To judge about the performance of designed support system for tunnels, structural forces i.e. peak values of axial and shear forces and moments are critical parameters. So in this study, at first a complete database using finite element method was prepared. Then, a model of artificial neural network (ANN) using multi-layer perceptron was developed to estimate lining structural forces. Sensitivi...

The past 20-years have seen the development and evaluation of many health status measures. Unlike the high standards demanded of those who conduct and report clinical intervention trials, the methodological rigor for studies examining the sensitivity to change of health status measures are less demanding. It is likely that the absence of a criterion standard for change in health status contribu...

In this paper, coefficient sensitivity of polynomialpredictive FIR differentiators (PPFD) is investigated for implementations in fixed point environments, and advantageous guidelines for creating robust designs are given. By joint selection of an appropriate filter length and implementation structure, sufficient prediction and differentiation properties can be maintained even in short word-leng...

Farmworkers experience many work-related hazards, including exposure to neurotoxicants. We compared neurobehavioral performance of 288 farmworkers in central Florida who had done farm work for at least 1 month with 51 controls who had not. Most of the farmworkers had worked in one or more of three types of agriculture: ornamental ferns, nurseries, or citrus fruit. We collected information on fa...

This paper introduces some of the research behind automatic scoring of the speaking part of the Arizona English Language Learner Assessment, a large-scale test now operational for students in Arizona. Approximately 70% of the students tested are in the range 4-11 years old. We cover the methods used to assess spoken responses automatically, considering both what the student says and the way in ...

Several semi-analytical algorithms have been developed to estimate the chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) and phycocyanin (PC) concentrations in inland waters. This study aimed at identifying the influence of algorithm parameters on the output variables and searching optimal parameter values. The optimal parameters of seven semi-analytical algorithms were applied to estimate the Chl-a and PC concentrations....