Design of mechanical devices for the elderly to move and live alone

With the increasing aging of the population, the demand for elderly assistance machinery is increasing. By comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the existing elderly assistance devices and analyzing the daily activities and care needs of the elderly, this paper determines the main functions of the mechanical devices for the elderly to move around alone and proposes a general design scheme. Based on the overall design plan, the main mechanisms such as axillary support mechanism, sitting mechanism, posture adjustment mechanism and wheel mechanism were designed, and the operability and stability of the device were improved through the linkage of the variable cell mechanism. Virtual prototype modeling was carried out by solidworks to verify the rationality of the structure. The device not only has better function, but also has simpler structure and lower maintenance cost, which is more suitable for market demand.

The Most Potent Unifying Force: Using Architecture to Reflect the Essence of Sport in the Post-Disaster Context

<p>Natural disasters have immense impacts on the physical environment but they also affect communities and individuals on a widespread mental level. Disasters disrupt personal and community identity, sense of belonging and connection to the physical built environment. On the 14th of November, 2016, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the provincial New Zealand town of Kaikoura. The earthquake took the lives of 2 people and caused significant damage to buildings and homes, displacing many families and affecting many of the local businesses. Of significant impact was the damage to State Highway 1, that resulted in the roads in and out of Kaikoura being closed making travel to the north and south much more difficult and time consuming than before the event. For most of the community, their everyday rhythms and routines had been completely compromised as they adapted to their new post disaster environment. The characteristics of sport, both through participating and spectating, have the ability to address the negative impacts of disasters making it an effective tool for disaster recovery. Sport as a support mechanism allows victims of disasters, where for many, sport will be a regular everyday rhythm, to shift their focus of attention from the experiences of loss to finding elements of normalcy in their lifestyles and routines; experiencing familiar bodily functions and re-establishing community identity and personal belonging. Sport in provincial New Zealand is culturally intrinsic and the effects of it not being as available can negatively impact personal and community identity. Sport facilities are often the platform for which many community relationships and networks are created and it is not often that sport is disassociated from the venue it occurs in because of the shared memories and experiences that become embedded through its subconscious fabric. In response to discovering the role of sport as a tool for community resilience, a design led investigation will test how that role can be reflected through architecture. This will be in the form of a community centre that gravitates around sport in Kaikoura. Focussing on the unifying and supportive characteristics of community sport, ideas generated through a workshop in Kaikoura, rather than the traditional pragmatics and efficiency of sports facilities, this design proposal will aim to capture this role in an area recovering from a significant natural disaster. The small coastal town of Kaikoura was selected as the site for the design research as it continues its recovery from the earthquake. The area lost two of its primary sporting facilities; the community swimming pool and high school gym that was used by many community groups outside of the high school. The closures to State Highway 1 meant that the ability to participate in sport, especially for younger generations, was effectively cut off and that as a consequence the role that sport could play in their recovery was compromised, with invisible effects. The risk also exists that intergenerational sport in Kaikoura could die as a result. This research portfolio will conclude with a final design outcome that aims to reflect and facilitate the concepts generated through community intervention and refined through design, illustrating how the role of sport as a tool for resilience can be translated into architecture. The proposal works with the idea of creating a more resilient Kaikoura through a community sports centre in the town but also has the opportunity to serve as a future disaster centre and a community focal point and tourist destination.</p>

The Most Potent Unifying Force: Using Architecture to Reflect the Essence of Sport in the Post-Disaster Context

<p>Natural disasters have immense impacts on the physical environment but they also affect communities and individuals on a widespread mental level. Disasters disrupt personal and community identity, sense of belonging and connection to the physical built environment. On the 14th of November, 2016, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the provincial New Zealand town of Kaikoura. The earthquake took the lives of 2 people and caused significant damage to buildings and homes, displacing many families and affecting many of the local businesses. Of significant impact was the damage to State Highway 1, that resulted in the roads in and out of Kaikoura being closed making travel to the north and south much more difficult and time consuming than before the event. For most of the community, their everyday rhythms and routines had been completely compromised as they adapted to their new post disaster environment. The characteristics of sport, both through participating and spectating, have the ability to address the negative impacts of disasters making it an effective tool for disaster recovery. Sport as a support mechanism allows victims of disasters, where for many, sport will be a regular everyday rhythm, to shift their focus of attention from the experiences of loss to finding elements of normalcy in their lifestyles and routines; experiencing familiar bodily functions and re-establishing community identity and personal belonging. Sport in provincial New Zealand is culturally intrinsic and the effects of it not being as available can negatively impact personal and community identity. Sport facilities are often the platform for which many community relationships and networks are created and it is not often that sport is disassociated from the venue it occurs in because of the shared memories and experiences that become embedded through its subconscious fabric. In response to discovering the role of sport as a tool for community resilience, a design led investigation will test how that role can be reflected through architecture. This will be in the form of a community centre that gravitates around sport in Kaikoura. Focussing on the unifying and supportive characteristics of community sport, ideas generated through a workshop in Kaikoura, rather than the traditional pragmatics and efficiency of sports facilities, this design proposal will aim to capture this role in an area recovering from a significant natural disaster. The small coastal town of Kaikoura was selected as the site for the design research as it continues its recovery from the earthquake. The area lost two of its primary sporting facilities; the community swimming pool and high school gym that was used by many community groups outside of the high school. The closures to State Highway 1 meant that the ability to participate in sport, especially for younger generations, was effectively cut off and that as a consequence the role that sport could play in their recovery was compromised, with invisible effects. The risk also exists that intergenerational sport in Kaikoura could die as a result. This research portfolio will conclude with a final design outcome that aims to reflect and facilitate the concepts generated through community intervention and refined through design, illustrating how the role of sport as a tool for resilience can be translated into architecture. The proposal works with the idea of creating a more resilient Kaikoura through a community sports centre in the town but also has the opportunity to serve as a future disaster centre and a community focal point and tourist destination.</p>

Design of Distributed Substation High Voltage Electrical Equipment Online Monitoring System Based on Image Segmentation Technology

As an important support mechanism for real-time monitoring and display of system frequency, harmonic voltage, harmonic current, three-phase voltage unbalance, voltage fluctuation and flicker, true power factor and other power quality parameters specified in national standard, especially for fast and accurate data processing and improving test frequency and level, the online monitoring of substation is an important support mechanism for real-time monitoring and display of system frequency, harmonic voltage, harmonic current, three-phase voltage unbalance, voltage fluctuation and flicker, true power factor and other power quality parameters specified in national standard. The research of distributed substation high voltage electrical equipment online system based on image segmentation has important practical value. However, the design system of the online monitoring network of some substation electrical equipment can not effectively follow the development needs of society and industry, and there is an urgent need for effective reform. Based on this, this paper first analyzes the problems existing in the design system construction of online monitoring network of distributed substation electrical equipment, and then gives the construction strategy of online monitoring system of high voltage electrical equipment in view of these problems.

Deep COVID 19: Deep Learning for COVID 19 Detection from X ray Images

The COVID-19 will take place for the first time in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. After that, the virus spread all over the world, with over 4.7 million confirmed cases and over 315000 deaths as of the time of writing this report. Radiologists can employ machine learning algorithms developed on radiography pictures as a decision support mechanism to help them speed up the diagnostic process. The goal of this study is to conduct a quantitative evaluation of six off-the-shelf convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for COVID-19 X-ray image analysis. Due to the limited amount of images available for analysis, the CNN transfer learning approach was used. We also developed a simple CNN architecture with a modest number of parameters that does a good job of differentiating COVID-19 from regular X-rays. in this paper, we are used large dataset which contained CXR images of normal patients and patients with COVID-19. the number of CXR images for normal patients are 10,192 image and the number of CXR images for COVID-19 patients are 3,616 images. The results of experiments show the effectiveness and robustness of Deep-COVID-19 and pretrained models like VGG16, VGG19, and MobileNets. Our proposed Model Deep-COVID-19 achieved over 94.5% accuracy.

Effects of Strong Ground Motion with Identical Response Spectra and Different Duration on Pile Support Mechanism and Seismic Resistance of Spherical Gas Holders on Soft Ground

Safety measures are required for spherical gas holders to prevent them from malfunctioning even after a large earthquake. In this study, considering the strong nonlinearity of the ground and damage to the pile during an earthquake, a three-dimensional seismic response analysis of the holder–pile–ground interaction system was conducted for an actual gas holder on the soft ground consisting of alternating layers of sand and clay. In the analysis, the seismic response of the structure to strong ground motions of different durations with the same acceleration response spectrum was verified. The results show that the piles were relatively effective in controlling the settlement when the duration of the earthquake motion was long. This is because the axial force acting on the pile increased due to the redistribution of the holder load caused by the lowering of the effective confining pressure of the sand and clay layers during the earthquake, which increased the bearing capacity of the pile. In contrast, when the duration of the seismic motion was short, the piles had little effect on the reduction in the settlement because the maximum acceleration was higher than that in the former case, and the piles immediately lost their support function.

Impact of clinical supervision on healthcare organisational outcomes: A mixed methods systematic review

Objective To review the impact of clinical supervision of post-registration/qualification healthcare professionals on healthcare organisational outcomes. Background Clinical supervision is a professional support mechanism that benefits patients, healthcare professionals and healthcare organisations. Whilst evidence is growing on the impact of clinical supervision on patient and healthcare professional outcomes, the evidence base for the impact of clinical supervision on organisational outcomes remains weak. Methods This review used a convergent segregated approach to synthesise and integrate quantitative and qualitative research findings, as per the Joanna Briggs Institute’s recommendations for mixed methods systematic reviews. Databases searched included CINAHL, Embase, PubMed, PschINFO, and Scopus. Whilst a narrative synthesis was performed to present the findings of the quantitative and qualitative studies, the evidence from both quantitative and qualitative studies was subsequently integrated for a combined presentation. The review followed the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Results Thirty-two studies including 27 quantitative, two qualitative and three mixed methods studies, were included in the review. The results of the quantitative analysis showed that effective clinical supervision was associated with lower burnout and greater staff retention, and effective supervisor was associated with lower burnout and greater job satisfaction. Qualitative findings showed that healthcare professionals believed that adequate clinical supervision could mitigate the risk of burnout, facilitate staff retention, and improve the work environment, while inadequate clinical supervision can lead to stress and burnout. The evidence from quantitative and qualitative studies were complementary of each other. Conclusion Clinical supervision can have a variable effect on healthcare organisational outcomes. The direction of this effect appears to be influenced by the effectiveness of both the clinical supervision provided and that of the clinical supervisor. This highlights the need for organisations to invest in high quality supervision practices if maximal gains from clinical supervision are to be attained.

Japanese Banks' Mergers and Acquisitions: Competitive Advantage & Organizational Recovery through Strategic Relatedness and Resource Orientation

<p>In late 1990s, diversification was the name of the game for the Japanese banking sector. The problem in the Japanese financial system started on December, 29, 1998 with the burst of the bubble economy which resulted in Yen 75 trillion of non-performing loans among the financial sector. Simultaneously, Japanese policy makers as well as the banking institutions launched a massive restructuring, risutora drive. This study, exploratory and descriptive in nature is based on eight interviews conducted in Japan on the five Japanese mega-bank M&As. The motivations, strategic fit and resources that play a critical role towards providing a competitive advantage and organizational recovery for the Japanese mega-bank engaging in the M&A activity are presented in case study style, with a multi-cross case analysis. A conceptual model was derived from the literature, tested through this research and adapted in light of the Japanese bank M&A strategies. The results suggest that the Japanese mega-bank M&As act as a source of influencing a competitive advantage but also in tandem act as a support mechanism in 'pulling' the Japanese banking sector out of the crisis mode and thereby providing financial recovery to the system as a whole. The ranking in terms of deriving a competitive advantage among the banks is placed in the following order Bank 1, Bank 2, Bank 3, Bank 4 and Bank 5. More specifically, the competitive advantage can be derived in terms of complementarily relatedness among the combining bank strategic assets; i) markets, ii) products and services; and iii) resource traits, organizational resources including leadership style and corporate culture; and physical traits such as IT systems integration, which rose in terms of cutting costs by reducing unwanted resources. Simply put the integration level, strategic relatedness and the types of resources are classified as strategic inputs and the benefits acquired for a competitive advantage and organizational recovery are defined as strategic outputs. Secondly, the study maintains that with the change in traditional Japanese banking practises, the era of 2000 is defined by diversification i.e. M&A strategy adopted by Japanese banks in terms of strategic fit, and types of resource but also where the resources are derived from. In other words, the source of the resources where the resources are derived from i.e. combining, new and their uniqueness also acts as an imperative indicator for Japanese mega-bank M&As. Resources prominent among the Japanese mega-banks are i) keiretsu (client resources); ii) organizational (management and leadership; knowledge; culture; and human resources); iii) physical (IT systems; branch networks and other real estate assets); iv) strategic (markets and products and services) and v) financial (capital markets and cross-shareholding patterns among keiretsu and main bank affiliates). Thirdly, these banks display a unique quality - the 'dual role' that strategic relatedness traits not only act as a combination potential but also act as resources and vice versa. The motivations include government de-regulation; non-performing loans of banks; over-crowding in the banking industry; and size competitiveness and diversification; via capturing markets, increase in profitability; and aligning with the changing needs of the Japanese clients. The research also aims to bridge the gaps in Japanese banking literature by building our understanding on how the Japanese banking sector has distanced itself from the traditional banking culture since the de-regulation wave instigated in Japan in mid to late 1990s. While there has been change in terms of financial cross-shareholdings, the traditional ties in terms of sharing strategic resources continues, introducing out-side directors, breaking away gradually from the amakudari systems and the long term employment and seniority based-wage system. The Japanese banking sector learnt from its mistakes and therefore, has not only been able to escape from the sluggish international banking environment of late but has also been able to diversify into cross-border investments and act as a learning source for the global financial institutions which has been in a state of perils since 2008, on the helms of sub-prime losses and failure of major investment banks.</p>

Japanese Banks' Mergers and Acquisitions: Competitive Advantage & Organizational Recovery through Strategic Relatedness and Resource Orientation

<p>In late 1990s, diversification was the name of the game for the Japanese banking sector. The problem in the Japanese financial system started on December, 29, 1998 with the burst of the bubble economy which resulted in Yen 75 trillion of non-performing loans among the financial sector. Simultaneously, Japanese policy makers as well as the banking institutions launched a massive restructuring, risutora drive. This study, exploratory and descriptive in nature is based on eight interviews conducted in Japan on the five Japanese mega-bank M&As. The motivations, strategic fit and resources that play a critical role towards providing a competitive advantage and organizational recovery for the Japanese mega-bank engaging in the M&A activity are presented in case study style, with a multi-cross case analysis. A conceptual model was derived from the literature, tested through this research and adapted in light of the Japanese bank M&A strategies. The results suggest that the Japanese mega-bank M&As act as a source of influencing a competitive advantage but also in tandem act as a support mechanism in 'pulling' the Japanese banking sector out of the crisis mode and thereby providing financial recovery to the system as a whole. The ranking in terms of deriving a competitive advantage among the banks is placed in the following order Bank 1, Bank 2, Bank 3, Bank 4 and Bank 5. More specifically, the competitive advantage can be derived in terms of complementarily relatedness among the combining bank strategic assets; i) markets, ii) products and services; and iii) resource traits, organizational resources including leadership style and corporate culture; and physical traits such as IT systems integration, which rose in terms of cutting costs by reducing unwanted resources. Simply put the integration level, strategic relatedness and the types of resources are classified as strategic inputs and the benefits acquired for a competitive advantage and organizational recovery are defined as strategic outputs. Secondly, the study maintains that with the change in traditional Japanese banking practises, the era of 2000 is defined by diversification i.e. M&A strategy adopted by Japanese banks in terms of strategic fit, and types of resource but also where the resources are derived from. In other words, the source of the resources where the resources are derived from i.e. combining, new and their uniqueness also acts as an imperative indicator for Japanese mega-bank M&As. Resources prominent among the Japanese mega-banks are i) keiretsu (client resources); ii) organizational (management and leadership; knowledge; culture; and human resources); iii) physical (IT systems; branch networks and other real estate assets); iv) strategic (markets and products and services) and v) financial (capital markets and cross-shareholding patterns among keiretsu and main bank affiliates). Thirdly, these banks display a unique quality - the 'dual role' that strategic relatedness traits not only act as a combination potential but also act as resources and vice versa. The motivations include government de-regulation; non-performing loans of banks; over-crowding in the banking industry; and size competitiveness and diversification; via capturing markets, increase in profitability; and aligning with the changing needs of the Japanese clients. The research also aims to bridge the gaps in Japanese banking literature by building our understanding on how the Japanese banking sector has distanced itself from the traditional banking culture since the de-regulation wave instigated in Japan in mid to late 1990s. While there has been change in terms of financial cross-shareholdings, the traditional ties in terms of sharing strategic resources continues, introducing out-side directors, breaking away gradually from the amakudari systems and the long term employment and seniority based-wage system. The Japanese banking sector learnt from its mistakes and therefore, has not only been able to escape from the sluggish international banking environment of late but has also been able to diversify into cross-border investments and act as a learning source for the global financial institutions which has been in a state of perils since 2008, on the helms of sub-prime losses and failure of major investment banks.</p>