Advanced Materials Research Vol. 740

Abstract: Objective:This study examines the 2009 patient operating room (OR) length of stay data for a medical center in Taipei City. Using a statistical method based on regression analysis, the crucial factors that influence OR efficiency and performance were identified. The analytical results indicated that surgical procedures with general anesthesia and high surgical complexity incurred high surgical fees. Additionally, the anesthesia fees, operating time, and operating time variance rises as the squared number of surgical procedures increases. Therefore, for the hospitals 2010 OR scheduling management strategy, we adjusted the priority regulations for daily OR use to enhance the safety and quality of surgical patient health care and improve OR efficiency.Method:We collected 11 case ORs, that is, 9 inpatient and 2 outpatient ORs, for this study. The pre-implementation data were collected between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2009. The post-implementation data were collected between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2010; both forms of data included patients OR length of stay information. Furthermore, the indicators that were compared and analyzed for this study included variances in the number of cases in which general anesthesia was administered, the number of scheduled surgical procedures, the number of emergency surgical procedures, and OR use rates.Results:A total of 20,731 surgical operations were performed in 2009, among which general anesthesia was administered 6,925 times, 10,122 scheduled surgical procedures were performed, 1,305 emergency surgical procedures were performed, and the OR use rate was 70.30%. A total of 21,105 surgical operations were performed in 2010, among which general anesthesia was administered 7,106 times, 10,549 scheduled surgical procedures were performed, 1,319 emergency surgical procedures were performed, and the OR use rate was 71.05%.

Abstract: QSAR/QSPR study is a hot issue in present chemical informatics research, and is the very active research domain. In present, a large number of QSAR/QSPR (quantitative structure-activity/property relationships) models have been widely studied and applied in a lot of different areas. This paper overviews the developments, research methods and applications of QSAR/QSPR model.

Abstract: The computability of the solution for the Cauchy Problems of the nonlinear Heat Conduction equation is studied in this paper. A nonlinear map is defined from the initial value to the solution . We used the relevant knowledge of type-2 theory of effectivity, functional analysis and Sobolev space to prove that when , the solution operator of the initial problem for the Heat Conduction equation is computable under certain conditions. The conclusion enriches the theories of computability.

Abstract: According to the failure features of amusement rides, the Fault Tree Analysis model of risk assessment for amusement rides was built based on technology risk, operation risk and management risk. Using Boolean algebra, the minimum cut set of fault tree and 24 kinds of accident way from top to bottom were obtained. In the fault tree, the failure probability of the bottom event was obtained according to triangular fuzzy probability. The failure probability and risk of amusement ride subsystem were obtained according to Boolean algebra method. The weights of the risk of each subsystem were obtained with successive analysis method, and the quantitative risk of amusement ride was obtained with the weight and risk of subsystems. According to the quantitative risk assessment model of fault tree, the quantitative risk assessment steps were introduced.

Abstract: Finite element analysis was accomplished for a steering knuckle component of a small bus to see whether the static and fatigue strength requirements were satisfied or not. The knuckle was modeled with ANSYS 10-node quadratic elements. The cyclic fatigue load was applied and Soderberg criteria were applied to check the fatigue life. The knuckle structure has an infinite life (10^-6 cycle) judging from the fatigue analyses. Shape optimization based on the gradient based method has been performed in order to find out the knuckle shape that has a minimum weight and satisfies the static and fatigue strength requirements. As a result of shape optimization, the weight of the steering knuckle was reduced 8%.

Abstract: In this paper, the high-strength steel three-dimensional roll forming production line prototype is studied. The dynamic differential equations of 3D roll forming machine mechanical systems are established by the principle of dynamic balance. The dynamic differential equations are solved out by using MATLAB with the engineering example finite element simulation data. The dynamic characteristics of the forming process of 1.5mm TRIP590 high-strength steel sheet are obtained by the System response. The results can help to improve the performance of the prototype mechanical systems.

Abstract: As the normal particle filter has an expensive computation and degeneracy problem, a propagation-prediction particle filter is proposed. In this scheme, particles after transfer are propagated under the distribution of state noise, and then the produced filial particles are used to predict the corresponding parent particle referring to measurement, in which step the newest measure information is added into estimation. Therefore predicted particle would be closer to the true state, which improves the precision of particle filter. Experiment results have proved the efficiency of the algorithm and the great predominance in little particles case.

Abstract: For a vision-based analysis system, noise of the smear, the strain, or the badly illumination often causes serious errors in image analysis due to misclassification of object pixels and background pixels. An effective binarization method is thus required to improve the accuracy of segmentation and this paper proposes a novel algorithm for determining the threshold of each pixels. The proposed approach does not require statistical computation to determine the local threshold. The thresholding value can be easily determined by using the ratio of maximum intensity in a square region around each pixel. Experimental studies are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed method and the obtained results verify its segmentation abilities of hand-written text and music symbol under the badly illumination condition.

Abstract: The control engineering technology is a huge field of study. Above all, the instrumentation and control, likewise the plant automation has been classified as a special field of this technology. In this thesis we are introducing a practical learning material system that deals with instrumentation and plant control theory using LEGO Mindstorms and LEGO Bricks. There are different parts in the plant such as field instruments, controllers and analyzers, which are linked together to maintain a stable level of production. We are assuming that colleges and new employer will be able to use the developed system.

Abstract: Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software is a vital analytical tool which is often adopted for product design. Engineers can obtain related design information for stress, strain, displacement, fatigue, and longevity of products via a CAE simulation. In order to improve product reliability, analysis of a products structure using CAE is compulsory. The purpose of this research is to implement CAE analysis on a laptops hinge. A 3-D model of the laptops hinge was first established by Pro/Engineer software and then transferred onto ANSYS/Workbench software. Moreover, all boundary conditions, connections, materials, and mesh property were set into an ANSYS program. Subsequently, the calculation of kinetic behavior for the hinge structure and maximum stress and stress allocation were performed by the ANSYS. In order to verify the correctness of the parameter settings on ANSYS/Workbench software, a products breaking test was conducted. A comparison between the experimental data and the theoretical data of the ANSYS was also carried out. Consequently, the deviation between the analyzed data and the real testing data is within 5%. Therefore, the analytical methods established above can provide a quick and efficient design for the structural strength of a hinge stopper.