• Wind and Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.537-564
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• 2015

Excessive motions in buildings cause occupants to become uncomfortable and nervous. This is particularly detrimental to the tenants and ultimately the owner of the building, with respect to financial considerations. Serviceability issues, such as excessive accelerations and inter-story drifts, are more prevalent today due to advancements in the structural systems, strength of materials, and design practices. These factors allow buildings to be taller, lighter, and more flexible, thereby exacerbating the impact of dynamic responses. There is a growing need for innovative and effective techniques to reduce the serviceability responses of these tall buildings. The current study considers a case study of a real building to show the effectiveness and robustness of the TLD in reducing the coupled lateral-torsional motion of this high-rise building under wind loading. Three unique multi-modal TLD systems are designed specifically to mitigate the torsional response of the building. A procedure is developed to analyze a structure-TLD system using High Frequency Force Balance (HFFB) test data from the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory (BLWTL) at the University of Western Ontario. The effectiveness of the unique TLD systems is investigated. In addition, a parametric study is conducted to determine the robustness of the systems in reducing the serviceability responses. Three practical parameters are varied to investigate the robustness of the TLD system: the height of water inside the tanks, the amplitude modification factor, and the structural modal frequencies.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.69-80
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• 2021

Purpose: Consumers have unique behaviors that are classified based on their interests and considerations before buying. They are predicted will change due to the pandemic of COVID-19. This study provides insights for retailers about the dynamic of consumer behavior before and during the pandemic, including future predictions. Research design, data and methodology: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement was applied in this study. Seven studies that were selected from five databases meet the criteria for cohort and cross-sectional analyses of gender, age, store types, and environmental concerns. Results: Consumer's gender and age contribute to consumer behavior change. Both offline and online stores can be integrated as omnichannel rather than substitute each other. Product distribution and consumer budget need to be reevaluated by retailers, while internet security is the most essential factor when developing their online transactions. Conclusions: COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on changing consumer behavior in most countries. Retailers are encouraged to adapt to the changes by modifying their business model with technology. However, it is still speculated and cannot be generalized due to different cultural and contextual factors. Future studies are always needed to synchronize along with the transition of consumers' behavior.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-27
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• 2024

This study investigates the interplay between transformational leadership, personality, and work stress in public organizations, focusing on public servants in Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur. Data from 702 public servants in Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur, out of 800 distributed questionnaires, were analyzed. Rigorous analysis employed a structural equation model (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS-SEM) methodology. Our empirical analysis challenges the conventional belief of a positive correlation between transformational leadership and work stress in public organizations, revealing no direct link between transformational leadership and increased work stress in this context. Our study highlights a significant positive correlation between personality and work stress among public servants, emphasizing the role of individual personality characteristics in shaping work-related stress levels. Finally, personality emerged as a crucial mediator in the transformational leadership-work stress relationship, indicating that transformational leadership indirectly influences work stress through its impact on personality. This underscores the importance of considering personality as a mediating factor in understanding the transformational leadership-work stress dynamic in public organizations. In summary, our research provides insights into the relationship between transformational leadership, personality, and work stress in public organizations. These findings challenge conventional assumptions, emphasize individual differences in stress levels, and underscore the mediating role of personality in addressing work stress among public servants.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.93-104
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• 2024

China is playing more predominant role in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market worldwide and LNG import price is subject to various factors both at home and abroad. Nevertheless, previous studies rarely heed a multiple of factors. A time-varying parameter factor augmented vector auto-regression (TVP-FAVAR) model is adopted to discover the determinants of China's LNG import price and their dynamic impacts from January 2012 to December 2021. According to the findings, market fundamentals have a greater impact on the import price of natural gas in China than overall economic demand, financial considerations, and world oil prices. The primary determinants include domestic gas consumption, consumer confidence and other demand-side information. Then, there are diverse and time-varying spillover effects of the four common determinants on the volatility of China's LNG import price at different intervals and time nodes. The price volatility is more sensitive and long-lasting to domestic natural gas pricing reform than other negative shocks such as the Sino-US trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic. The results in this study further proves the importance of domestic natural gas market liberalization. China ought to do more to support the further marketization of natural gas prices while working harder to guarantee natural gas supplies.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.206-210
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• 2015

Background: Fatigue has a strong impact on workers' performance and safety, but expedient methods for assessing fatigue on the job are not yet available. Studies discuss posturography as an indicator of fatigue, but further evidence for its use in the workplace is needed. The purpose of the study is to examine whether posturography is a suitable indicator of fatigue in clerical workers. Methods: Thirty-six employees (${\emptyset}$ 34.8 years, standard deviation = 12.5) participated in postural tasks (eyes open, eyes closed, arm swinging, and dual task) in the morning and afternoon. Position of their center of pressure (COP) was registered using a Nintendo Wii Balance Board and commercial software. From registered COP time series, we calculated the following parameters: path length (mm), velocity (mm/s), anterior-posterior variance (mm), mediolateral variance (mm), and confidence area ($mm^2$). These parameters were reduced to two orthogonal factors in a factor analysis with varimax rotation. Results: Statistical analysis of the first factor (path length and velocity) showed a significant effect of time of day: COP moved along a shorter path at a lower velocity in the afternoon compared with that in the morning. There also was a significant effect of task, but no significant interaction. Conclusion: Data suggest that postural stability of clerical workers was comparable in the morning and afternoon, but COP movement was greater in the morning. Within the framework of dynamic systems theory, this could indicate that the postural system explored the state space in more detail, and thus was more ready to respond to unexpected perturbations in the morning.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.77-88
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• 2017

PURPOSES : It is necessary to clarify the rheological properties of cement paste as a basic research in the development of mechanistic concrete mix design. The rheological properties of cement paste with different binder types, mix propositions, and with/without high range water reducers have been analyzed. METHODS : In this study, ordinary Portland cement, fly-ash, blast furnace slag, silica fume, and limestone powder were used as binders. The range of water-binder ratio was 0.3-0.5, and a total of 30 different mixes have been tested. The slump flow test, V-funnel test, and Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) test were performed to analyze the rheological properties of cement paste. RESULTS : As a result of the slump flow test, it was found that the composition ratio of the binder contents greatly affected the paste flow when the high range water reducers were added. The results of V-funnel test showed that when the water-binder ratio was decreased without high range water reducers, the binder composition ratio had a large effect on the passing time of the V-funnel tester, but with high range water reducers the impact of the binder composition ratio was decreased. The slump flow and V-funnel have a certain relationship with the rheological factors (yield stress and plastic viscosity), but the correlation was not significant. Finally, we proposed the M-value considering the density and specific surface area of the binder. The correlation between rheological factors and M-value were better demonstrated than experimental values, but there is still a limit to predict the rheological factor in general mix design. CONCLUSIONS :In this study, the rheological properties of cement paste were analyzed. The binder type, composition ratio of binder, and with/without high range water reducers have combined to provide the complex effects on the rheological properties of cement paste. The correlation between the proposed M-value and rheological factor was found to be better than experimental results, but needs to be improved in the future.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.107-117
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• 2014

This study tests homogeneity and performs multiple comparison analysis among treatment levels of each factor group through t-test by materials and analysis of variance by structural type and service period. For that descriptive statistical analysis is performed for static and dynamic response characteristics and their ratios of calculated versus measured values based on a good many safety assessment reports for bridges. Homogeneity and post hoc test based on descriptive statistical analysis provide the measures for homogeneity identification among comparison groups in addition to the statistical reference values such as central tendency, variation and shape. This study is expected to be valuable for structural integrity assessment and design by comparing the measured and calculated values with the reference values for the homogeneous group identified, which can help the engineers review the adequacy of the values and put the group database to practical use.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.976-983
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• 2023

Purpose: The dynamic behavior of a bridge structure under seismic loading depends on many uncertainties, such as the nature of the seismic waves and the material and geometric properties. However, not all uncertainties have a significant impact on the dynamic behavior of a bridge structure. Since probabilistic seismic performance evaluation considering even low-impact uncertainties is computationally expensive, the uncertainties should be identified by considering their impact on the dynamic behavior of the bridge. Therefore, in this study, a global sensitivity analysis was performed to identify the main parameters affecting the dynamic behavior of bridges with I-curved girders. Method: Considering the uncertainty of the earthquake and the material and geometric uncertainty of the curved bridge, a finite element analysis was performed, and a surrogate model was developed based on the analysis results. The surrogate model was evaluated using performance metrics such as coefficient of determination, and finally, a global sensitivity analysis based on the surrogate model was performed. Result: The uncertainty factors that have the greatest influence on the stress response of the I-curved girder under seismic loading are the peak ground acceleration (PGA), the height of the bridge (h), and the yield stress of the steel (fy). The main effect sensitivity indices of PGA, h, and fy were found to be 0.7096, 0.0839, and 0.0352, respectively, and the total sensitivity indices were found to be 0.9459, 0.1297, and 0.0678, respectively. Conclusion: The stress response of the I-shaped curved girder is dominated by the uncertainty of the input motions and is strongly influenced by the interaction effect between each uncertainty factor. Therefore, additional sensitivity analysis of the uncertainty of the input motions, such as the number of input motions and the intensity measure(IM), and a global sensitivity analysis considering the structural uncertainty, such as the number and curvature of the curved girders, are required.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.18 no.3 s.93
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• pp.347-354
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• 2006

In this paper we have attempted to bring the wavelet transform theory to the dynamic response conversion algorithm. This algorithm is proposed for the problem of estimating the displacement data by defining the transformed responses. In this algerian, the displacement response can be obtained from the measured acceleration records by integration without requiring the knowledge of the initial velocity and displacement information. The advantage of the wavelet transform over either a pure spectral or temporal decomposition of the signal is that the pertinent signals features can be characterized in the time-frequency plane. In the response conversion procedure using the wavelet decomposition signals, not only the static component can be extracted, but also the dynamic displacement component can be separated by the structural mode from the identified displacement response. The applicability of the technique is tested by an example problem using the real bridge's superstructure under several cases of moving load. If the reliability of the identified responses is ensured, it is expected that the proposed method for estimating the impact factor can be useful in the bridge's dynamic test. This method can be useful in those practical cases when the direct measurement of the displacement is difficult as in the dynamic studies of huge structure.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.73-80
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• 2012

Recent research efforts have focused on combining high dynamic range imaging with super-resolution reconstruction to enhance both the intensity range and resolution of images. The processes developed to date start with a set of multiple-exposure input images with low dynamic range (LDR) and low resolution (LR), and require several procedural steps: conversion from LDR to HDR, SR reconstruction, and tone mapping. Input images captured with irregular exposure steps have an impact on the quality of the output images from this process. In this paper, we present a simplified framework to replace the separate procedures of previous methods that is also robust to different sets of input images. The proposed method first calculates weight maps to determine the best visible parts of the input images. The weight maps are then applied directly to SR reconstruction, and the best visible parts for the dark and highlighted areas of each input image are preserved without LDR-to-HDR conversion, resulting in high dynamic range. A new luminance control factor (LCF) is used during SR reconstruction to adjust the luminance of input images captured during irregular exposure steps and ensure acceptable luminance of the resulting output images. Experimental results show that the proposed method produces SR images of HDR quality with luminance compensation.