Safety Grade Evaluation of Aqueduct Structure Based on Fuzzy Cloud Theory Analysis

In view of the limitation of natural conversion between qualitative concept and quantitative value, the fuzzy analysis method cannot be employed to improve the multi-stage fuzzy evaluation method. Improvement of multilevel fuzzy evaluation method based on cloud theory was found, which could comprehensively consider the uncertainty of random combinations and the fuzziness of interaction between influencing factors, and the shortcomings of conventional fuzzy evaluation methods as well eliminated. The structure of 5#U-aqueduct in Jingdian Irrigation District (Gansu, China) was chosen as the research object. Based on the multi-level fuzzy evaluation index system of structural safety, experts were invited to score the importance of factors according to the cloud theory scale criterion to establish a judgment matrix. Therefore, the evaluation set, weight and membership cloud model of evaluation system was constituted by means of bridge safety assessment criterion and cloud generator principle. Furthermore, comprehensive evaluation results of aqueduct service states were obtained by multistage fuzzy composite mapping method, and the actual position of structural safety grade was obtained by comparing the evaluation result with the comment layer cloud drop diagram. The results showed that using cloud model parameters (Ex, En and He) to describe the relative importance of factors can better reflect the randomness and fuzziness of each other than the traditional single number, which was helpful to get the evaluation results accurately and objectively; The comprehensive evaluation results of the aqueduct structure obtained by calculation were WV(75.149, 9.95, 4.16).The simulated cloud droplet diagram was located between II and III classes, and tends to the III standard, which indicated that the overall security of the structure was sufferable. However, attention should be paid to the maintenance and repair of the detailed components. The consequences agreed with the evaluation results of the experts, which indicates that the improved evaluation method has good practicability as well as can be popularized and applied

A Novel Risk Assessment Model for Prefabricated Building Construction Based on Combination Weight and Catastrophe Progression Method

To reduce the construction risk of prefabricated building projects, a prefabricated building construction risk assessment index system with five first-level indicators and 21 second-level indicators was established based on human, machine, material, management, and environmental factors. By combining the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), CRiteria Importance through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC), and catastrophe theory, a risk assessment model of prefabricated building construction based on a combination weighting and catastrophe progression method was constructed. The effectiveness of the assessment model using the combination weighting and catastrophe progression method was verified through case analysis. The results show the following: (1) The quality of the prefabricated components, the standardization degree of the prefabricated components, and the environment of the installation working space in the construction risk assessment indicators of prefabricated buildings obtained by the AHP-CRITIC weighting method have higher weights. (2) Four prefabricated construction enterprises under China State Construction Corporation are evaluated, and the evaluation results effectively evaluate the project risk situation before an accident occurred, achieving the goal of improving the risk management efficiency. (3) The AHP-CRITIC weighting method can reflect the fuzziness of the construction risk of the evaluated project, effectively reduce information loss, and thus make the evaluation results more accurate. The conclusions have important practical significance for improving the construction risk management of prefabricated buildings

Industrial maintenance service quality evaluation and improvement strategies: A case study of a corporation

Improving industrial maintenance service quality is not only essential for service providers to acquire and retain customers, but also plays a critical role in the shift from “Made in China” to “Intelligent Manufacturing in China”. The study focuses on the case of Company A to explore how to boost industrial maintenance service quality. Firstly, factor analysis is used to construct an industrial maintenance service quality scale, which is adopted to evaluate the service quality through analytic hierarchy process. Secondly, taking repurchase intention and recommendation intention as the measurement dimensions of customer behavioural intentions, structural equation model is used to explore the effect of industrial maintenance service quality on customer behavioural intentions. Last but not the least, the study explores the key factors that affect the quality of industrial maintenance service, and offers suggestions on how to improve industrial maintenance service quality. The study develops the industrial maintenance service quality scale with four dimensions, namely service professionalism, service reliability, service customization, and service digitization, all of which have direct, significant and positive effects on repurchase intention and recommendation intention. It is also found that industrial maintenance service quality can be improved through successful customer relationship maintenance, brand-building management, and information technology upgrading. Such improvement will contribute to the development of industrial maintenance service providers and promote their transformation and upgrading.A melhoria da qualidade do serviço de manutenção industrial é não só importante para as empresas fornecedoras destes serviços como também desempenha um papel crítico na mudança da política “Produzido na China” para a política “Manufatura Inteligente na China”. Esta tese tem como objeto de estudo a empresa A e analisa o modo de impulsionar a qualidade de serviço de manutenção. Primeiramente, a análise fatorial é utilizada para construir uma escala de qualidade de serviço de manutenção industrial, que será adoptada para avaliar a qualidade do serviço segundo o processo analítico hierárquico. Seguidamente, tomando a intenção de recompra e intenção de recomendação como dimensões de medida das intenções comportamentais dos clientes, utilizamos o modelo de equações estruturais para estudar o efeito da qualidade do serviço de manutenção industrial nas intenções comportamentais dos clientes. Por último, mas não menos importante, este estudo explora os fatores chave que afetam a qualidade do serviço de manutenção industrial e propõe sugestões para melhoria da qualidade do serviço de manutenção industrial. Esta tese desenvolve a escala de qualidade de serviço de manutenção industrial com quatro dimensões, nomeadamente profissionalismo do serviço, confiabilidade do serviço, serviço personalizado e digitalização do serviço, todas estas dimensões têm efeitos positivos diretos e significantes nas intenções de recompra e recomendação. Esta tese concluiu também que a qualidade do serviço de manutenção industrial pode ser melhorada através da manutenção de relacionamento com o cliente, a gestão de construção da marca e atualização da tecnologia de informação. Estas melhorias irão contribuir para o desenvolvimento das empresas de serviços de manutenção industrial e promoverão a sua transformação e atualização

Evaluation of ERTS-1 data for inventory of forest and rangeland and detection of forest stress

The author has identified the following significant results. Results of photointerpretation indicated that ERTS is a good classifier of forest and nonforest lands (90 to 95 percent accurate). Photointerpreters could make this separation as accurately as signature analysis of the computer compatible tapes. Further breakdowns of cover types at each site could not be accurately classified by interpreters (60 percent) or computer analysts (74 percent). Exceptions were water, wet meadow, and coniferous stands. At no time could the large bark beetle infestations (many over 300 meters in size) be detected on ERTS images. The ERTS wavebands are too broad to distinguish the yellow, yellow-red, and red colors of the dying pine foliage from healthy green-yellow foliage. Forest disturbances could be detected on ERTS color composites about 90 percent of the time when compared with six-year-old photo index mosaics. ERTS enlargements (1:125,000 scale, preferably color prints) would be useful to forest managers of large ownerships over 5,000 hectares (12,500 acres) for broad area planning. Black-and-white enlargements can be used effectively as aerial navigation aids for precision aerial photography where maps are old or not available

Development of an intelligent e-commerce assurance model to promote trust in online shopping environment

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) markets provide benefits for both buyers and sellers; however, because of cyber security risks consumers are reluctant to transact online. Trust in e-commerce is paramount for adoption. Trust as a subject for research has been a term considered in depth by numerous researchers in various fields of study, including psychology and information technology. Various models have been developed in e-commerce to alleviate consumer fears, thus promoting trust in online environments. Third-party web seals and online scanning tools are some of the existing models used in e-commerce environments, but they have some deficiencies, e.g. failure to incorporate compliance, which need to be addressed. This research proposes an e-commerce assurance model for safe online shopping. The machine learning model is called the Page ranking analytical hierarchy process (PRAHP). PRAHP builds complementary strengths of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and Page ranking (PR) techniques to evaluate the trustworthiness of web attributes. The attributes that are assessed are Adaptive legislation, Adaptive International Organisation for Standardisation Standards, Availability, Policy and Advanced Security login. The attributes were selected based on the literature reviewed from accredited journals and some of the reputable e-commerce websites. PRAHP’s paradigms were evaluated extensively through detailed experiments on business-to-business, business-to-consumer, cloud-based and general e-commerce websites. The results of the assessments were validated by customer inputs regarding the website. The reliability and robustness of PRAHP was tested by varying the damping factor and the inbound links. In all the experiments, the results revealed that the model provides reliable results to guide customers in making informed purchasing decisions. The research also reveals hidden e-commerce topics that have not received attention, which generates knowledge and opens research questions for future researchers. These ultimately made significant contributions in e-commerce assurance, in areas such as security and compliance through the fusing of AHP and PR, integrated into a decision table for alleviating trustworthiness anxiety in various e-commerce transacting partners, e-commerce platforms and markets.College of Engineering, Science and TechnologyD. Phil. Information System

Proposal and evaluation of online medical services expansion mode for specialties: a patient perceived value perspective

There is a great imbalance and difference in the distribution of Chinese medical resources in urban and rural areas, as most medical resources are concentrated in urban areas. Against the backdrop of China’s promotion of "Internet + medical healthcare", medical institutions are encouraged to apply Internet and other information technologies to expand the space and content of medical services, but patients in remote places lack independent choice of consultation platform. Based on the theory of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, customer perception theory, Synergy theory, TAM and ACSIM, the model building of remote patients' perceived value satisfaction with online medical services for specialties is hypothesized. Take F hospital as the subject, The research provides an empirical research on the process rebuilding and redesigning specialized online health services based on the perceived value of remote patients. To obtain the perceived value needs of remote patients’ visits, this study carries out questionnaire survey to understand the main needs of remote patients visiting. The results show that: social contact and respect value need > safety and survival value need > self-value need > cost losses value. Meanwhile, the preliminary evaluation indicators of patients' perceived value are derived based on the results of the questionnaire. The research is mainly to verify the effect of the implementation of the Internet-based specialized medical partnership medical service access model for remote patients. The post-test questionnaire is designed to understand the overall level of remote patients’ perceived value of online medical services, including the level of perceived ease of use, the level of perceived usefulness, the level of perceived value, the level of satisfaction, and the level of synergy. Among them, the perceived usefulness scores the highest, It is found that the cost of the new model in terms of time, distance, expense, and energy has been significantly reduced. The research, through building the SEM model, tests the path relationships of relevant dimensions and mediating effect of the model of remote patients’ perceived value satisfaction with online medical services for specialties.Verifica-se um grande desequilíbrio na distribuição dos recursos médicos chineses nas áreas urbanas e rurais, visto que a maioria dos recursos médicos está concentrada nas áreas urbanas. No contexto da promoção chinesa de "Internet + saúde médica", as instituições médicas são incentivadas a recorrer à Internet e a outras tecnologias de informação para expandir o espaço e o conteúdo dos serviços médicos, mas os pacientes em lugares remotos não têm escolha independente da plataforma de consulta. Com base na teoria da hierarquia de necessidades de Maslow, teoria da perceção do cliente, teoria da sinergia, TAM e ACSIM, realizou-se a construção do modelo de satisfação do valor percebido de pacientes remotos, com serviços médicos online para especialidades. Considerou-se o hospital F como caso de estudo. A investigação fornece uma pesquisa empírica sobre o processo de reconstrução e redesenho de serviços de saúde online especializados, com base no valor percebido de pacientes remotos. Para obter as necessidades de valor percebido das visitas de pacientes remotos, neste estudo realizou-se uma pesquisa por questionário para entender as principais necessidades das visitas de pacientes remotos. Os resultados mostram que: contato social e respeito valor necessidade e > segurança e valor de sobrevivência necessidade > necessidade de valor próprio > valor de perdas de custo. Enquanto isso, os indicadores de avaliação preliminar do valor percebido dos pacientes são derivados com base nos resultados do questionário. O objetivo principal do presente trabalho é verificar o efeito da implementação do modelo de acesso a serviços médicos especializados, baseada na Internet para pacientes remotos. O questionário pós-teste foi projetado para compreender o nível geral de valor percebido de pacientes remotos de serviços médicos online, incluindo o nível de facilidade de uso percebida, o nível de utilidade percebida, o nível de valor percebido, o nível de satisfação e o nível de sinergia. Entre eles, a utilidade percebida pontua mais alto. Verifica-se que o custo do novo modelo em termos de tempo, distância, despesa e energia foi reduzido significativamente. Por meio da construção do modelo SEM, testaram-se as relações do caminho de dimensões relevantes, e o efeito mediador do modelo de satisfação de valor percebido de pacientes remotos, com serviços médicos online para especialidades

Microservice Transition and its Granularity Problem: A Systematic Mapping Study

Microservices have gained wide recognition and acceptance in software industries as an emerging architectural style for autonomic, scalable, and more reliable computing. The transition to microservices has been highly motivated by the need for better alignment of technical design decisions with improving value potentials of architectures. Despite microservices' popularity, research still lacks disciplined understanding of transition and consensus on the principles and activities underlying "micro-ing" architectures. In this paper, we report on a systematic mapping study that consolidates various views, approaches and activities that commonly assist in the transition to microservices. The study aims to provide a better understanding of the transition; it also contributes a working definition of the transition and technical activities underlying it. We term the transition and technical activities leading to microservice architectures as microservitization. We then shed light on a fundamental problem of microservitization: microservice granularity and reasoning about its adaptation as first-class entities. This study reviews state-of-the-art and -practice related to reasoning about microservice granularity; it reviews modelling approaches, aspects considered, guidelines and processes used to reason about microservice granularity. This study identifies opportunities for future research and development related to reasoning about microservice granularity.Comment: 36 pages including references, 6 figures, and 3 table