Technical Category Research Articles

Application of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) to Select the Most Sustainable Power-Generating Technology

In response to the growing importance of sustainability and regulatory pressures, companies are increasingly engaging in sustainable projects to mitigate environmental and social harm. Therefore, it is crucial to incorporate sustainability considerations during selecting construction projects in the feasibility phase. This study aims to identify a comprehensive set of sustainability criteria and sub-criteria to help the owners of power-generating plants to select the most sustainable technology for their new projects. Sixteen criteria are identified and categorized under the pillars of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental, plus the technical category. To illustrate practical application, a case study demonstrates the use of these essential sustainability criteria through a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model for power-generating technology ranking. The results suggest that when stakeholders’ perspectives are weighted approximately equally, considering all sustainability pillars, natural gas with carbon capture is favored for sustainability. A three-scenario sensitivity analysis was performed involving expert opinions from one of the largest power-generating companies in Canada. This integrated generic model can be utilized by industry experts to apply multi-dimensional rational decision-making techniques to solve the complex problem of selecting the most sustainable alternative in construction projects.

Technological processes for ensuring road safety on the roads of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region

Background. The main objective of the implementation of the National Project “Safe high-quality roads” of the Russian Federation is to improve the safety and quality of highways. This study provides a justification for the methods of installing longitudinal noise strips and an assessment of their impact on overall road safety. The results of this study can be used to develop effective recommendations for integrating these measures into the processes of designing and building highways.
 Aim. The purpose of this study is to select and substantiate the most rational way of installing longitudinal noise strips on highways. This study analyzes the relationship between the longitudinal noise band and the frequency of traffic accidents. The main purpose of this study is to study the relationship between the presence of a noise lane on the road and the frequency of traffic accidents. This study evaluates the impact of the noise band on the change in the risk of accidents and traffic violations.
 Methods. Various sections of the concentration of road accidents are considered on the basis of statistical data on highways of the technical category, on which measures have been implemented for the installation of longitudinal noise strips, allowing an analysis of their effectiveness. The features and recommendations regarding longitudinal noise strips on newly erected sections of highways are highlighted.
 Results. Taking the highways in the North-Western region as an example, the technology of installing longitudinal noise strips on highways has a benefit for road safety and economic efficiency.

Medical Opisthographs

Abstract The chapter discusses the cases of opisthographic papyri dealing with a medical content. According to Manfredo Manfredi’s definition of opisthograph as a papyrus roll reused to transcribe an extensive text, the focus will be on scrolls repurposed on their back side to copy Greek medical treatises, handbooks or receptaria. The analysis will consider the material features of such copies – the nature and quality of the original text, the medical genre, palaeography – in order to draw some preliminary conclusions about the relationship between reuse and genre in a highly specialized technical category of papyrus texts.

Ekonomija dijeljenja

This paper focuses on the two most prevalent and economically significant services of the sharing economy: accommodation and transport. Its primary objective is to compare these two crucial sectors in terms of user perspective and their perceived service quality. Given that these platforms operate similarly, this study aims to determine if there are unique aspects that require different approaches or areas that need to be improved. This is crucial for making these platforms function better and provide a better experience for users. The quality of service was analysed through technical and social categories. The goal was to determine whether and how the aforementioned service quality categories affect user behaviour and whether there are differences in the ranking of service quality categories from the users’ perspective, depending on the individual sector of the sharing economy. On a sample of 327 respondents, SEM analysis was used to show that the technical and social categories of service quality positively and directly influence the behavioural intentions of users in the sharing economy in both the accommodation and transport sectors. The findings also revealed that, for the users of the sharing economy service in the accommodation sector, the social category of service quality is more important than the technical category, while for the users of the sharing economy services in the transport sector, the technical category of service quality is more important than the social one.

State and technical and economic assessment of the road pavement reinforcement method with the bottom-ash mixtures use

The article considers the road pavement reinforcement method with the use of bottom-ash mixtures. In the introductory part, there is an explanation about the conducted experimental works on road pavement strengthening with the cement, bottom-ash mixtures compositions base and stabilising additives (ANT, cryogelite, bitumen emulsion). The monitoring results of the motorway condition (2015–2022), reinforced with bottom-ash mixtures with photo committing changes and technical and economic assessment of the proposed solutions are given. Test section condition monitoring was carried out in accordance with Road industrial methodical document 218.0.000-2003 «Guidelines for assessing the level of maintenance of motorways». Technical and economic assessment is based on the Federal Unit Rates. The comparative options cost with the soil transportation distance of 10 km and cement, bottom-ash mixture, ash, and additives — 100 km in base prices of Federal Unit Rates 2001 has been calculated. Dependences of the road pavement construction cost on the cement transportation method and distance, bottom-ash mixture, ash, and additives transportation at the distance to the soil bank from 4 to 10 km have been constructed. Monitoring results showed that cement-soil road pavement with bottom-ash mixtures can be effectively used as a base for IV technical category motorways, but it is necessary to arrange a layer of pavement for its protection.

The Solitary Mind in the Anatomy of Melancholy

The Solitary Mind in <i>the Anatomy of Melancholy</i>

A Discussion on CO2 Sequestration in the UCG Space Based upon the Review of the UCG Residue Physicochemical Properties

The strategic goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” has promoted further reform of the global energy system. Additionally, coal is still the dominate form of energy consumption. Underground coal gasification, which changes the method of coal utilization, is an important way to execute clean coal development and clean utilization, and is also an effective method for the development of deep coal resources, belonging to the technical category of clean energy resources. Compared with the traditional method of coal mining surface gasification, it has obvious advantages of being economical, safe and environmentally friendly. After high-temperature gasification, the physicochemical properties of the residues in the three reaction zones of UCG are significantly different from those of the raw coal. Therefore, this paper summarizes the transformation characteristics and the evolution of organic matter and minerals during UCG. Moreover, the paper analyzes the transformation of pore structure caused by UCG and its influencing mechanism, and discusses the possible utilization of UCG residue based on its physicochemical properties. The results show that: (1) after the UCG, the gasification center residue was mainly composed of acidic and alkaline oxides, accompanied by glassy silica that wrapped the carbon residue, which was located far from the gasification center. Due to the weakening of the oxygen supply, the chemical reaction changed from oxidation to reduction, and the influence of baking on the pyrolysis of coal and minerals gradually weakened. Furthermore, the organic carbon content in the residue gradually increased, whereas the inorganic mineral content decreased. Additionally, the thermal decomposition declined. In the boundary between the dry distillation zone and the raw coal, the organic skeleton of coal and inorganic minerals remained basically unchanged. (2) It is suitable for carbonation to sequestrate CO2 for the oxidation residue after the oxidation process because the residue was composed of slag, whereas the baked roof rock fell off. It is suitable for high-pressure adsorption to sequestrate CO2 in the reduction coal due to the porous and high specific surface of the pyrolysis coal. Some pyrolytic minerals were conducive to mineralization to sequestrate CO2. The dry distillated coal had higher specific surface area and volume of pores in the dry distillation zone than those of the raw coal, whereas the values were lower than those of the reduction zone. The pyrolysis of minerals was not obvious, and the carbonation of CO2 was relatively low. The study points out that CO2 sequestration in the UCG space is an important way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the dual carbon peak and neutralization targets. The use of UCG cavities for CO2 sequestration is important for achieving the strategic goal of carbon neutrality. However, the current research on CO2 sequestration using UCG cavities is at the theoretical stage, further field tests are lacking and the commercialization process of CO2 sequestration has not yet been realized.

Characterization of Tasks and Skills of Workers, Middle and Top Managers in the Industry 4.0 Context

This study intends to make a characterization of the main tasks and skills needed to face the Industry 4.0. Moreover, it gives special attention to the different company’s hierarchical levels. To achieve the goals of this paper, a methodology based on Collaborative Decision Making method was used. Firstly, thirty participants were interviewed to understand their point of views. Next, they were split into Group Works to refine the results. Finally, a Group Concordance took place to create the final list of tasks and skills. The skills were organized into four categories: Technical, Social, Methodological and Personal. The results show different requirements in each level. In the Workers level, due to the presence of more technical tasks, eight of the top ten skills belong to the Technical category. In the Middle Managers level, there are tasks of both leading and analyzing nature and thus the top ten skills needed are split through the four categories. Finally, in the Top Managers level, due to the presence of mainly strategy tasks, the top ten skills are split between the Methodological and Social categories. To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to use a Collaborative Decision Making methodology to develop a set of tasks and skills that future work environments will demand on the different hierarchical levels of the organization.

EXPERIENCE IN RESTORING DESTROYED AUTOMOBILE ARTIFICIAL STRUCTURES

Purpose. The issue of resuming automobile traffic is an important task for the resumption of logistical state and local movements. The purpose of the work is to study and implement the experience of restoring transport infrastructure and construction of fortifications, its distribution, and the wide implementation of lessons learned in the training process of units of the State Special Service of Transport and other bridge construction specialists. The experience of using reserve beams under railway load for a road bridge is shown on the example of the restoration of automobile traffic across the Irpin River for passenger cars without load capacity restrictions. An example of restoration of man-made structures on the detour next to the bridge is given. Methodology. The issue of resuming automobile traffic is an important task for the resumption of logistical state and local movements. Examples of restoration of artificial structures are given. It also shows the use of modern technologies, mechanisms, and methods of restoring structures on the bypass or on the old axis of the bridge. Findings. The main elements of the bridge over the Irpin river located on the public highway of state importance Ib technical category M-06 Kyiv-Chop (to the city of Budapest via the cities of Lviv, Mukacheve, Uzhhorod) were destroyed by mechanical damage as a result of hostilities in Ukraine. The characteristics of the destruction do not contribute to the restoration of the artificial structure on the existing axis of the structure. The restoration of the bridge was carried out on a short detour – 50 m downstream of the Irpin River. Originality. Today, the need to restore artificial structures arises in connection with their destruction during the war and after disasters of a natural, man-made, and military nature. There is an urgent need to study and implement the experience of restoring the transport infrastructure and construction of fortifications, its distribution among the personnel, the wide implementation of the lessons learned in the training process of the units of the State Special Transport Service. Practical value. The practical result of the use of reserve span structures of small and medium-sized railway bridges was obtained, which confirms the universal possibility of using the structures of the inventory bridge property, not only for conducting restoration works on the railway, but also for the restoration and construction of a temporary road bridge.

Hospital-wide cardiac arrest in situ simulation to identify and mitigate latent safety threats

BackgroundCardiac arrest resuscitation requires well-executed teamwork to produce optimal outcomes. Frequency of cardiac arrest events differs by hospital location, which presents unique challenges in care due to variations in responding team composition and comfort levels and familiarity with obtaining and utilizing arrest equipment. The objective of this initiative is to utilize unannounced, in situ, cardiac arrest simulations hospital wide to educate, evaluate, and maximize cardiac arrest teams outside the traditional simulation lab by systematically assessing and capturing areas of opportunity for improvement, latent safety threats (LSTs), and key challenges by hospital location.MethodsUnannounced in situ simulations were performed at a city hospital with multidisciplinary cardiac arrest teams responding to a presumed real cardiac arrest. Participants and facilitators identified LSTs during standardized postsimulation debriefings that were classified into equipment, medication, resource/system, or technical skill categories. A hazard matrix was used by multiplying occurrence frequency of LST in simulation and real clinical events (based on expert opinion) and severity of the LST based on agreement between two evaluators.ResultsSeventy-four in situ cardiac arrest simulations were conducted hospital wide. Hundreds of safety threats were identified, analyzed, and categorized yielding 106 unique latent safety threats: 21 in the equipment category, 8 in the medication category, 41 in the resource/system category, and 36 in the technical skill category. The team worked to mitigate all LSTs with priority mitigation to imminent risk level threats, then high risk threats, followed by non-imminent risk LSTs. Four LSTs were deemed imminent, requiring immediate remediation post debriefing. Fifteen LSTs had a hazard ratio greater than 8 which were deemed high risk for remediation. Depending on the category of threat, a combination of mitigating steps including the immediate fixing of an identified problem, leadership escalation, and programmatic intervention recommendations occurred resulting in mitigation of all identified threats.ConclusionsHospital-wide in situ cardiac arrest team simulation offers an effective way to both identify and mitigate LSTs. Safety during cardiac arrest care is improved through the use of a system in which LSTs are escalated urgently, mitigated, and conveyed back to participants to provide closed loop debriefing. Lastly, this hospital-wide, multidisciplinary initiative additionally served as an educational needs assessment allowing for informed, iterative education and systems improvement initiatives targeted to areas of LSTs and areas of opportunity.

A roadmap for the VISIR remote lab

ABSTRACT This article proposes a roadmap for the VISIR remote laboratory based on a SWOT analysis performed by fifteen experts, with large experience on VISIR deployment, and their perceptions in three categories: Technical, Pedagogical and Educational. The resulting VISIR roadmap was obtained considering an underlying strategy based on a RAKID model. The major resulting insights address the user interface as the most evident strength in the Pedagogical category, while the major weakness is matrix limitations in the Technical category. At the same time, this weakness is somewhat related to major opportunities identified as ‘new developments’ also, in the Pedagogical category. The major Educational category aspects arise as threats and are related to ICT availability, an issue not directly controlled by the VISIR community, but by institutional practices and policies. The proposed roadmap and its guidelines establish a sustainable strategy and framework to support the future of VISIR and enlarging its community.

A fuzzy analytic hierarchy process-based analysis for prioritization of barriers to offshore wind energy

Offshore wind energy is an essential component of the climate system and plays a crucial role in addressing climate change. India has a coastline of seven thousand kilometres and a National offshore wind energy policy; however, the installed capacity of offshore wind energy is yet to start, signalling the existence of significant barriers. The specific objective of this study is to develop a framework for identifying and categorizing the barriers to the growth of offshore wind energy in India. The study prioritizes these barriers using a multi-criteria decision-making approach and sensitivity analysis for robustness. Barriers listed in the technical category emerged through analysis as the significant barriers to the growth of offshore wind energy in India, which includes grid-connection challenges, inadequate technology, lack of servicing and maintenance facilities, inadequate testing and commissioning, cable installation challenges, lack of energy storage, and lack of offshore wind zones. Financial barriers are categorized as the second most crucial barrier: initial capital, credit accessibility, inadequate subsidies, power pricing scheme, immature offshore engineering market, insurance, and imperfect feed-in tariff mechanism. It is followed by social, institutional, geographical, and supply chain barriers. Regulatory and political barriers stand on the last rank and have the most negligible influence on offshore wind energy in India.

Managing the Development of Motor Transport Infrastructure with the Help of State-Private Partnership Tools

The world rating of the ratio of automobile roads of the highest technical category and the total length of roads places Russia at the end of the first hundred. State began paying attention to the problem of developing the road-transport infrastructure only about 5 years ago, including elaboration and implementation of national and federal projects and allocation of great amounts of money for them. In conditions of finance shortage, especially on the regional level, the necessity to raise private capital to the road-transport industry becomes more and more acute. It could help build more projects, get more benefits and repay investment. The article explains the state interest in using the state-private partnership for founding and developing the road-transport infrastructure. The author identifies tools of state participation, which are used now in road-transport industry in the Russian Federation and proposes the lines of stimulating the state-private partnership development in road-transport industry. Special attention is paid to such key trends of extending forms of interaction between state and business in this sphere as setting up channels of continuous provision of information to concerned people that deals with new technologies and projects, upgrading regional legislation, elaborating programs supporting research and development in road construction, training highly-qualified personnel, etc. The development of road-transport infrastructure can improve accessibility of territories and provide access to global markets, which could foster economic and social effects.

Construction Workers’ Issues from Worldwide and Saudi Arabia Studies

Majority of the construction workers in Saudi Arabia are foreigners from several countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and others. These foreign workers are facing issues not only regarding construction demanding tasks but also facing social and climate adaptions. This review paper compiles previous research works related to construction workers issues which were carried out worldwide including Saudi Arabia. It able to extract 63 issues from worldwide studies and narrowed it to 45 issues for Saudi Arabia situation. With the issues from Saudi Arabia, it was clustered into 2 main categories which are technical and non-technical related issues. In technical category, 15 issues were assigned to 4 groups while for non-technical category, 30 issues were assigned to 7 groups. Based on frequency analysis, the 3 most frequent construction workers’ issues from worldwide studies are shortage of skilled labours, low productivity level and lack of experience. While from Saudi Arabia studies the 3 most frequent construction workers’ issues for both technical and non-technical groups are shortage of skilled labours, low productivity level, unqualified workforce and personal conflicts among labours, absenteeism of labours, discrimination based on nationality respectively. These preliminary findings serve as a basis for further investigation related to construction workers issues in the construction industry of Saudi Arabia.

INFORMATIONAL SECURITY IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY

Background. In modern conditions, information is not just a technical category. The penetration of the latest technologies into all spheres of life has turned information into an economic category, which has become one of the most essential components of the functioning of the market and, at the same time, a regulator of economic processes. Therefore, interest in the problems of international information security is growing, both for the international community, the state and its regions as a whole, and separately for sectors of the economy, for institutions, for individuals. Analysis of recent research and publications hasshown that the issues of interaction between information and international information security, as well as with the economy, remain unresolved. An important issue is the analysis of information security conditions in the framework of modern world markets and globalization processes, the impact of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on the world economy. The aimof the articleis to consider the features of ensuring information security in the conditions of the Ukrainian economy, as well as to identify the nature of the transformation of international information security. Materials and methods. In the course of the research, the methods of analysis and synthesis, abstraction, systematization, identification, classification, comparison and generalization were used. Results. Despite the existence of a lot of theoretical and applied research in the field of information management technologies, the problem of a model description of the main characteristics of information interactions in the context of ensuring information security in organizational and economic systems remains very relevant. Based on the results of this study, the place of the information system in the enterprise management contour is shown, the logical connections of the documents of the information security management system within the framework of the international standard ISO/IEC 27000 are revealed, the problems of international information security that need to be addressed in the context of globalization are identified. The solution of these issues will contribute to the rational restructuring of the sphere of informatization and information policy of the state. Conclusion. It is proved that in Ukraine, the insufficient level of informatization and constant delays in solving the problems of information security and international information security, as well as the negative information impact, lead to huge losses, a slowdown in socio-economic development and a decrease in competitiveness at the world level. To prevent this, a rational restructuring of the sphere of informatization and information policy of Ukraine is necessary with the involvement of international support and the active participation of our state in the transformational processes of international information security to counter information threats using modern methods and legislation in this area. The outlined conceptual provisions require further scientific research of the methodological aspects of economics and management in the context of the transformation of the national economy under the influence of globalization processes and the place of the digital economy in it, the prospects for the use of new methods and management tools in the era of digital economy. Keywords: information security, globalization, international cooperation, international information security,threat, country.

Associated factors to SARS-CoV-2 infection among dental professionals

The objective of this study was to analyze associated factor to SARS-CoV-2 infection among dental professionals. This was a cross-sectional study carried out from February to September 2020 in the municipality of São Paulo, Brazil. We included all dental team working at 11 basic health units. Professionals included were from the three different categories oral surgeon-dentist, dental technician, dental assistant. The analysis included SARS-CoV-2 infection and independent variables (sociodemographic, labor and behavior) with descriptive analyses with absolute (n) and relative (%) frequencies, inferential analysis by chi-squared and Fisher exact test (p < 0.05). There was a prevalence of 20.3% of infection by SARS-CoV-2 between dental professionals. However, in the analysis by professional category the infection rate was 3.8 among oral surgeon-dentist, 30.0% among dental technician, 33.3% for dental assistant. The diagnostic of SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with lower income (p = 0.027), lower level of formal education (p = 0.011), technical professional category (p = 0.025), and the use of public transportation (p = 0.009). The higher prevalence of COVID-19 in technical professionals than oral surgeon-dentists may suggest that infection had occurred outside the working environment, once professional had personal protective equipment available as well as the training for their professional activity. In addition, professionals reported to feel safe and prepared to perform their activities in the work environment.Key messages Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in oral health in the public service.Promotion and prevention of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in oral health in the public service.

Normalizing counterinsurgency in the United States: first responders as the first line of defense

ABSTRACT In this article, I elaborate on the thesis that counterinsurgency has become a ‘new governing paradigm’ in the United States. I first argue that the DoD redefinition of terrorism blurred the conceptual boundaries between counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, to ease the latter’s transition from the field of military strategy to that of political governance. Second, I argue that counterinsurgency became a governing paradigm, based on political techniques that worked through the subjective capabilities of the population. After 9/11, those capabilities were associated with the first responder. I trace the conceptual evolution of the first responder as a technical category in the discourse and administration of public safety, to its re-emergence in the concept of homeland security after 9/11. I argue that the political architecture created by homeland security emphasized the awareness, preparedness and resilience of the first responder who was in turn defined as the first line of defense against potential attacks. Through the first responder, counterinsurgency achieves its fundamental goal: to prevent social transformation by securing societal ‘normalcy’. Lastly, I argue that, as a governing paradigm, counterinsurgency provides a frame of interpretation to understand and categorize social experience: a first responders/insurgents schism now guides how we interpret political divisions.

The influence of characteristics of aggregates on performance of asphalt mixtures

Under the current conditions of road traffic growth, importance should be given to the use of construction products whose technical characteristics have to be tested and to comply with the regulations in force. In our country at present there is the European standard EN 13043:2003 regarding the conditions that natural and artificial aggregates must meet in order to be used in asphalt mixtures. As is well known, these conditions are presented in the form of categories of values to be set by the designer to result in an asphalt mix with certain characteristics. However, this standard does not contain a national annex with specifications on the aggregate categories depending on the type of asphalt mix correlated with the technical class / road / street technical category. The majority of beneficiaries that use aggregates in the production of asphalt mixtures have problems on the national market because there is no correlation between this standard and the national provisions in force, namely the AND 605/2016 (version in force on this date). This paper analyzes the conditions that the natural aggregates for the bituminous mixtures must have and correlates the performance of the aggregates with the performance of the asphalt mix.

The substantiation of the influence of asphalt resin paraffin oil residue on the asphalt concrete technology

Based on scientific research and experimental tests, it has been proved that solid waste from oil fields in the Kyzylorda region based on asphalt resin paraffin sediment (ARPS) is close and binding in its chemical composition to the main component of the asphalt-concrete mixture of the road surface. And the most effective method of disposal and neutralization of oil waste was chosen. In this article, it is proposed to develop an asphalt-concrete technology based on asphalt-resinous paraffin deposits. The issue of increasing the reserves of raw materials for the production of durable asphalt concrete and reducing the amount of oil-containing waste in the fields due to the sale of solid oil-containing waste will be considered. Based on the study, the composition of asphalt-resinous paraffin deposits was analyzed by IR spectroscopy. The infrared (IR) absorption spectrum was captured in the IR-Fourier spectrometer. The results of the study showed the suitability of asphalt-resinous paraffin deposits for use as organic binders to dense asphalt concrete of type «B» grade III for IV-V road climatic zones recommended for applying top layers of coating on roads of technical category IY.

Dental trauma and tongue injuries in professional alpine ski racing-A worldwide survey.

Skiing is a sport with a medium risk of injuries, and injuries are increasingly common among professional alpine skiers. Examples of other medium-risk sports are for example handball, basketball, and karate. The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of dental trauma in professional alpine skiing and to determine whether the frequency of dental injuries is associated with a skier's performance level, alpine skiing discipline, and/or years of skiing experience. A questionnaire consisting of 17 questions was distributed to professional male ski racers to gather information about their skiing discipline (category), performance level, and injuries, particularly dental trauma. A total of 161 out of 190 skiers returned the survey, with a response rate of 84.2%. Of these, 134 (83.2%) had suffered alpine ski racing-related injuries during their career and 38 (23.6%) reported skiing-related dental trauma-most commonly crown fractures (65.8%, n=25), which mainly involved the maxillary or mandibular incisors (76.0%, n=28). Ski racers with higher performance levels were more likely to experience dental injuries, but the difference in the frequency of dental trauma between participants in the speed versus technical category was not significant. Likewise, the number of years of ski racing experience did not impact the frequency of dental injuries. The participants rarely wore custom-made mouthguards (6.8%, n=11). None of those who reported dental injuries were wearing a custom-made mouthguard when the injury occured. They preferred to wear chin guards, over-the-counter mouthguards, or no mouthguards. Professional alpine ski racing has a medium risk of dental trauma, which further increases with skier performance level. The participating skiers rarely wore custom-made mouthguards.