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Effective Design (effective + design)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Engineering50%

Selected Abstracts

Remediation of sites contaminated by oil refinery operations

ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRESS & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, Issue 1 2006
S. Khaitan
The oil industry contributes to contamination of groundwater and aquifers beneath refineries and oil terminals. The successful remediation of a contaminated site requires understanding both the hydrogeology and the nature and extent of contamination. The physical,chemical and biological mechanisms that govern contaminant release, transport and fate in soils, sediments, and associated fluid phases must be understood and quantified. In addition, understanding the flow and entrapment of nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) including lighter-than-water nonaqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs) in contaminated aquifers is important for the effective design of the recovery and remediation schemes. Current remedial technologies and risk assessment techniques to remediate former oil refinery sites contaminated by NAPLs are described in this paper. Emphasis is given to the most promising remediation techniques such as pump-and-treat, on-site bioremediation, phytoremediation, in situ soil washing, and thermal-based technologies, such as steam-enhanced extraction. Some enhancements to pump-and-treat techniques such as solvent flushing, polymer enhanced flushing, and air stripping are also discussed. Finally, important risk-based cleanup criteria associated with contaminated soil at refineries are presented. © 2005 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2005 [source]

Can interactivity make a difference?

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 6 2007
Effects of interactivity on the comprehension of, attitudes toward online health content
The Internet is increasingly being recognized for its potential for health communication and education. The perceived relative advantage of the Internet over other media is its cost-effectiveness and interactivity, which in turn contribute to its persuasive capabilities. Ironically, despite its potential, we are nowhere nearer understanding how interactivity affects processing of health information and its contribution in terms of health outcomes. An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of Web interactivity on comprehension of and attitudes towards two health Web sites, and whether individual differences might moderate such effects. Two sites on skin cancer were designed with different levels of interactivity and randomly assigned to 441 undergraduate students (aged 18,26) at a large southeastern university. The findings suggest that interactivity can significantly affect comprehension as well as attitudes towards health Web sites. The article also discusses insights into the role of interactivity on online health communications, and presents implications for the effective design of online health content. [source]

A framework for compensation plans with incentive value

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT, Issue 2 2007
William J. Liccione
Although Vroom's expectancy theory and its later application to the workplace by Lawler have significant implications for the development of compensation plans with incentive value, they do not consider at least two critical components of incentive plan design: individuals' initial commitment to their goals and the relative value of rewards individuals receive for accomplishing their goals. This article integrates expectancy theory, goal theory, and equity theory into a comprehensive framework for the effective design of compensation plans with incentive value. [source]

Applying the proximity compatibility and the control-display compatibility principles to engineering design interfaces

HUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 1 2006
Ling Rothrock
The authors determine the utility of applying two display design principles toward the development of interfaces for engineering design. The first principle, called the Proximity Compatibility Principle, specifies that displays relevant to a common task or mental operation should be rendered close together in perceptual space. The second principle, called the Control-Display Compatibility Principle, stipulates that the spatial arrangement and manipulation of controls should be easily distinguishable. To examine the utility of both principles, the authors conducted an experiment comparing the ability of subjects to find effective designs using a separable versus a configural interface in a multi-objective engineering design task. Results suggest that the proximity compatibility principle is an effective indicator of task performance. Moreover, the control-display compatibility principle can be used as an indicator of performance efficiency. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 16: 61,81, 2006. [source]