ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS AND PERFORMANCE-BASED DESIGN FRAMEWORKS FOR RESILIENT RAIL-CORRIDOR INFRASTRUCTURE

Objective The aims of this study are the translation, cultural adaptation, and validation of the Community Integration Questionnaire–Revised (CIQ-R) in Italian in a group of individuals with no clinical evidence of disability. Methods The test's internal consistency and validity were assessed by following international guidelines. The test's internal consistency was examined using Cronbach's alpha (α) coefficient. Pearson's correlation coefficient was calculated to assess the test's concurrent validity compared with the Short Form-12 (SF-12) health survey. Results The CIQ-R was administrated to 400 people with no clinical evidence of disease, impairment, or disability, aged between 18 and 64. Cronbach's α reported a value of 0.82 in the home integration subscale. The test also showed a good test-retest reliability, with an Intraclass Correlation Coefficient of 0.78, and a significant correlation between the total score of the CIQ-R and the Physical Component Summary (PCS) of the SF-12 (r = 0.118), between the “social integration” subscale's score and PCS12 (r = 0.121) and between the “Electronic Social Networking integration” subscale's score and PCS12 (r = 0.184), with p < 0.05. Conclusion This is the first study to report the results of the translation and validation of the CIQ-R in Italian. The CIQ-R is an important tool for Italian professionals and can be useful in both clinical practice and research for measuring the level of community integration among the healthy population.

Background:The present study aimed to develop an instrument for assessing nursing students' satisfaction with First Clinical Practical Education (SFCPE), and then to test the validity and reliability of the instrument.Materials and Methods:In this methodological research, the views of a panel of 15 clinical professors, in terms of the clinical nursing principles and skills training, were used to develop the instrument. The content validity of the instrument was evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively based on the panel's views. The data was collected from the questionnaire completed by 380 second- and third-semester nursing students in 15 medical universities of Iran. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was later performed to determine the construct validity of the instrument. The reliability of the instrument and stability analysis were evaluated using the internal consistency test by calculating Cronbach's alpha and by the test-retest method, respectively.Results:Throughout the development phase, 16 items were added to the SFCPE instrument, and a 42-item instrument was later developed. During the qualitative and quantitative content validity reviews, the number of added items decreased to 38 items. Finally, a 37-item instrument consisting of seven factors was developed. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.95 and 0.75–0.9 were obtained for the whole instrument and the factors, respectively. Pearson's correlation coefficient was within the normal range (0.71–1).Conclusions:The developed SFCPE is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used for assessing the satisfaction of nursing students in terms of clinical nursing principles and skills.

PrefaceThis issue of Proceedings gathers the papers presented at 2018 International Conference on Advanced Electronic Materials, Computers and Materials Engineering (AEMCME 2018) held on September 14-16, 2018 in National University of Singapore, Singapore. AEMCME is an international conference covering research and development in the field of advanced electronic materials and computers and allow the participation from all over the world.More than 400 papers were submitted on the conference, and AEMCME finally accepted 280 papers after a double blinded peer review process by international reviewers and technical program committee members. Divided into 4 chapters, the papers provide a wide spectrum of researches on wide range of advanced electronic materials and computers. The chapters are devoted to Advanced Electronic Materials, Computers, Information Engineering and Application, Materials Physics, Chemistry and Engineering, as well as Power, Energy Systems and Engineering. Specific research results by conference participants were presented and examined in the light of the frameworks outlined above, which is of interest to academics, researchers and professionals in this field.Three keynote speeches were presented from Prof. Hao Gong, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Prof. Alfonso Maffezzoli, University of Salento, Italy; Prof. X.H. Zhu, Sichuan University, China separately. All the talks were very impressive for the high level of professionalism, and in many cases original ideas and activities have been accomplished or proposed.List of committees are available in this pdf.

It is a great privilege and honor for me to serve as the Editor-in-Chief of Advanced Materials Science and Technology (AMST). I want to express my heartfelt thanks to the editorial team for their efforts to make the journal going to the success. AMST, founded in 2019, is publishing research papers of high quality in the field of materials science and technology. Materials science and industry&nbsp;are entering a new era of green, high-end and intelligent, under pressure from the global community on the environment and energy&nbsp;needs[1-3]. Many countries are developing strategies for clean energy and low-carbon innovation. This depends to a great extent on the innovation research of new materials, functional materials and intelligent materials and development of related science and technology[4,5]. It is under such background and requirement that our journal, AMST, was founded and is fast growing, providing a platform to&nbsp;the scientific community for the exchange of knowledge about the chemistry and technology of new materials, especially to the increasingly inter- and multidisciplinary nature of materials-based research. Our&nbsp;journal is to give some insight into the opportunities and challenges related to advanced materials science and technology, and to call on more researchers participating actively in and sharing the chance. AMST&nbsp;is serving our readers with high level papers under our rigorous but fair peer-review procedures, and publish on a not-for-profit basis for the benefit of the scientific community. Indeed, we try our best to take&nbsp;the journal forward to continue growing as a trusted and respected gold open access venue for the publication of high quality, impactful results on the frontiers of materials-based research. We hope you enjoy this rising star in materials research as much as we do, and wonderful future issues is coming.

This study addresses the problem that utility SCADA communication backbones using MPLS-TP, SONET, and hybrid transport environments remain highly critical to grid operations, yet transport-layer security is often assessed less rigorously than broader SCADA cybersecurity despite exposure to unauthorized access, misconfiguration, weak IT/OT segmentation, denial-of-service, insider misuse, and physical fiber threats. The purpose of the study was to examine how threat modeling, security hardening controls, and mitigation strategies influence security performance and resilience in utility energy fiber infrastructures through a quantitative, cross-sectional, case-based design grounded in cloud and enterprise style utility communication cases. Data were collected through a structured five-point Likert questionnaire from professionals involved in SCADA operations, utility telecom, OT security, and infrastructure management. Of 150 distributed questionnaires, 132 were returned and 126 usable responses were analyzed, yielding an 84.0% usable response rate. The sample included respondents from MPLS-TP-only cases (22.2%), SONET-only cases (19.0%), and hybrid MPLS-TP/SONET cases (58.7%). Key variables were threat modeling practices, security hardening controls, mitigation strategies, and security and resilience outcomes. Analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression. Reliability was strong across constructs, with alpha values ranging from 0.86 to 0.90. Descriptive findings showed high mean scores for threat modeling (M = 4.08, SD = 0.62), security hardening (M = 4.21, SD = 0.57), mitigation strategies (M = 4.16, SD = 0.60), and security outcomes (M = 4.19, SD = 0.55). Correlation results indicated significant positive relationships with security outcomes for threat modeling (r = 0.61), security hardening (r = 0.74), and mitigation strategies (r = 0.68), all at p &lt; .01. Regression results showed that the model was significant, F = 41.87, p &lt; .001, explaining 50.7% of the variance in security and resilience outcomes (R² = 0.507), with security hardening as the strongest predictor (β = 0.41), followed by mitigation strategies (β = 0.29) and threat modeling (β = 0.24). The study implies that utility operators should prioritize protocol-aware hardening, especially in hybrid environments, to strengthen resilience, continuity, and infrastructure protection.

Numerous riser, mooring, pipeline, subsea, and topside components made of polyester, titanium, glass/epoxy, and glass/carbon/epoxy materials are commercially available or in the process of qualification for offshore use. These advanced material components have potential to extend capabilities of existing platform concepts such as Semisubmersibles, TLPs, FPSOs and SPARs. Emerging field development concepts such as deepwater subsea processing and long tie-backs, new floating platform designs (variations of TLP and Spar concepts), new riser systems (submerged platforms, free standing riser towers, and buoyancy systems) may also benefit from the advanced materials components. This paper summarize technical and commercial issues in integration of advanced material components to offshore field development. Introduction As the offshore industry moves aggressively to pursue deeper water developments, composite materials are finding a wide range of new applications for both topside and subsea structures. The number and volume of composite material applications will continually increase provided that the composite industry responds to the unique challenges of the offshore industry. Offshore industry acceptance of these components depends on exploiting the potential of advanced materials to increase the platform performance and cost effectiveness, and to reduce technical risks compared to steel component counterparts. When favorable combinations of these factors exist, technological, economical, and regulatory barriers can be overcome. The relationship among risk, cost, and performance in commercial applications of advanced materials is illustrated in Figure 1. Performance. All commercially available and emerging advanced material components offer superior performance characteristics when compared to their steel counterparts. The performance advantages are typically combinations of lower weight, higher strength, higher fatigue resistance, higher durability, and enhanced corrosion resistance. Constituent properties, along with the design-to-fit characteristics of the advanced materials, are the main reasons for this increase in performance. The performance improvement can be at the component level, such as a corrosion resistant firewater pipe or a keel joint, or at the system integration level where the weight savings and superior performance of individual components allows potential cost and performance benefits in associated platform systems. Light weight composite TLP tendons and risers, for example, may allow significant downsizing of the TLP. Figure 1. Advanced materials technology drivers for offshore applications (Available in full paper) Cost. Although advanced material components are typically more expensive than their steel counterparts, the added costs are often justified by improvements in component or system performance. For deepwater platforms, the cost benefit of advanced materials can be significant when evaluated at the system level. Weight savings in the risers, tendons, and mooring components will lead to more cost-effective floating platform designs. Risk. Offshore industry acceptance of advanced material components is directly related to operational risks. For low risk applications, such as certain topside components, it is easier to address regulatory concerns and to overcome the technical challenges of replacing steel components. For highrisk applications, such as moorings and risers, the regulatory requirements are more stringent, making already significant technical challenges even more difficult. The three drivers (performance, cost, and risk) of offshore advanced materials technology are combined in Figure 1 to ge

AimsTo develop a questionnaire to identify Intensive Care survivor needs at key transitions during the recovery process, and assess its validity and reliability in a group of ICU survivors.MethodsDevelopment of the Support Needs After ICU (SNAC) questionnaire was based on a systematic scoping review, and analysis of patient interviews (n = 22). Face and content validity were assessed by service users (n = 12) and an expert panel of healthcare professionals (n = 6). A pilot survey among 200 ICU survivors assessed recruitment at one of five different stages after ICU discharge [(1) in hospital, (2) < 6 weeks, (3) 7 weeks to 6 months, (4) 7 to 12 months, or (5) 12 to 24 months post‐hospital discharge]; to assess reliability of the SNAC questionnaire; and to conduct exploratory data analysis. Reliability was determined using Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency; intraclass correlation coefficients for test–retest reliability. We explored correlations with sociodemographic variables using Pearson's correlation coefficient; differences between questionnaire scores and patient demographics using one‐way ANOVA.ResultsThe SNAC questionnaire consisted of 32 items that assessed five categories of support needs (informational, emotional, instrumental [e.g. practical physical help, provision of equipment or training], appraisal [e.g. clinician feedback on recovery] and spiritual needs). ICU survivors were recruited from Northern Ireland, England and Scotland. From a total of 375 questionnaires distributed, 202 (54%) were returned. The questionnaire had high internal consistency (0.97) and high test–retest reliability (r = 0.8) with subcategories ranging from 0.3 to 0.9.ConclusionsThe SNAC questionnaire appears to be a comprehensive, valid, and reliable questionnaire. Further research will enable more robust examination of its properties e.g. factor analysis, and establish its utility in identifying whether patients' support needs evolve over time.Relevance to clinical practiceThe SNAC questionnaire has the potential to be used to identify ICU survivors' needs and inform post‐hospital support services.

Once fundamental scientific laws are understood, engineering technology depends on advances in materials – materials science – more than any other factor. Historically, ages have been named for the most advanced materials technology available: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. If you look around the room you are in, you will recognize that our current age is the age of manufactured materials: plastics, ceramics, acrylics, polyester fibers, etc. Underlying the “Information Age” are the advances in electronic materials that have made possible the computers, displays, and communications equipment that enable information transfer and processing. Selecting materials with desirable properties and then processing to enhance these properties is now standard practice. The next generation of materials will include nanoscale manipulation and fabrication of materials unlike anything found in nature. These new nanomaterials can be predicted to have properties exceeding any currently available materials.

The present issue of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) contains 113 selected manuscripts submitted to the 8th Global Conference on Materials Science and Engineering (CMSE 2019), which was held during November 12-15, 2019 in Sanya, Hainan Province, China, and was sponsored by Sage Publishing. Since 2012, CMSE provides an annual international academic platform for participants from all over the world to share new theoretical and experimental approaches and findings in all aspects of materials science and engineering.This conference attracted 150 participants from universities, research institutes and technological innovative enterprises from 17 countries. The conference had parallel sessions with dedicated selected topics on: Advanced Material Technologies, Energy materials and Semiconductors, Nanomaterials, Surface and Coatings Technology, Characterization & Testing and Structural materials. The technical program consisted of 4 keynote, 15 invited, 43 oral and 31 poster presentations.The electronic submission, double-blind peer reviewing, revision and polishing procedures for the selected manuscripts complied with high standards and requirements for regular international peer-reviewed publications. The contribution of our regular reviewers and authors ensured a high level and novelty of CMSE2019 reports, while sponsors, Technical and Organizing Committees provided a state-of-the-art technical background and creative atmosphere.

Solar Turbines Incorporated (Solar), under cooperative agreement number DE-FC26-0CH11049, has conducted development activities to improve the durability of the Mercury 50 combustion system to 30,000 hours life and reduced life cycle costs. This project is part of Advanced Materials in the Advanced Industrial Gas Turbines program in DOE's Office of Distributed Energy. The targeted development engine was the Mercury{trademark} 50 gas turbine, which was developed by Solar under the DOE Advanced Turbine Systems program (DOE contract number DE-FC21-95MC31173). As a generator set, the Mercury 50 is used for distributed power and combined heat and power generation and is designed to achieve 38.5% electrical efficiency, reduced cost of electricity, and single digit emissions. The original program goal was 20,000 hours life, however, this goal was increased to be consistent with Solar's standard 30,000 hour time before overhaul for production engines. Through changes to the combustor design to incorporate effusion cooling in the Generation 3 Mercury 50 engine, which resulted in a drop in the combustor wall temperature, the current standard thermal barrier coated liner was predicted to have 18,000 hours life. With the addition of the advanced materials technology being evaluated under this program, the combustor life is predicted to be over 30,000 hours. The ultimate goal of the program was to demonstrate a fully integrated Mercury 50 combustion system, modified with advanced materials technologies, at a host site for a minimum of 4,000 hours. Solar was the Prime Contractor on the program team, which includes participation of other gas turbine manufacturers, various advanced material and coating suppliers, nationally recognized test laboratories, and multiple industrial end-user field demonstration sites. The program focused on a dual path development route to define an optimum mix of technologies for the Mercury 50 and future gas turbine products. For liner and injector development, multiple concepts including high thermal resistance thermal barrier coatings (TBC), oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloys, continuous fiber ceramic composites (CFCC), and monolithic ceramics were evaluated before down-selection to the most promising candidate materials for field evaluation. Preliminary, component and sub-scale testing was conducted to determine material properties and demonstrate proof-of-concept. Full-scale rig and engine testing was used to validated engine performance prior to field evaluation at a Qualcomm Inc. cogeneration site located in San Diego, California. To ensure that the CFCC liners with the EBC proposed under this program would meet the target life, field evaluations of ceramic matrix composite liners in Centaur{reg_sign} 50 gas turbine engines, which had previously been conducted under the DOE sponsored Ceramic Stationary Gas Turbine program (DE-AC02-92CE40960), was continued under this program at commercial end-user sites under Program Subtask 1A - Extended CFCC Materials Durability Testing. The goal of these field demonstrations was to demonstrate significant component life, with milestones of 20,000 and 30,000 hours. Solar personnel monitor the condition of the liners at the field demonstration sites through periodic borescope inspections and emissions measurements. This program was highly successful at evaluating advanced materials and down-selecting promising solutions for use in gas turbine combustions systems. The addition of the advanced materials technology has enabled the predicted life of the Mercury 50 combustion system to reach 30,000 hours, which is Solar's typical time before overhaul for production engines. In particular, a 40 mil thick advanced Thermal Barrier Coating (TBC) system was selected over various other TBC systems, ODS liners and CFCC liners for the 4,000-hour field evaluation under the program. This advanced TBC is now production bill-of-material at various thicknesses up to 40 mils for all of Solar's advanced backside-cooled combustor liners (Centaur 50, Taurus 60, Mars 100, Taurus 70, Taurus 65, Titan 130, Titan 250 and Mercury 50). This TBC coating system significantly outperformed all other TBC systems evaluated under the program. The initial field unit, with the 40 mil advanced TBC developed under this program, has far exceeded the 4,000-hour requirement of the program, accumulating over 20,000 hours of commercial operation at Qualcomm Inc. in San Diego, CA. The 40 mil advanced TBC remains in excellent condition, with no evidence of chipping or spalling. The engine will continue operation until the unit is due for overhaul at approximately 30,000 hours. The Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) alloy injector tip testing and evaluation was also successful, however, the ODS injector tip development on this program was terminated, primarily due to the fact that the Mercury 50 injector tip was redesigned (Generation 3) by Combustion Engineering.

Background: The Assessment of Quality of Life-4 Dimensions (AQoL-4D) instrument is a general instrument used to measure quality of life; it was developed by Australian researchers using psychometric techniques. AQoL-4D measures four dimensions: independent living, relationships, senses, and mental health, where the health dimension represents the domain of health-related quality of life. Each dimension has three questions, so in total AQoL-4D has 12 questions. Objective: To translate, validate and test the reliability of the Indonesian version of the AQoL-4D instrument. Method: The process of translating and adopting AQoL-4D from English to Indonesian is divided into four stages: forward translation, expert panel, backward translation, cognitive interviewing and pre-testing. The visual validity test was carried out during the cognitive interviewing and pre-testing stages. The final version of the Indonesian AQoL-4D was tested for construct validity and reliability by comparing the product-moment correlation coefficient, the value of r-count, with the value of r-table (α; df). Furthermore, the instrument was tested for reliability using an internal consistency test with alpha coefficients (Cronbach's Alpha). Result: Respondents came from several health centers in Surabaya and totaled to 142 respondents. The results of the construct validity test obtained an r-count ranging from 0.347 to 0.595. The reliability test results showed that the total value of Cronbach's alpha was 0.669. Conclusion: The Indonesian version of AQoL-4D has moderate validity and reliability.

The Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing (BAM) – 150 Years of Enabling Scientific and Technological Breakthrough

The main objective of this Special Issue is to showcase outstanding papers presenting advanced materials for clothing and textile engineering [...].

Cellulose of bacterial origin, known as bacterial cellulose (BC), is one of the most versatile biomaterials that has a huge potential in tissue engineering due to its favourable mechanical properties, high hydrophilicity, crystallinity, and purity. Additional properties such as porous nano-fibrillar 3D structure and a high degree of polymerisation of BC mimic the properties of the native extracellular matrix (ECM), making it an excellent material for the fabrication of composite scaffolds suitable for cell growth and tissue development. Recently, the fabrication of BC-based scaffolds, including composites and blends with nanomaterials, and other biocompatible polymers has received particular attention owing to their desirable properties for tissue engineering. These have proven to be promising advanced materials in hard and soft tissue engineering. This review presents the latest state-of-the-art modified/functionalised BC-based composites and blends as advanced materials in tissue engineering. Their applicability as an ideal biomaterial in targeted tissue repair including bone, cartilage, vascular, skin, nerve, and cardiac tissue has been discussed. Additionally, this review briefly summarises the latest updates on the production strategies and characterisation of BC and its composites and blends. Finally, the challenges in the future development and the direction of future research are also discussed.

New materials are continuously made available to meet the modern need for various applications in civil engineering. This book consists of eight chapters describing the advanced materials in civil engineering. The various chapters includes the use of construction and demolition waste material for soil stabilization;review on application and performance of RAP in highway construction; static load response of laminated composite stiffened cylindrical shell using finite element analysis; review on the importance of coarse recycled concrete aggregates as alternative construction materials; performance evaluation of light transmitting concrete made with plastic optical fibers; effect of water to geopolymer solids ratio on properties of fly ash and slag-based one-part geopolymer binders; impact response of laminated composite simply- supported stiffened conoidal shell with cut-out and finally statistical review of bamboo's mechanical properties for building applications.