1 Summary Mathematical modeling has become a cornerstone in understanding the complex dynamics of infectious diseases and chronic health conditions.With the advent of more refined computational techniques,researchers ...1 Summary Mathematical modeling has become a cornerstone in understanding the complex dynamics of infectious diseases and chronic health conditions.With the advent of more refined computational techniques,researchers are now able to incorporate intricate features such as delays,stochastic effects,fractional dynamics,variable-order systems,and uncertainty into epidemic models.These advancements not only improve predictive accuracy but also enable deeper insights into disease transmission,control,and policy-making.Tashfeen et al.展开更多
Imbalanced loads in freight railway vehicles pose significant risks to vehicle running safety as well as track integrity,increasing the likelihood of derailments and increasing track wear rate.This study presents a ro...Imbalanced loads in freight railway vehicles pose significant risks to vehicle running safety as well as track integrity,increasing the likelihood of derailments and increasing track wear rate.This study presents a robust machine learning-based methodology designed to detect and classify transverse imbalances in freight vehicles using dynamic rail responses.The proposed approach employs wayside monitoring systems with accelerometers and strain gauges,integrating advanced feature extraction methods,including principal component analysis,log-mel spectrograms,and multi-feature-based techniques.The methodology enhances detection accuracy by normalizing features to eliminate environmental and operational variations and employing data fusion for sensitive index creation.It is capable of distinguishing between different severity levels of imbalanced loads across various wagon types.By simulating scenarios with typical European freight wagons,the study demonstrates the effectiveness of the approach,offering a valuable tool for railway infrastructure managers to mitigate risks associated with imbalanced loads.This research contributes to the field by providing a scalable,non-invasive solution for real-time monitoring and safety enhancement in freight rail operations.展开更多
The liver is the organ by which the majority of sub-stances are metabolized, including psychotropic drugs. There are several pharmacokinetic changes in end-stage liver disease that can interfere with the metabolizatio...The liver is the organ by which the majority of sub-stances are metabolized, including psychotropic drugs. There are several pharmacokinetic changes in end-stage liver disease that can interfere with the metabolization of psychotropic drugs. This fact is particularly true in drugs with extensive first--pass metabolism, highly protein bound drugs and drugs depending on phase I hepatic metabolic reactions. Psychopharmacological agents are also associated with a risk of hepatotoxicity. The evidence is insufficient for definite conclusions regarding the prevalence and severity of psychiatric drug-induced liver injury. High-risk psychotropics are not advised when there is pre-existing liver disease, and after starting a psychotropic agent in a patient with hepatic impairment, frequent liver function/lesion monitoring is advised. The authors carefully review the pharmacokinetic disturbances induced by end-stage liver disease and the potential of psychopharmacological agents for liver toxicity.展开更多
In the last decades,vanadium alloyed coatings have been introduced as potential candidates for self-lubrication due to their perfect tribological properties.In this work,the influence of V incorporation on the wear pe...In the last decades,vanadium alloyed coatings have been introduced as potential candidates for self-lubrication due to their perfect tribological properties.In this work,the influence of V incorporation on the wear performance and oxidation resistance of TiSiN/CrN film coatings deposited by direct current(DC)reactive magnetron sputtering is investigated.The results show that vanadium incorporation significantly decreases the oxidation resistance of the coatings.In general,two layers are formed during the oxidation process:i)Ti(V)O_(2) on top,followed by a protective layer,which is subdivided into two layers,Cr_(2)O_(3) and Si-O.ii)The diffusion of V controls the oxidation of V-containing coatings.The addition of vanadium improves the wear resistance of coatings,and the wear rate decreases with increasing V content in the coatings;however,the friction coefficient is independent of the chemical composition of the coatings.The wear of the V-containing coatings is driven by polishing wear.展开更多
The need for reducing the wear in mechanical parts used in the industry makes self-lubricant films one of the sustainable solutions to achieve long-term protection under different environmental conditions.The purpose ...The need for reducing the wear in mechanical parts used in the industry makes self-lubricant films one of the sustainable solutions to achieve long-term protection under different environmental conditions.The purpose of this work is to study the influence of C additions on the tribological behavior of a magnetron-sputtered TiN film in air,water,and seawater.The results show that the addition of C into the TiN binary film induced a new amorphous phase,and the films exhibited a dual phase of fcc(face-centered cubic)-TiN and amorphous carbon.The antifriction and wear-resistance properties were enhanced in air and water by adding 19.1at%C.However,a further increase in the C concentration improved anti-frictional properties but also led to higher wear rates.Although the amorphous phase induced microbatteries and accelerated the corrosion of TiN phases in seawater,the negative abrasion state was detected for all Ti-C-N films due to the adhesion of the tribocorrosion debris on the wear track.展开更多
1.Introduction Layered van der Waals materials have emerged as a new class of materials with fascinating properties for versatile potential ap-plications owing to their unique atomic structures and ultrathin thickness...1.Introduction Layered van der Waals materials have emerged as a new class of materials with fascinating properties for versatile potential ap-plications owing to their unique atomic structures and ultrathin thickness[1-7].As a subcategory of layered van der Waals mate-rials,group IV monochalcogenides,including Ge(S,Se,Te)and Sn(S,Se,Te),possess similar atomic structures and comparable elec-tronic structures,rendering them becoming promising alternatives for applications in thermoelectric[8],ferroelectric[9-11],photo-catalytic[12],optoelectronic[13-16],and memory devices[17-19].展开更多
Wayside monitoring is a promising cost-effective alternative to predict damage in the rolling stock. The main goal of this work is to present an unsupervised methodology to identify out-of-roundness(OOR) damage wheels...Wayside monitoring is a promising cost-effective alternative to predict damage in the rolling stock. The main goal of this work is to present an unsupervised methodology to identify out-of-roundness(OOR) damage wheels, such as wheel flats and polygonal wheels. This automatic damage identification algorithm is based on the vertical acceleration evaluated on the rails using a virtual wayside monitoring system and involves the application of a two-step procedure. The first step aims to define a confidence boundary by using(healthy) measurements evaluated on the rail constituting a baseline. The second step of the procedure involves classifying damage of predefined scenarios with different levels of severities. The proposed procedure is based on a machine learning methodology and includes the following stages:(1) data collection,(2) damage-sensitive feature extraction from the acquired responses using a neural network model, i.e., the sparse autoencoder(SAE),(3) data fusion based on the Mahalanobis distance, and(4) unsupervised feature classification by implementing outlier and cluster analysis. This procedure considers baseline responses at different speeds and rail irregularities to train the SAE model. Then, the trained SAE is capable to reconstruct test responses(not trained) allowing to compute the accumulative difference between original and reconstructed signals. The results prove the efficiency of the proposed approach in identifying the two most common types of OOR in railway wheels.展开更多
For many years finite element method(FEM)was the chosen numerical method for the analysis of composite structures.However,in the last 20 years,the scientific community has witnessed the birth and development of severa...For many years finite element method(FEM)was the chosen numerical method for the analysis of composite structures.However,in the last 20 years,the scientific community has witnessed the birth and development of several meshless methods,which are more flexible and equally accurate numerical methods.The meshless method used in this work is the natural neighbour radial point interpolation method(NNRPIM).In order to discretize the problem domain,the NNRPIM only requires an unstructured nodal distribution.Then,using the Voronoi mathematical concept,it enforces the nodal connectivity and constructs the background integration mesh.The NNRPIM shape functions are constructed using the radial point interpolation technique.In this work,the displacement field of composite laminated plates is defined by high-order shear deformation theories.In the end,several antisymmetric cross-ply laminates were analysed and the NNRPIM solutions were compared with the literature.The obtained results show the efficiency and accuracy of the NNRPIM formulation.展开更多
In this study the authors analyse the possible effect of firms＇ economic conditions and financial performance on accounting quality. Bradshaw, et al. （2004）, Gelos ＆ WEI （2005） stated that financial reporting qu...In this study the authors analyse the possible effect of firms＇ economic conditions and financial performance on accounting quality. Bradshaw, et al. （2004）, Gelos ＆ WEI （2005） stated that financial reporting quality is fundamental for investors and it affects international capital movements. Following Schipper ＆ Vicent （2003）, the authors estimated accounting quality by abnormal accruals and earnings persistence. The authors＇ contribution consists of investigating a huge number of firms from 17 European countries using unbalanced panel data. The authors found evidence that economic conditions affect accounting quality： big firms and those with high current earnings exhibit better financial information. These results are robust because they do not depend on the accounting quality proxy, even when the authors estimated regression with economical and financial factors alone or together. Financial performance does not seem to affect accounting quality. However, this relation is not linear because in high leveraged firms, the capital structure becomes determinant.展开更多
As people grow older, their cognitive functions undergo changes which may result in uncomfortable driving situations and even increase the risk of accidents. This research aims to understand the neuropsychological asp...As people grow older, their cognitive functions undergo changes which may result in uncomfortable driving situations and even increase the risk of accidents. This research aims to understand the neuropsychological aspects of healthy aging and their possible relationship <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">in</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> changes in motor performance or ability. The research methodology is descriptive and includes a collection of basic studies in the scope of neuroscience, driving tasks, and older driver behavior. The final analysis points to certain changes in the functioning of the cerebral cortex and its connections as being responsible for poor performance in some basic driving tasks, but which can be compensated for by means of adapted mechanisms in motor vehicles. This study may contribute as a methodological tool, to the automobile design process, for the selection of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) or other emerging technologies which can compensate cognitive changes, improve safety, comfort and inclusion of older drivers in the future of automobile interior design. We conclude that in normal aging, people may present some cognitive deficits especially linked to the frontal and parietal lobe, which interfere with the necessary driving skills albeit not with the dangerous ones and can be compensated by technological solutions. The main innovation of this article is related to the bibliographical compilation and critical analysis in terms of identifying the neuropsychological aspects of normal human aging and car driving and its relationship with possible contributions from vehicular technology, as well its consider future trends in automotive interior design that should be analysed with caution in order to users inclusion.</span></span></span>展开更多
Over the past few years,major investments have been directed toward building new railway lines and upgrading existing ones.Many of these lines include critical infrastructure where operational and safety conditions mu...Over the past few years,major investments have been directed toward building new railway lines and upgrading existing ones.Many of these lines include critical infrastructure where operational and safety conditions must be carefully considered throughout their life cycle.Recent advancements in science and technology have enabled more effective structural monitoring of railway systems,largely driven by the adoption of intelligent strategies for inspection,maintenance,monitoring,and risk management.Research continues to expand and deepen the knowledge in this area;however,it remains a challenging field due to factors such as the complexity of railway systems,the high cost of implementation,and the need for reliable long-term data.展开更多
High-speed railway bridges are essential components of any railway transportation system that should keep adequate levels of serviceability and safety.In this context,drive-by methodologies have emerged as a feasible ...High-speed railway bridges are essential components of any railway transportation system that should keep adequate levels of serviceability and safety.In this context,drive-by methodologies have emerged as a feasible and cost-effective monitor-ing solution for detecting damage on railway bridges while minimizing train operation interruptions.Moreover,integrating advanced sensor technologies and machine learning algorithms has significantly enhanced structural health monitoring(SHM)for bridges.Despite being increasingly used in traditional SHM applications,studies using autoencoders within drive-by methodologies are rare,especially in the railway field.This study presents a novel approach for drive-by damage detection in HSR bridges.The methodology relies on acceleration records collected from multiple bridge crossings by an operational train equipped with onboard sensors.Log-Mel spectrogram features derived from the acceleration records are used together with sparse autoencoders for computing statistical distribution-based damage indexes.Numerical simulations were performed on a 3D vehicle-track-bridge interaction system model implemented in Matlab to evaluate the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed approach,considering several damage scenarios,vehicle speeds,and environmental and operational variations,such as multiple track irregularities and varying measurement noise.The results show that the pro-posed approach can successfully detect damages,as well as characterize their severity,especially for very early-stage dam-ages.This demonstrates the high potential of applying Mel-frequency damage-sensitive features associated with machine learning algorithms in the drive-by condition assessment of high-speed railway bridges.展开更多
The machining process remains relevant for manufacturing high-quality and high-precision parts,which can be found in industries such as aerospace and aeronautical,with many produced by turning,drilling,and milling pro...The machining process remains relevant for manufacturing high-quality and high-precision parts,which can be found in industries such as aerospace and aeronautical,with many produced by turning,drilling,and milling processes.Monitoring and analyzing tool wear during these processes is crucial to assess the tool’s life and optimize the tool’s performance under study;as such,standards detail procedures to measure and assess tool wear for various tools.Measuring wear in machining tools can be time-consuming,as the process is usually manual,requiring human interaction and judgment.In the present work,an automated offline flank wear measurement algorithm was developed in Python.The algorithm measures the flank wear of coated end-mills and slot drills from Scanning Electron Microscopy(SEM)images,according to the ISO 8688 standard,following the same wear measurement procedure.SEM images acquired with different magnifications and tools with varying machining parameters were analyzed using the developed algorithm.The flank wear measurements were then compared to the manually obtained,achieving relative errors for the most common magnifications of around 2.5%.Higher magnifications were also tested,yielding a maximum relative error of 13.4%.The algorithm can measure batches of images quickly on an ordinary personal computer,analyzing and measuring a 10-image batch in around 30 s,a process that would require around 30 min when performed manually by a skilled operator.Therefore,it can be a reliable alternative to measuring flank wear on many tools from SEM images,with the possibility of being adjusted for other wear measurements on different kinds of tools and different image types,for example,on images obtained by optical microscopy.展开更多
Optical immersion clearing is a technique that has been widely studied for more than two decades and that is used to originate a temporary transparency effect in biological tissues.If applied in cooperation with clini...Optical immersion clearing is a technique that has been widely studied for more than two decades and that is used to originate a temporary transparency effect in biological tissues.If applied in cooperation with clinical methods it provides optimization of diagnosis and treatment procedures.This technique turns biological tissues more transparent through two main mechanisms-tissue dehydration and refractive index(RI)matching between tissue compo-nents.Such matching is obtained by partial replacement of interstit ial water by a biocompat ible agent that presents higher RI and it can be completely rever sible by natural rehydration in vrivo or by assisted rehydration in ex vivo tissues.Experimental data to characterize and discriminate between the two mechanisms and to find new ones are necessary.Using a simple method,based on collimated transmittance and thickness measurements made from muscle samples under treatment,we have estimated the diffusion properties of glucose,ethylene glycol(EG)and water that were used to perform such char acterization and discrimination.Comparing these properties with data from literature that characterize their diffusion in water we have observed that musde cell membrane permeability limits agent and water diffusion in the muscle.The same experi-mental data has allowed to calculate the optical dearing(OC)eficiency and make an inter-pretation of the internal changes that occurred in muscle during the treatments.The same methodology can now be used to perform similar studies with other agents and in other tissues in order to solve engineering problems at design of inexpensive and robust technologies for a consider.able improvement of optical tomogr aphic techmiques with better contrast and in depth imaging.展开更多
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the operational risk of organizations,requiring its management through Internal Control Systems(ICS).The tourism sector in Portugal,one of the largest and most competitive,was also one o...The COVID-19 pandemic affected the operational risk of organizations,requiring its management through Internal Control Systems(ICS).The tourism sector in Portugal,one of the largest and most competitive,was also one of the most affected by the pandemic,which emerged in March 2020.The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the perception of tourism managers about the relationship between the existence of internal control and risk mitigation in their companies.We present a quantitative study carried out by questionnaire,sent to 830 managers from tourism companies in the region of Porto,Portugal.Most participants consider crucial the implementation of ICS and a competitive advantage in the current pandemic context.They also consider that the implementation of ICS is not accessible to all companies,but its absence does not necessarily make them more fragile.The study also concludes that besides internal control,the role of the Portuguese Government was crucial to overcome the difficulties caused by the pandemic and to ensure companies’recovery.Financial support from the government allows companies to invest in procedures to overcome the pandemic situation,such as strengthening cleanliness measures,focusing on new technologies,and creating products and/or services more attractive to consumers.This study contributes to the perception of tourism managers about internal control,highlight the need to implement risk analysis routines to manage risks that may threaten the company activities,and highlight the government’s role in business recovery.展开更多
The adoption of the ＂new public management＂ in the hospital sector brought about greater presence and power to professional managers in hospitals, thus increasing the risk of conflict in the doctor-manager relations...The adoption of the ＂new public management＂ in the hospital sector brought about greater presence and power to professional managers in hospitals, thus increasing the risk of conflict in the doctor-manager relationship. Aiming to enrich the discussion on the factors that could be the bases for this conflict and considering the role of accounting, the study presented here corresponds, basically, to what we call ＂content analysis＂ of qualitative studies. The results demonstrate that the Portuguese doctors as the sample studied accept, in essence, the principles of enterprise management and recognize the use of accounting information in the scope of their functions as long as they are called to participate as legitimate actors, and authorities respect their desires to preserve a practice which they consider of quality.展开更多
Purpose:Current Direct Observation(DO)methods are burdensome to the observer and relevant limitations can be identified on the outcome information.This study aims to characterize DO from the observers’point of view a...Purpose:Current Direct Observation(DO)methods are burdensome to the observer and relevant limitations can be identified on the outcome information.This study aims to characterize DO from the observers’point of view and to analyze the feasibility and usefulness of visual information in the form of video.Method:data collection was done with ten adult males,observed while performing different physical activities in an indoor court.Sessions were video recorded by two cameras.Three observers performed systematic observation,using SOPLAY,with different sampling rates.Inter observer’s agreement and with reference data was analyzed by Cohen’s Kappa statistic.Results:SOPLAY highest agreement between observers was 0.611 on vigorous category and walking category had the lowest 0.188.It doubles the time needed to annotate the video with pauses,but half of player’s behavior is preserved.Conclusion(s):using video to support DO permits to collect more accurate data and a more detailed behavior categorization is warranted.Developments in computer vision are expected to reduce the human efforts in DO methods.展开更多
The present study aims to understand changes in health problems, health complaints and coping strategies, during the obesity treatment process with qualitative and quantitative data. Thirty bariatric patients were int...The present study aims to understand changes in health problems, health complaints and coping strategies, during the obesity treatment process with qualitative and quantitative data. Thirty bariatric patients were interviewed before bariatric surgery and at a 12-month follow-up, and fulfilled self-report measures about health problems, health complaints and coping strategies before surgery, at 6-and 12-month follow-ups. Before surgery, failure cases differ from success on the conceptualization of obesity, However, there are no other differences between groups. At 6-and 12-month follow-ups, failure cases had the highest BMI, health problems and complaints and less % EWL than success cases. One year after the surgery, one in each three persons did not lose the expected weight, i.e., are failure cases. Before surgery, there are no differences between success and failure cases in the report of health problems, health complaints and coping strategies, but they have different conceptualizations of their obesity and treatment. One year after the surgery, success cases understood bariatric surgery as an important moment in their lives related to their expected results, whereas failures valued unexpected dimensions and still waiting for a miracle surgery without their personal commitment. Accordingly, it is necessary to consider lifestyle changes in the obesity treatment process.展开更多
文摘1 Summary Mathematical modeling has become a cornerstone in understanding the complex dynamics of infectious diseases and chronic health conditions.With the advent of more refined computational techniques,researchers are now able to incorporate intricate features such as delays,stochastic effects,fractional dynamics,variable-order systems,and uncertainty into epidemic models.These advancements not only improve predictive accuracy but also enable deeper insights into disease transmission,control,and policy-making.Tashfeen et al.
基金CNPq (Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology Agency), CAPES (Higher Education Improvement Agency), FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) for financial support under grant #2022/130451, VALE Catedra Under Railfinancially supported by Base Funding-UIDB/04708/2020 with https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/04708/2020 and Programmatic Funding-UIDP/04708/2020 with https://doi. org/https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDP/04708/2020 of the CONSTRUCT-Instituto de I&D em Estruturas e Construções-funded by national funds through the FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC)
文摘Imbalanced loads in freight railway vehicles pose significant risks to vehicle running safety as well as track integrity,increasing the likelihood of derailments and increasing track wear rate.This study presents a robust machine learning-based methodology designed to detect and classify transverse imbalances in freight vehicles using dynamic rail responses.The proposed approach employs wayside monitoring systems with accelerometers and strain gauges,integrating advanced feature extraction methods,including principal component analysis,log-mel spectrograms,and multi-feature-based techniques.The methodology enhances detection accuracy by normalizing features to eliminate environmental and operational variations and employing data fusion for sensitive index creation.It is capable of distinguishing between different severity levels of imbalanced loads across various wagon types.By simulating scenarios with typical European freight wagons,the study demonstrates the effectiveness of the approach,offering a valuable tool for railway infrastructure managers to mitigate risks associated with imbalanced loads.This research contributes to the field by providing a scalable,non-invasive solution for real-time monitoring and safety enhancement in freight rail operations.
文摘The liver is the organ by which the majority of sub-stances are metabolized, including psychotropic drugs. There are several pharmacokinetic changes in end-stage liver disease that can interfere with the metabolization of psychotropic drugs. This fact is particularly true in drugs with extensive first--pass metabolism, highly protein bound drugs and drugs depending on phase I hepatic metabolic reactions. Psychopharmacological agents are also associated with a risk of hepatotoxicity. The evidence is insufficient for definite conclusions regarding the prevalence and severity of psychiatric drug-induced liver injury. High-risk psychotropics are not advised when there is pre-existing liver disease, and after starting a psychotropic agent in a patient with hepatic impairment, frequent liver function/lesion monitoring is advised. The authors carefully review the pharmacokinetic disturbances induced by end-stage liver disease and the potential of psychopharmacological agents for liver toxicity.
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.51801081 and 52171071)national funds through FCT of Portugal-Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia,under a scientific contract of 2021.04115,CEMMPRE-ref.“UIDB/00285/2020”and LA/P/0112/2020 projects+2 种基金FEDER funds through the COMPETE program-Operational Program on Competitiveness Factorsnational funds through FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology,Outstanding University Young Teachers of“Qing Lan Project”of Jiangsu Province of China,Excellent Talents of“Shenlan Project”of Jiangsu University of Science and Technology of ChinaA part of this study was supported by the Directorate-General of Scientific Research and Technological Development(Algeria)。
文摘In the last decades,vanadium alloyed coatings have been introduced as potential candidates for self-lubrication due to their perfect tribological properties.In this work,the influence of V incorporation on the wear performance and oxidation resistance of TiSiN/CrN film coatings deposited by direct current(DC)reactive magnetron sputtering is investigated.The results show that vanadium incorporation significantly decreases the oxidation resistance of the coatings.In general,two layers are formed during the oxidation process:i)Ti(V)O_(2) on top,followed by a protective layer,which is subdivided into two layers,Cr_(2)O_(3) and Si-O.ii)The diffusion of V controls the oxidation of V-containing coatings.The addition of vanadium improves the wear resistance of coatings,and the wear rate decreases with increasing V content in the coatings;however,the friction coefficient is independent of the chemical composition of the coatings.The wear of the V-containing coatings is driven by polishing wear.
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52171071, 52172090, 52071159, and 51801081)Portugal National Funds through FCT project (No. 2021.04115)+4 种基金FEDER National funds FCT under the project CEMMPRE–UIDB/ 00285/2020Outstanding University Young Teachers of “Qing Lan Project” of Jiangsu ProvinceExcellent Talents of “Shenlan Project” of Jiangsu University of Science and Technologyand China Merchants Marine Scientific Research and Innovation FundFilipe Fernandes acknowledges the funding received in the aim of the projects: MCTool21– ref. “POCI-01-0247-FEDER-045940”, CEMMPRE–ref. “UIDB/00285/2020”, and SMARTLUB–ref. “POCI-010145-FEDER-031807”
文摘The need for reducing the wear in mechanical parts used in the industry makes self-lubricant films one of the sustainable solutions to achieve long-term protection under different environmental conditions.The purpose of this work is to study the influence of C additions on the tribological behavior of a magnetron-sputtered TiN film in air,water,and seawater.The results show that the addition of C into the TiN binary film induced a new amorphous phase,and the films exhibited a dual phase of fcc(face-centered cubic)-TiN and amorphous carbon.The antifriction and wear-resistance properties were enhanced in air and water by adding 19.1at%C.However,a further increase in the C concentration improved anti-frictional properties but also led to higher wear rates.Although the amorphous phase induced microbatteries and accelerated the corrosion of TiN phases in seawater,the negative abrasion state was detected for all Ti-C-N films due to the adhesion of the tribocorrosion debris on the wear track.
基金This work was financially supported by the China Postdoc-toral Science Foundation(Nos.2020M673174 and2019M663688)The authors acknowledge the European Research Executive Agency(Project No.101079184-FUNLAYERS).
文摘1.Introduction Layered van der Waals materials have emerged as a new class of materials with fascinating properties for versatile potential ap-plications owing to their unique atomic structures and ultrathin thickness[1-7].As a subcategory of layered van der Waals mate-rials,group IV monochalcogenides,including Ge(S,Se,Te)and Sn(S,Se,Te),possess similar atomic structures and comparable elec-tronic structures,rendering them becoming promising alternatives for applications in thermoelectric[8],ferroelectric[9-11],photo-catalytic[12],optoelectronic[13-16],and memory devices[17-19].
基金a result of project WAY4SafeRail—Wayside monitoring system FOR SAFE RAIL transportation, with reference NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-069595co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement+3 种基金financially supported by Base Funding-UIDB/04708/2020Programmatic Funding-UIDP/04708/2020 of the CONSTRUCT—Instituto de Estruturas e Constru??esfunded by national funds through the FCT/ MCTES (PIDDAC)Grant No. 2021.04272. CEECIND from the Stimulus of Scientific Employment, Individual Support (CEECIND) - 4th Edition provided by “FCT – Funda??o para a Ciência, DOI : https:// doi. org/ 10. 54499/ 2021. 04272. CEECI ND/ CP1679/ CT0003”。
文摘Wayside monitoring is a promising cost-effective alternative to predict damage in the rolling stock. The main goal of this work is to present an unsupervised methodology to identify out-of-roundness(OOR) damage wheels, such as wheel flats and polygonal wheels. This automatic damage identification algorithm is based on the vertical acceleration evaluated on the rails using a virtual wayside monitoring system and involves the application of a two-step procedure. The first step aims to define a confidence boundary by using(healthy) measurements evaluated on the rail constituting a baseline. The second step of the procedure involves classifying damage of predefined scenarios with different levels of severities. The proposed procedure is based on a machine learning methodology and includes the following stages:(1) data collection,(2) damage-sensitive feature extraction from the acquired responses using a neural network model, i.e., the sparse autoencoder(SAE),(3) data fusion based on the Mahalanobis distance, and(4) unsupervised feature classification by implementing outlier and cluster analysis. This procedure considers baseline responses at different speeds and rail irregularities to train the SAE model. Then, the trained SAE is capable to reconstruct test responses(not trained) allowing to compute the accumulative difference between original and reconstructed signals. The results prove the efficiency of the proposed approach in identifying the two most common types of OOR in railway wheels.
文摘For many years finite element method(FEM)was the chosen numerical method for the analysis of composite structures.However,in the last 20 years,the scientific community has witnessed the birth and development of several meshless methods,which are more flexible and equally accurate numerical methods.The meshless method used in this work is the natural neighbour radial point interpolation method(NNRPIM).In order to discretize the problem domain,the NNRPIM only requires an unstructured nodal distribution.Then,using the Voronoi mathematical concept,it enforces the nodal connectivity and constructs the background integration mesh.The NNRPIM shape functions are constructed using the radial point interpolation technique.In this work,the displacement field of composite laminated plates is defined by high-order shear deformation theories.In the end,several antisymmetric cross-ply laminates were analysed and the NNRPIM solutions were compared with the literature.The obtained results show the efficiency and accuracy of the NNRPIM formulation.
文摘In this study the authors analyse the possible effect of firms＇ economic conditions and financial performance on accounting quality. Bradshaw, et al. （2004）, Gelos ＆ WEI （2005） stated that financial reporting quality is fundamental for investors and it affects international capital movements. Following Schipper ＆ Vicent （2003）, the authors estimated accounting quality by abnormal accruals and earnings persistence. The authors＇ contribution consists of investigating a huge number of firms from 17 European countries using unbalanced panel data. The authors found evidence that economic conditions affect accounting quality： big firms and those with high current earnings exhibit better financial information. These results are robust because they do not depend on the accounting quality proxy, even when the authors estimated regression with economical and financial factors alone or together. Financial performance does not seem to affect accounting quality. However, this relation is not linear because in high leveraged firms, the capital structure becomes determinant.
文摘As people grow older, their cognitive functions undergo changes which may result in uncomfortable driving situations and even increase the risk of accidents. This research aims to understand the neuropsychological aspects of healthy aging and their possible relationship <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">in</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> changes in motor performance or ability. The research methodology is descriptive and includes a collection of basic studies in the scope of neuroscience, driving tasks, and older driver behavior. The final analysis points to certain changes in the functioning of the cerebral cortex and its connections as being responsible for poor performance in some basic driving tasks, but which can be compensated for by means of adapted mechanisms in motor vehicles. This study may contribute as a methodological tool, to the automobile design process, for the selection of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) or other emerging technologies which can compensate cognitive changes, improve safety, comfort and inclusion of older drivers in the future of automobile interior design. We conclude that in normal aging, people may present some cognitive deficits especially linked to the frontal and parietal lobe, which interfere with the necessary driving skills albeit not with the dangerous ones and can be compensated by technological solutions. The main innovation of this article is related to the bibliographical compilation and critical analysis in terms of identifying the neuropsychological aspects of normal human aging and car driving and its relationship with possible contributions from vehicular technology, as well its consider future trends in automotive interior design that should be analysed with caution in order to users inclusion.</span></span></span>
文摘Over the past few years,major investments have been directed toward building new railway lines and upgrading existing ones.Many of these lines include critical infrastructure where operational and safety conditions must be carefully considered throughout their life cycle.Recent advancements in science and technology have enabled more effective structural monitoring of railway systems,largely driven by the adoption of intelligent strategies for inspection,maintenance,monitoring,and risk management.Research continues to expand and deepen the knowledge in this area;however,it remains a challenging field due to factors such as the complexity of railway systems,the high cost of implementation,and the need for reliable long-term data.
基金support of CNPq(Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology Agency),of CAPES(Higher Education Improvement Agency),of FAPESP(São Paulo Research Foundation)under grant#2022/13045-1,of VALE Catedra Under Rail and of Base Funding-UIDB/04708/2020Programmatic Funding-UIDP/04708/2020 of the CONSTRUCT-“Instituto de I&D em Estruturas e Construções”.
文摘High-speed railway bridges are essential components of any railway transportation system that should keep adequate levels of serviceability and safety.In this context,drive-by methodologies have emerged as a feasible and cost-effective monitor-ing solution for detecting damage on railway bridges while minimizing train operation interruptions.Moreover,integrating advanced sensor technologies and machine learning algorithms has significantly enhanced structural health monitoring(SHM)for bridges.Despite being increasingly used in traditional SHM applications,studies using autoencoders within drive-by methodologies are rare,especially in the railway field.This study presents a novel approach for drive-by damage detection in HSR bridges.The methodology relies on acceleration records collected from multiple bridge crossings by an operational train equipped with onboard sensors.Log-Mel spectrogram features derived from the acceleration records are used together with sparse autoencoders for computing statistical distribution-based damage indexes.Numerical simulations were performed on a 3D vehicle-track-bridge interaction system model implemented in Matlab to evaluate the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed approach,considering several damage scenarios,vehicle speeds,and environmental and operational variations,such as multiple track irregularities and varying measurement noise.The results show that the pro-posed approach can successfully detect damages,as well as characterize their severity,especially for very early-stage dam-ages.This demonstrates the high potential of applying Mel-frequency damage-sensitive features associated with machine learning algorithms in the drive-by condition assessment of high-speed railway bridges.
文摘The machining process remains relevant for manufacturing high-quality and high-precision parts,which can be found in industries such as aerospace and aeronautical,with many produced by turning,drilling,and milling processes.Monitoring and analyzing tool wear during these processes is crucial to assess the tool’s life and optimize the tool’s performance under study;as such,standards detail procedures to measure and assess tool wear for various tools.Measuring wear in machining tools can be time-consuming,as the process is usually manual,requiring human interaction and judgment.In the present work,an automated offline flank wear measurement algorithm was developed in Python.The algorithm measures the flank wear of coated end-mills and slot drills from Scanning Electron Microscopy(SEM)images,according to the ISO 8688 standard,following the same wear measurement procedure.SEM images acquired with different magnifications and tools with varying machining parameters were analyzed using the developed algorithm.The flank wear measurements were then compared to the manually obtained,achieving relative errors for the most common magnifications of around 2.5%.Higher magnifications were also tested,yielding a maximum relative error of 13.4%.The algorithm can measure batches of images quickly on an ordinary personal computer,analyzing and measuring a 10-image batch in around 30 s,a process that would require around 30 min when performed manually by a skilled operator.Therefore,it can be a reliable alternative to measuring flank wear on many tools from SEM images,with the possibility of being adjusted for other wear measurements on different kinds of tools and different image types,for example,on images obtained by optical microscopy.
基金support from the Government of Russian Federation(Grant No.14.Z50.31.0004)The Tomsk State University Academic D.I.Mendeleev Fund Program.
文摘Optical immersion clearing is a technique that has been widely studied for more than two decades and that is used to originate a temporary transparency effect in biological tissues.If applied in cooperation with clinical methods it provides optimization of diagnosis and treatment procedures.This technique turns biological tissues more transparent through two main mechanisms-tissue dehydration and refractive index(RI)matching between tissue compo-nents.Such matching is obtained by partial replacement of interstit ial water by a biocompat ible agent that presents higher RI and it can be completely rever sible by natural rehydration in vrivo or by assisted rehydration in ex vivo tissues.Experimental data to characterize and discriminate between the two mechanisms and to find new ones are necessary.Using a simple method,based on collimated transmittance and thickness measurements made from muscle samples under treatment,we have estimated the diffusion properties of glucose,ethylene glycol(EG)and water that were used to perform such char acterization and discrimination.Comparing these properties with data from literature that characterize their diffusion in water we have observed that musde cell membrane permeability limits agent and water diffusion in the muscle.The same experi-mental data has allowed to calculate the optical dearing(OC)eficiency and make an inter-pretation of the internal changes that occurred in muscle during the treatments.The same methodology can now be used to perform similar studies with other agents and in other tissues in order to solve engineering problems at design of inexpensive and robust technologies for a consider.able improvement of optical tomogr aphic techmiques with better contrast and in depth imaging.
文摘The COVID-19 pandemic affected the operational risk of organizations,requiring its management through Internal Control Systems(ICS).The tourism sector in Portugal,one of the largest and most competitive,was also one of the most affected by the pandemic,which emerged in March 2020.The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the perception of tourism managers about the relationship between the existence of internal control and risk mitigation in their companies.We present a quantitative study carried out by questionnaire,sent to 830 managers from tourism companies in the region of Porto,Portugal.Most participants consider crucial the implementation of ICS and a competitive advantage in the current pandemic context.They also consider that the implementation of ICS is not accessible to all companies,but its absence does not necessarily make them more fragile.The study also concludes that besides internal control,the role of the Portuguese Government was crucial to overcome the difficulties caused by the pandemic and to ensure companies’recovery.Financial support from the government allows companies to invest in procedures to overcome the pandemic situation,such as strengthening cleanliness measures,focusing on new technologies,and creating products and/or services more attractive to consumers.This study contributes to the perception of tourism managers about internal control,highlight the need to implement risk analysis routines to manage risks that may threaten the company activities,and highlight the government’s role in business recovery.
文摘The adoption of the ＂new public management＂ in the hospital sector brought about greater presence and power to professional managers in hospitals, thus increasing the risk of conflict in the doctor-manager relationship. Aiming to enrich the discussion on the factors that could be the bases for this conflict and considering the role of accounting, the study presented here corresponds, basically, to what we call ＂content analysis＂ of qualitative studies. The results demonstrate that the Portuguese doctors as the sample studied accept, in essence, the principles of enterprise management and recognize the use of accounting information in the scope of their functions as long as they are called to participate as legitimate actors, and authorities respect their desires to preserve a practice which they consider of quality.
基金This work was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology(FCT),grant SFRH/BPD/71332/2010,Pest-OE/SAU/UI0617/2011 and UIDB/50014/2020The work was also developed in the context of Project QREN 33910 ARENA,a R&D project funded by ERDF through ON2 as part of the NSRF,and managed by IAPMEI-Agência para a Competitividade e Inovação,I.P..
文摘Purpose:Current Direct Observation(DO)methods are burdensome to the observer and relevant limitations can be identified on the outcome information.This study aims to characterize DO from the observers’point of view and to analyze the feasibility and usefulness of visual information in the form of video.Method:data collection was done with ten adult males,observed while performing different physical activities in an indoor court.Sessions were video recorded by two cameras.Three observers performed systematic observation,using SOPLAY,with different sampling rates.Inter observer’s agreement and with reference data was analyzed by Cohen’s Kappa statistic.Results:SOPLAY highest agreement between observers was 0.611 on vigorous category and walking category had the lowest 0.188.It doubles the time needed to annotate the video with pauses,but half of player’s behavior is preserved.Conclusion(s):using video to support DO permits to collect more accurate data and a more detailed behavior categorization is warranted.Developments in computer vision are expected to reduce the human efforts in DO methods.
文摘The present study aims to understand changes in health problems, health complaints and coping strategies, during the obesity treatment process with qualitative and quantitative data. Thirty bariatric patients were interviewed before bariatric surgery and at a 12-month follow-up, and fulfilled self-report measures about health problems, health complaints and coping strategies before surgery, at 6-and 12-month follow-ups. Before surgery, failure cases differ from success on the conceptualization of obesity, However, there are no other differences between groups. At 6-and 12-month follow-ups, failure cases had the highest BMI, health problems and complaints and less % EWL than success cases. One year after the surgery, one in each three persons did not lose the expected weight, i.e., are failure cases. Before surgery, there are no differences between success and failure cases in the report of health problems, health complaints and coping strategies, but they have different conceptualizations of their obesity and treatment. One year after the surgery, success cases understood bariatric surgery as an important moment in their lives related to their expected results, whereas failures valued unexpected dimensions and still waiting for a miracle surgery without their personal commitment. Accordingly, it is necessary to consider lifestyle changes in the obesity treatment process.
