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In this short paper we recall the (Garfield) Impact Factor of a journal, we improve and extend it, and eventually present the Total Impact Factor that reflects the most accurate impact factor.
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The purpose of this paper is to compare improvement actions for reducing transport's impact on climate from the shipper's perspective. To that end, it introduces an evaluation tool for comparing improvement actions in transport sy...
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The purpose of this paper is to compare improvement actions for reducing transport's impact on climate from the shipper's perspective. To that end, it introduces an evaluation tool for comparing improvement actions in transport systems in terms of transport costs, impact on climate, and barriers to implementation. Within the context of five international flows involving a food producer, three actions namely, engaging intermodal transport, increasing load factors by double-stacking pallets, and using high-capacity vehicles were evaluated. Shipment data were collected to calculate reductions in transport costs and impact on climate, whereas interviews with the food producer were conducted to identify barriers. Results showed that reductions in transport costs and impact on climate attributed to the improvement actions differed among the five flows. Engaging intermodal transport reduced the system's impact on climate by 27-53%, double-stacking pallets by 0-23%, and using high-capacity vehicles by 7-15%, with differences primarily due to different freight densities. Concerning barriers to implementation, the improvement actions also varied by flow. Altogether, unlike other papers, which have examined improvement actions separately, this paper offers an evaluation tool for comparing several improvement actions at once, as applied to a particular empirical case. Shippers with multiple flows and several possible improvement actions can use the evaluation tool to efficiently reduce their systems' impact on climate. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Greenhouse vegetable production (GVP) has become an important source of public vegetable consumption and farmers' income in China. However, various pollutants can be accumulated in GVP soils due to the high cropping index, large a...
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Greenhouse vegetable production (GVP) has become an important source of public vegetable consumption and farmers' income in China. However, various pollutants can be accumulated in GVP soils due to the high cropping index, large agricultural input, and closed environment. Ecological toxicity caused by excessive pollutants' accumulation can then lead to serious health risks. This paper was aimed to systematically review the current status of soil environmental quality, analyze their impact factors, and consequently to propose integrated management strategies for GVP systems. Results indicated a decrease in soil pH, soil salinization, and nutrients imbalance in GVP soils. Fungicides, remaining nutrients, antibiotics, heavy metals, and phthalate esters were main pollutants accumulating in GVP soils comparing to surrounding open field soils. Degradation of soil ecological function, accumulation of major pollutants in vegetables, deterioration of neighboring water bodies, and potential human health risks has occurred due to the changes of soil properties and accumulation of pollutants such as heavy metals and fungicides in soils. Four dominant factors were identified leading to the above-mentioned issues including heavy application of agricultural inputs, outmoded planting styles with poor environmental protection awareness, old-fashion regulations, unreasonable standards, and ineffective supervisory management. To guarantee a sustainable GVP development, several strategies were suggested to protect and improve soil environmental quality. Implementation of various strategies not only requires the concerted efforts among different stakeholders, but also the whole lifecycle assessment throughout the GVP processes as well as effective enforcement of policies, laws, and regulations. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Surgical site infections (SSI) are one the most frequent and costly complications following spinal surgery. The SSI rates of different surgical approaches need to be analyzed to successfully minimize SSI occurr...
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BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Surgical site infections (SSI) are one the most frequent and costly complications following spinal surgery. The SSI rates of different surgical approaches need to be analyzed to successfully minimize SSI occurrence. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to define the rate of SSIs in patients undergoing full-endoscopic spine surgery (FESS) and then to compare this rate against a propensity score-matched cohort from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database. DESIGN: This is a retrospective multicenter cohort study using a propensity score-matched analy-sis of prospectively maintained databases. PATIENT SAMPLE: A total of 1277 noninstrumented FESS cases between 2015 and 2021 were selected for analysis. In the nonendoscopic NSQIP cohort we selected data of 55,882 patients. OUTCOME MEASURES: The occurrence of any SSI was the primary outcome. We also col-lected any other perioperative complications, demographic data, comorbidities, operative details, history of smoking, and chronic steroid intake. METHODS: All FESS cases from a multi-institutional group that underwent surgery from 2015 to 2021 were identified for analysis. A cohort of cases for comparison was identified from the NSQIP database using Current Procedural Terminology of nonendoscopic cervical, thoracic, and lumbar procedures from 2015 to 2019. Trauma cases as well as arthrodesis procedures, surgeries to treat pathologies affecting more than 4 levels or spine tumors that required surgical treatment were excluded. In addition, nonelective cases, and patients with wounds worse than class 1 were also not
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The American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) had a successful 2016. From September 2015 to September 2016, the number of manuscripts submitted remained steady at 255. Manuscripts were received from 30 non-U.S. countries, co...
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The American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) had a successful 2016. From September 2015 to September 2016, the number of manuscripts submitted remained steady at 255. Manuscripts were received from 30 non-U.S. countries, compared with 23 countries in 2015. AJOT continues to have the highest impact factor and to be the highest ranked of the occupational therapy journals listed in Journal Citation Reports. AJOT continues to focus on publishing research articles on aspects of occupational therapy among varied populations with diverse acute and chronic conditions. Changes in 2016 include requiring authors to register clinical trials at public trial registration sites and welcoming new associate editors and reviewers to the AJOT family.
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The American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) had a successful 2015. From September 2014 to September 2015, the number of manuscripts submitted had increased by 35%. Manuscripts were received from 23 countries, compared with...
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The American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) had a successful 2015. From September 2014 to September 2015, the number of manuscripts submitted had increased by 35%. Manuscripts were received from 23 countries, compared with 17 countries in 2014. AJOT continues to have the highest impact factor and to be the highest ranked of the occupational therapy journals listed in Journal Citation Reports. AJOT continues to focus on publishing research articles on aspects of occupational therapy among varied populations with diverse acute and chronic conditions. Additional changes for 2015 include new associate editors, a significantly enlarged pool of reviewers from across the globe, continuous publishing, pay-per-view, updated author guidelines, and the adoption of clinical trial registration requirements effective January 1, 2016.
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To evaluate the dynamic behaviours of bridges, many researchers have analysed interactions between vehicles and bridges with numerical methods instead of field loading tests. However, conventional numerical methods take too much t...
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To evaluate the dynamic behaviours of bridges, many researchers have analysed interactions between vehicles and bridges with numerical methods instead of field loading tests. However, conventional numerical methods take too much time and cost to evaluate the impact factor of bridges in design and maintenance practice. The objective of this study was to propose improved design criteria by using impact factors based on natural frequency rather than span length of railway bridges using dynamic field load-carrying capacity test database. The improved design criteria use a different methodology than that outlined in the International Union of Railway specifications Code. Statistical regressions are applied to more easily estimate the natural frequency of a bridge with a span length of 20 m or longer with steel plate girder or truss superstructures. Calculated impact factors were compared to impact factors obtained from field measurements. Results indicated that the improved method could provide a very reliable estimation for actual impact factors. Since the suggested impact factor criteria are conservative, the proposed method can be used in design and management stages to consider dynamic effects of railway bridges in a more intuitive manner.
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BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Over the course of the last decade, interest in the use of large data repositories for clinical research in orthopedic and spine surgery has grown substantially. Detractors maintain that the clinical relevance ...
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BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Over the course of the last decade, interest in the use of large data repositories for clinical research in orthopedic and spine surgery has grown substantially. Detractors maintain that the clinical relevance of research conducted using large registries is limited, and that the academic influence of such studies is minimal. Such contentions have not been empirically evaluated.
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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to capture challenges faced and lessons learned when implementing Lean in higher education.Design/methodology/approach - During 2010-2014, faculty, staff, and administration from three commun...
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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to capture challenges faced and lessons learned when implementing Lean in higher education.Design/methodology/approach - During 2010-2014, faculty, staff, and administration from three community colleges and four four-year universities attended Educational Lean workshops. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the administrators who originally sought the training opportunity or their designee who coordinated Lean events.Findings - The paper provides insights from seven colleges and universities who have experience with implementing Lean in higher education. Organizational and personal elements are identified and discussed along with seven critical reflection questions to consider before implementing Lean. Research limitations/implications - Further research is needed to understand the role of the senior leadership team when implementing Lean as a continuous improvement strategy. This research provides some insight, but is limited to the factors identified by the seven institutions.Practical implications - The findings of this study can be used to assist higher education institutions considering a Lean initiative. Critical reflection questions include: Who will oversee the Lean initiative? How will human and financial resources be allocated? When and how will professional development opportunities be offered for senior leaders, facilitators, and employees? How will facilitators continue to develop their skills? How will projects be selected? How will Lean thinking be introduced into academic departments?Originality/value - This provides original research in the area of implementing Lean in higher education and its concurrent challenges.
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An accurate estimation of the structural flexibility is crucial in applications such as deflection prediction, damage detection, and finite element model updating. By introducing a unit impulsive response function (UIRF) matrix es...
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An accurate estimation of the structural flexibility is crucial in applications such as deflection prediction, damage detection, and finite element model updating. By introducing a unit impulsive response function (UIRF) matrix estimated from noisy input and output signals collected through impact testing, this paper proposes a new method for estimating the structural flexibility matrix from a noisy UIRF. The advantages lie in the way the noise and decoupling modes of the impulse response signal are handled in the time domain. The proposed method consists of three steps: (1) Constructing an enhanced unit impulse response function (EUIRF) from the UIRF by utilizing the orthogonality of the displacement mode shapes for mode decoupling, (2) Noise removal from the constructed EUIRF to obtain a filtered one by implementing the improved Cadzow's algorithm for the structured target rank approximation (STRA) of the Hankel matrix constructed from the EUIRF, and (3) Structural flexibility identification from the EUIRF using the extended Prony's method to identify the basic modal parameters and modal scaling factors for a single-mode impulse response function with one degree of freedom. To validate the applicability of the proposed method, numerical and laboratory case studies were performed. A noisy impact test was simulated for a three-span continuous beam bridge, and the identified modal parameters and structural flexibility matrix were found to be accurate. Moreover, an impact test was conducted on a simply supported beam in a laboratory, and the results showed that the deformation predicted from the identified flexibility matrix and the one measured from the static load test are in good agreement.
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