (83.2%). This scored higher than the ARTIA-Cervix defined delivery technique of CDT-1 and DVHe, with a 9-field geometry 166.1 (74.8%). The study was expanded to a separate analysis on 10 new cases. The 19-field approach was superior for all 10 cases and CDT-2 achieved a higher score in 7/10 cases. When comparing 9 versus 19 fields, the total optimization and calculation time increased by an average of 1.9 minutes while the beam delivery time increased by an average of 2.8 minutes (+/- 0.1). The average MU/field was 174.3 (total 1568.3) and 129.9 (total 2468) for 9 and 19 fields, respectively. Two test plans were re-optimized and calculated with Ethos 1.1 maintenance release (MR) 1 with both 9 and 19 fields. For case 1, MR 1 resulted in an 8.4% and 6.9% decrease in MU and scored -0.6% and +0.5% for 9 and 19 fields, respectively. For case 2, MR 1 resulted in a 0.8% and 3.1% decrease in MU and scored -3.4% and -0.3% for 9 and 19 fields, respectively. The scorecard allows for easy evaluation of the dosimetric impact of other planning parameters (beam arrangements and use of DVHe) to identify the best approach. Using a scorecard to finely-tune a CDT is expected to improve planning efficiency, decrease intra-institutional plan quality and variability, improve the average calculated plan quality and benefit CBCT-guided ART.

Mining equipment diagnostics in a mine shaft dewatering system – case study

Maintenance issues in mines are particularly important due to the type and complexity of equipment in operation or working in hostile (even extreme) conditions. In this context, the need to ensure continuous/regular maintenance of machinery, identify potential hazards and ensure operational safety seems to be a challenge. Moreover, selecting an appropriate maintenance method is crucial for a mine, both economically and in technical/organizational terms. This study aims to present the preliminary results of diagnostic tests for pumps performing operational tasks in a mine shaft dewatering system. In addition, this study focused on a detailed discussion of the basic elements of the mine shaft dewatering system and the technical objects studied. A preliminary operational test plan for the investigated pumps operating in the mine shaft dewatering system is also presented. This enabled a discussion of the results obtained from the tests of the first quarter of 2023. The tests used three basic diagnostic methods: vibration analysis, thermal imaging and acoustic testing. Potential directions for further research in the analyzed area were also indicated.

Evaluation of the impact of the thermal state of a diesel engine on its efficiency

The paper presents the results of model and empirical research on the influence of the thermal state of a diesel engine (oil temperature) on its indicated (thermal) efficiency. The paper contains a test plan including a description of the test object, test equipment and measurement points on a real object. In the following part, the results of tests carried out on a real object (laboratory single-cylinder engine) and the results of model tests obtained on the original engine model are presented. The results are presented both in tabular and graphical form. The obtained test results allowed to determine the relative value of the influence of the engine's thermal state on its efficiency for various operating conditions (load and rotational speed).