Position control of parallel active link suspension with backlash

In this paper, a position control scheme for the novel Parallel Active Link Suspension (PALS) with backlash is developed to enhance the vehicle ride comfort and road holding. A PALS-retrofitted quarter car test rig is adopted, with the torque flow and backlash effect on the suspension performance analyzed. An elastic linear equivalent model of the PALS-retrofitted quarter car, which bridges the actuator position and the equivalent force between the sprung and unsprung masses, is proposed and mathematically derived, with both the geometry and backlash nonlinearities compensated. A position control scheme is then synthesized, with an outer-loop H∞ control for ride comfort and road holding enhancement and an inner-loop cascaded proportional-integral control for the reference position tracking. Experiments with the PALS-retrofitted quarter car test rig are performed over road cases of a harmonic road, a smoothed bump and frequency swept road excitation. As compared to a conventional torque control scheme, the newly proposed position control maintains the performance enhancement by the PALS, while it notably attenuates the overshoot in the actuator’s speed variation, and thereby it benefits the PALS with less power demand and less suspension deflection increment

Parallel active link suspension: full car application with frequency-dependent multi-objective control strategies

In this article, a recently proposed at basic level novel suspension for road vehicles, the parallel active link suspension (PALS), is investigated in the realistic scenario of a sport utility vehicle (SUV) full car. The involved rocker-pushrod assembly is generally optimized to maximize the PALS capability in improving the suspension performance. To fully release the PALS functions of dealing with both low- and high-frequency road cases, a PID control scheme is first employed for the chassis attitude stabilization, focusing on the minimization of both the roll and pitch angles; based on a derived linear equivalent model of the PALS-retrofitted full car, an H∞ control scheme is designed to enhance the ride comfort and road holding; moreover, a frequency-dependent multiobjective control strategy that combines the developed PID and H∞ control is proposed to enable: 1) chassis attitude stabilization at 0-1 Hz; 2) vehicle vibration attenuation at 1-8 Hz; and 3) control effort penalization (for energy saving) above 10 Hz. With a group of ISO-defined road events tested, numerical simulation results demonstrate that, compared to the conventional passive suspension, the PALS has a promising potential in full-car application, with up to 70% reduction of the chassis vertical acceleration in speed bumps and chassis leveling capability of dealing with up to 4.3-m/s² lateral acceleration

Validation of behaviour measurement instrument of patients with diabetes mellitus and hypertension

Non-adherence to the treatment of chronic diseases such as hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a major obstacle in achieving patient therapy targets and quality of life of patients. A comprehensive approach involving pharmacists counselling has shown influences on changes in health behaviour and patient compliance. Behaviour changes in patients are one of the parameters to assess the effectiveness of counselling and education by pharmacists. Therefore, it is necessary to develop questionnaires of behaviour change measurement in DM-hypertension patients. This study aims to develop a measurement instrument in the form of questionnaires in assessing the behaviour change of DMhypertension patients. Preparation of question items from the questionnaire research instrument refers to some guidelines and previous research references. Test of questionnaire instrument valid was done with expert validation, followed by pilot testing on 10 healthy respondents, and 10 DM-hypertension patients included in the inclusion criteria. Furthermore, field validation test was conducted on 37 patients who had undergone outpatient care at the PKU Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta City Hospital and The Gading Clinic in Yogyakarta. The inclusion criteria were male and female patients, aged 18-65, diagnosed with type 2 diabetes with hypertension who received oral antidiabetic drugs and antihypertensives, and who were not illiterate and co-operative. The data were collected by questionnaire interviews by a standardized pharmacist. The result of validation test using Person correlation shows the value of 0.33. The results of the questionnaire validation test on 37 patients showed 5 items of invalid questions with the value of r <0.33, e: questions 2, 3, 6, 10 and 11, while the other 10 questions show the value of Pearson correlation > 0.33. The reliability value is shown from the Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.722 (> 0.6), implying that the questionnaire is reliable for DMhypertension patients. This Behavioural change questionnaire can be used on DM-hypertension patients, and an FGD approach is required for the development of factors affecting this questionnaire. Keywords: DM-hypertension, behaviour, compliance, validation, reliabilit

Pengaruh Latar Belakang Pendidikan dan Pelatihan terhadap Kinerja Account Officer (Ao) Kredit Komersial Bank Bri Sumatera Barat

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkapkan pengaruh: latar belakang pendidikan dan pelatihan terhadap kierja karyawan account officer (AO) Bank BRI Sumatera Barat. Jenis penelitian yang dilakukan dalam penelitian ini adalah Deskriptif Kuantitatif. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah jumlah keseluruhan karyawan account officer (AO) Bank BRI Sumatera berjumlah 30 orang. Teknik pengambilan sampel dalam penelitian ini adalah menggunakan total sampling dimana responden yang kurang dari 100 maka semua populasi dijadikan sampel. Data dikumpulkan melalui angket dengan menggunakan skala likert yang telah diuji kesahihan dan kehandalannya. Teknik analisis data yang digunakan adalah analisis deskriptif. Untuk pengujian hipotesis digunakan uji t dan uji f. Berdasarkan hasil pengujian hipotesis uji t latar belakang pendidikan tidak berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap kinerja karyawan, uji t pelatihan berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap kinerja karyawan. Sedangkan uji f pengaruh bersama-sama positif dan signifikan antara latar belakang pendidikan dan pelaihan terhadap kinerja karyawan. Besarnya pengaruh latar belakang pendidikan dan pelatihan terhadap kinerja karyawan adalah 32,90% dan sisanya sebesar 67,10% dipengaruhi oleh variabel lain yang tidak termasuk kedalam model penelitian

Analisis Pelaksanaan Pengelolaan Perpustakaan Sekolah Dasar Negeri di Kecamatan Pontianak Selatan

The purpose of this research to describe the implementation of library management for elementary school in South Pontianak subdistrict. The research method used was descriptive qualitative method. This research place was taken in elementary schools are involved a librarian, headmaster, teachers, and students. Technique of collecting data are direct and indirect communication technique. Data collecting tool are interview, questionnaire, and field notes. Result analysis data stated that from 15 schools, only 4 schools had good implementation of library management, and other 11 school in upgrading process. This case show that the implementation of library management for elementary school in South Pontianak is un optimal yet

Estimating the avoidable burden of certain modifiable risk factors in osteoporotic hip fracture using Generalized Impact Fraction (GIF) model in Iran

Backgrounds: The number of hip fractures, the most common complication of osteoporosis, has increased rapidly over the past decades. The goal of this study is to estimate the avoidable burden of certain modifiable risk factor of the condition using the Generalized Impact Fraction (GIF) model, which has been suggested and used by epidemiologists to overcome the drawbacks associated with the use of Attributable Fraction index. In addition to preventing a risk factor or the avoidable fraction of burden, this index can also calculate the change in the burden, when a risk factor is altered.Methods: International databases were searched through PubMed, CINAHLD, Embase using OVID and Google scholar. National resources were searched through IranDoc, IranMedex, SID and Journal sites. Other resources include abstract books and articles sent to the IOF congress. The following search strategy was used: (" Osteoporotic fracture" OR " Fragility Hip fracture" OR " Calcium" OR " vitamin D" OR " BMI" OR " lean body weight" OR " Physical activity" OR " exercise" OR " Smoke" ) AND (" prevalence" OR " incidence" OR " relative risk" ) and limited to " humans." Results: With regards to different scenarios already explained in modifying the studied risk factors, the greatest impact in reducing the prevalence of risk factors on osteoporotic hip fractures, was seen in low serum vitamin D levels, low physical activity and low intake of calcium and vitamin D, respectively. According to the fact that interventions for low serum vitamin D and low intake of calcium and vitamin D, are related to each other, it can be concluded that implementing interventions to change these two risk factors, in the easy, moderate and difficult scenarios, would result in approximately a 5%, 11% and 17% decrease in the burden of osteoporotic hip fractures, respectively. The addition of interventions addressing low physical activity in the easy, moderate and difficult scenarios, an 8%, 21% and 35% reduction in the burden of osteoporotic hip fractures would be reported, respectively.Conclusion: Improving serum vitamin D levels, recommending the consumption of calcium and vitamin D supplementations and advocating physical activity are the most effective interventions to reduce the risk of osteoporotic hip fractures. © 2013 Shahnazari et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd