Non-homogeneous Markov chains and their applications

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Constructing Employability Indicators for Enhancing the Effectiveness of Engineering Education for the Solar Industry

The aim of this research is to establish a set of employability indicators that capture the competency requirements and performance expectations that solar energy enterprises have of their employees. In the qualitative component of the study, 12 administrators and 32 engineers in the industry were interviewed, and meetings with focus groups were conducted to formulate a questionnaire for a survey of Taiwanese solar energy companies for the confirmation and prioritisation of the employability indicators. On the basis of the results of the quantitative component, an interpretational model relating competence, job performance, working attitude, and employability for solar corporation recruitment and training purposes as well as for school curricular development was developed. The interpretation model formulated effectively interprets the relationship between solar enterprises’ expectations and students’ employability. The research contributes a framework for the selection and cultivation of talent, as well as providing a basis for fundamental development of the solar engineering curriculum

Quantitative measures of functional outcomes and quality of life in patients with C5 palsy

AbstractBackgroundIt is generally understood that postoperative C5 palsy can occur with anterior or posterior decompression surgery, but functional measures of the palsy have not been well documented. This study aimed to investigate the incidence of C5 palsy in different surgical procedures, examine the correlations between muscle strength, upper extremity functional measures, and health-related quality of life, and to observe potential risk factors contributing to C5 palsy.MethodsOur investigation involved a retrospective study design. A total of 364 patients who underwent decompression surgery were indicated within the selected exclusion criteria. Additionally, 12 C5 palsy patients were recruited. The relationships between the manual muscle test (MMT), the action research arm test (ARAT), the Jebsen test of hand function (JTHF), and the European quality of life-5 dimensions (EQ-5D) were studied, and univariate analyses were performed to search possible risk factors and recovery investigation.ResultsThe data analyzed in the 12 cases and C5 palsy incidences (3.3%) were: 0.7% in anterior procedures (n = 2), 8.8% in posterior procedures (n = 6), and 36.4% in combined procedures (n = 4). Moderate-to-high correlations were observed between the ARAT, JTHF, EQ-5D visual analog scale scores, and MMT (r = 0.636–0.899). There were significant differences in patient age, etiology of cervical lesion, variable decompression procedures, and the number of decompression levels between the C5 palsy and non-C5 palsy groups. For female patients (p = 0.018) and number of decompression levels (p = 0.028), there were significant differences between the complete recovery and the incomplete recovery groups.ConclusionPatients undergoing combined anterior–posterior decompression surgery had the highest incidence of C5 palsy, and correlations between the ARAT, JTHF, EQ-5D visual analog scale clinical tools, and MMT scores supported these findings. Female status and lower decompression levels could also be predictive factors for complete recovery, although additional research is needed to substantiate these findings

Integrating SPC and EPC for Multivariate Autocorrelated Process

Statistical process control (SPC) is a widely employed quality control method in industry. SPC is mainly designed for monitoring single quality characteristic. However, as the design of a product/process becomes complex, a process usually has multiple quality characteristics related to it. These characteristics must be monitored by multivariate SPC. When the autocorrelation is present in the process data, the traditional SPC may mislead the results. Hence, the autocorrelated data must be treated to eliminate the autocorrelation effect before employing SPC to detect the assignable causes. Besides, chance causes also have impact on the processes. When the process is out of control but no assignable cause is found, it can be adjusted by employing engineering process control (EPC). However, only using EPC to adjust the process may make inappropriate adjustments due to external disturbances or assignable causes. This study presents an integrated SPC and EPC procedure for multivariate autocorrelated process. The SPC procedure constructs a predicting model using group method of data handling (GMDH), which can transfer the autocorrelated data into uncorrelated data. Then, the Hotelling’s T2 and multivariate cumulative sum control charts are constructed to monitor the process. The EPC procedure constructs a controller utilizing data mining technique to adjust the multiple quality characteristics to their target values. Industry can employ this procedure to monitor and adjust the multivariate autocorrelated process

FFTPL: An Analytic Placement Algorithm Using Fast Fourier Transform for Density Equalization

We propose a flat nonlinear placement algorithm FFTPL using fast Fourier transform for density equalization. The placement instance is modeled as an electrostatic system with the analogy of density cost to the potential energy. A well-defined Poisson's equation is proposed for gradient and cost computation. Our placer outperforms state-of-the-art placers with better solution quality and efficiency

Sliding and pressure evaluation on conventional and V-shaped seats of reclining wheelchairs for stroke patients with flaccid hemiplegia: a crossover trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Reclining wheelchairs are commonly used to transport elderly stroke patients in Taiwan. However, there is concern that the patient's body in the wheelchair often slides forward when they return to a seated position, increasing the sitting pressure. Therefore, a novel reclining wheelchair with an ergonomic "V-Seat" was designed to prevent forward sliding and pressure sores. The use of these reclining chairs by stroke patients has not yet been studied. Thus, we investigated the effects of V-shaped and conventional seats in reclining wheelchairs on the extent of forward sliding and on the sitting pressure of stroke patients with flaccid hemiplegia and of able-bodied elders.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We recruited 13 able-bodied elders and 11 stroke patients with flaccid hemiplegia and performed 5 reclining cycles in both types of wheelchair. The amount of sliding along the backrest (BS) plane and the seat (SS) plane, the mean sitting pressure (MP), and the sacral peak pressure (SPP) of the subjects were recorded. We used the Wilcoxon signed-rank test to compare the BS, SS, MP, and SPP in wheelchairs with conventional and V-shaped seats, and we used the Wilcoxon rank sum test to compare the differences in BS and SS between stroke patients and able-bodied elders in both types of reclining wheelchair.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The BS, SS, and SPP of stroke patients were significantly lower in the wheelchairs with V-shaped seats than in conventional wheelchairs in most comparisons; however, the BS of able-bodied elders was higher in V-shaped seats than in conventional seats. The SS and SPP of stroke patients were significantly higher than those of able-bodied elders in both types of reclining wheelchair, and the BS of stroke patients was significantly higher than that of able-bodied elders only in conventional reclining wheelchairs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The use of V-shaped seats in reclining wheelchairs can help reduce the forward sliding and sacral peak pressure of stroke patients with flaccid hemiplegia. The back displacement of able-bodied subjects when using both conventional and V-shape seats in reclining positions differs from the back displacement of stroke patients with flaccid hemiplegia when using such seats. These results are of paramount value and should be considered when prescribing the use of reclining wheelchairs to subjects with flaccid hemiplegia.</p

Accumulative time-based ranking method to reputation evaluation in information networks

With the rapid development of modern technology, the Web has become an important platform for users to make friends and acquire information. However, since information on the Web is over-abundant, information filtering becomes a key task for online users to obtain relevant suggestions. As most Websites can be ranked according to users' rating and preferences, relevance to queries, and recency, how to extract the most relevant item from the over-abundant information is always a key topic for researchers in various fields. In this paper, we adopt tools used to analyze complex networks to evaluate user reputation and item quality. In our proposed accumulative time-based ranking (ATR) algorithm, we incorporate two behavioral weighting factors which are updated when users select or rate items, to reflect the evolution of user reputation and item quality over time. We showed that our algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art ranking algorithms in terms of precision and robustness on empirical datasets from various online retailers and the citation datasets among research publications