• Journal of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.513-525
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• 2008

Using known properties of superquadratic functions we obtain a sequence of inequalities for superquadratic functions such as the Converse and the Reverse Jensen type inequalities, the Giaccardi and the Petrovic type inequalities and Hermite-Hadamard's inequalities. Especially, when the superquadratic function is convex at the same time, then we get refinements of classical known results for convex functions. Some other properties of superquadratic functions are also given.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.729-736
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• 2013

Knowledge of a power semiconductor's operating temperature is important in circuit design and converter control. Designing appropriate circuitry that does not affect regular circuit operation during virtual junction temperature measurement at actual operating conditions is a demanding task for engineers. The proposed method enables virtual junction temperature estimation with a dedicated modified gate driver circuit based on real-time measurement of a semiconductor's quasi-threshold voltage. A simulation was conducted before the circuit was designed to verify the concept and to determine the basic properties and potential drawbacks of the proposed method.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.324-345
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• 2015

A new procedure for determining properties of thick plate finite elements, based on the modified Mindlin theory for moderately thick plate, is presented. Bending deflection is used as a potential function for the definition of total (bending and shear) deflection and angles of cross-section rotations. As a result of the introduced interdependence among displacements, the shear locking problem, present and solved in known finite element formulations, is avoided. Natural vibration analysis of rectangular plate, utilizing the proposed four-node quadrilateral finite element, shows higher accuracy than the sophisticated finite elements incorporated in some commercial software. In addition, the relation between thick and thin finite element properties is established, and compared with those in relevant literature.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.122-131
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• 2019

The majority of children with cerebral palsy (CP) have feeding difficulties and are especially prone to malnutrition. The early involvement of a multidisciplinary team should aim to prevent malnutrition and provide adequate nutritional support. Thorough nutritional assessment, including body composition, should be a prerequisite for the nutritional intervention. As in typically-developed children nutritional support should start with dietary advice and the modification of oral feeding, if safe and acceptable. However, for prolonged feeding, in the presence of unsafe swallowing and inadequate oral intake, enteral nutrition should be promptly initiated and early gastrostomy placement should be evaluated and discussed with parents/caregivers. Gastrointestinal problems (oropharyngeal dysfunction, gastroesophageal disease, and constipation) in children with CP are frequent and should be actively detected and adequately treated as they can further worsen the feeding process and nutritional status.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.545-560
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• 2021

An in situ experiment imaged via X-ray computed tomography was performed on a continuous glass fiber mat reinforced epoxy resin composite. The investigated dogbone specimen was subjected to uniaxial cyclic tension. The reconstructed scans (i.e., gray level volumes) were registered via Digital Volume Correlation. The calculated maximum principal strain fields and correlation residual maps exhibited strain localization areas within the material bulk, thus indicating damage inception and growth toward the specimen surface. Strained bands and areas of elevated correlation residuals were mainly concentrated in the narrowest gauge section of the investigated specimen, as well as on the specimen ligament edges. Gray level residuals were laid over the corresponding mesostructure to highlight and characterize damage development within the material bulk.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.505-522
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• 2014

While effects of the atmospheric boundary layer flow on engineering infrastructure are more or less known, some local transient winds create difficulties for structures, traffic and human activities. Hence, further research is required to fully elucidate flow characteristics of some of those very unique local winds. In this study, important characteristics of observed vertical velocity profiles along the main wind direction for the gusty Bora wind blowing along the eastern Adriatic coast are presented. Commonly used empirical power-law and the logarithmic-law profiles are compared against unique 3-level high-frequency Bora measurements. The experimental data agree well with the power-law and logarithmic-law approximations. An interesting feature observed is a decrease in the power-law exponent and aerodynamic surface roughness length, and an increase in friction velocity with increasing Bora wind velocity. This indicates an urban-like velocity profile for smaller wind velocities and rural-like velocity profile for larger wind velocities, which is due to a stronger increase in absolute velocity at each of the heights observed as compared to the respective velocity gradient (difference in average velocity among two different heights). The trends observed are similar during both the day and night. The thermal stratification is near neutral due to a strong mechanical mixing. The differences in aerodynamic surface roughness length are negligible for different time averaging periods when using the median. For the friction velocity, the arithmetic mean proved to be independent of the time record length, while for the power-law exponent both the arithmetic mean and the median are not influenced by the time averaging period. Another issue is a large difference in aerodynamic surface roughness length when calculating using the arithmetic mean and the median. This indicates that the more robust median is a more suitable parameter to determine the aerodynamic surface roughness length than the arithmetic mean value. Variations in velocity profiles at the same site during different wind periods are interesting because, in the engineering community, it has been commonly accepted that the aerodynamic characteristics at a particular site remain the same during various wind regimes.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.117-122
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of the present randomized controlled clinical study was to evaluate the short-term outcomes of micro-current electrical neuromuscular stimulation (MENS) as an adjunct method to nonsurgical periodontal therapy. Methods: Twenty patients with moderate to severe chronic periodontitis were recruited into the study and randomly treated with either nonsurgical periodontal therapy followed by 5 MENS treatments with a micro current device or by nonsurgical periodontal therapy alone. Periodontal parameters were measured at baseline and 6 weeks following therapy, and included the plaque index, bleeding on probing, probing depth, and clinical attachment level (CAL). Results: All measured values were reduced at the time of re-evaluation. The amount of inflammation was significantly reduced in both the test (P=0.002) and control group (P=0.015). The test group demonstrated a significant CAL gain at 6 weeks following therapy, including non-molar (P=0.009) and molar teeth (P=0.028). In comparison with the control group, the test group showed statistically significant differences in the CAL on both molar (P=0.027) and non-molar teeth (P=0.031). Conclusions: In conclusion, the short-term results of the study indicate that MENS could be a suitable adjunctive method in the treatment of chronic periodontitis.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.579-611
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• 2017

Bora is a strong, usually dry temporally and spatially transient wind that is common at the eastern Adriatic Coast and many other dynamically similar regions around the world. One of the Bora main characteristics is its gustiness, when wind velocities can reach up to five times the mean velocity. Bora often creates significant problems to traffic, structures and human life in general. In this study, Bora velocity and near-ground turbulence are studied using the results of three-level high-frequency Bora field measurements carried out on a meteorological tower near the city of Split, Croatia. These measurements are analyzed for a period from April 2010 until June 2011. This rather long period allows for making quite robust and reliable conclusions. The focus is on mean Bora velocity, turbulence intensity, Reynolds shear stress and turbulence length scale profiles, as well as on Bora velocity power spectra and thermal stratification. The results are compared with commonly used empirical laws and recommendations provided in the ESDU 85020 wind engineering standard to question its applicability to Bora. The obtained results report some interesting findings. In particular, the empirical power- and logarithmic laws proved to fit mean Bora velocity profiles well. With decreasing Bora velocity there is an increase in the power-law exponent and aerodynamic surface roughness length, and simultaneously a decrease in friction velocity. This indicates an urban-like velocity profile for smaller wind velocities and a rural-like velocity profile for larger wind velocities. Bora proved to be near-neutral thermally stratified. Turbulence intensity and lateral component of turbulence length scales agree well with ESDU 85020 for this particular terrain type. Longitudinal and vertical turbulence length scales, Reynolds shear stress and velocity power spectra differ considerably from ESDU 85020. This may have significant implications on calculations of Bora wind loads on structures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.19-36
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• 2019

Cyclic behaviour of composite (steel-concrete) plate shear walls (CPSW) with variable column flexural stiffness is experimentally and numerically investigated. The investigation included design, fabrication and testing of three pairs of one-bay one-storey CPSW specimens. The reference specimen pair was designed in way that its column flexural stiffness corresponds to the value required by the design codes, while within the other two specimen pairs column flexural stiffness was reduced by 18% and 36%, respectively. Specimens were subjected to quasi-static cyclic tests. Obtained results indicate that column flexural stiffness reduction in CPSW does not have negative impact on the overall behaviour allowing for satisfactory performance for up to 4% storey drift ratio while also enabling inelastic buckling of the infill steel plate. Additionally, in comparison to similar steel plate shear wall (SPSW) specimens, column "pull-in" deformations are less pronounced within CPSW specimens. Therefore, the results indicate that prescribed minimal column flexural stiffness value used for CPSW might be conservative, and can additionally be reduced when compared to the prescribed value for SPSWs. Furthermore, finite element (FE) pushover simulations were conducted using shell and solid elements. Such FE models can adequately simulate cyclic behaviour of CPSW and as such could be further used for numerical parametric analyses. It is necessary to mention that the implemented pushover FE models were not able to adequately reproduce column "pull-in" deformation and that further development of FE simulations is required where cyclic loading of the shear walls needs to be simulated.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.102-114
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• 2021

Biofouling represents an important problem in the shipping industry since it causes the increase in surface roughness. The most of ships in the current world fleet do not have good coating condition which represents an important problem due to strict rules regarding ship energy efficiency. Therefore, the importance of the control and management of the hull and propeller fouling is highlighted by the International Maritime Organization and the maintenance schedule optimization became valuable energy saving measure. For adequate implementation of this measure, the accurate prediction of the effects of biofouling on the hydrodynamic characteristics is required. Although computational fluid dynamics approach, based on the modified wall function approach, has imposed itself as one of the most promising tools for this prediction, it requires significant computational time. However, during the maintenance schedule optimization, it is important to rapidly predict the effect of biofouling on the ship hydrodynamic performance. In this paper, the effect of biofilm on the ship hydrodynamic performance is studied using the proposed performance prediction method for three merchant ships. The applicability of this method in the assessment of the effect of biofilm on the ship hydrodynamic performance is demonstrated by comparison of the obtained results using the proposed performance prediction method and computational fluid dynamics approach. The comparison has shown that the highest relative deviation is lower than 4.2% for all propulsion characteristics, lower than 1.5% for propeller rotation rate and lower than 5.2% for delivered power. Thus, a practical tool for the estimation of the effect of biofouling with lower fouling severity on the ship hydrodynamic performance is developed.