Survey instrument for measuring level of preparedness amongst healthcare personnel in radiation emergency

Drills and exercises are globally practiced to investigate the level of preparedness towards disaster events. However, these activities are rarely conducted because they require substantial investment, specifically to budget and time. A self-reported survey may serve as an alternative approach, although it may not be as effective as drills and exercises. As part of the survey development process, this article discusses preliminary validation of a survey instrument to measure the level of preparedness towards radiation emergency amongst healthcare personnel. Prior to this validation process, extensive literature reviews pointed out that the instrument consists of three constructs of preparedness, namely readiness, willingness, and ability. A total of seven subject matter experts were invited to judge the contents for verification purposes. Randolph Kappa analysis was then conducted to analyse their judgment to allow irrelevant items to be filtered from the rest prior to any improvements. Initially, the survey instrument consisted of 69 items; however, the analysis omitted 16 of them. The following values for each preparedness construct were: Readiness (0.77), Willingness (0.70), and Ability (0.73). These findings indicate that contents of the instrument are valid. Further analysis should be fulfilled to complete validation process to ensure its practicality prior to using it as an evaluation tool

Design development of machine shop area for the cover KS6-57.017 manufacture including the study of the cutter micro geometrical deviations in cutting process by finite elements method

The thesis develops the design of machine shop area for manufacturing the cover and researching the deviations of micro geometrical parameters during the cutting process by finite elements methodCONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. GENERAL-TECHNICAL CHAPTER 1.1. Primary objectives and characteristics of object of production. Technical analysis of product specification. 1.2. Characteristics of the workpiece material. Analysis of chemical and mechanical properties. part. 1.3. Analysis of part’s technological design. 1.4. Analysis of the basic technological process of manufacturing the 1.5. Modern achievements in the field of technology, machines and equipment in the manufacture of similar products. 1.6. Conclusions and problem statement for a diploma project. 2. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH CHAPTER 2.1. Investigation of the factors that influence the change of the geometrical parameters of the cutting tool during the machining process. 2.2. Modeling of microgeometry of cutting tool by finite element method 2.3. The results of the study of the deviations of the microgeometry of the cutter in the cutting process 3. TECHNOLOGICAL CHAPTER 3.1. Determination of the type and organizational form of production. 3.2. Choosing a method for obtaining of workpiece. 3.3. Development of the technological process of processing the part. 3.4. Determination of allowances and interoperational sizes. 3.5. Calculation of cutting modes. 3.5.1. Calculation of the cutting modes for the internal cylindrical surface ø120mm, ø130mm, ø140mm. 3.5.2. Calculation of cutting modes for drilling 8 holes ø11mm. 3.6. Choice of cutting and measuring tools. 3.7. Characteristics of equipment. 3.7.1. Turning screw lathe 16K20. 3.7.2. Lathe multistage semi-automatic model of 1716 TS. 3.7.3. Diamond cutting machine OS2425. 3.7.4. Radial-drilling machine model 2M55. 3.8. Technical normalization of the developed technological process. 3.9. Choice of equipment and determination of its quantity. 4. DESIGNING CHAPTER 4.1. Jig for boring holes ø92Н8, ø120Н8, ø140Н8. 4.2. Conductor rotary for drilling 8 holes ø11M. 4.3. Jig for controlling radial beats. 5. SPECIAL CHAPTER 5.1. Structure and composition of CAD. 5.2. The main components and types of CAD information support. 5.3. Methodology of designing technological processes for manufacturing parts using a package of applied software of the CAD-CAM. 5.3.1. Preparing the source information. 5.3.2. Block diagram of the algorithm for automated design of the technological process. 5.4. Analysis of the technological process, obtained with the help of CAD of the TP. 6. PLANNING CHAPTER 6.1. Specification of production program. 6.2. Calculation of complexity and machine-tool manufacturing of products on the basis of developed technological processes. 6.3. Determination of the annual need for technological equipment. Compilation of equipment summary. 6.4. Determining the number of staff at the site. 6.6. Determining the basic dimensions and choosing the type and construction of the building. 6.5. Determining the size of the main and auxiliary areas of the shop. 6.7. Development of layout plan. 6.8. Elaboration of the layout of the equipment. 6.9. Development of technical specification for technological preparation of production. 7ECONOMIC BACKGROUND 7.1. Organization and efficiency of equipment repair at the site 7.2. Drawing up of network scheduling of works on the site. 7.3. Determination of the economic efficiency of the decisions taken in the project. 7.4. Basic technical and economic indicators of the site. 8. HEALTH AND SAFETY MEASURES 8.1. Measures to ensure safe working conditions of the equipment. 8.2. safety Electrical installation equipment for dust, fog, sewage treatment. 9.3. Assessment of environmental performance at the site of the machine shop for the manufacture of the cover. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS APPENDICES REFERENCE

Bidirectional optimization of the melting spinning process

This is the author's accepted manuscript (under the provisional title "Bi-directional optimization of the melting spinning process with an immune-enhanced neural network"). The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright 2014 @ IEEE.A bidirectional optimizing approach for the melting spinning process based on an immune-enhanced neural network is proposed. The proposed bidirectional model can not only reveal the internal nonlinear relationship between the process configuration and the quality indices of the fibers as final product, but also provide a tool for engineers to develop new fiber products with expected quality specifications. A neural network is taken as the basis for the bidirectional model, and an immune component is introduced to enlarge the searching scope of the solution field so that the neural network has a larger possibility to find the appropriate and reasonable solution, and the error of prediction can therefore be eliminated. The proposed intelligent model can also help to determine what kind of process configuration should be made in order to produce satisfactory fiber products. To make the proposed model practical to the manufacturing, a software platform is developed. Simulation results show that the proposed model can eliminate the approximation error raised by the neural network-based optimizing model, which is due to the extension of focusing scope by the artificial immune mechanism. Meanwhile, the proposed model with the corresponding software can conduct optimization in two directions, namely, the process optimization and category development, and the corresponding results outperform those with an ordinary neural network-based intelligent model. It is also proved that the proposed model has the potential to act as a valuable tool from which the engineers and decision makers of the spinning process could benefit.National Nature Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Education of China, the Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

Collaborative information systems and business process design using simulation

The Information Systems (IS) community promotes the idea that IS analyst should have a clear understanding of the way the organization operates before attempting to propose an IS solution. It is argued that to take a complete advantage of the underlying Information Technology (IT), organizations should first identify any process flaw and then propose a suitable IT solution. Similarly, many process design approaches claim that Business Process (BP) design should be done considering the advantages provided and the limitations imposed by the underlying (IT). Despite this fact research in these domains provides little indication of which mechanisms or tools can help BP and IS analyst to understand the complex relationships amongst these two areas. This paper describes the insights gained during a UK funded research project, namely ASSESS-IT, that aimed to depict the dynamic relationships between IT and BP using simulation. One of the major limitations of the ASSESS-IT project is that it looked at relationship between BP and IT as a three layered structure, namely BP, IS and Computer Networks (CN), and did not explore in detail the relationships between BP and IS alone. This paper uses the outcomes derived from this project and suggests that, is some cases, the relationship between BP and IT could be analyzed by looking at the relationship between BP and IS alone. It then proposes an alternative simulation framework, namely BPISS, that provides the guideline to develop simulation models that portray BP and IS behavior performance measurements, offering in this way an alternative mechanism that can help BP and IS analyst to understand in more detail the dynamic interactions between BP and IS domains

Simulation for business processes and information systems design

Business Process (BP) literature promotes the value of business processes as essential gearwheels that help organizations to reach their goals. Similarly, many process design approaches claim that Information Technology (IT) is a major enabler of business process, a view also shared by the Information Systems (IS) community. Despite this, BP and IS approaches do not provide clear guidance on how to assess the benefits that a given IS design may bring to the BP prior the IS implementation. Nor is clear indication of which modeling techniques could be used to assess such relationship. This paper uses the insights gained during a UK funded research project, namely ASSESS-IT, that aimed to depict the dynamic relationships between BP and IT to propose an alternative framework to develop BP simulation models that depict the dynamic behavior of the relationships between BP and IS

Investigating the impact of networking capability on firm innovation performance:using the resource-action-performance framework

The author's final peer reviewed version can be found by following the URI link. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Purpose The experience of successful firms has proven that one of the most important ways to promote co-learning and create successful networked innovations is the proper application of inter-organizational knowledge mechanisms. This study aims to use a resource-action-performance framework to open the black box on the relationship between networking capability and innovation performance. The research population embraces companies in the Iranian automotive industry. Design/methodology/approach Due to the latent nature of the variables studied, the required data are collected through a web-based cross-sectional survey. First, the content validity of the measurement tool is evaluated by experts. Then, a pre-test is conducted to assess the reliability of the measurement tool. All data are gathered by the Iranian Vehicle Manufacturers Association (IVMA) and Iranian Auto Parts Manufacturers Association (IAPMA) samples. The power analysis method and G*Power software are used to determine the sample size. Moreover, SmartPLS 3 and IBM SPSS 25 software are used for data analysis of the conceptual model and relating hypotheses. Findings The results of this study indicated that the relationships between networking capability, inter-organizational knowledge mechanisms and inter-organizational learning result in a self-reinforcing loop, with a marked impact on firm innovation performance. Originality/value Since there is little understanding of the interdependencies of networking capability, inter-organizational knowledge mechanisms, co-learning and their effect on firm innovation performance, most previous research studies have focused on only one or two of the above-mentioned variables. Thus, their cumulative effect has not examined yet. Looking at inter-organizational relationships from a network perspective and knowledge-based view (KBV), and to consider the simultaneous effect of knowledge mechanisms and learning as intermediary actions alongside, to consider the performance effect of the capability-building process, are the main advantages of this research

Purposeful empiricism: how stochastic modeling informs industrial marketing research

It is increasingly recognized that progress can be made in the development of integrated theory for understanding, explaining and better predicting key aspects of buyer–seller relationships and industrial networks by drawing upon non-traditional research perspectives and domains. One such non-traditional research perspective is stochastic modeling which has shown that large scale regularities emerge from the individual interactions between idiosyncratic actors. When these macroscopic patterns repeat across a wide range of firms, industries and business types this commonality suggests directions for further research which we pursue through a differentiated replication of the Dirichlet stochastic model. We demonstrate predictable behavioral patterns of purchase and loyalty in two distinct industrial markets for components used in critical surgical procedures. This differentiated replication supports the argument for the use of stochastic modeling techniques in industrial marketing management, not only as a management tool but also as a lens to inform and focus research towards integrated theories of the evolution of market structure and network relationships