Static puncture resistance characteristics with various indenter nose shape geometry perforation of shear thickening fluid impregnated polypropylene fabric for soft armour application

At present, puncture resistance and rheological performance of shear thickening fluid (STF) is an essential design requirement for a soft armour material (target sample). The target sample is prepared with a dip and dry process of STF impregnated woven polypropylene (PP) fabric. These samples were tested and compared with neat PP fabric. The penetration depth of target samples is highly sensitive to the coefficient of friction between the indenter’s nose shape geometry and the target sample. The STF is prepared by mechanical dispersion of synthesized microsphere silica microparticles at a volume fraction of 57% in polyethylene glycol (400 g/mol). The rheological response indicates that the prepared concentration of silica microparticles in the STF suspension is observed to have a better shear thickening effect. The viscosity of suspension is highly sensitive to silica aspect ratio, volume fraction and particle size distribution in this work. Tensile tests along with puncture resistance with different indenter nose shapes geometry (hemispherical, elliptical, flat and conical) have been performed in the present study. Results indicate that the energy absorption is more with the hemispherical indenter and less with that of the conical indenter, which is attributed to the minimum surface area of contact as compared to all other indenters. A total of 16 number of fabricated target samples with various coating thicknesses of STF impregnated fabrics achieved the desired tensile strength, modulus and puncture resistance.

LATAM and Spanish SME barriers to Industry 4.0

PurposeExisting studies are scarce, especially on the Industry 4.0 application to firms' innovation and competitiveness, and even more on the application to LATAM and Spanish SMEs. This paper tries to fill this gap by explaining the results of applying a systematic model, to understand which are the SMEs' strengths and weaknesses in relation to the Industry 4.0 transformation.Design/methodology/approachA systematic methodology involving documentation analysis, visits to the companies, interviews with employees and managers, making a preliminary diagnosis, crossing their needs with the enablers that can apply. The fieldwork was carried out during a two month period (2019), on a target sample of 22 SMEs operating under industrial productive activity already exporting or planning their internationalization toward LATAM regions.FindingsThere are relevant barriers that need to be overcome in order to enter Industry 4.0 and, in this specific analysis, the following major classification was obtained: (1) Technological barrier, (2) Training barrier, (3) Economic barrier and (4) Contextual barrier.Originality/valueThis paper provides new insights and sets a starting point regarding LATAM and Spanish’ Industry 4.0 situation, while contributing to the SMEs competitiveness by providing deeper understanding of the barriers and limitations in adopting Industry 4.0, pointing out some implications and suggestions for organizations to implement.

Target and actual sample sizes for studies from two trial registries from 1999 to 2020: an observational study

ObjectivesTo investigate differences between target and actual sample sizes, and what study characteristics were associated with sample sizes.DesignObservational study.SettingThe large trial registries of clinicaltrials.gov (starting in 1999) and ANZCTR (starting in 2005) through to 2021.ParticipantsOver 280 000 interventional studies excluding studies that were withheld, terminated for safety reasons or were expanded access.Main outcome measuresThe actual and target sample sizes, and the within-study ratio of the actual to target sample size.ResultsMost studies were small: the median actual sample sizes in the two databases were 60 and 52. There was a decrease over time in the target sample size of 9%–10% per 5 years, and a larger decrease of 18%–21% per 5 years for the actual sample size. The actual-to-target sample size ratio was 4.1% lower per 5 years, meaning more studies (on average) failed to hit their target sample size.ConclusionRegistered studies are more often under-recruited than over-recruited and worryingly both target and actual sample sizes appear to have decreased over time, as has the within-study gap between the target and actual sample size. Declining sample sizes and ongoing concerns about underpowered studies mean more research is needed into barriers and facilitators for improving recruitment and accessing data.

Persepsi Mahasiswa Akuntansi Terhadap Independensi Akuntan Publik: Studi Empirik pada Mahasiswa Akuntansi di Bandung

This study aims to determine the perceptions of accounting students towards the independence of public accountants in the city of Bandung. Positive perceptions indicate that the accounting profession, especially public accountants, has a proper place in accounting students. Through a questionnaire distributed with a sample of accounting students in the city of Bandung, with a target sample size of 60 students. From 137 respondents gathered, it can be seen based on the results of the analysis that students majoring in accounting in Bandung perceive that public accountants in Indonesia are not independent. In addition, the results of this study are expected to be inference for accounting students in Indonesia. The results of this study also show that there are differences in the perceptions of students majoring in accounting in Bandung who have never and who have taken auditing courses on the independence of public accountants in Indonesia. Keywords: Perception, Independence, Accounting Profession, and Public Accountant

Examining the role of human capital and strategic management in Islamic perspective

This study examines and analyzes the effect of; (i) Human Capital in Islamic Perspective (HCIP) on Business Sustainability (BS); (ii) Strategic Management in Islamic Perspective (SMIP) on Business Sustainability, (iii) Mediation of Strategic Management in Islamic Perspective in relation to Human Capital in Islamic Perspective on Business Sustainability. This study uses Batik MSME respondents in Pekalongan City. Pekalongan is a Batik city that has the batik talents, qualified craftsmen, known worldwide and have been passed down from one generation to the next. The target sample is 150 MSMEs. It is conducted purposively with a return rate of 116 questionnaires (response rate 77%). The data is collected through questionnaires and interviews with several owners or managers of MSMEs. The statistical technique uses Partial Least Square (PLS 3.3). This study finds that; (i) Human Capital in Islamic Perspective has no significant effect on Business Sustainability; (ii) Strategic Management in Islamic Perspective has a significant effect on Business Sustainability, (iii) Strategic Management in Islamic Perspective mediates the effect of Human Capital in Islamic Perspective on Business Sustainability

Understanding the Working Habits of GH-SO Users on GitHub Commit Activity and Stack Overflow Post Activity

GitHub and Stack Overflow are often used together for software development. GH-SO users, who use both GitHub and Stack Overflow, contribute to the development of various software projects in GitHub and share their knowledge and experience on software development in Stack Overflow. To widely understand the interests and working habits of GH-SO users on software development, it is important to investigate how GH-SO users utilize GitHub and Stack Overflow. In this paper, we present an exploratory study on GitHub commit and Stack Overflow post activities of GH-SO users. Specifically, we investigate the working habits of GH-SO users on GitHub commit and Stack Overflow post activities. We randomly selected 19,756 of GH-SO users as our target sample and collected 2,819,483 and 2,147,317 of commit activity data and post activity data of the GH-SO users. We then categorized the collected commit and post activity datasets into specific categories on programming languages and statistically analyzed the categorized commit and post activity datasets. As the results of our analysis, we found the following: (1) The overall commit and post activities of the GH-SO users share some similarity. (2) The commit activities gradually change while the post activities drastically change over time. (3) The commit activities of the GH-SO users are broadly distributed while the post activities are narrowly distributed and the commit activity can be better predictor for post activity. (4) The commit activity of the GH-SO users tends to be performed prior post activity. We believe that our findings can contribute to finding the ways to better support commit and post activities of GitHub and Stack Overflow users.

Identifying priority interventions for stroke in Ireland through stakeholder engagement to inform population-based modelling: a mixed methods protocol

Introduction Improvements in stroke survival have resulted in increasing numbers of people living with stroke, and with a rapidly evolving evidence-base for stroke prevention and management, there is a need for robust data and evidence to inform future policy decision-making. Population-based modelling and economic evaluation of alternative policy options is a useful tool to support decision making. However, this process must be aligned to key stakeholder priorities. The aim of the proposed research is to engage with stakeholders in Ireland to identify their priorities for the development of stroke prevention and management strategies and policies. Methods The design is iterative, based on mixed methods. Phase 1 involves a qualitative approach for initial priority gathering, based on an open-ended online survey (target sample: 100-120) and interviews (target sample: 34-40). Stakeholders will include: 1) stroke survivors and family member/main carers, 2) healthcare professionals (HCPs) providing stroke care and 3) people working in stroke research, policy and advocacy. These data will be analysed qualitatively, with the aim of identifying a long-list of specific interventions. Phase 2 involves an interim priority setting exercise, based on a quantitative online survey. Participants will be asked to rank the interventions on the initial long-list. These rankings will be used to inform a final priority-setting workshop (Phase 3), where a small stakeholder group will decide on the final set of priorities. Discussion The rich and detailed quantitative and qualitative data, based on the views of diverse stakeholders, will be directly relevant to policy makers and service planners involved in developing and improving stroke care in Ireland. The information provided will also be essential to inform the Scenario and Intervention Modelling in Ireland for Stroke (SIMI-Stroke) project, a population-based economic and epidemiological modelling study aimed at identifying cost-effective interventions for stroke across the prevention, acute and post-acute care continuum.

A generalized fuzzy k-nearest neighbor regression model based on Minkowski distance

The fuzzy k-nearest neighbor (FKNN) algorithm, one of the most well-known and effective supervised learning techniques, has often been used in data classification problems but rarely in regression settings. This paper introduces a new, more general fuzzy k-nearest neighbor regression model. Generalization is based on the usage of the Minkowski distance instead of the usual Euclidean distance. The Euclidean distance is often not the optimal choice for practical problems, and better results can be obtained by generalizing this. Using the Minkowski distance allows the proposed method to obtain more reasonable nearest neighbors to the target sample. Another key advantage of this method is that the nearest neighbors are weighted by fuzzy weights based on their similarity to the target sample, leading to the most accurate prediction through a weighted average. The performance of the proposed method is tested with eight real-world datasets from different fields and benchmarked to the k-nearest neighbor and three other state-of-the-art regression methods. The Manhattan distance- and Euclidean distance-based FKNNreg methods are also implemented, and the results are compared. The empirical results show that the proposed Minkowski distance-based fuzzy regression (Md-FKNNreg) method outperforms the benchmarks and can be a good algorithm for regression problems. In particular, the Md-FKNNreg model gave the significantly lowest overall average root mean square error (0.0769) of all other regression methods used. As a special case of the Minkowski distance, the Manhattan distance yielded the optimal conditions for Md-FKNNreg and achieved the best performance for most of the datasets.

Prison officer students’ perceptions of persons convicted of sexual crimes

This study investigated the dimensionality of the Perception of Sex Offenders scale among prison officer students in Norway, and whether the students’ perceptions of this group of prisoners changed during their theoretical education and 1-year practical training. The target sample comprised a full cohort of freshman prison officer students, and two waves of data collection were conducted. The response rate was 94 percent ( n = 188) at time 1 (T1) and 64 percent ( n = 112) at time 2 (T2). The originally reported three-dimensional structure of the Perception of Sex Offenders scale was replicated in our sample. Moreover, the results supported our hypothesis that prison officer students were likely to hold less punitive views about sentencing and punishment at the end (T2) than at the beginning (T1) of their education. However, their endorsement of risk did not change, while the tendency to adhere to stereotypical images of persons convicted of sex offenses increased.