To reduce the environmental impacts and costs of production biolubricant, this work proposes use vegetable oil mixtures that have not been chemically modified. Formulations biolubricants were proposed with jatropha curcas, castor, macauba kernel, pulp oils since these potential physical-chemical properties to generate a high-performance biolubricant. A simplex centroid quaternary mixture design...

It has long been recognized that personality test scores are influenced by non-test-relevant response determinants. Wiggins and Rumrill (1959) distinguish three approaches to this problem. Briefly, interest in the problem of response distortion has been concerned with attempts at statistical correction for "faking good" or "faking bad" (Meehl & Hathaway, 1946), the analysis of response sets (Cr...

BACKGROUND Self-reported cancer screening behaviors are often overreported and may lead to biased estimates of prevalence and of subgroup differences in screening. We examined whether the tendency to give socially desirable responses was associated with concordance between self-reported colorectal cancer (CRC) screening behaviors and medical records. METHODS Primary care patients (n = 857) ag...

In many countries pension systems involve some form of earnings test; i.e., an invidual’s benefits are reduced if he has labor income. This paper examines whether or not such earning tests emerge when pension system and income tax are optimally designed. We use a simple model with individuals differing both in productivity and their health status. The working life of an individual has two “endi...

This paper proposes the modification of a technique of simultaneous optimization of multiple response variables that works using a Bayesian predictive distribution, to incorporate different weights to the response variables according to their importance in the products. To achieve this, the desirability function has been incorporated to the original proposal. This research shows by representing...

Background: The use of the desirability function approach combined with the response surface methodology (RSM), also called Desirability Optimization Methodology (DOM), has been successfully applied to solve medical, chemical, and technological questions. It is particularly effi cient for the determination of the optimal conditions in natural or industrial processes involving d...

CBR is one of the techniques that can be applied to the task of approximating a function over high-dimensional, continuous spaces. In Reinforcement Learning systems a learning agent is faced with the problem of assessing the desirability of the state it finds itself in. If the state space is very large and/or continuous the availability of a suitable mechanism to approximate a value function – ...

The use of Emotional Intelligence (EI) questionnaires and scales in the workplace has been growing rapidly over the last decade. EI has been a popular measure to develop key competencies in staff in the workplace and has started to be used in guiding staff recruitment and selection. Because most questionnaires involve self report assessment, the use of EI scales to assist in employee recruitmen...

Abstract The decisions and personal preferences of the designer are vital for all aspects and stages of the design. To elaborate, the designer has the central role in creation, development, detailing and construction of the built forms. Also, the scientific/engineering evaluations of the design models are carried out under the directions and decisions of the designer. The paper explores the con...