Measurement of Infrasound Components Contained in the Noise Emitted during a Working Wind Turbine

The research reported in this paper involves the development and refinement of methods applicable to the measurement and analysis of infrasound signals generated by the operation of wind turbines. In particular, the presentation focuses on the use of a new system that is applied for simultaneous recording of acoustic signals in the low-frequency range emitted by wind farms in three independent and identical measurement setups. A comparative analysis of the proposed new system was made with the Brüel & Kjaer measurement, a commonly used methodology, which meets the requirements of the IEC 61400-11 standard. The paper focuses on the results of frequency and time-frequency analysis of infrasound signals recorded throughout the operation of a wind turbine with a rated capacity of 2 MW. The use of a correlated system with three simultaneous measurement systems can be a new and alternative measurement method that will eliminate the drawbacks of previous approaches.

A confirmatory composite analysis for the Italian validation of the interactions anxiousness scale: a higher-order version

This study examined the factor structure and model specifications of the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS) with confirmatory composite analysis (CCA) using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with a sample of Italian adolescents ($$n = 764$$ n = 764 ). The CCA and PLS-SEM results identified the reflective nature of the IAS sub-scale scores, supporting an alternative measurement model of the IAS scores as a second-order reflective–reflective model.

Validity and Reliability of Community Satisfaction Measurement Instrument in Health Care Institution

The Community Satisfaction Survey is mandatory based on Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Regulation number 14 in the year of 2017. An alternative measurement tool has been developed by expanding the measurement items. The research objective was to explore the validity and reliability of public satisfaction instruments in health institutions. The design was non-experimental, with a quantitative and cross sectional approach. The research was carried out in two entities, namely primary health care and hospital. Data collection using the IKM-29 questionnaire. Data processing with Rasch modeling and winsteps application. The results showed that the item reliability at PHC and hospital was 0.95 and 0.97 with Cronbach's alpha 0.95. The separation is more than 3 and the raw variance is more than 40%. In the two entities there are several different misfit items. Item 8 related to the perception of waiting time has a high degree of difficulty and is paradoxical. The results of the analysis show that the instrument is valid and reliable enough to be used as an alternative measurement of community satisfaction in PHC and Hospitals.

A diagnostic test for malnutrition in adults: mid-upper arm circumference towards body mass index: A literature review

Body mass index is commonly used for detecting malnutrition. At certain conditions, body mass index cannot be measured, so mid-upper arm circumference can be an alternative measurement for detecting malnutrition. Several studies have proposed the cut-off point of mid-upper arm circumference in adults along with its sensitivity, specificity, and area under the ROC curve (AUC). This article aims to describe the diagnostic test for malnutrition using the upper arm circumference in adults and summarize the results of the related studies.

Clinical Impact of after-consult clinic blood pressure: comparison with automated office blood pressure

Background It is most important to measure blood pressure (BP) exactly in treating hypertension. Recent recommendations for diagnosing hypertension clearly acknowledge that an increase in BP attributable to the “whitecoat response” is frequently associated with manual BP recordings performed in community-based practice. However, there was no data about after-consult (AC) BP that could reduce whitecoat effect. So we evaluated before-consult (BC) and AC routine clinic BP and research based automated office blood pressure (AOBP) measured. Methods The study population consisted of 82 consecutive patients with hypertension between April 2019 and December 2019. We measured routine clinic BP and AOBP before and after see a doctor, respectively. Seated blood pressure and pulse are measured at each time after a rest period using an automated device as it offers reduced potential for observer biases. AOBP was measured and measuring BP 3 times un-observed. We compared each BP parameter for identifying exact resting BP state. Results There was significant difference between BC and AC systolic BP (135.37 ± 16.90 vs. 131.95 ± 16.40 mmHg, p = 0.015). However there was no difference in the BC and AC diastolic blood pressure (73.75 ± 11.85 vs. 74.42 ± 11.71 mmHg, p = 0.415). In the AOBP comparison, there was also significant difference (BC systolic AOBP vs. AC systolic AOBP, 125.17 ± 14.41 vs. 122.98 ± 14.09 mmHg, p = 0.006; BC diastolic ABOB vs. AC diastolic AOBP, 71.99 ± 10.49 vs. 70.99 ± 9.83, p = 0.038). Conclusions In our study, AC AOBP was most lowest representing resting state. Although AC BP was higher than BC AOBP, it might be used as alternative measurement for reducing whitecoat effect in the routine clinical practice.

Assessment of an iPad-based Sperm Motility Analyzer for Determination of Canine Sperm Motility

The objective of this study was to evaluate the repeatability and accuracy of canine sperm motility (total and progressive) assessment with a tablet-based Canine iSperm ® instrument compared to computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA). The experiment used fresh and frozen/thawed canine semen samples for comparisons of semen analysis parameters (concentration, total motility, and progressive motility) between a CASA system, iSperm ®, and NucleoCounter ® SP-100 ™ (concentration) instruments. Spearman’s Rho correlational analysis was used to identify significant associations between motility assessment methods. Significant positive correlations were found between CASA assessment and iSperm ® for both progressive and total motility measurements. We also determined the coefficient of variation (CV) for repeatability of sample analysis for iSperm ® and CASA for fresh sperm, wherein each sample was assessed 10 times on both devices. For fresh and frozen-thawed samples, concentration assessment by iSperm ® showed high variability (CV= 19.9 ± 1.5%). For iSperm ® assessment of total and progressive motility, the CV’s were 6.3 ± 0.5% and 10.7 ± 0.8%, respectively. The results indicate that the iSperm ® application offers an accurate and alternative measurement of motility to traditional CASA analysis, though caution should be taken when assessing concentration due to the high CV observed in this study.

Superficial Effects of Ball Burnishing on TRIP Steel AISI 301LN Sheets

This paper explores the consequences of applying an ultrasonic vibration-assisted ball burnishing process and its non-vibration assisted version on the topology and subsurface microstructure of a transformation-induced plasticity AISI 301LN alloy. More specifically, four different metallographic conditions provided as 1.5-mm thickness sheets and characterized by different starting martensite content (3, 10, 20 and 40 wt.%) are included in the study. Ball burnishing was performed along the lamination direction and perpendicular to it. Results show that the effect of ball burnishing is strongly correlated with the pre-existing microstructure. The steel containing the lowest quantity of initial martensite is the most affected by the process, achieving a higher residual hardening effect, similar to the untreated steel with an original martensitic content of around 40 wt.%. Moreover, the process succeeds in generating a 100-nm thick nanograin layer under the plate subsurface. Finally, no conspicuous effect of the application of vibration assistance was observed, which encourages the application of alternative measurement techniques in future works to define its effect on the properties after being ball burnished.

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Why do we use assessment? What happens if we don't assess? What does assessment mean for education, decision makers, stakeholders, teachers, and students? How do objectives and learning outcomes guide evaluation? Objectives and learning outcomes are classified by taxonomies by Bloom, Anderson, and Krathwohl. Do these taxonomies also guide the assessment? How does it work? How to measure learning outcomes in the cognitive domain? What are the assessment tools and evaluation methods that are effective in assessment high level cognitive skills? What measuring tools can be used to measure the affective domain? What are the methods of effective measurement in the psychomotor field? How are skills measured? What should be considered in the measurement of objectives and learning outcomes? How can educators benefit from classical and alternative measurement methods? What are the benefits of using multiple assessment? What are the effects of focusing on what learners can do, not how much they cannot do? This chapter explores the assessment of learning outcomes.