Search results for " Methodology"
showing 10 items of 575 documents
Oral and dental health of non-institutionalized elderly people in Spain.
2011
With aging of the populations, the oral health and hygiene of elderly people has become an important public health issue. In this cross-sectional study we investigated the prevalence of tooth decay and other periodontal diseases in a representative cohort of 480 non-institutionalized adults ≥65 years from the province of Valencia, Spain. Using a World Health Organization standard for an adult oral survey methodology, we obtained data on remnant teeth with the decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) index, a Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs (CPTIN), attachment loss, and temporo-mandibular articulation (TMA) status. The prevalence of these conditions were compared by age and ge…
Construct validity of the anxiety sensitivity index-3 in clinical samples
2012
"Using two clinical samples of patients, the presented studies examined the construct validity of the recently revised Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (ASI-3). Confirmatory factor analyses established a clear three-factor structure that corresponds to the postulated subdivision of the construct into correlated somatic, social, and cognitive components. Participants with different primary clinical diagnoses differed from each other on the ASI-3 subscales in theoretically meaningful ways. Specifically, the ASI-3 successfully discriminated patients with anxiety disorders from patients with nonanxiety disorders. Moreover, patients with panic disorder or agoraphobia manifested more somatic concerns …
A multi-criteria approach for the group assessment of an academic course: A case study
2015
The present paper aims at proposing a structured methodology to evaluate the results of an academic training course addressed to postgraduate students. The evaluation process intends to identify the efficacy of an education course bymeans of acomparison between the general objectives and the results expected by the students. Since the evaluated aspects by the students, detected by means of questionnaires, are both quantitative and qualitative, the proposed methodology is based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). In order to facilitate the evaluation process, answers have been modelled by means of linguistic variables. In particular, different evaluation scales have been used and each on…
Market orientation and industrial salesforce: diverse measure instruments
2003
This paper supports the need for a market‐oriented industrial salesforce. So, in the first part, a definition of industrial salesforce market orientation is proposed, distinguishing between a philosophical approach and a behavioural approach. In the second part, an empirical research is carried out to propose and analyse diverse instruments to measure market orientation in an industrial salesforce context. Unidimensionality, reliability and validity are studied. The aim is to offer some guidelines to sales managers in order to implement market orientation at salesforce level.
Optimisation of TA6V alloy surface laser texturing using an experimental design approach
2008
International audience; Active surfaces of plastic injection moulds are nowadays textured using classical techniques (chemical etching or EDM). Replacement of these technologies by a laser technology introduces a big flexibility: absence of mechanical contact with the tool, decrease of the effluent's volume and a big machining precision, even in the case of the complex forms as injection moulds for example. This paper reports the experimental study of the surface laser texturing of TA6V alloy. The influence of the operating factors on the laser texturing process has been studied using two experimental approaches: Taguchi methodology and response surface methodology (RSM). Empirical models h…
Optimization of Spray-Drying Process of Jerusalem artichoke Extract for Inulin Production
2019
Jerusalem artichoke is an important natural matrix for inulin production. In this experiment, response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize the spray-drying parameters in order to determine the maximal inulin yield. For this study, three independent variables (heating temperature (Tª
Design of sheet stamping operations to control springback and thinning: a multi-objective stochastic optimization approach
2010
Abstract The aim of this paper is to develop a design tool for stamping processes, which is able to deal with the scattering of the final part quality due to the inner variability of such operations. Such variability is one of the main drawbacks for a robust process design. It results in a scattering of the most significant process results and depends on several parameters. The so called noise factors greatly influence final result variability, which often means rejecting parts and anyway achieving final properties different from the specified ones. The process investigated in the paper is an S-shaped U-channel stamping operation carried out on a lightweight aluminum alloy of automotive int…
A contribution on the optimization strategies based on moving least squares approximation for sheet metal forming design
2012
Computer-aided procedures to design and optimize forming processes are, nowadays, crucial research topics since industrial interest in costs and times reduction is always increasing. Many researchers have faced this research challenge with various approaches. Response surface methods (RSM) are probably the most known approaches since they proved their effectiveness in the recent years. With a peculiar attention to sheet metal forming process design, RSM should offer the possibility to reduce the number of numerical simulations which in many cases means to reduce design times and complexity. Actually, the number of direct problems (FEM simulations) to be solved in order to reach good functio…
Deep Drawing Process Design: A Multi Objective Optimization Approach
2009
In sheet metal forming most of the problems are multi objective problems, generally characterized by conflicting objectives. The definition of proper parameters aimed to prevent both wrinkles and fracture is a typical example of an optimization problem in sheet metal forming characterized by conflicting goals. What is more, nowadays, a great interest would be focused on the availability of a cluster of possible optimal solutions instead of a single one, particularly in an industrial environment. Thus, the design parameters calibration, accomplishing all the objectives, is difficult and sometimes unsuccessful. In order to overcome this drawback a multi-objectives optimization procedure based…
Prediction models to analyse the performance of a commercial-scale membrane distillation unit for desalting brines from RO plants
2018
Abstract Desalting brines from Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants is one of the most promising applications of Membrane Distillation (MD) systems. The development of accurate models to predict MD system performances plays a significant role in the design of this kind of industrial applications. In this paper, a commercial-scale Permeate-Gap Membrane Distillation (PGMD) module was modelled by means of two different approaches: Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). Condenser inlet temperature, evaporator inlet temperature, feed flow rate and feed water salt concentration were selected as inputs of the model, while permeate flux and Specific Thermal Energy Consumpti…