The contingent roles of perceived budget fairness, budget goal commitment and vertical information sharing in driving work performance

Drawing on equity theory, social exchange theory and goal setting theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the contingencies on the link between employees’ budgetary participation and their work performance. Specifically, this study addresses the research questions: whether vertical information sharing and budget goal commitment mediate the relationship between employees’ budgetary participation and their work performance; and whether employees’ perceived budget fairness can strengthen the positive effects of budgetary participation on vertical information sharing and budget goal commitment

Model Updating for Loading Capacity Estimation of Concrete Structures using Ambient Vibration

This paper presents a model updating approach for determining the loading capacity of a concrete structure utilising measured ambient vibration responses. The proposed method uses Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) with the Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition (EFDD) technique to identify the natural frequencies and mode shapes of an experimental replica specimen of a Sydney Harbour Bridge concrete jack arch component. For vibration testing, the structure is excited with ambient vibration recordings from the actual Sydney Harbour Bridge using a vibro tactile transducer. The vibration responses of the structure are measured using an array of strategically placed accelerometers. A numerical model is developed and updated using the vibrational characteristics with the aim of estimating the load capacity of the structure. The results show that the proposed updating method using partitioning has great potential to be used for determining the loading capacity of a structure as part of a Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system

Semi-Supervised Learning of Lift Optimization of Multi-Element Three-Segment Variable Camber Airfoil

This chapter describes a new intelligent platform for learning optimal designs of morphing wings based on Variable Camber Continuous Trailing Edge Flaps (VCCTEF) in conjunction with a leading edge flap called the Variable Camber Krueger (VCK). The new platform consists of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methodology coupled with a semi-supervised learning methodology. The CFD component of the intelligent platform comprises of a full Navier-Stokes solution capability (NASA OVERFLOW solver with Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model) that computes flow over a tri-element inboard NASA Generic Transport Model (GTM) wing section. Various VCCTEF/VCK settings and configurations were considered to explore optimal design for high-lift flight during take-off and landing. To determine globally optimal design of such a system, an extremely large set of CFD simulations is needed. This is not feasible to achieve in practice. To alleviate this problem, a recourse was taken to a semi-supervised learning (SSL) methodology, which is based on manifold regularization techniques. A reasonable space of CFD solutions was populated and then the SSL methodology was used to fit this manifold in its entirety, including the gaps in the manifold where there were no CFD solutions available. The SSL methodology in conjunction with an elastodynamic solver (FiDDLE) was demonstrated in an earlier study involving structural health monitoring. These CFD-SSL methodologies define the new intelligent platform that forms the basis for our search for optimal design of wings. Although the present platform can be used in various other design and operational problems in engineering, this chapter focuses on the high-lift study of the VCK-VCCTEF system. Top few candidate design configurations were identified by solving the CFD problem in a small subset of the design space. The SSL component was trained on the design space, and was then used in a predictive mode to populate a selected set of test points outside of the given design space. The new design test space thus populated was evaluated by using the CFD component by determining the error between the SSL predictions and the true (CFD) solutions, which was found to be small. This demonstrates the proposed CFD-SSL methodologies for isolating the best design of the VCK-VCCTEF system, and it holds promise for quantitatively identifying best designs of flight systems, in general

Transferring visuomotor learning from simulation to the real world for robotics manipulation tasks

Hand-eye coordination is a requirement for many manipulation tasks including grasping and reaching. However, accurate hand-eye coordination has shown to be especially difficult to achieve in complex robots like the iCub humanoid. In this work, we solve the hand-eye coordination task using a visuomotor deep neural network predictor that estimates the arm's joint configuration given a stereo image pair of the arm and the underlying head configuration. As there are various unavoidable sources of sensing error on the physical robot, we train the predictor on images obtained from simulation. The images from simulation were modified to look realistic using an image-to-image translation approach. In various experiments, we first show that the visuomotor predictor provides accurate joint estimates of the iCub's hand in simulation. We then show that the predictor can be used to obtain the systematic error of the robot's joint measurements on the physical iCub robot. We demonstrate that a calibrator can be designed to automatically compensate this error. Finally, we validate that this enables accurate reaching of objects while circumventing manual fine-calibration of the robot

Strongly Localized Electrons in a Magnetic Field: Exact Results on Quantum Interference and Magnetoconductance

We study quantum interference effects on the transition strength for strongly localized electrons hopping on 2D square and 3D cubic lattices in a magnetic field B. In 2D, we obtain closed-form expressions for the tunneling probability between two arbitrary sites by exactly summing the corresponding phase factors of all directed paths connecting them. An analytic expression for the magnetoconductance, as an explicit function of the magnetic flux, is derived. In the experimentally important 3D case, we show how the interference patterns and the small-B behavior of the magnetoconductance vary according to the orientation of B.Comment: 4 pages, RevTe

Different techniques of distal aortic repair in acute type A dissection: impact on late aortic morphology and reoperation

Objective: To compare three different techniques of distal aortic repair in acute type A (de Bakey type I) aortic dissection and to evaluate their impact on the late morphology of the aortic arch and descending aorta and on the incidence of reoperation. Methods: From 65 patients operated on due to an acute type A aortic dissection between 1989 and 1993, 54 long-term survivors underwent clinical and radiologic follow-up examination after a mean postoperative interval of 62±16 months. The surgical techniques of distal aortic reconstruction included closed repair using Teflon felt reinforcement under moderate hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass (n=20) and open repair in deep hypothermic circulatory arrest using either Teflon felt reinforcement (n=16) or gelatin-resorcin-formaldehyde (GRF) glue (n=18) to readapt the dissected aortic layers. In all patients, MR imaging was performed on a 1.5-T whole body imaging system for the evaluation of the morphology and function of the heart, aorta and supraaortic branches. Results: Overall hospital mortality following surgical repair of type A aortic dissection was 15.4% during this time period. The highest rate of persistent false lumen perfusion (17/20, 85%) and presence of an intimal flap in the aortic arch (13/20, 65%) was observed in patients following closed repair of acute ascending aortic dissection, whereas the lowest rate of such findings was demonstrated in patients who had undergone open distal aortic repair using biological glue (false lumen perfusion 10/18, 55% and intimal flap in the arch 2/18, 11%). Redo-surgery was significantly reduced in the open repair group using GRF glue (1/18, 5.5%) as compared with the Teflon felt repair group (3/16, 18%) and the closed repair group (6/20, 30%). Conclusions: In patients with acute type A dissection, open distal aortic repair using GRF-glue favourably influences both (1) the severity of late morphologic alterations in the downstream aorta and (2) the incidence of reoperatio

Polyelectrolyte Persistence Length: Attractive Effect of Counterion Correlations and Fluctuations

The persistence length of a single, strongly charged, stiff polyelectrolyte chain is investigated theoretically. Path integral formulation is used to obtain the effective electrostatic interaction between the monomers. We find significant deviations from the classical Odijk, Skolnick and Fixman (OSF) result. An induced attraction between monomers is due to thermal fluctuations and correlations between bound counterions. The electrostatic persistence length is found to be smaller than the OSF value and indicates a possible mechanical instability (collapse) for highly charged polyelectrolytes with multivalent counterions. In addition, we calculate the amount of condensed counterions on a slightly bent polyelectrolyte. More counterions are found to be adsorbed as compared to the Manning condensation on a cylinder.Comment: 5 pages, 1 ps figur

An Investigation of Barriers to Adopt Green Innovation Among Manufacturing Organizations in Vietnam

This research aims to identify the main barriers to green innovation in Vietnam manufacturing organizations. This study began by reviewing the relevant literature and providing a solid theoretical framework to understand the determinants of green innovation for manufacturing firms in the global context. It also helps internal and external stakeholders figure out what influence and how to implement green innovation more efficiently by removing all impediments. Additionally, this article is considered a valuable and rational evidence for prioritizing and directing innovation policies in the manufacturing industry. Based on numerical data from 143 employees at middleand upper-level managers among manufacturing companies around Vietnam, the study found that deficiency of financial resources primarily significantly impacts green innovation adoption, followed by the uncertainty of market demand and lack of government support. However, with limited observations, the investigation did not observe the dynamic effect of green innovation over periods and only focused on the manufacturing sector instead of different industries for generalizing the research results. Moreover, the circumstances of green innovation would be diverse in other nations. Keywords: green innovation, manufacturing organizations, government supports, financial barriers, market barrier