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The importance of family engagement in their children’s education and treatment is emphasized by researchers, professional organizations, and legislatures. Providing services with caregivers via telepractice has gained more support and is becoming especially timely due to the current pandemic and social distancing requirements. Professionals, such as board-certified behavior analysts (BCBAs), who work with caregivers with children with disabilities may benefit from receiving professional development on strategies for building better rapport with caregivers and coaching them to bring about maximum clinical efficacy. The current pilot study replicated an earlier study by Meadan et al. to examine the effects of the Coaching Caregiver Professional Development (CoCarePD) intervention package, in which BCBAs received training and coaching from researchers via telepractice, on their caregiver coaching practices. A single-case, multiple-probe design study across three BCBAs was conducted, and findings support a functional relationship between the CoCarePD and BCBAs’ use of coaching practices.

Chronic disease management requires achievement of critical individualised targets to mitigate again long-term morbidity and premature mortality associated with diabetes mellitus. The responsibility for this lies with both the patient and health care professionals. Care plans have been introduced in many healthcare settings to provide a patient-centred approach that is both evidence-based to deliver positive clinical outcomes and allow individualised care. The Alphabet strategy (AS) for diabetes is based around such a care plan and has been evidenced to deliver high clinical standards in both well-resourced and under-resourced settings. Additional patient educational resources include special care plans for those people with diabetes undertaking fasting during Ramadan, Preconception Care, Prevention and Remission of Diabetes. The Strategy and Care Plan has facilitated evidence-based, cost-efficient multifactorial intervention with an improvement in the National Diabetes Audit targets for blood pressure, cholesterol levels and glycated haemoglobin. Many of these attainments were of the standard seen in intensively treated cohorts of key randomized controlled trials in diabetes care such as the Steno-2 and United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study. This is despite working in a relatively under-resourced service within the United Kingdom National Health Service. The AS for diabetes care is a useful tool to consider for planning care, education of people with diabetes and healthcare professional. During the time of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic the risk factors for the increased mortality observed have to be addressed aggressively. The AS has the potential to help with this aspiration.

Although it is well-documented that families of children with autism in developed nations report hardships, few researchers have focused on families who live in less-developed, low-resource settings. Using five focus groups with 30 parents of children with autism in Mongolia, a low- resource setting, the purpose of this study was to provide detailed accounts of their experiences, challenges, and needs. Participants reported severe challenges related to raising their children with autism in their country. Parents shared barriers related to the limited availability of services and support, exacerbated financial burdens, and a lack of enforcement of relevant laws. Parents also shared their perceived needs including more services for their children, more sustainable training and coaching programs for parents, and parents' collective advocacy.

In the past, parents of children with disabilities have spearheaded several policies for individuals with disabilities. However, little is known about their experiences with legislators. To address this gap, focus groups and surveys about legislative advocacy were conducted with 127 parents of individuals with disabilities across four states. The purpose of the study was to explore parent perceptions about experiences with legislative advocacy including the frequency of, strategies for, and barriers to legislative advocacy. Descriptive statistics were conducted to analyze the survey data; constant comparative analysis was used to analyze the focus group data. Participants reported engaging in various forms of legislative advocacy. Participants shared positive and negative experiences interacting with legislators, including individual and collective advocacy efforts. Some participants did not engage in legislative advocacy due to intimidation. Relationships facilitated legislative advocacy for participants. Implications for future research about legislative advocacy and practices to facilitate legislative advocacy are discussed.

The oil and gas (O&G) sector is a significant source of methane (CH4) emissions. Quantifying these emissions remains challenging, with many studies highlighting discrepancies between measurements and inventory-based estimates. In this study, we present CH4 emission fluxes from 21 offshore O&G facilities collected in 10 O&G fields over two regions of the Norwegian continental shelf in 2019. Emissions of CH4 derived from measurements during 13 aircraft surveys were found to range from 2.6 to 1200 t yr−1 (with a mean of 211 t yr−1 across all 21 facilities). Comparing this with aggregated operator-reported facility emissions for 2019, we found excellent agreement (within 1σ uncertainty), with mean aircraft-measured fluxes only 16 % lower than those reported by operators. We also compared aircraft-derived fluxes with facility fluxes extracted from a global gridded fossil fuel CH4 emission inventory compiled for 2016. We found that the measured emissions were 42 % larger than the inventory for the area covered by this study, for the 21 facilities surveyed (in aggregate). We interpret this large discrepancy not to reflect a systematic error in the operator-reported emissions, which agree with measurements, but rather the representativity of the global inventory due to the methodology used to construct it and the fact that the inventory was compiled for 2016 (and thus not representative of emissions in 2019). This highlights the need for timely and up-to-date inventories for use in research and policy. The variable nature of CH4 emissions from individual facilities requires knowledge of facility operational status during measurements for data to be useful in prioritising targeted emission mitigation solutions. Future surveys of individual facilities would benefit from knowledge of facility operational status over time. Field-specific aggregated emissions (and uncertainty statistics), as presented here for the Norwegian Sea, can be meaningfully estimated from intensive aircraft surveys. However, field-specific estimates cannot be reliably extrapolated to other production fields without their own tailored surveys, which would need to capture a range of facility designs, oil and gas production volumes, and facility ages. For year-on-year comparison to annually updated inventories and regulatory emission reporting, analogous annual surveys would be needed for meaningful top-down validation. In summary, this study demonstrates the importance and accuracy of detailed, facility-level emission accounting and reporting by operators and the use of airborne measurement approaches to validate bottom-up accounting.

We describe the development and envisioned use case applications of a comprehensive insider threat ontology—“Sociotechnical and Organizational Factors for Insider Threat” (SOFIT)—that comprises more than 300 indicators of technical, behavioral, and organizational factors. Requirements, design, and engineering development for the Web Ontology Language (OWL) implementation of the SOFIT knowledge base are reviewed; additional relationships among constructs are defined that extend the representation beyond a simple taxonomic hierarchy and that enable inferences for qualitative and quantitative threat assessment. We show how queries may be constructed to support these inferences and threat assessments. Several major application concepts are reviewed to show how the ontology may be used by the insider threat research and operational communities. To this end, the SOFIT knowledge base may be shared with stakeholders to advance research and practice for proactive insider threat mitigation.

Organizations that seek to advance their ability to screen employees and mitigate risk may use Inference Enterprise Modeling (IEM) to develop models to predict the effects of proposed enhancements. However, organizations that do not have the resources to perform these tasks may outsource this work to a third-party expert. Since there exist concerns about disclosing information about individuals, sensitive details of organizations, and other private information, information shared with external parties may be aggregated to hide confidential information while providing essential data required by third parties to perform their duties. In this study, we evaluate how models constructed from aggregated data compare to models constructed using full data. We further define IEM best practices in the area of population modeling.

In this paper, a process improvement approach, which provides automated assistance in designing and developing Inference Enterprise Models (IEM), is described. An IEM forecasts and evaluates the performance of the modeled enterprise and can be used to improve the operational quality of an enterprise making mission-focused inferences. As part of developing the IEM methodology, a team of researchers built several Inference Enterprise Models and acquired a breadth of knowledge in the domain of modeling insider threat detection systems. Although there are many different ways this type of inference enterprise can be modeled, there are common elements that are reused from case to case. We propose a solution for formalizing and reusing this IEM domain knowledge by developing an IEM Process Ontology and Workflow Generator.

As the complexity demanded for new systems increases, techniques for reusing existing systems or artifacts become a key factor for achieving both productivity and quality. In such context, domain engineering (aka software product line engineering) is a discipline which focuses on reusing domain knowledge in order to quickly produce a family of systems, especially software-intensive systems. The nature of domain engineering involves developing conceptual models to capture vocabulary and meta-information about some particular domain and to define common and varying characteristics—or features—among systems. Since ontologies are, by definition, formal specifications of knowledge about some domain, they are a natural candidate for representing conceptual models in domain engineering. In this work we use probabilistic ontologies to represent features, requirements, meta-information about reusable software solutions, and relationships among all of them with respective degrees of uncertainty, in order to be able to use a combination of description logic and Bayesian reasoning for identifying a subset of reusable solutions (software artifacts) that best fits with an emerging problem’s specification. A proof of concept in the domain of Insider Threat Inference Enterprise Modeling is presented.

Smoking rates are higher in U.S. soldiers than civilians, with combat-experienced soldiers particularly at risk for heavy smoking (≥20 cigarettes/day). While heavy smoking is correlated with mental health symptoms in civilian samples, the extent to which these symptoms, background variables, and unit climate (self-reported assessments of cohesion, organizational support, and leadership) are linked to smoking in at-risk soldiers remains unclear. The present study examines a range of correlates of smoking-related behavior. Cross-sectional, anonymous surveys were collected from 3,380 soldiers following a deployment in 2008-2009. Measures included demographics, combat exposures, unit climate (e.g., unit cohesion, perceived organizational support, leadership), short sleep duration, and behavioral health variables (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, alcohol misuse, aggression, adverse childhood experiences [ACEs]). Logistic regression modeled the effects of these variables on two outcome variables: daily smoking and heavy smoking. In the current sample, nearly half (47%) of soldiers reported smoking daily, with 35% of all smokers reporting heavy smoking (17% of the entire sample). Daily smoking was associated with demographic (age, gender, education, rank), behavioral health (ACE, alcohol misuse, sleep duration, aggression), and unit characteristics (unit cohesion); only increased combat exposures and aggression were specifically associated with heavy smoking. Interventions focused on the postdeployment period could incorporate messages about alternatives to smoking as a coping strategy while unit interventions or individual counseling addressing aggression could also address smoking as a negative coping strategy. (PsycINFO Database Record

The present work is concerned with the application of Atomistic Field Theory (AFT) in modeling and simulation of dynamic nanocrack propagation under electrical and mechanical loadings. AFT enables us to express an atomic scale local property of a multi-element crystalline (which has more than one kind of atoms in the unit cell) system in terms of the distortions of lattice cells and the rearrangement of atoms within the lattice cell, thereby making AFT suitable to fully reproduce both atomic-scale and continuum level phenomena. Atomistic Field Theory and its corresponding finite element (FE) implementation are briefly introduced. Taking both efficiency and accuracy into account, we adopt a cluster-based summation rule for atomic force calculations in the FE formulations. Single crystal MgO under electrical/mechanical loading is modeled and simulated. Numerical results show that electric fields can serve as a tool to shield the crack initiation and propagation in the ionic crystal materials, thereby offering new perspectives on fracture mechanics at nano scale.

A multiscale approach is employed to investigate a center-cracked specimen with the purpose to redefine fracture toughness from the atomistic perspective and to simulate different modes of crack propagation. The specimen is divided into three regions: (1) far field, modeled by classical fracture mechanics, (2) near field, modeled by a multiscale field theory and analyzed by a generalized finite element method, and (3) crack tip atomic region, modeled by molecular dynamics (MD). The exact and analytical solution of the far field is utilized to specify boundary conditions at the interface between the far field and the near field. The interaction between the near field and the crack tip region is described by full-blown interatomic forces. In this work, crystals of perovskite (Barium Titanate) and rocksalt (Magnesia) have been studied. Fracture toughness is defined as a material property associated with instability of the MD simulation. Mode I, Mode II, and mixed mode fracture have been investigated and numerical results will be presented and discussed.

We report here top-down emissions estimates for an African megacity. A boundary layer circumnavigation of Lagos, Nigeria was completed using the FAAM BAe146 aircraft as part of the AMMA project. These observations together with an inferred boundary layer height allow the flux of pollutants to be calculated. Extrapolation gives annual emissions for CO, NOx, and VOCs of 1.44 Tg yr−1, 0.03 Tg yr−1 and 0.37 Tg yr−1 respectively with uncertainties of +250/−60%. These inferred emissions are consistent with bottom-up estimates for other developing megacities and are attributed to the evaporation of fuels, mobile combustion and natural gas emissions.

This study examines the inter-relation between enamel morphology and crack resistance by sectioning extracted human molars after loading to fracture. Cracks appear to initiate from tufts, hypocalcified defects at the enamel-dentin junction, and grow longitudinally around the enamel coat to produce failure. Microindentation corner cracks placed next to the tufts in the sections deflect along the tuft interfaces and occasionally penetrate into the adjacent enamel. Although they constitute weak interfaces, the tufts are nevertheless filled with organic matter, and appear to be stabilized against easy extension by self-healing, as well as by mutual stress-shielding and decussation, accounting at least in part for the capacity of tooth enamel to survive high functional forces.

Here we present a multiscale field theory for modeling and simulation of multi-grain material system which consists of several different kinds of single crystals and a large number of different kinds of discrete atoms. The theoretical construction of the multiscale field theory is briefly introduced. The interatomic forces are used to formulate the governing equations for the system. A compact tension specimen made of magnesium oxide is modeled by discrete atoms in front of the crack tip and finite elements in the far field. Results showing crack propagation through the atomic region are presented.

A nonlocal nonlinear multiscale field theory is briefly introduced in this paper. The theory is then reduced to a nonlocal linear elastic theory. A meshfree method is applied to solve the governing equation. The entire process of microcrack propagation in the cortical bone, including the propagation of microcrack toward the osteon, around the osteon, and out of the osteon, is simulated. The results show that the cement line between the osteanal bone and the interstitial bone serves as a protective barrier for the Haversian canal. We also observed that, with healing process incorporated in the simulation, cement line serves as a barrier for the microcracks propagation.

Mechanical properties of ZSM-5 zeolites are investigated through molecular dynamics simulation in this work. Negative thermal expansion (NTE) of ZSM-5 is observed and the mechanism of NTE at atomic scale is discussed. Effects of environment temperature and material defects are studied. It is shown that tensile strength decreases when the ambient temperature is increased. It is found that introducing defects into the material leads to lower tensile strength. With the onset of failure of the sample, there occurs a sudden drop of virial stress.

With the rising global prevalence in diabetes, healthcare systems are facing a growing challenge to provide efficient and effective diabetes care management in the face of spiralling treatment costs. Diabetes is a major cause of premature mortality and associated with devastating complications especially if managed poorly. Although diabetes care is improving in England and Wales, recent audit data suggests care remains imperfect with wide geographical variations in quality. Diabetes care is expensive with a sizeable amount of available expenditure used for treating the complications of diabetes. A target driven, long-term, multifactorial intervention in patients with type 2 diabetes has been shown to reduce mortality and morbidity. The alphabet strategy is a novel approach to effective diabetes care provision, aiming to address patient education and empowerment, provide consistent comprehensive care delivered in a timely fashion, and allowing multidisciplinary team work.

Determining the contribution of wood smoke to air pollution in large cities such as London is becoming increasingly important due to the changing nature of domestic heating in urban areas. During winter, biomass burning emissions have been identified as a major cause of exceedances of European air quality limits. The aim of this work was to quantify the contribution of biomass burning in London to concentrations of PM2.5 and determine whether local emissions or regional contributions were the main source of biomass smoke. To achieve this, a number of biomass burning chemical tracers were analysed at a site within central London and two sites in surrounding rural areas. Concentrations of levoglucosan, elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC) and K+ were generally well correlated across the three sites. At all the sites, biomass burning was found to be a source of OC and EC, with the largest contribution of EC from traffic emissions, while for OC the dominant fraction included contributions from secondary organic aerosols, primary biogenic and cooking sources. Source apportionment of the EC and OC was found to give reasonable estimation of the total carbon from non-fossil and fossil fuel sources based upon comparison with estimates derived from 14C analysis. Aethalometer-derived black carbon data were also apportioned into the contributions from biomass burning and traffic and showed trends similar to those observed for EC. Mean wood smoke mass at the sites was estimated to range from 0.78 to 1.0 μg m−3 during the campaign in January–February 2012. Measurements on a 160 m tower in London suggested a similar ratio of brown to black carbon (reflecting wood burning and traffic respectively) in regional and London air. Peaks in the levoglucosan and K+ concentrations were observed to coincide with low ambient temperature, consistent with domestic heating as a major contributing local source in London. Overall, the source of biomass smoke in London was concluded to be a background regional source overlaid by contributions from local domestic burning emissions. This could have implications when considering future emission control strategies during winter and may be the focus of future work in order to better determine the contributing local sources.

This paper aims to determine the material constants for micromorphic isotropic elastic solid through the phonon dispersion relations from atomistic calculations or experimental measurements. A specialized micromorphic theory for crystal without external modes, such as covalent and ionic crystals, is introduced. The constitutive relations for cubic crystal are derived, and the phonon dispersion relations are obtained. The numerical algorithm to determine the material constants is presented. The material constants for single crystal silicon and diamond are determined and presented.

The material body considered in this work consists of multiphases. Digital imaging data are taken as the input to specify the configuration and composition of the specimen. Meshless method is demonstrated as a superior numerical tool to analyze crack initiation and propagation in multiphase material. A fracture criterion, based on the ratio of the opening stress over the material toughness distributed in front of the crack tip, is proposed to determine the direction of crack propagation of mixed mode fracture problem in multiphase material. Numerical results are presented and discussed.

The Steno-2 study and UKPDS showed that targeted intensified intervention on modifiable cardiovascular risk factors in patients with type 2 diabetes reduces morbidity and mortality. The Alphabet POEM strategy (Practice Of Evidence-based Medicine) assessed the effect of systematic application of the Alphabet Strategy to care of patients with type 2 diabetes. In comparison to the Steno-2 intensive cohort, Alphabet POEM fared similarly with regard to diastolic blood pressure (BP), HbA1C, aspirin and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor use, but less well with respect to systolic BP, total cholesterol and use of statins. Alphabet POEM achieved better systolic and diastolic BP than UKPDS but glycaemic control was significantly worse. The standards achieved in the Steno-2 study and UKPDS are in principle, at least, partially achievable in a district general hospital in the UK, but fully achieving them in practice will probably need a radical restructuring, and greater provision of resources.

The Center for the Management of Information (CMI) at the University of Arizona has been actively involved in research with various U.S. government organizations for nearly 20 years. This article details the years of evolutionary development and research conducted by CMI in an eGovernment setting that resulted in the creation of an Internet-based collaborative writing ((eWriting) tool, called Collaboratus. By embracing persistence, serendipity, and years of multi-methodological research in the field and in the lab, CMI has built on the foundation of eWriting research that was largely abandoned at the beginning of the eBusiness revolution. This research shows the promising potential for Collaboratus and eWriting tools to help improve digital government through improved document production and collaboration, and highlights many future research opportunities.

Understanding the effect of an electric field on fracture behavior of piezoelectric materials is an important step towards a rational design of smart sensors and actuators. Domain switching has been observed to be the cause of significant nonlinearity in the response of piezoelectric materials subjected to mechanical and electrical loads. While linear piezoelectricity is incapable of explaining the results of the experiments conducted on cracked piezoelectric specimens, a nonlinear analysis considering domain switching is found to be necessary to describe some of the key observations of these experiments. In this paper, the response of piezoelectric solid is formulated by coupling thermal, electrical, and mechanical effects. The corresponding finite-element equations are derived and applied in the solution of the piezoelectric centre crack problem, with different poling directions, subjected to various mechanical and electrical loads. The effects of domain switching are evaluated on the near-tip stresses and the stress intensity factors. It is observed that a negative electric field increases the peak stress intensity factor while a positive electric field reduces it.

Domain switching is the cause of significant non-linearity in the response of piezoelectric materials to mechanical and electrical effects. In this paper, the response of piezoelectric solids is formulated by coupling thermal, electrical, and mechanical effects. The constitutive equations are non-linear. Moreover, due to the domain switching phenomenon, the resulting governing equations become highly non-linear. The corresponding non-linear finite element equations are derived and solved by using an incremental technique. The developed formulation is first verified against a number of benchmark problems for which a closed-form solution exists. Next, a cantilever beam made of PZT-4 is studied to evaluate the effect of domain switching on the overall force–displacement response of the beam. A number of interesting observations are made with respect to the extent of non-linearity and its progressive spread as the load on the beam increases. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Background The Alphabet Strategy (AS) is a diabetes care checklist ensuring “important, simple things are done right all the time.” Current audits of diabetes care in developed countries reveal wide variations in quality with performance of care processes frequently sub-optimal. This study had three components: • an audit to assess diabetes care quality worldwide, • a questionnaire study seeking opinions on the merits of the AS, • a pilot study to assess the practicality of implementation of the AS in a low socioeconomic setting. Methods Audit data was collected from 52 centres across 32 countries. Data from 4537 patients were converted to Quality and Outcome Framework (QOF) scores to enable inter-centre comparison. These were compared to each country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and Total Health Expenditure percentage per capita (THE%). The opinions of diabetes patients and healthcare professionals from the diabetes care team at each of these centres were sought through a structured questionnaire. A retrospective audit on 100 randomly selected case notes was conducted prior to AS implementation in a diabetes outpatient clinic in India, followed by a prospective audit after four months to assess its impact on care quality. Results QOF scores showed wide variation across the centres (mean 49.0, range 10.2–90.1). Although there was a positive relationship between GDP and THE% to QOF scores, there were exceptions. 91% of healthcare professionals felt the AS approach was practical. Patients found the checklist to be a useful education tool. Significant improvements in several aspects of care as well as 36% improvement in QOF score were seen following implementation. Conclusions International centres observed large variations in care quality, with standards frequently sub-optimal. 71% of health care professionals would consider adopting the AS in their daily practice. Implementation in a low resource country resulted in significant improvements in some aspects of diabetes care. The AS checklist for diabetes care is a freely available in the public domain encompassing patient education, care plans, and educational resources for healthcare professionals including summary guidelines. The AS may provide a unique approach in delivering high quality diabetes care in countries with limited resources.

Since the 1960s, research in systems analysis and design has been performed along two distinct tracts: the automation of software design, implementation, and verification; and the elicitation of high level systems requirements. Computer-aided software engineering, rapid prototyping, and more recently, visual programming have been the tools developed for the automation of software development. Enterprise Analysis, in the form of process and information modeling, has been a primary area of focus for requirements development research. The application of Electronic Meeting Systems technology to Enterprise Analysis is a promising technology for the timely elicitation of requirements from groups of subject matter experts. However, Electronic Meeting Systems do not explicitly support the development of graphical models—a requirement for many process modeling techniques. This paper describes a research effort to provide support for the creation of graphical business models by groups. Design decisions were made based on use of the tools by real-world groups, as well as a result of laboratory studies. One of the most interesting findings was that users found it particularly efficient to be able to enter model definitions through a textual interface and view computer generated graphical views of the model.

A three-dimensional large-strain non-steady-state elastic-plastic finite element analysis has been performed for the flat rolling process. This analysis is based on E.H. Lee's theory of plasticity which begins with the decomposition of the deformation gradient into the product of elastic and plastic deformation gradients. The updated Lagrangian virtual work equations in incremental form and in rate form are derived. The detailed finite element procedures are outlined. The contact and frictional problem at the interface between the workpiece and the rolls is treated by using a modified Coulomb friction law. The numerical results, including the evolutions of the roll torque and roll forces, interfacial normal and shear stresses, lateral spread, spring-back, volume change, and stress distributions displayed on deformed shape, are presented and discussed.

The Alphabet Strategy is a mnemonic-based approach to assist commitment to important aspects of diabetes care: Advice; Blood pressure lowering; Cholesterol and creatinine control; Diabetes control; Eye examination; Foot examination; and use of Guardian drugs. This strategy reported high standards of care of patients with type 2 diabetes. This study assesses the impact of the Alphabet Strategy on diabetes management in young adults with type 1 diabetes and compared data with those of a recently published multicentre study. Results were analysed using the chi-square test and Student's t-test. Data were collected retrospectively from 68 patients with type 1 diabetes aged 16—25 years attending the George Eliot Hospital (GEH) adolescent diabetes clinic and who were being managed as per The Alphabet Strategy. Standards of diabetes care in the GEH clinic were better than those reported in the multicentre study. GEH versus multicentre study: clinic non-attendance 12% vs. 24.6%: mean HbA1C% 8.4 vs. 9.5, p In conclusion, we found regular clinic visits and separate adolescent clinics improve glycaemic control. The Alphabet Strategy may be considered an effective approach in monitoring/screening and attaining targets in young adults with type 1 diabetes.

The paper presents results of ongoing research to support effective user involvement during systems development projects. The Collaborative Software Engineering Methodology is presented as a framework that contains mechanisms to support three layers of user involvement: selected user representatives, user groups, and the broader user community. Productivity and user participation of traditional group meetings have been limited by chauffeured facilitation and by support of single-user tools designed for analysts rather than users. The paper introduces electronic meeting systems (EMS) modeling tools designed to allow users to work in parallel to contribute directly during meetings. These tools are easy to use while containing support features traditionally associated with CASE tools. The methodology includes a sequence of requirements abstractions that users engage directly including activity models, data models, scenarios, system use cases, and prototypes. This methodology is designed to help organizations respond to today's rapidly changing information processing needs.

A non-linear finite element analysis of the process of non-self-similar crack growth has been made for a cracked specimen subjected to monotonically increasing biaxial and shear loading until the point of fast fracture is reached. The orientation and amount of crack growth are determined by the equivalent maximum opening stress criterion and the linear relation between plastic energy and crack size, respectively. The analysis is based on the incremental theory of plasticity with isotropic hardening. Numerical results of several cases are presented.

This article considers data from the Steno-2 multifactorial intervention study in type 2 diabetes to which are applied the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) risk engine. Mathematical analyses support the use of a `polypill' to reduce cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetes. It is suggested that the Polypill should include a statin, antihypertensive agents and aspirin.

It is an established fact that multiscale modeling is an effective way of studying materials over a realistic length scale. In this work, we demonstrate the use of sequential and concurrent multiscale modeling to study the effect of cyclic loading on both the atomic and continuum regions, of graphene, a material which comes with its own set of unique properties. Moreover, to further strengthen this work, we have studied the temperature effects during the cyclic loading, by analyzing the effect of loading and varying temperature gradients.

This paper focuses on the impact of computational methodology on furthering the understanding of fundamental fracture phenomena. The current numerical approaches to the solution of fracture mechanics problems, e.g. finite element (FE) methods, finite difference methods and boundary element methods, are reviewed. The application of FE methods to the problems of linear elastic fracture problems is discussed. Particular emphases are placed on the stress intensity factors, energy release rate in mixed mode fracture and dynamic crack propagation. Numerical solutions of ductile fracture problems are surveyed. A special focus is placed on stable crack growth problems. The need for further research in this area is emphasized. The importance of large strain phenomena and accurate modeling of non-linearities is highlighted. An expanded version of fracture mechanics methodology is given by Liebowitz [Advances in Fracture Research 3. Pergamon Press, Oxford (1989)]; additional treatment is given in this paper to numerical results incorporating error estimates and algorithms for mesh design into the FE code. The adaptive method involves various stages which includes FE analysis, error estimation/indication, mesh refinement and fracture/failure analysis iteratively. Reference is made to integrate expert knowledge and a hierarchical, rule-based, decision process to fracture mechanics for the purpose of designing practical fracture-proof engineering products. Some further areas of research in adaptive finite element analysis are discussed.

This paper describes the capabilities of the finite element program COMPASS (COMPosite Analysis of Structural Systems). COMPASS was developed under a grant from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, for the analysis of composite structures. COMPASS has the capability to perform non-linear static stress analysis, delamination growth analysis and progressive failure analysis of composite structures. The constitutive relations, failure criteria and boundary conditions employed in COMPASS are presented. Three analyses are performed which exemplify the capabilities of the code.

A finite element program was developed which combines the analytical crack tip solution with a conventional finite element analysis and evaluates various crack tip parameters as part of the solution. This program was used to analyze cracked specimens subjected to mixed mode loading. The importance of retaining the second term of the series expansion for local stress, a contribution which is independent of the distance from the crack tip, was demonstrated. It was first shown analytically that the presence of a load applied parallel to the crack reveals itself only through this constant second term, which vanishes only for specific loading conditions. The results of the numerical analysis demonstrate that the stress intensity factor KI is independent of the load applied parallel to the crack only when this term is included in the analytical crack tip solutions. Failure to include the constant term has the effect that KI varies with the horizontal load. The parameter K11 is independent of this load in both cases. This indicatesonce again that it is this constant term which accounts solely and entirely for the presence of a load applied parallel to the crack.

The constitutive relations and failure criteria of linear anisotropic thermo-visco-elastic solids are presented. The post-failure material behavior is proposed and the dynamic finite element equations for composite structures made of thermo-mechanical solids are formulated. A general-purpose finite element program COMPASS (COMPosite Analysis of Structure Systems) was developed. COMPASS is capable of performing stress and failure analyses of composite structures. In this work, to exemplify the capabilities of the code, progressive failure analysis of a composite laminate with a centred hole was performed.

The dynamic crack propagation in a two-dimensional viscoelastic solid is studied by using finite element method to model the specimen and modal analysis to obtain the solution of the equations of motion. As a fracture criterion it is assumed that the crack propagates with a constant velocity so that the energy release rate is determined as a function of the variable crack length for a given fixed load or fixed grip condition. It is proven numerically that the local energy release rate equals the global energy release rate which states the energy conservation law and shows the validity of the applied method.

The parallel link robotic manipulator consists of a base platform fixed in space or attached to the end-effector of another robot, a mobile platform, and six linear actuators (pistons) that link the two platforms together. The load carrying parts of the actuators are considered to be flexible (deformable) and modeled as mass-spring-damper elements. The nonlinear dynamic equations of the manipulator have been rigorously derived. No attempt has been made to linearize the plant or the measurements. The observer and the control law are derived based on the optimal control theory. The control gain matrix and the estimate gain matrix are obtained by solving the algebraic Riccati equations. The state excitation white noises and the observation white noises are included in the plant and the measurements, respectively. The dynamic equations of the observer are solved analytically and exactly. The feasibility of real-time control is demonstrated by the computer simulation results which are presented here.

More than half the world's rainforest has been lost to agriculture since the Industrial Revolution. Among the most widespread tropical crops is oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis ): global production now exceeds 35 million tonnes per year. In Malaysia, for example, 13% of land area is now oil palm plantation, compared with 1% in 1974. There are enormous pressures to increase palm oil production for food, domestic products, and, especially, biofuels. Greater use of palm oil for biofuel production is predicated on the assumption that palm oil is an “environmentally friendly” fuel feedstock. Here we show, using measurements and models, that oil palm plantations in Malaysia directly emit more oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds than rainforest. These compounds lead to the production of ground-level ozone (O 3 ), an air pollutant that damages human health, plants, and materials, reduces crop productivity, and has effects on the Earth's climate. Our measurements show that, at present, O 3 concentrations do not differ significantly over rainforest and adjacent oil palm plantation landscapes. However, our model calculations predict that if concentrations of oxides of nitrogen in Borneo are allowed to reach those currently seen over rural North America and Europe, ground-level O 3 concentrations will reach 100 parts per billion (10 9 ) volume (ppbv) and exceed levels known to be harmful to human health. Our study provides an early warning of the urgent need to develop policies that manage nitrogen emissions if the detrimental effects of palm oil production on air quality and climate are to be avoided.

In this paper, a dynamic model for a class of Stewart platform (six degrees of freedom parallel link robotic manipulators) is derived by using tensor representation. A set of six Lagrange's equations are obtained. The kinematics analysis for a class of Stewart platform is conducted and a sixteenth order polynomial equation corresponding to the forward kinematic solution of the Stewart platform is obtained, which gives all possible global solutions of a manipulator configuration for a given set of six leg lengths.

Awareness of the need for business analysis has grown faster than the evolution of tools to support collaborative development of business analysis models. Involvement of key personnel is important for model accuracy and buy-in, which is not trivial, especially if they are distributed geographically. Traditionally, models have been developed by individuals or small groups because of the complexity of collaborative modeling. University of Arizona researchers have created specialized electronic meeting systems tools and methods to support several types of collaborative business models. The paper discusses the creation of the Collaborative Distributed Scenario and Process Analyzer (ColD SPA) tool, developed to support collaborative business scenario and process modeling. The ColD SPA prototype serves as "proof-of-concept" that a Web based tool can support collaborative modeling in face-to-face and distributed settings. Flexibility integrated into SPA enables it to support a wide range of problem analysis tasks and has resulted in a type of "build-your-own" collaborative tool.

Vascular complications are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The recently published Collaborative Atorvastatin Diabetes Study (CARDS) showed that atorvastatin (10 mg, once daily vs. placebo) markedly reduces vascular events in this high-risk population. The participants (n = 2838) were fairly typical T2DM = 2838) patients without cardiovascular disease and with at least one other risk factor: hypertension, retinopathy, albuminuria or current smoking. In the treatment group, coronary events were reduced by 36% (p = 0.001) and stroke by 48% (p = 0.001). The trial was terminated two years early on ethical grounds. The number needed to treat (NNT) was 27 for four years to prevent one event. However, the benefit may have been greater since a proportion of the placebo group received statin therapy. The benefit from statin treatment was independent of sex, age, baseline lipid levels, was independent of sex, age, baseline lipid levels, systolic blood pressure, retinopathy, albuminuria, systolic blood pressure, retinopathy, albuminuria, smoking or HbA smoking or HbA(1c). The frequency of adverse events did not differ between the groups. These findings support those of other statin trials.CARDS does not comment on renal function. However, other trials suggest that statins preserve renal function in those with and without DM. We discuss the CARDS study in this context in this brief overview paper.the evidence shows that we need to control glucose to prevent microvascular complications, to lower cholesterol to prevent macrovascular disease and to lower blood pressure to prevent both. It may be that the benefit of statins extends beyond a threshold low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level in patients with T2DM. More trials are needed in this field.

To assess the impact of evidence-based strategies on the care of subjects with diabetes, in particular on their coronary heart disease (CHD) risk, using the Alphabet Strategy template and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk calculators as novel audit tools.Diabetes and cardiovascular parameters were collected on 400 consecutive type 2 diabetes patients attending the outpatient clinic. The subjects were men and women aged 21-75 years with necessary follow-up data from referral or first chronological available letter in the notes (T(0)) to the most recent follow-up visit (T(fu)). The disease risk scores: a significant reduction in average follow-up period was 5 years. Absolute CHD risk was calculated using the Framingham risk function and the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) risk engine. The results were analysed using Student's paired t-test and chi-squared test.(T(0) vs. T(fu)): Advice: smoking status improved 18.3 vs. 15.5%: p = 0.3. Blood pressure: systolic blood pressure improved 145.8 +/- 21.1 vs. 140.1 +/- 20.5mmHg: p0.0001. Diastolic blood pressure improved 82.0 +/- 12.2 vs. 76.5 +/- 11.0mmHg: p0.0001. Cholesterol: total cholesterol improved 5.8 +/- 1.6 vs. 4.9 +/- 1.0 mmol/L: p0.0001; high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol improved 1.05 vs. 1.26 mmol/L: p0.001. Diabetes control: glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c)% worsened 7.9 +/- 1.8 vs. 8.1 +/- 1.5: p0.0001. However, when adjusted for duration of diabetes, this improved non-significantly by 12% overall. Eye examination: improved 86.5 vs. 97.5%: p0.001. Feet examination: improved 69.8 vs. 83.5%: p0.001. Guardian drugs: significantly more patients were on aspirin (29.0 vs. 83.5%: p0.001), angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (32.0 vs. 64.5%: p0.001), and lipid lowering therapy (16.8 vs. 55.0%: p0.001). Heart Framingham 10-year absolute cardiac risk was achieved (20.6 +/- 10.04% vs. 16.7 +/- 9.1%: p = 0.001). Using the UKPDS risk engine, there was a non-significant reduction in absolute CHD risk over the follow-up period (23.8 +/- 14.8% vs. 23.7 +/- 15.5: p = NS). There were significant improvements between age-adjusted risk score (T(adj)) and follow-up values (T(fu)) (Framingham: 23.67% (T(adj)) vs. 16.7% (T(fu)); UKPDS 31.2% (T(adj)) vs. 23.7% (T(fu))). For UKPDS stroke risk, a significant improvement was seen from T(adj) to T(fu) (19.0% (T(adj)) vs. 16.4% (T(fu)): p0.001), with a significant deterioration noted between T(0) and T(fu) (11.5% (T(0)) vs. 16.4% (T(fu)): p0.0001).The Alphabet Strategy is a novel evidence-based approach to clinical diabetes care, which produced a statistically significant improvement in most of the assessed parameters. The Alphabet Practice Of Evidence-based Medicine (POEM) template is a useful clinical tool for diabetes care and audit. It includes most of the components of diabetes audit required by the National Service Framework (NSF) and the United Kingdom GP contract.

The governing equations for rate-independent large strain plasticity are formulated in the framework of meshless method. The numerical procedures, including return mapping algorithm, to obtain the solutions of boundary-value problems in computational plasticity are outlined. The crack growth process in elastic-plastic solid under plane strain conditions is analyzed. The large strain plastic response of material under high-speed impact is simulated. Numerical results are presented and discussed.

Ferroelectric ceramics are widely used to exploit the piezoelectric effect in various electrical and mechanical equipment and devices such as ultrasonic generators, filters, hydrophones, pressure sensors, accelerometers, actuators, and adjustable aerodynamic surfaces. Despite their high potential for the use in many new engineering applications, there are several complications that limit their application to relatively low-level stress, electric field, and temperature conditions. One of the most important limitations is the fact that ferroceramics experience phase transformation or phase twinning that lead to their nonlinear response to electrical and/or mechanical loading. This is the main reason for the common design practice that limits the use of ferroelectric components to relatively small stress/electric field levels where the material behavior is linear and the measured piezoelectric properties of the material can be used with confidence. Hence there is a need for developing accurate nonlinear constitutive models for ferroelectric ceramics. This paper presents a physically based macroscopic constitutive model that can be used in the analysis of devices involving ferroelectric ceramics. It is assumed that the material point at each Gauss point of a typical finite element represents an aggregate of n unit cells distributed in a manner that the c-axis of each cell is oriented in a specific direction. The intial distribution of the orientations of the unit cells depends on whether the material is already poled or not. Once the strain increment for each unit cell is calculated, the corresponding stress tensor is computed by using the linear relationship between the stress and strain tensors in the cell’s local coordinate system. An appropriate domain-switching criterion is then checked for each unit cell. If the criterion is met, then the polarization orientation is switched for that cell and the orientation of the c-axis for that unit cell is updated. The constitutive moduli for the aggregate of unit cells are then calculated by using a homogenization technique. Using this approach it is clear that a nonlinear constitutive relationship is generated as soon as one of the unit cells in the aggregate switches its polarization direction. The nonlinearity of the response becomes more obvious as the polarization directions in more elements switch. This will lead to a hardening regime. As more elements switch and the number of elements that can potentially switch become smaller, the response of the system starts to become mainly affected by the constitutive response of the switched element, albeit in their new directions. This will lead to a stiffening part in the constitutive relationship, which eventually asymptotes to a linear relationship as the tendency to switching of the unit cells saturates and most of the unit cells in the aggregate become fully oriented toward the new polarization direction. This closely mimics the observed response of ferroelectric ceramics. Numerical simulations of compression of a poled PZT specimen by using the aforementioned constitutive model show close correlation of the simulations with the experimental data available for PZT materials.Copyright © 2003 by ASME

A flexible set of electronic meeting systems (EMS) tools and methodologies which have the potential to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of cross-functional teams involved in business process redesign was developed. Collectively, this set of tools and methodologies, and the supporting automated infrastructure, are referred to as enterprise analyzer (EA). The literature on reengineering is reviewed, and the role of EMS technology in providing support to business process redesign is discussed. The EA architecture and methodology are described. Past and ongoing reengineering applications are identified. A framework for future research is proposed. >

The need for tools and meeting methods to provide effective support during data model development meetings has been an elusive goal. Researchers at the University of Arizona have developed collaborative tools and method to support groups during these meetings. The paper discusses meeting methods to support such meetings. A process is described that orchestrates the work in a way that gives non analyst participants an ordered set of tasks that they can complete. Use of this approach with a group data modeling tool provides a means for larger groups to effectively participate during data model development and review. Users can see and contribute model content in parallel. The approach manages complexity, supports comprehension, and fosters agreement among participants.