• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.75-80
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• 2013

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of cold applied the night before or in the morning on pain and symptoms of plantar fasciitis. Design: Experimental study. Methods: Thirty subjects with plantar fasciitis were recruited for this study. Subjects with plantar fasciitis either had no intervention, cold applied (20 minutes) at night before bed, or 20 minutes in the morning upon wakening. Plantar fascia tenderness and pain were evaluated. There were ten subjects in each group. Measures included visual analog scale, plantar facial thickness via high resolution ultrasound, algometer measure, and range of motion of the ankle and foot. There were 3 groups of 10 subjects, control (no intervention), cold the night before bed, and cold in the morning before rising. Results: The greatest relief of symptoms was cold used at bedtime the night before the measurements. Cold used in the morning was not as effective as cold used in the evening before bed. Cold use reduced the thickness of the plantar fascia and irritation. There was a 13% reduction in plantar fascia thickness with cold the night before (p<0.05), a 44% reduction in pain and an 86 % increase in the force that could be applied to the bottom of the foot without pain (p<0.05). Conclusions: Cold applied for 20 minutes prior bedtime is effective for reduced symptomology caused by plantar fascia inflammation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.447-456
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• 2005

Laser driven accelerators promise to provide an alternative to conventional accelerator technology. They rely on the excitation of large amplitude density waves in a plasma by the photon pressure of an intense laser. The density oscillations in which electrons and ions are separated, result in extremely large longitudinal electric fields that can be several orders of magnitude larger than those that are used in today's radio-frequency accelerators. Whereas this principle had been demonstrated experimentally for nearly two decades, it was not until 2004 that the production of high quality electron beams around 100 MeV was demonstrated. Analysis, aided by particle-in-cell simulations, as well as experiments with various plasma lengths and densities, indicate that tailoring the length of the accelerator, together with loading of the accelerating structure with beam, are the keys to production of mono-energetic electron beams. Increasing the energy towards a GeV and beyond will require reducing the plasma density and design criteria are discussed for an optimized accelerator module. The current progress and future directions are summarized through comparison with conventional accelerators, highlighting the unique short and long term prospects for intense radiation sources and high energy accelerators based on laser-drivenplasma accelerators.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.484-494
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• 2020

This study evaluated the effects of muscle and dietary treatments including CORN, dry distillers grains (DDGS), and modified distillers grains (MDGS) on fatty acid (FA) deposition in two novel value-added beef cuts (Petite Tender - M. teres major - TM, and Flat Iron - M. infraspinatus - INF). Crossbred steers were randomly assigned to one of three dietary treatments (CORN, 40% of DDGS with 8%-12% of moisture, and 40% of MDGS with 45%-55% of moisture - DM basis) and fed for 190 days. The TM muscle had higher concentrations of ω6 FAs and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) when compared to INF. Beef fed CORN showed greater C16:0 and lower C18:0 values when compared to beef fed distillers grains (DGS). Beef fed DDGS had higher concentrations of ω6 FAs when compared to MDGS. Different moisture levels only affected FAs containing 14, 16, and 17 carbons. Different muscles, diets, and moisture levels of DGS affected the deposition of FAs in the lean.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.1241-1241
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• 2022

In the current construction industry, difficulty arises in creating an adequate baseline schedule to establish a fundamental plan for construction. This presentation will present the research findings which investigated industry-recognized schedule metrics that aid in the successful implementation of said schedule. Industry organizations (Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering, the Government Accountability Office, the Project Management Institute, and local city, state, and county government offices) provide standardized guidelines with specific metrics requirements to ensure successful implementation. However, most of those metrics are substantiated or validated in their effectiveness. The study examined the impact between these industry-recognized critical metrics and three distinct scheduling characteristics: Project Type, Project Duration, and Project Density (number of activities within a schedule). The research results showed that, among the 12 various schedules evaluated in parallel with 20 industry-recognized critical metrics, seven metrics substantially demonstrate a significant impact on a project schedule's success. Furthermore, six of the seven metrics directly correlate to at least one of the three scheduling characteristics outlined. As a result, this research has established more predictable outcomes based on impacts between three distinct project characteristics and 20 of the most discussed/researched critical scheduling metrics in the field. This allows management teams to have more confidence in establishing critical milestones and accurate turnover dates from the start of the project through its final completion.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.83-90
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• 2022

Public-private partnerships (PPP) projects are becoming popular in both developed and developing countries due to their ability to access new financing sources and transfer certain project risks to the private sector. PPP has been an active research area where the concept of Critical Success Factors (CSF) is often discussed by researchers. This study aims to identify the CSFs for various PPP infrastructure projects that have been explored in previous CSF studies. This article reviewed the literature about CSF in PPP projects from the years 2002 to 2021, compared the findings of studies regarding the identified CSFs, and consolidated the CSFs that can be applied to various PPP infrastructure projects. The results showed that dominant research focused on general infrastructure, where CSFs can be applied to all infrastructure sectors rather than any specific sector. The most identified CSFs from the study are favorable and efficient legal frameworks, appropriate risk allocation and sharing, a robust and reliable private consortium, a competitive and transparent procurement process, and political support and stability. The findings from the study can provide an overview of CSFs that are relevant to specific PPP infrastructure sectors like building infrastructure, transportation, water, etc. as well as for general infrastructure. In addition, the results can also be used for further empirical analysis.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.50-56
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• 2022

Change Orders generally impact cost and schedule performance of highway projects. However, highway projects that do not have any change orders also face cost growth and schedule delays. This study seeks to determine the cost and schedule performance of Texas DOT projects by collecting project data for 120 highway projects completed between 2016 to 2020. For the study, we selected project data that has zero or negative change orders which were then grouped and analyzed based on their Project Types i.e., maintenance works; structural works; restoration and rehabilitation works; and safety works. The study found that performance of Maintenance and Safety type projects had less cost and schedule growth among the data analyzed. Statistical tests also found that even though the projects have no change orders, Rehabilitation and Restoration type projects experienced significant schedule growth compared to others. However, the data did not show any significant cost and schedule growth for the projects when statistical tests were performed on overall data. The study concluded that highway projects are experiencing schedule growth even though the projects had no change orders. Results from the study can help planners, engineers, and administrators to gain better insight on how different types of highway projects are performing in terms of cost and schedule and eventually derive appropriate solutions to minimize cost and schedule growth in such projects.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.1114-1121
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• 2022

Construction laborers and crews play a critical role in achieving a safe and productive construction site. Many past research studies used top-down approaches/perspectives for studying the impact of laborers' performance on overall construction site outputs with limited flexibility in accounting for laborers' various characteristics. However, the recent reap in computational advances allowed applications of bottom-up architectures, which can potentially incorporate heterogeneous characteristics of laborers' individual behavioral and decision-making features effectively. Accordingly, agent-based modeling (ABM), as a tool to leverage a bottom-up methodological approach, has been widely adopted by recent research. Existing literature investigated the influence of changes in laborers' behaviors and interactions on either construction sites' safety performance or productivity performance individually, leaving the tradeoff between safety and productivity in this context relatively unexplored. Accordingly, this study aims to develop an agent-based framework to study the tradeoff between project safety and productivity performances resulting from changes in laborers' behaviors after attending safety trainings. Our findings via simulations indicate that proper safety trainings can improve safety performance without negatively impacting productivity performance.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.401-407
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• 2022

Central heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) is one of the largest consumers of energy in the residential sector. This project explores the use of multiple HVAC units and/or Zoning in a single residence to reduce energy loads. The energy consumption data of a detached single-family home using two HVAC units, one primary for the main house and a secondary HVAC for a casita, was collected for the same month for two consecutive years, along with details related to the outdoor temperature and the square footage being air-conditioned by each HVAC. A regression algorithm was trained using the above details to find the relation between the parameters. Next, based on the occupancy and usage patterns, the HVAC was redesigned assuming more area under the secondary HVAC unit. The trained algorithm was then used to make energy usage predictions for the revised primary HVAC area, with the assumption that the secondary HVAC unit was turned off. The results were compared with existing energy usage data. It was determined that there were significant energy savings in the second scenario. It is expected that this study and its findings will help future research projects explore more ideas as alternatives to central HVAC, in improving the economic viability of existing options, and in developing a savings calculation tool that will help consumers make informed decisions on their best alternatives to central HVAC.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.67-73
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• 2022

Construction bid documents contain various errors or discrepancies giving rise to uncertainties. The errors/discrepancies/ambiguities in the bid document, if not identified and clarified before the bid, may cause dispute and conflict between the contracting parties. Given the fact that bid document is a major resource in estimating construction costs, inaccurate information in bid document can result in over/under estimating. Thus, any questions from bidders related to the errors in the bid document should be clarified by employers before bid submission. This study aims to examine the pre-bid queries, i.e., pre-bid request for information (RFI), from state DoTs of the United States to investigate error types most frequently encountered in bid documents. For the study, around 200 pre-bids RFI were collected from state DoTs and were classified into several error types (e.g., coordination error, errors in drawings). The analysis of the data showed that errors in bill of quantities is the most frequent error in the bid documents followed by errors in drawing. The study findings addressed uncertainty types in construction bid documents that should be checked during a bid process, and, in a broader sense, it will contribute to advancing the construction management body of knowledge by clarifying and classifying bid risk factors at an early stage of construction projects.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.131-148
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• 1999

Characteristics and complex structures in the northwest Nevada, U.S.A. are de-veloped due to relative tectonic movement of major tectonostratigraphic terranes. Theresearch area is composed of autochthonous rocks of both Early Triassic Koipato Group and Middle Triassic Star Peak Group, which is located in the Humboldt Range, northwest Nevada, U.S.A. The present research is focused on deformation history, related fabric development, and state of regional paleostress during the Jurassic to Late Cretaceous. The Triassic autochthonous rocks in the Humboldt Range, Nevada, U.S.A. display polyphase deformation due to E- to ESE-directed tectonic transport of the Fencemaker allochthon over autochthonous rocks of the Humboldt Range. Structures involving the Mesozoic foreland deformation are development of intense foliation, different styles of folds, minor thrusts, transposed layering, and strong mylonitization. These tectonic structures are mostly developed along the western flank of the Humboldt Range, and are reported as the first deformation of the Mesozoic foreland in the Humboldt Range, Nevada, U.S.A. Regional principal stress(${\sigma}_1$) is interpreted to be E to ESE between the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous on the basis of orientations of strongly developed $D_1$ structures. The deformation during the Middle to Late Cretaceous, is characterized by development of consistent N- to NNE-trending metamorphic quartz veins, and shear zones parallel to pre-existing $D_1$ foliation. Orientations of metamorphic quartz veins as well as other kinematic indicators are N to NNE and are interpreted as those of regional principal stress(${\sigma}_1$) during the Late Cretaceous. The sense of shear applied in the Humbololt Range is dextral and is caused by reactivation of early-formed $D_1$ structures. These results reflect counterclockwise rotation of regional principal paleostress in the Humboldt Range from the Jurassic to Late cretaceous. Finally, development of both shear band cleavage and S/C mylonitic fabrics indicates that the shear zones in the Humboldt Range reflect involvement of enhanced non-coaxial flow during bulk shortening in mylonitic formation.