A Training Intervention through a 360° Multisource Feedback Model

Physicians and other health sciences professionals need continuous training, not only in technical aspects of their activity but also in nontechnical, transversal competencies with a cost-efficient impact on the proper functioning of healthcare. The objective of this paper is to analyze the behavioral change among health professionals at a large public hospital following a training intervention on a set of core nontechnical competencies: Teamwork, Adaptability-Flexibility, Commitment-Engagement, Results Orientation, and Leadership Skills for Supervisors. The 360° Multisource Feedback (MSF) model was applied using three sources of information: supervisors, co-workers, and the workers themselves (self-assessment). A quasi-experimental pretest–post-test single-group design with two points in time was utilized. The training intervention improved the scores of only one of the trained competencies—the “Results Orientation” competency—although the scores were slightly inflated. Moreover, significant discrepancies were detected between the three sources, with supervisors awarding the highest scores. The magnitude of behavioral change was related to certain sociodemographic and organizational variables. The study was not immune to the ceiling effect, despite control measures aimed at avoiding it. The empirical evidence suggests that the 360° MSF model must be maintained over time to enhance and reinforce an evaluation culture for better patient care.

Optimal configuration of energy storage system in multi-station fusion mode

Multi-station fusion mode (MSF) generally includes energy storage system, data center and electric vehicle charging station. It can improve the utilization rate of land and power distribution resources of urban substations. This paper studies configuration of ESS in the MSF model, aiming at reducing total cost. Firstly, an AC-DC system of MSF model is established. Then, aiming at economy, the optimal configuration model of ESS is established. Finally, the effectiveness of the model is verified by a practical example, and the MATLAB toolbox YALMIP with the CPLEX solver is used to conduct the ESS planning.

Evalaution and Control of Mirror Sliding Friction of Unmanned Ground Vehicle using Radial Basis Neural Network

In order to effectively analyse the mirror sliding friction(MSF) degree of unmanned ground vehicle(UGV) and improve its anti-disturbance performance, a simulation method for MSF degree of UGV based on RBF neural network is proposed. A single-input and double-output RBF neural network is adopted to estimate the uncertain dynamic parameters of the MSF model. The obtained parameters are used to describe the MSF control law based on RBF neural network. An adaptive law based on slow time-varying disturbance characteristics is designed to estimate the total friction disturbance term in the MSF model online. The simulation results show that the proposed method can analyse the MSF degree of unmanned ground vehicle at different speeds and gradients. The influence of gradient on the decline rate of friction degree is greater than that of vehicle speed. The mean error of friction disturbance term calculated by the method is only about 0.9% which has the advantage of low error of friction degree estimation when compared to conventional methods.

Microstructure-Sensitive Fatigue Modeling of Friction Stir Welded Aluminum Alloy 6061

In this work, experiments were conducted to quantify the mechanical properties and microstructure of friction stir welded (FSW) 6061 aluminum alloy butt joints. In particular, strain-control experiments were carried out to characterize the low-cycle fatigue (LCF) performance of the FSW joint and a microstructure-sensitive fatigue model was used to elucidate structure-property relationships. Under fatigue testing, two distinct modes of failure were observed. In the first case, the fatigue cracks initiated and propagated though the heat affected zone, which is due to material softening as a result of the frictional heat generated by the FSW process. The second mode of failure observed was when the fatigue crack initiated and propagated through the stir zone, as a result of inappropriate material mixing. Additionally, results of this study show a strong dependence on the tool rotational rate, where the monotonic tensile and cyclic mechanical properties increased as the tool rate increased. However, experimental results showed that the increase in the mechanical properties were observed to level off or in some case decline as the tool rotational rate continued to increase. This behavior is due to several factors including welding defects and higher frictional heat. In order to further understand the effect of microstructure and welding defects on fatigue behavior, a multi-stage fatigue (MSF) model that incorporates incubation and crack growth regimes was implemented to capture the effect of variation in tool rotational speeds. The MSF model exhibited good correlation to the experimental results, suggesting that the multi-stage approach for modeling fatigue damage in FSW joints is a reasonable approach. Furthermore, the model appears to capture the underlining mechanisms associated with damage in this type of welded joint.