Plan Choice And Affordability In The Individual And Small-Group Markets: Policy And Performance—Past And Present

Heat pumps are the key technology to decarbonise thermal processes by upgrading industrial surplus heat using renewable electricity. Existing insight-based integration methods refer to the idealised Grand Composite Curve requiring the full exploitation of heat recovery potential but leave the question of how to deal with technical or economic limitations unanswered. In this work, a novel Heat Pump Bridge Analysis (HPBA) is introduced for practically targeting technical and economic heat pump potential by applying Coefficient of Performance curves into the Modified Energy Transfer Diagram (METD). Removing cross-Pinch violations and operating heat exchangers at minimum approach temperatures by combined application of Bridge Analysis increases the heat recovery rate and reduce the temperature lift to be pumped at the same time. The insight-based METD allows the individual matching of heat surpluses and deficits of individual streams with the capabilities and performance of different market-available heat pump concepts. For an illustrative example, the presented modifications based on HPBA increase the economically viable share of the technical heat pump potential from 61% to 79%.

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Rotor Interaction Noise in Counter-Rotating Propfan Propulsion Systems

Journal of Turbomachinery ◽

10.1115/1.4003223 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 134 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Andreas Peters ◽

Zoltán S. Spakovszky

Keyword(s):

Polar Angle ◽

Secondary Flows ◽

Tip Vortex ◽

System Level ◽

Analysis Tool ◽

Acoustic Analogy ◽

Wake Interaction ◽

Open Rotor ◽

And Performance ◽

The Individual

Due to their inherent noise challenge and potential for significant reductions in fuel burn, counter-rotating propfans (CRPs) are currently being investigated as potential alternatives to high-bypass turbofan engines. This paper introduces an integrated noise and performance assessment methodology for advanced propfan powered aircraft configurations. The approach is based on first principles and combines a coupled aircraft and propulsion system mission and performance analysis tool with 3D unsteady, full-wheel CRP computational fluid dynamics computations and aeroacoustic simulations. Special emphasis is put on computing CRP noise due to interaction tones. The method is capable of dealing with parametric studies and exploring noise reduction technologies. An aircraft performance, weight and balance, and mission analysis was first conducted on a candidate CRP powered aircraft configuration. Guided by data available in the literature, a detailed aerodynamic design of a pusher CRP was carried out. Full-wheel unsteady 3D Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations were then used to determine the time varying blade surface pressures and unsteady flow features necessary to define the acoustic source terms. A frequency domain approach based on Goldstein’s formulation of the acoustic analogy for moving media and Hanson’s single rotor noise method was extended to counter-rotating configurations. The far field noise predictions were compared to measured data of a similar CRP configuration and demonstrated good agreement between the computed and measured interaction tones. The underlying noise mechanisms have previously been described in literature but, to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the individual contributions of front-rotor wake interaction, aft-rotor upstream influence, hub-endwall secondary flows, and front-rotor tip-vortices to interaction tone noise are dissected and quantified. Based on this investigation, the CRP was redesigned for reduced noise incorporating a clipped rear-rotor and increased rotor-rotor spacing to reduce upstream influence, tip-vortex, and wake interaction effects. Maintaining the thrust and propulsive efficiency at takeoff conditions, the noise was calculated for both designs. At the interaction tone frequencies, the redesigned CRP demonstrated an average reduction of 7.25 dB in mean sound pressure level computed over the forward and aft polar angle arcs. On the engine/aircraft system level, the redesigned CRP demonstrated a reduction of 9.2 dB in effective perceived noise (EPNdB) and 8.6 EPNdB at the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) 36 flyover and sideline observer locations, respectively. The results suggest that advanced open rotor designs can possibly meet Stage 4 noise requirements.

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Time for caring? Elderly care employees’ occupational activities in the cross draft between their work priorities, ‘must-do’s’ and meaningfulness

International Journal of Care Coordination ◽

10.1177/2053434517705968 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 20 (1-2) ◽

pp. 8-16 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Emma Nilsson ◽

Kerstin Nilsson

Keyword(s):

Focus Group ◽

Care Coordination ◽

Work Performance ◽

Elderly Care ◽

The Elderly ◽

Focus Group Interviews ◽

Care Giving ◽

Group Interviews ◽

And Performance ◽

The Individual

An increasing number of older people in the population will bring new challenges for the society and care coordination. One of the most important questions in care coordination is the employees’ work performance. The overall aim of this study was to examine care employees’ experience of factors that rule how they allocate their time and tasks in the care work. The study was qualitative and consists of focus group interviews with 36 employees in elderly care in five Swedish municipalities. Much of the work that care employees perform is controlled by others in the municipality organised health care. The employees had a limited possibility to decide what should be given priority in their work. However, the employees who participated in the focus group interviews did not want to prioritise tasks and duties they felt were faulty or in direct conflict with their own convictions. When employees experienced that the assistance assessments were correct and helpful to the individual elderly patient this contributed to the employees’ priority and performance of the task. The formal and informal control systems caused the employees’ priority to be mainly quantitative and visible work tasks, rather than more qualitative tasks and care giving to the elderly. In the intention to organise good care coordination that fit each elderly patients’ need it is important that those who work closest to the patient to a greater extent are given the opportunity to make their voice heard in decisions of care planning and assistance assessments.

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Sports Foods and Dietary Supplements for Optimal Function and Performance Enhancement in Track-and-Field Athletes

International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism ◽

10.1123/ijsnem.2018-0271 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 198-209 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Peter Peeling ◽

Linda M. Castell ◽

Wim Derave ◽

Olivier de Hon ◽

Louise M. Burke

Keyword(s):

Performance Enhancement ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Track And Field ◽

Supplement Use ◽

Optimal Function ◽

Repeated Use ◽

And Performance ◽

The Individual ◽

Health Function ◽

Specific Scenario

Athletes are exposed to numerous nutritional products, attractively marketed with claims of optimizing health, function, and performance. However, there is limited evidence to support many of these claims, and the efficacy and safety of many products is questionable. The variety of nutritional aids considered for use by track-and-field athletes includes sports foods, performance supplements, and therapeutic nutritional aids. Support for sports foods and five evidence-based performance supplements (caffeine, creatine, nitrate/beetroot juice, β-alanine, and bicarbonate) varies according to the event, the specific scenario of use, and the individual athlete’s goals and responsiveness. Specific challenges include developing protocols to manage repeated use of performance supplements in multievent or heat-final competitions or the interaction between several products which are used concurrently. Potential disadvantages of supplement use include expense, false expectancy, and the risk of ingesting banned substances sometimes present as contaminants. However, a pragmatic approach to the decision-making process for supplement use is recommended. The authors conclude that it is pertinent for sports foods and nutritional supplements to be considered only where a strong evidence base supports their use as safe, legal, and effective and that such supplements are trialed thoroughly by the individual before committing to use in a competition setting.

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Effects of Lean Tools in Achieving Lean Warehousing

Economic Themes ◽

10.1515/ethemes-2016-0026 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 54 (4) ◽

pp. 517-534 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Aleksandra Anđelković ◽

Marija Radosavljević ◽

Danijela Stošić

Keyword(s):

Lean Principles ◽

Before And After ◽

Lean Tools ◽

And Performance ◽

The Individual ◽

Warehouse Operations

Abstract The acceptance of lean philosophy in the company means not only respecting the lean principles in the manufacturing but in all the processes that are performed inside the company. All processes in the company that are a potential places for making losses and waste and thus require the application of lean principles. Among others, warehouse and warehouse operations, as a centre of costs and waste, must be supported through the implementation of lean philosophy in the company by respecting lean principles. The implementation of lean principles in the warehouse is a certain step of improvement warehouse process and performance, but also of the whole company. In that sense, the paper presents the analysis of the warehousing process and its performances before and after implementation of the lean tools in a selected Serbian company as a practical example. In addition, research shows which parts of warehousing need to be improved, in analysed company, as well as correlation between the individual parts of warehousing, according to employees' opinion from next sectors: purchasing, production and logistics.

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Impact of a training program on the performance of graduating Canadian residents on a national urology exam: Results of the last 20 years

Canadian Urological Association Journal ◽

10.5489/cuaj.5386 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Naji J. Touma ◽

Darren T. Beiko ◽

Andrew E. MacNeily ◽

Michael J. Leveridge

Keyword(s):

Training Program ◽

Training Programs ◽

Certification Exams ◽

Certification Exam ◽

Individual Program ◽

The Mean ◽

And Performance ◽

The Individual ◽

The Impact ◽

Oral Component

Introduction: Many factors impact the performance of graduating residents on certification exams. It is thought that most factors are related to the individual candidate’s ability, motivation, and work ethic. Less understood, however, is whether a training program has any impact on the preparation and performance of its graduates on certification exams. We present 20 years of results of a national preparatory exam that all graduating residents complete about three months before the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) qualifying urology exam. This exam, known colloquially as QUEST, aims to simulate the RCPSC exam with written and oral components. We aimed to analyze the impact of a training program on the performance of its residents. Methods: A retrospective review of exam results from 1997–2016 was conducted. During that time, 495 candidates from all 12 Canadian urology training programs undertook the exam. The performance of graduating residents from each individual program was grouped together for any given year. The different programs were anonymized, as the aim of this study is to assess the impact of a training program and not to rate the different programs. Statistical analysis using one-way ANOVA was conducted. Results: All training programs fall within one standard deviation of the mean for the written component, the oral component, and the overall score. The residents of four training programs had statistically better scores than the overall mean of the written component. The residents of three out of these four training programs also had statistically better scores than the overall mean of the oral component and the overall results of the exam. Conclusions: Most Canadian training programs prepare their residents adequately for this simulated certification exam in urology. However, there are some training programs that consistently prepare graduating residents to outperform their peers.

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Genetic Divergence in Indigenous Wild and Cultivated Rice Species of Manipur Valley

ISRN Genetics ◽

10.5402/2013/651019 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2013 ◽

pp. 1-6 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

K. Medhabati ◽

K. Rajiv Das ◽

M. Rohinikumar ◽

H. Sunitibala ◽

Th. Dikash Singh

Keyword(s):

Genetic Divergence ◽

Wild Rice ◽

Flag Leaf ◽

Cluster Formation ◽

Leaf Length ◽

Cultivated Rice ◽

And Performance ◽

Flag Leaf Length ◽

The Individual ◽

Hybridization Programme

Genetic divergence of 32 indigenous rice germplasms and five wild rice of which three from Manipur and two wild rice procured from IRRI, Philippines was investigated using Mahalanobis, D2 statistic. Based on twelve agromorphological characters, the thirty-seven germplasms both wild and cultivated were grouped into five clusters based on the relative magnitudes of D2 values following Tocher's method of cluster formation. Based on the rank totals, the characters which contributed maximum towards genetic divergence in the present studies were grain yield/plant, spikelet/panicle, 100 grain weight, grain length, days to 50% flowering, ear bearing tillers/plant, and flag leaf length. In the present study, maximum intercluster distance was estimated between cluster III and (D2=14.09) which was closed followed by clusters II and V (D2=12.50). On the basis of their greater intercluster distance, high value of cluster mean according to the character to be improved and performance of the individual germplasms for the character, the germplasms could be used in hybridization programme for improvement of different plant characters in the rice germplasms of Manipur.

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Applying Social Psychological Perspectives to the Sport Psychology Consulting Process

The Sport Psychologist ◽

10.1123/tsp.11.1.107 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 107-119 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Robert J. Brustad ◽

Michelle Ritter-Taylor

Keyword(s):

Sport Psychology ◽

Social Contexts ◽

Social Psychological ◽

Individual Level ◽

The Social ◽

Clinical And Counseling Psychology ◽

And Performance ◽

The Individual ◽

Disordered Eating Patterns ◽

Applied Sport Psychology

Psychological processes in sport are inextricably linked to the social contexts within which they occur. However, research and practice in applied sport psychology have shown only marginal concern for the social dimensions of participation. As a consequence of stronger ties to clinical and counseling psychology than to social psychology, the prevailing model of intervention in applied sport psychology has been individually centered. Focus at the individual level has been further bolstered by cognitive emphases in modem psychology. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the need for a balanced consideration of social and personal influences. Four social psychological dimensions of interest will be explored, including athletic subculture membership; athletic identity concerns; social networks of influence; and leadership processes. The relevance of these forms of influence will be examined in relation to applied concerns in the areas of athlete academic performance, overtraining and burnout, and disordered eating patterns. At minimum, consultants need to address contextual and relational correlates of psychological and performance issues.

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